Welsh-language literature

Welsh-language literature (Welsh: Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg) has been produced continuously since the emergence of Welsh from Brythonic as a distinct language in around the 5th century AD. The earliest Welsh literature was poetry, which was extremely intricate in form from its earliest known examples, a tradition sustained today. Poetry was followed by the first British prose literature in the 11th century (such as that contained in the Mabinogion). Welsh-language literature has repeatedly played a major part in the self-assertion of Wales and its people. It continues to be held in the highest regard, as evidenced by the size and enthusiasm of the audiences attending the annual National Eisteddfod of Wales (Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Cymru), probably the largest amateur arts festival in Europe, which crowns the literary prize winners in a dignified ceremony.

Middle Ages

Main article: Medieval Welsh literature

The mediaeval period had three chronological stages of poetry: The earliest poets (Cynfeirdd), Poets of the Princes, and the Poets of Nobility. Additionally, storytelling practices were continuous throughout the middle ages in Wales.

Early poets (Cynfeirdd), c. 550 – 1100

The earliest extant poets wrote praise poems for rulers and lords of Welsh dynasties from Strathclyde to Cornwall.

The Cynfeirdd is a modern term which is used to refer to the earliest poets that wrote in Welsh and Welsh poetry dating before 1100. These poets (beirdd) existed in the modern geographical definition of Wales in addition to the Old North (Yr Hen Ogledd) and the language of the time was a common root called Brittonic, a precursor to the Welsh language. The bards Taliesin and Aneirin are among nine poets mentioned in the medieval book Historia Brittonum. There is also anonymous poetry that survives from the period. The dominant themes or "modes" of the period are heroic elegies that celebrate and commemorate heroes of battle and military success.

The beirdd (bards) were also mentioned in Hywel Dda's Welsh law.

Poets of the Princes (Beirdd y Tywysogion), c. 1100 – 1300

In the 11th century, Norman influence and challenge disrupted Welsh cultures, and the language developed into Middle Welsh.

The next period is the Poets of the Princes, which is the period from c. 1100 until the conquest of Wales by King Edward of England in 1282–83.

The poets of the princess is heavily associated with the princes of Gwynedd including Gruffudd ap Cynan, Llywelyn the Great and Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. Tradition states that Gruffydd ap Cynan helped to develop the tradition and regulation of poetry and music in Wales. The Arglwydd Rhys ap Gruffydd (Lord Rhys) is also associated with this development in Cardigan, Ceredigion and one chronicler describes how an assembly where musicians and bards competed for chairs.

The society of the court poets came to a sudden end in 1282 following the killing of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last of native Welsh princes. Llywelyn was slain in an ambush and his head was placed on the Tower of London "with an iron pole through it". The poets of the princes describe the grief surrounding his death, for example Gruffydd ap yr Ynad Goch (translated from Welsh), "Cold is the heart under my breast for terror and sadness for the King," and he goes on: "Woe is me for my lord, a hero without reproach,/ Woe is me for the adversity, that he should have stumbled .... Mine it is to praise him, without break, with- out end,/ Mine it is to think of him for a long time,/ Mine it is to live out my lifetime sad because of him,/For mine is sorrow, mine is weeping."

Poets of Nobility (Beirdd yr Uchelwyr), c. 1300 – 1500

The next stage was the Poets of the Nobility which includes poetry of the period between the Edwardian Conquest of 1282/3 and the death of Tudur Aled in 1526.

The highest levels of the poetic art in Welsh are intensely intricate. The bards were extremely organised and professional, with a structured training which lasted many years. As a class, they proved very adaptable: when the princely dynasties ended in 1282, and Welsh principalities were annexed by England, they found necessary patronage with the next social level, the uchelwyr, or landed gentry. The shift led creatively to innovation – the development of the cywydd metre, with looser forms of structure.

The professionalism of the poetic tradition was sustained by a guild of poets, or Order of bards, with its own "rule book". This "rule book" emphasised their professional status, and the making of poetry as a craft. An apprenticeship of nine years was required for a poet to be fully qualified. The rules also set out the payment a poet could expect for his work – these payments varied according to how long a poet had been in training and also the demand for poetry at particular times during the year.

Storytellers (Cyfarwyddiaid)

There were also cyfarwyddiaid (sing. cyfarwydd), storytellers. These were also professional, paid artists; but, unlike the poets, they seem to have remained anonymous. It is not clear whether these storytellers were a wholly separate, popular level class, or whether some of the bards practised storytelling as part of their repertoire. Little of this prose work has survived, but even so it provides the earliest British prose literature. These native Welsh tales and some hybrids with French/Norman influence form a collection known in modern times as the Mabinogion. The name became established in the 19th century but is based on a linguistic mistake (a more correct term is Mabinogi).

Welsh literature in the Middle Ages also included a substantial body of laws, genealogies, religious and mythical texts, histories, medical and gnomic lore, and practical works, in addition to literature translated from other languages such as Latin, Breton or French. Besides prose and longer poetry, the literature includes the distinctive Trioedd, Welsh Triads, short lists usually of three items, apparently used as aids to memory.

16th and 17th centuries

The 16th and 17th centuries in Wales, as in the rest of Europe, were a period of great change. Politically, socially, and economically the foundations of modern Wales were laid at this time. In the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 Wales was annexed and integrated fully into the English kingdom, losing any vestiges of political or legal independence.

End of the guild of poets

From the middle of the 16th century onwards, a decline is seen in the praise tradition of the poets of the nobility, the cywyddwyr. It became more and more difficult for poets to make their living — primarily for social reasons beyond their control.

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, which had become important sources of patronage for the poets, and the anglicisation of the nobility during the Tudor period, exemplified by the Laws in Wales Acts, meant that there were fewer and fewer patrons willing or able to support the poets. But there were also internal reasons for the decline: the conservatism of the Guild of poets, or Order of bards, made it very difficult for it to adapt to the new world of Renaissance learning and the growth of printing.

However, the Welsh poetic tradition with its traditional metres and cynghanedd (patterns of alliteration) did not disappear, but came into the hands of ordinary poets who kept it alive through the centuries. Cynghanedd and traditional metres are still used today by many Welsh-language poets.

Renaissance learning

By 1571 Jesus College, Oxford, was founded to provide an academic education for Welshmen, and the commitment of certain individuals, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, ensured that the Welsh language would be part of the new Renaissance in learning.

First printed Welsh book

In 1546 the first book to be printed in Welsh was published, Yny lhyvyr hwnn ("In this book") by Sir John Price of Brecon. John Price (c. 1502–55) was an aristocrat and an important civil servant. He served as Secretary of the Council of Wales and the Marches and he was also one of the officers responsible for administration of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the area. He was also a scholar who embraced the latest ideas relating to religion and learning: reform and humanism. It is also known that he was a collector of manuscripts on various subjects, including the history and literature of Wales.

Other humanists and scholars

Shortly afterwards the works of William Salesbury began to appear. Salesbury was an ardent Protestant and coupled his learning with the new religious ideas from the Continent; he translated the New Testament into Welsh and compiled an English-Welsh dictionary, among other works. On the other hand, Gruffudd Robert was an ardent Catholic, but in the same spirit of learning published an important Welsh grammar while in enforced exile in Milan in 1567. A huge step forward for both the Welsh language and its literature was the publication, in 1588, of a full-scale translation of the Bible by William Morgan.

Other works

Most of the works published in the Welsh language for at least the next century were religious in nature. Morgan Llwyd, a Puritan, wrote in both English and Welsh, recounting his spiritual experiences. Other notable writers of the period included Vavasor Powell.

During this period, poetry also began to take a religious turn. William Pugh was a Royalist and a Catholic. By now, women as well as men were writing, but little of their work can be identified. Katherine Philips of Cardigan Priory, although English by birth, lived in Wales for most of her life, and was at the centre of a literary coterie comprising both sexes.

Beginnings of Welsh writing in English

The seeds of Anglo-Welsh literature can also be detected, particularly in the work of Henry Vaughan and his contemporary, George Herbert, both Royalists.

18th century

In the 18th century the trend towards religious literature continued and grew even stronger as Nonconformism began to take hold in Wales. The Welsh Methodist revival, initially led by Howell Harris and Daniel Rowland, produced not only sermons and religious tracts, but also hymns and poetry, especially those of William Williams Pantycelyn, one of the key literary figures of the century and a poet whose work is notable for owing little to nothing to the pre-existing literary tradition in Welsh. The Morris brothers of Anglesey were leading figures in the establishment of the London Welsh societies, and their correspondence is an important record of the time. The activities of the London Welshmen helped ensure that Wales retained some kind of profile within Britain as a whole.

The activities of a number of individuals, including Thomas Jones of Corwen and the Glamorgan stonemason and man of letters, Iolo Morganwg (1747-1826) led to the institution of the Eisteddfod in more or less its modern form, and the invention of many of the traditions which surround it today; though the National Eisteddfod would not be established until much later. Although Iolo is sometimes called a charlatan because so many of his "discoveries" were based on pure myth, he was also an inveterate collector of old manuscripts, and thereby performed a service without which Welsh literature would have been the poorer. Some of the Welsh gentry continued to patronise bards, but this practice was gradually dying out.

19th century

Due mainly to the Industrial Revolution the 19th century was an enormously transformative period in Wales, with the population growing fivefold due to both natural growth and significant immigration, particularly into the South Wales Valleys. The majority of the newcomers were English or Irish, and though some learned Welsh and integrated into their new communities, where immigration was very significant English displaced Welsh as the community language such that, whilst virtually the entire population was Welsh speaking at the start of the century (with the majority monoglot), by the end of the century only about half the population could speak Welsh; it has been argued that Wales thus experienced a greater change over the course of the century than it had at any previous period in its history.

Despite this relative decline however, the Welsh speaking population increased significantly in absolute terms, as did literacy in Welsh, the latter due not to public education (which was extremely limited and, where it existed at all, focused entirely on English) but due to the efforts of the non-conformist Sunday Schools. Taken together this led to a huge increase in demand for literature in Welsh the form of books, periodicals, newspapers, poetry, novels, ballads and sermons, all of which were provided in copious quantities in what has been described as the "Golden Age" of the Welsh-language press; one estimate suggests that as many as 10,000 books in Welsh were published over the course of the 19th century. This represented an enormous increase in the quantity and variety of literature produced in Welsh, its nature steered by the sometimes competing values of the Eisteddfod, the nonconformist tradition, and wider developments in Western Aesthetics such as Romanticism.

However, even by the early decades of the twentieth century a critical consensus had emerged that, taken together, the bulk of Welsh-language literature in the 19th century was of a very poor quality. This view can be seen in the work of major twentieth century critics such as W. J. Gruffydd, Saunders Lewis and Thomas Parry, and from later critics such as Hywel Teifi Edwards. Nevertheless others such as R. M. Jones have challenged this view, and even the aforementioned critics often championed individual poets and authors and held up individual works of the century as major contributions to literature in Welsh.

As in previous centuries poetry remained the focus of much creative activity in Welsh, much of it written as a part of the Eisteddfod tradition; however the century also saw significant creative endeavour in the field of prose, with the first novels and short stories in Welsh emerging by the middle of the century, with the first works of children's literature appearing shortly afterwards. Antiquarians, historians, linguists, and lexicographers such as Iolo Morgannwg, William Owen Pughe, Thomas Stephens, Carnhuanawc, Lewis Edwards, and O. M. Edwards were also active in the study and re-discovery of Wales, its literature and the past of both, as were figures from outside Wales such as Charlotte Guest, Matthew Arnold and Ernest Renan; whilst figures like Thomas Gee laboured to teach the Welsh about the wider world. Much of this scholastic activity can be viewed as a part of the wider Celtic Revival of the period.

Poetry

Hymns

Developments in Welsh poetry of the first decades of the nineteenth century were a continuation of those of the eighteenth century. As the Methodist Revival continued and non-conformist chapels took increasing hold of the spiritual lives of Wales's population, a strong native tradition of hymn-writing emerged drawing on the example of Williams Pantycelyn. Prominent Welsh hymn-writers of this first part of the century included David Charles (1762-1834) and Robert ap Gwilym Ddu (1766-1850), however undoubtedly the finest and most influential figure in this tradition in this period (and perhaps any) was the short-lived Ann Griffiths (1776-1805^A). Although she died in comparative obscurity and her complete poetic output consists of only seventy stanzas over twenty-seven hymns she would later become recognised as a major religious poet of almost cult-like popularity and an important figure in Welsh nonconformism; she would even become the subject of a 21st-century musical. She was the first female writer in Welsh to receive widespread canonical acceptance, as evidenced by the fact she is the only female poet included in 1962's Oxford Book of Welsh Verse.

Many hymns from this period are still sung in nonconformist chapels today. Whilst the hymn in Welsh is inextricably linked with Welsh nonconformist tradition, some hymn-writers such as Ieuan Glan Geirionydd (1795-1855) were drawn into Anglicanism. He, alongside methodists like Eben Fardd (1802-1863) and Gwilym Hiraethog (1802-1883) would also make significant contributions to the Welsh hymn tradition in the second quarter of the century. However, despite the efforts of later poets such as Elfed (1860-1953), in the view of R. M. Jones, there was little development within this tradition after 1859, which Jones attributed to the increasing respectability and establishment nature of nonconformity by the later part of the century.

Eisteddfod Poetry

Eben Fardd (Ebenezer Thomas, 1802-1863), one of the most successful poets of the early 19th century in Welsh. The three medals are for his chairs won at the Eisteddfodau held in Welshpool (1824), Liverpool (1840) and Llangollen (1858).

After the codification of the modern Eisteddfod by Iolo Morgannwg and others in the 1790s, by the early 19th century Eisteddfodau were regularly being held across Wales. Whilst these were generally ad-hoc festivals - the National Eisteddfod was not formally established until 1860 - they provided regular opportunities for poets to achieve fame in a range of competitions; and the largest of these would have been comparable in scale to the later annual National event. The most prestigious award at each Eisteddfod was the Chair, usually awarded for an awdl in the strict metres. Poets used bardic names to disguise their identity in competitions, and often continued to use them when they became well known. With the exception of the dedicated hymn-writers, Eisteddfod success was the ambition of all the major poets of the first part of the century such as Dewi Wyn o Eifion (1784-1841), Ieuan Glan Geirionydd (1795-1855), Alun (1797-1840), Caledfryn (1801-1869), Eben Fardd (1802-1863), Gwilym Hiraethog (1802-1883) and Creuddynfab (1814-1869) among many other lesser names. Whilst these poets often favoured the strict metres and traditional forms such as the englyn, the cywydd and the awdl, free metre forms such as hymns, telynegion (lyrics) and pryddestau were also popular. The classicism of earlier poets such as Goronwy Owen was a major influence, and thanks to the work of antiquarians and grammarians like Iolo Morgannwg, Gwallter Mechain (1761-1849) and William Owen Pughe (1759-1835) they could also increasingly draw on the rich poetry and vocabulary of Wales's past. This influence was not always positive, with the work of Pughe in particular often being blamed for tortuous, unnaturalistic neologisms in the work of many poets of this period. They were not immune either to influences from outside Wales: John Milton was a particular favourite, and as the century wore on Romanticism increasingly became the dominant aesthetic, with poets such as Eben Fardd noted for leading the change in this regard.

Ieuan Glan Geirionydd (Evan Evans, 1795-1855)

Eben Fardd ("Eben the Poet") was one of the most successful Eisteddfod competitors of his age and alongside Creuddynfab made a significant impact also as an Eisteddfod adjudicator; his most famous poem, Dinistr Jerusalem ("the Destruction of Jerusalem," depicting the Siege of Jerusalem) has been described as "one of the finest awdlau in Welsh" and "a high point of Eisteddfod strict metre poetry"; his shorter poetry has also been highly praised. Alongside him, perhaps the most notable poet of this generation was Ieuan Glan Geirionydd, described as "the most versatile poet of the [19th] century". He was highly thought of by Saunders Lewis for poems such as Ysgoldy Rhad Llanrwst (Llanrwst's Cheap School), who saw in his work a distinctive stoicism. Particularly by the end of his life he was associated with a turn away from cynghanedd towards free verse. The same could be said of another influential poet, Alun, though he was also author of a number of successful eisteddfod awdlau which have been favourably compared to those of the twentieth century.

Though the Eisteddfod had provided a major impetus for the composition of strict metre poetry a new celebrity, poets as far back as Goronwy Owen in the 18th century had questioned whether cynghanedd was suitable to write the kind of epic poetry by English poets such as John Milton which was held in high esteem at the time. Poets such as Gwallter Mechain went so far as to directly criticise the strict metres and he and his disciples like Ieuan Glan Geirionydd set out to compose pryddestau. This new form of long poem - poems of many thousands of lines were common - was effectively a free metre equivalent of the awdl in which the poet could adopt any number of free metres over an extended work. A key influential early pryddest was Eben Fardd's Yr Atgyfodiad ("the Resurrection") which, though unsuccessful at the Rhuddlan Eisteddfod in 1850, proved enormously influential on subsequent works, beginning what E. G. Millward referred to as the "golden age" of the pryddest. An ongoing and sometimes fierce debate in the press over the relative merits of cynghanedd and the free metres led to the eventual establishment of the National Eisteddfod's Crown, first awarded in 1880 for the best pryddest, nominally of equal prestige to the Chair. The Crown is still awarded today at the National Eisteddfod, though typically for a series of shorter poems rather than a single pryddest as was originally intended.

Islwyn (1832-1878), one of the most highly regarded poets of the 19th century among 20th century critics.

Of all the streams of Welsh poetry in the nineteenth century it is perhaps the pryddest which is the most contentious. Thomas Parry considered all the works of the century in the form to be completely without "poetic merit"; and Ioan Williams singled out Gwilym Hiraethog's pryddest Emmanuel as "probably the longest poem written in Welsh and possibly the worst written in any language." Others have identified merit in individual examples, however, such as R. M. Jones who identified Iesu (Jesus) by the short-lived Golyddan (1840-1862) and particularly the second of two pryddestau titled Y Storm by Islwyn (1832-1878) as masterpieces. Though comparatively little-known in his time Islwyn has since become recognised as one of the major poets of the century in the Welsh language. Much of Islwyn's poetry was inspired by the early death of his fiancée in 1853 and is frequently extremely bleak in tone. His output has been described as extremely uneven and many critics have suggested that he had produced all his significant poetry in the space of a few years in his early twenties, after which he produced little other than uninspired awdlau in a futile attempt to win the National Eisteddfod Chair. Nevertheless at its best, including in both versions of Y Storm, Islwyn's work shows a "complexity of imagery and intellectual ambition rare in any Welsh poetry of the period." One critic went so far as to say, "If the 19th century has a great poet [in Welsh], it is Islwyn"; and he was perhaps the main influence on the generation of Eisteddfod poets that immediately followed him.

Lyric Poetry

Talhaiarn (John Jones, 1810-1869), a key figure in Welsh Romanticism

Despite turning increasingly to cynghanedd later in his life Islwyn's writings on poetry advocated the free metres and lyric poetry, and notwithstanding the enormous efforts poets devoted to awdlau and pryddestau to compete at Eisteddfodau it is poetry in this vein which was the most popular of the period with a wider audience. Ieuan Glan Geirionydd and Alun had led the way in this regard in the earlier part of the century but it reached its full flowering in the work of the poets of the middle part of the century, particularly Talhaiarn (1810-1869), Mynyddog (1833-1877) and Ceiriog (1832-1887). Talhaiarn was a popular though controversial figure in his day due to his extravagant lifestyle, his willingness to argue against the orthodoxies of his time, and his involvement in several Eisteddfod adjudication controversies. He composed popular lyrics for a great number of songs by composers of the day; according to R. M. Jones much of it was "superficial and tasteless" yet in his finest poems, such as the long Tal ar Ben Bodran (Tal[haiarn] on Bodran Hill), Talhaiarn was a "unique, intelligent and experienced poet with something sobering to say about life". Saunders Lewis described Talhaiarn as "the only poet of his age who understood the tragedy of the life of man".

Ceiriog (1832-1887), the most popular Welsh poet of the 19th century.

As with Talhaiarn, music played a key role in the work of Mynyddog - perhaps best known now as the writer of the words to Myfanwy - and the most popular of all these lyric poets, Ceiriog, the most popular poet in Welsh of the 19th century: his volume Oriau'r Hwyr (The Late Hours) was outsold in the 1860s by only the Bible. Ceiriog's most successful lyrics such as Nant y Mynydd (The Mountain Stream) are direct, moving and effective, often describing rural and romantic scenes. They were an inspiration for 20th-century poets like R. Williams Parry, and some of Ceiriog's songs such as Ar Hyd y Nos remain familiar to many today. Ceiriog's poetry became strongly associated with a particular vision of Welshness much in the way Robert Burns had become associated with Scotland; in one novel of 1905 the mother of a young Welshman migrating from Wales to America packs him a Bible and a book of Ceiriog's poetry. His work however is often criticised for its sentimentality and his desire to appeal to "the most basic tastes, the most simple desires and the ignorance" of his audience.

John Morris-Jones (1864-1929)

In the later parts of the century the lyrical tradition of Ceiriog was continued by poets like Watcyn Wyn (1844–1905) and Elfed (1860-1953), and built on by more ambitious poets such as the Oxford-educated John Morris Jones (1864-1929). Though his main legacy would be his scholarly work, in his poetry Jones imbued the lyrical tradition with an "academic confidence and authority". His awdlau Cymru Fu - Cymru Fydd (Wales that was; Wales that will be) and Salm i Famon (A Psalm for Mamon) use irony to express his social criticism of philistinism and materialism and he was also a significant translator of poetry into Welsh, such as that of Heinrich Heine and Omar Khayyam. Though his own poetry did not continue to develop in the opening decades of the twentieth century, Jones's followers such as T. Gwynn Jones and W. J. Gruffydd would become key figures in the literary renaissance in Welsh poetry of the following century.

Later Eisteddfod Poets

It is notable that despite multiple efforts in some cases, many of the above poets including Islwyn, Ceiriog, Talhaiarn and others failed to win either of the main prizes at the Eisteddfod. Indeed, critics have been virtually unanimous in condemnation of the successful Eisteddfod poets in the last decades of the century. Poets such as Llew Llwyfo (1831-1901; a chair and a crown), Iolo Caernarfon (1840-1914; two crowns), Cadfan (1842-1923; three crowns), Tudno (1844-1895; four chairs, still a record), Pedrog (1853-1932; three chairs) and Job (1867-1938; three chairs and a crown) - many of whom belonged to a loose grouping sometimes referred to as "y Bardd Newydd" (the New Poet) - are almost completely forgotten today: these are in the words of Robert Rhys "the poet-preachers with their enormous compositions and prosaic styles who made ideal punch-bags for later critics." Alun Llywelyn-Williams went further and said of them: "The plain truth is that the Bardd Newydd was not a poet and had no grasp of poetry."

By the last years of the century, following the example of John Morris-Jones, poets who would become the significant voices of the first part of the twentieth century such as T. Gwynn Jones (1871-1948) sought to both simplify and improve the quality of Eisteddfod poetry, which they perceived had become formulaic and stilted.

Social Radicalism in Poetry

Cranogwen (1839-1916), one of the few prominent female poets in Welsh of the 20th century.

The world of the Eisteddfod and Welsh public life generally in the 19th century was dominated by men, however, female poets were able to break through, perhaps assisted by the Eisteddfod tradition of anonymous submission to competitions. To the name of Ann Griffiths (see above) can be added those of Jane Ellis (d.1840) and Elen Egryn (1807-1876) - both of whom have been claimed to be the first woman to have a book in Welsh published - as well as others such as Buddug (1842-1909). The most prominent and interesting of these female poets however was Cranogwen (1839-1916), a remarkable character who was also an ocean navigator. Victorious in a 1865 Eisteddfod competition in which she beat both Islwyn and Ceiriog for a poem on Y Fodrwy Briodas (The Wedding Ring), she would later edit Y Frythones, a literary journal aimed at women through which she would support other literary Welsh women such as Mary Oliver Jones. Cranogwen's own work often has proto-feminist themes; it is also understood that she had relationships with women.

Whilst the work of many prominent Welsh poets of the period including but not limited to Eben Fardd, Talhaiarn, Islwyn and Ceiriog frequently features vague expressions of Welsh patriotism, rarely is there any real political undercurrent to these sentiments and indeed there are many poetic expressions in Welsh of loyalty to the British state, such as Eben Fardd's awdl Brwydr Maes Bosworth (the Battle of Bosworth Field), which ends with a pean to Queen Victoria, and many poems by the avowed Tory Talhaiarn. By the later parts of the century however, some poets were increasingly willing to use poetry to more express more radical political ideas, such as R. J. Derfel (1824-1905) whose poetry often has Welsh nationalist and socialist themes, and T. Gwynn Jones (1871-1948). T. Gwynn Jones would later go on to be regarded as a major poet of the twentieth century (see below), but already by the end of the 1800s had published many comparatively radical poems. Influenced by thinkers like Emrys ap Iwan, Jones has been described as "the unofficial poet of the [proto-nationalist] Cymru Fydd movement".

Prose

The vitality of the Welsh language press meant the century was a golden are for Welsh prose in Welsh in terms of quantity, if not necessarily quality. The first original novel in Welsh had begun appearing in periodicals by the 1820s, though translations of works such as Robinson Crusoe had appeared earlier. By the middle of the 19th century novels were appearing frequently in periodicals and occasionally as volumes and by the end of the century hundreds had been published including love stories, historical novels and adventure novels.

Noteworthy novelists of the middle part of the century century included Elis o'r Nant, Gwilym Hiraethog, Llew Llwyfo and Beriah Gwynfe Evans, but the first novelist in the Welsh language to achieve genuine lasting popularity was Daniel Owen (1836-1895), author of Rhys Lewis (1885) and Enoc Huws (1891), among others. Owen's achievement went some way towards legitimising the Welsh-language novel and by the end of the century others such as William Llewelyn Williams, T. Gwynn Jones and Winnie Parry had achieved success in the genre.

20th century onwards

Whilst the nineteenth century had seen an explosion in the quantity of literature composed in Welsh, the first decade of the twentieth century saw the first generation of a more professional, artistically sophisticated kind of poet. Though better known at the time as a novelist, T. Gwynn Jones won the Chair at the 1902 Eisteddfod with Ymadawiad Arthur, a poem which reconciled the European romantic traditions of King Arthur with the Mabinogion. It was one of the shortest awdlau to win the Chair at the time and reinvigorated the Eisteddfod tradition; Gwynn himself was one of the leading figures in a late flowering of Romanticism in Welsh poetry alongside figures such as R. Williams Parry, W. J. Gruffydd, John Morris Jones and R. Silyn Roberts (whose Trystan ac Esyllt won the Eisteddfod Crown in the same year as Gwynn won the chair). Many of these were university-educated and Gwynn and Morris-Jones in particular made major contributions in academia.

This period would prove to be short-lived, however, and the First World War - as well as literally killing one of the movement's brightest young talents in Hedd Wyn, who was killed in the Battle of Passchendaele a few short weeks before being awarded the Chair at the 1917 Eisteddfod - also seemed to close the book on romanticism, with many of the movement's leading lights favouring a more modernist idiom after the war.

Though the first poets of this new modernist period, such as T. H. Parry-Williams, continued to make use of native Welsh forms and cynghanedd, they also effectively employed European forms in particular the sonnet, of which Parry-Williams was a master. Modernism was reflected in both the subject matter of Welsh poetry as well as its form: Parry-Williams' sonnet Dychwelyd ("Return") is a bleak expression of nihilism for example, and E. Prosser Rhys courted controversy for his frank (for the time) depictions of sexuality, including homosexuality, in poems such as Atgof ("Memory"), which won the crown at the 1924 Eisteddfod. Poets such as Cynan described their own experiences of the war much as English language poets had done.

Modernism caught on more slowly in prose, and the prominent early twentieth century novelists (most notably T. Gwynn Jones and Gwyneth Vaughan in many respects continued the tradition as codified by Daniel Owen. More radical examples in the genre had begun to emerge however by the 1930s such as Saunders Lewis' Monica (1930), a novel about a woman obsessed with sexuality and which caused something of a scandal on its publication and Plasau'r Brenin (1934) by Gwenallt, a semi-autobiographical novel describing the author's experiences in a prison as a conscientious objector during the war.

The most popular novelists of the first half of the century continued the realist tradition, however, such as E. Tegla Davies Kate Roberts and Elena Puw Morgan. The most successful novelist of this period was perhaps T. Rowland Hughes, who was notable for describing the culture of the slate quarrying regions of North-West Wales. His novels, such as William Jones (1942) and Chwalfa (1946) were the first to match Daniel Owen for popularity, though his novels belong stylistically to an earlier period.

As the twentieth century wore on, Welsh literature began to reflect the way the language was increasingly becoming a political symbol, with many of the leading literary figures also involved in Welsh nationalism, perhaps most notably Saunders Lewis and the writer/publisher Kate Roberts. Lewis, who had been brought up in Liverpool, was a leader of Plaid Cymru jailed for his part in protests; though a poet and a novelist as well as a significant critic and academic, his main literary legacy was in the field of drama. Novelist and short story writer Kate Roberts had been active since the 1930s, but in the late 40s and 50s produced a remarkable stream of novels and stories, often depicting the lives of working-class women and with feminist themes, that earned her the moniker "Brenhines ein llên" ("The Queen of our Literature") and established her as perhaps, to this day, the single best known prose writer in Welsh.

The 1940s also saw the creation of a notable writing group in the Rhondda, called the "Cadwgan Circle". Writing almost entirely in Welsh, the movement, formed by J. Gwyn Griffiths and his wife Käthe Bosse-Griffiths, included the Welsh writers Pennar Davies, Rhydwen Williams, James Kitchener Davies and Gareth Alban Davies.

After a relatively quiet period between 1950–1970, large numbers of Welsh-language novels began appearing from the 1980s onwards, with such authors as Aled Islwyn and Angharad Tomos. In the 1990s there was a distinct trend towards postmodernism in Welsh prose writing, especially evident in the work of such authors as Wiliam Owen Roberts and Mihangel Morgan.

Meanwhile, in the 1970s Welsh poetry took on a new lease of life as poets sought to regain mastery over the traditional verse forms, partly to make a political point. Alan Llwyd and Dic Jones were leaders in the field. Female poets such as Menna Elfyn gradually began to make their voices heard, overcoming the obstacle of the male-dominated bardic circle and its conventions.

The scholar Sir Ifor Williams also pioneered scientific study of the earliest Welsh written literature, as well as the Welsh language itself, recovering the works of poets like Taliesin and Aneirin from the uncritical fancies of various antiquarians, such as the Reverend Edward Davies who believed the theme of Aneirin's Gododdin was the massacre of the Britons at Stonehenge in 472.

See also

• Breton literature
• Cornish literature
• Dafydd ap Gwilym
• Four Ancient Books of Wales
  • Black Book of Carmarthen
  • Book of Taliesin
  • Book of Aneirin
  • Red Book of Hergest
• Geoffrey of Monmouth
• Iolo Morganwg
• List of Welsh language authors
• List of Welsh language poets
• List of Welsh writers
• Literature in the other languages of Britain
• Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain
• Welsh-language comics
• Welsh literature in English
• Welsh mythology
• Welsh Triads

Notes

A.^ Although Griffiths lived most of her short life in the eighteenth century she wrote most of her poetry in the early years of the nineteenth.

Sources

• Bowen, Geraint (1970). Y Traddodiad Rhyddiaith. Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol. ISBN 978-1-909656-30-7.
• Boyd, Matthieu (3 August 2017), "Cynfeirdd", in Rouse, Robert; Echard, Sian; Fulton, Helen; Rector, Geoff (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain, Oxford, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, pp. 1–2, doi:10.1002/9781118396957.wbemlb647, ISBN 978-1-118-39695-7, retrieved 7 October 2022
• Davies, John (2007). A History of Wales. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-028475-1.
• Edwards, Hywel Teifi (2000). A Guide to Welsh Literature: 1800-1900. University of Wales Press. ISBN 9780708316054.
• Edwards, Hywel Teifi (2016). The Eisteddfod. University of Wales Press.
• Ellrodt, Robert (25 May 2000). "George Herbert and Henry Vaughan". Seven Metaphysical Poets. pp. 127–141. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198117384.003.0008. ISBN 978-0-19-811738-4.
• Evans, Daniel Simon (1970). A Grammar of Middle Welsh. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
• Ford, Patrick (1975). "The Poet as "Cyfarwydd" in Early Welsh Tradition". Studia Celtica. 10: 152. ProQuest 1297884980 – via ProQuest Periodicals Archive Online.
• Grufydd, R Geraint (1969). "'Yny Lhyvyr Hwnn (1546): The Earliest Welsh Printed Book". Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies. XXII: 105–116. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
• Hallam, Tudur (2019). "The Legacy of Saunders Lewis". The Cambridge History of Welsh Literature. Cambridge University Press. pp. 507–528. doi:10.1017/9781316227206.028. ISBN 978-1-107-10676-5. S2CID 242196364. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
• Hutchison, Robert; Feist, Andrew (1991). Amateur Arts in the UK. London: Policy Studies Institute. p. 121. ISBN 9780853745334. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
• Jarman, A. O. H. (1981). The Cynfeirdd : early Welsh poets and poetry. Cardiff: University of Wales Press on behalf of the Welsh Arts Council. ISBN 0-7083-0813-9.
• Jenkins, Geraint H. (1999). 'Gwnewch Bopeth yn Gymraeg': Yr Iaith Gymraeg a'i Pheuoedd 1801-1911 (in Welsh). Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1573-9.
• Johnes, Martin (2024). Welsh Not: Elementary Education and the Anglicisation of Nineteeth-Century Wales. Cardiff University Press. ISBN 9781837721801.
• Johnson, Dale A. (2012). "In the Shadow of the Pulpit: Literature and Nonconformist Wales, by M. Wynn Thomas". Victorian Studies. 55 (1): 135–137. doi:10.2979/victorianstudies.55.1.135. ISSN 0042-5222. S2CID 144216028.
• Johnston, Dafydd (1994). The literature of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1265-9.
• Jones, R. M. (1988). Blodeugerdd Barddas o'r Bedwaredd Ganrif ar Bymtheg (in Welsh). Cyhoeddiadau Barddas.
• Koch, John C (2006). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopaedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 827. ISBN 978-1-85109-440-0.
• Parry, John J. (1952). "The Court Poets of the Welsh Princes". PMLA. 67 (4): 511–520. doi:10.2307/459824. ISSN 0030-8129. JSTOR 459824. S2CID 163613768.
• Parry, Thomas (1955). A History of Welsh Literature, by Thomas Parry ... Translated from the Welsh by H. Idris Bell. Clarendon Press.
• Parry, Thomas (December 1964). Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg Hyd 1900. University of WALES PRESS. ISBN 978-0-7083-0291-0.
• Parry, Thomas; Morgan, Merfyn (1976). Llyfryddiaeth Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg: Without special title (in Welsh). Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru. ISBN 978-0-7083-0631-4.

Phillips, Rhea Seren (2 August 2017). "Welsh Poetic Forms and Metre- A History". The Luxembourg Review. Retrieved 8 October 2022.

• Stephens, Meic (1986). Cydymaith i lenyddiaeth Cymru (in Welsh). Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru. ISBN 978-0-7083-0915-5.
• Tanner, Marcus (1 January 2004). The Last of the Celts. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11535-2.
• White, Donna R. (1996). "The Further Crimes of Lady Charlotte Guest". Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium. 16/17: 157–166. ISSN 1545-0155. JSTOR 20557319.
• Williams, Ifor (1987). The Poems of Taliesin. Translated by Williams, J. E. Caerwyn. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
• Williams, John Ellis Caerwyn (1994). The Poets of the Welsh Princes. University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-0-7083-1206-3.
• Williams, Katherine (1959). "Owen, Daniel (1836-1895), novelist". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
• The new companion to the literature of Wales ([New, completely rev.] ed.). Cardiff: University of Wales Press. 1998. ISBN 0-7083-1383-3.
• Evans, Geraint; Fulton, Helen (2019). The Cambridge history of Welsh literature. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107106765.
• A.D. 1535 Anno vicesimo septimo Henrici VIII c. 26 (The Laws in Wales Act 1535) (in Latin). Parliament of England. 1535.

External links

• Welsh Writers A to Z
• Welsh Writers