MEURIG (fl. 1210), poet, and treasurer of Llandaff

The date of his flourishing seems to be fixed by a passage in Giraldus Cambrensis's De Principis Instructione (dist. iii, cap. 28), in which a soldier-poet long dead is said to have appeared in a vision to Meurig and challenged him to complete a verse which foretold the interdict declared on England in the reign of king John. Giraldus says that Meurig (Mauricius) was a Glamorgan man and was a brother of Clement, abbot of Neath. Bale (Index Britanniae Scriptorum) also calls him Mauricius Morganensis, and like Giraldus, bears witness to his literary gifts, attributing to him a volume of Latin epigrams and several volumes in Welsh ('in patrio sermone'). In view of the latter statement it is easy to accept the identification of this Mauricius with Meurig, who was treasurer of Llandaff, and so render the entry 'Morus Morgan' in Enw F. superfluous. In the Iolo MSS., pp. 622, 638, this Meurig is said to have been the author of ' Y Cwtta Cyfarwydd ' (probably the prototype of the work of this name written in 1445 by Gwilym Tew, and preserved in Hengwrt MS. 34), 'A History of the whole Isle of Britain,' 'Book of Proverbs,' 'Rules of Welsh Poetry,' 'Welsh Theology,' and a 'Welsh translation of the Gospel of S. John.' The date of his flourishing given in Enwogion Cymru: a Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen , 1290, is much too late.

Author

• John James Jones, (1892 - 1957)

Sources

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and authorities therein cited
• Robert Williams, Enwogion Cymru. A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen (1852)
• Geirlyfr Bywgraffiadol o Enwogion Cymru (1870)
• H. Blackwell, NLW MSS 9266A: A Dictionary of Welsh Biography

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q18733351

Published date: 1959

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