GRUFFUDD HIRAETHOG
(d.
1564
),
bard and herald
.
He sang the praises of the
gentry
of
Denbighshire
,
Anglesey
,
Caernarvonshire
and
Merioneth
, and is supposed to have been the disciple of
Tudur Aled
(q.v.)
. His licence to go on bardic circuits (which still exists,
Reports
, i, 1021) was granted in
1545-6
under the hands of
James
Vaughan
,
Hugh
Lewis
and
Lewys Morgannwg
. He is best known as a
bardic teacher
; some of the foremost
bards
of the
second half of the 16th cent.
, such as
Simwnt Fychan
,
Wiliam Llŷn
,
Wiliam
Cynwal
,
Siôn Tudur
and
Raff ap Robert
(qq.v.) having been his disciples. Some of these men came into possession of his manuscripts after his death.
Gruffudd Hiraethog
best exemplifies the
interest in heraldry
which was characteristic of the
bards
of his period, and extensive collections of pedigrees made by him still remain such as
Pen. MSS. 132-6, 139, 176
. These show that he was able to trace the pedigrees of families all over
Wales
. The most noteworthy fact about him however is that of all the traditional bards he shows most clearly the influence of the
Renaissance
, in that he was interested in pursuits other than
pedigree-collecting
and
eulogy-writing
in the traditional fashion. He compiled a
Welsh
dictionary with quotations from the works of the
bards
to illustrate the meanings
(
Pen. MS. 230
). A
collection of proverbs
made by him appears in
Llanst. MS. 52
. In his preface to this collection he writes appreciatively of the
Welsh
language and severely criticizes those who neglected it and refused to patronize it. His zeal in this respect is exactly that of the humanists. The collection of proverbs was copied by
William
Salesbury
(q.v.)
and published under the title
Oll Synnwyr Pen Kembro y gyd
(in
1546
or
1547
). In
1552
Salesbury
translated into
Welsh
a work on rhetoric, and prefixed the translation with a letter to
Gruffudd Hiraethog
in which he says: ‘You are so anxious [
Salesbury
uses the
Welsh
word
hiraethog
, thus punning on the
bard
's name] about the state of the language that you take upon yourself too heavy a burden, by searching high and low for every scrap of tattered manuscript to read and peruse, in order to obtain some help to sustain this language which is beginning to deteriorate.’
Salesbury
also calls him ‘my foremost companion in these pursuits.’ In the preface to
Oll Synnwyr Pen
,
Salesbury
exhorts
Welsh
people to appreciate the labours of
Gruffudd
, who
‘is saving the language from eternal extinction.’
Edmund
Prys
, in his bardic contention with
Wiliam
Cynwal
, states that
Gruffudd
was more learned than any two men together, and classes him with
Salesbury
. The humanists clearly regarded him as one of themselves. An elegy upon him was written by
Wiliam
Cynwal
, and another, in the form of a dialogue between the living and the dead, by
Wiliam Llŷn
. It has however been suggested that the latter is a mock elegy and that
Gruffudd
was alive when it was written.
Bibliography:
-
Oll synnwyr pen Kembero ygyd [copied by
William Salesbury from Gruffudd Hiraethog's
collection]
, 1902
(ed.
J. Gwenogvryn Evans
),
1902
;
-
Bulletin of the Board of Celtic
Studies
, ii, 115, viii, 3.
Author:
Principal / Sir Thomas Parry, D.Litt., (1904-85), Bangor /
Aberystwyth
