GWILYM ap SEFNYN (fl. c. 1440), poet

no details of his life remain, but it appears that he was of North Wales. Much of his poetry has been preserved in manuscripts, and this includes cywyddau addressed to Gwilym ap Gruffydd of Penrhyn and his son, Wiliam Gruffydd Fychan; one vaticinatory cywydd (NLW MS 6499B (370)); and a number of englynion. Two more personal cywyddau are found, one being a religious confession and the other an elegy written upon the death (of the plague) of the poet's seven sons and three daughters.

[ Gwilym ap Sefnyn was certainly of Llandygai. His name appears as witness to deeds in 1415 and 1417 - Penrhyn MSS. 221 and 311-2 in U.C.N.W. Library.

Author

• Ray Looker

Sources

• Jones and Lewis, Mynegai i Farddoniaeth y Llawysgrifau (1928)
• H. Blackwell, NLW MSS 9251-9277A: A Dictionary of Welsh Biography
• Cymru yn hanesyddol, parthedegol, a bywgraphyddol (1875)
• Robert Williams, Enwogion Cymru. A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen (1852)
• Gweirydd ap Rhys, Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymreig, 1300–1650 (1885)
• William Owen Pughe, The Cambrian Biography (1803)

Published date: 1959

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