ITHEL DDU
(
fl.
second half of 14th cent.
)
was most probably an
Anglesey
man — ‘of the land of
Meilyr
,’ says
Iolo Goch
(q.v.)
, though
Iolo
also locates him in
Llŷn
, and indeed further transports him to
Bardsey
.
Iolo
styles him ‘a famous
poet
,’ but all that we have to substantiate that claim is a single
cywydd
, preserved in two copies,
Pen. MSS. 77 (441) and 78 (135)
. It would indeed seem that
Ithel
was no professional
bard
, but rather a
quasi-squire
, a mighty
hunter
and a
boon companion
(according to
Iolo
), and like the rest of his class a
patron of
bards
. It was by his command (says
Iolo
) that
Iolo Goch
composed the very scurrilous lampoon, printed by
Charles
Ashton
in his edition of
Iolo
(no. xl), upon the mother of the
poet
Gruffydd Gryg
— see further the article on
Gruffydd
. An ‘elegy’ by
Iolo
, on
Ithel
's supposed death on
Bardsey
— assassinated, so it is hinted, by
Gruffydd Gryg
— can hardly be regarded as historical evidence; it is pretty clearly a ‘leg-pull,’ in the same
genre
as the lampoon mentioned above.
Bibliography:
-
Henry Lewis
, introduction to
Cywyddau Iolo Goch ac Eraill,
1350–1450
, 1925, 1937
, 1st ed 1st ed., liv-lvi.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D.,
F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor
