DAFYDD BENWYN (second half of the 16th century), one of the bards of Glamorgan

His contemporary, Sils ap Siôn, says that he was from Llangeinor. His bardic teacher was Rhisiart Iorwerth (Rhisiart Fynglwyd,), Llangynwyd, son of Iorwerth Fynglwyd. Some of his work, in his autograph, is in Cardiff MS. 10 and Llanstephan MS 164 , and there are extant two large collections of his awdlau and cywyddau, the one in Cardiff MS. 2 (277) and the other in Jes. Coll. MS. 13. He was the most prolific of the bards of Glamorgan; he sang the praises of most of the landed families of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire. Although he was the bardic disciple of Rhisiart Iorwerth (and, possibly, of Lewis Morgannwg also) and inherited the lore of the older chief bards (penceirddiaid), his poems are commonplace and stereotyped. No better way can be found of illustrating the deterioration in Glamorgan in the second half of the 16th century than by comparing his awdlau and cywyddau with those of Lewis Morgannwg and Rhisiart Iorwerth. Nevertheless, they are important - for two reasons. In the first place they contain the genealogies of many of the families of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire; in the second place they give us the Welsh forms of place-names in those regions. A small selection was published by J. Kyrle Fletcher in 1909 - The Gwentian Poems of Dafydd Benwyn. Other poems by the bard were published by T. C. Evans (Cadrawd) in Cyfaill yr Aelwyd .

Author

• Emeritus Professor Griffith John Williams, (1892 - 1963)

Sources

• Hopkin-James and T. C. Evans, Hen Gwndidau, Carolau, a Chywyddau (Bangor 1910), 271-3
• D. Rhys Phillips, The History of the Vale of Neath (Swansea 1925), 527-32
• G. J. Williams, Iolo Morganwg a Chywyddau'r Ychwanegiad (1926), 123-4
• G. J. Williams, Traddodiad Llenyddol Morgannwg (1948), 75-95, 124

Further Reading

• Wikipedia Article: Dafydd Benwyn

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q13127762

Published date: 1959

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