Reference: Aneirin Poet of the Gododdin tribe, whose territory was centred on what is now Edinburgh in Scotland, he commemorated their heroic defeat at the battle of Catraeth around the end of the sixth century. His long stanzaic poem is also known as the Gododdin, and is preserved in the thirteenth-century Book of Aneirin. Aneirin and Taliesin are the two earliest Welsh poets whose work has survived Ann Griffiths Ann Griffiths (1776-1805) of Dolwar-fach in Montgomeryshire wrote hymns expressing her experience of conversion to the Methodist faith. Until recently she was the only well-known Welsh woman poet, although recent research has unearthed forerunners in the Middle Ages, notably Gwerful Mechain. Beirdd gwlad Literally 'country poets', the term beirdd gwlad refers to poets of their local communities, whether rural or industrial, who would compose poems on significant occasions such as births, deaths, marriages, and accidents both tragic and comic. Often farmers or craftsmen, such poets have been common in Wales since the eighteenth century, and belong to a lineage extending back to the professional poets of the Middle Ages. The best-known example of a bardd gwlad today is Dic Jones, a farmer in Ceredigion, who is a skilled and witty practitioner of strict-metre poetry. Cynghanedd The term cynghanedd means literally 'harmony', and refers to the system of alliteration and internal rhyme which adorns Welsh strict-metre poetry. There are four basic types of cynghanedd. The simplest is cynghanedd lusg, in which the penultimate syllable of the last word in the line rhymes with a word earlier in the line, e.g. Cofia Grist yn dy dristyd. In cynghanedd draws a sequence of consonants at the beginning of the line is repeated at the end, e.g. Pan fych mewn poen afiechyd. In cynghanedd groes the two halves of the line correspond fully, except for the very last consonant, e.g. A chwerw boen iachawr y byd. Both rhyme and alliteration are used in cynghanedd sain. Two words within the line rhyme, and the second also alliterates with the final word in the line, e.g. Seiliau ein ffydd sydd yn sarn. There are many more rules pertaining to cynghanedd, and mastery of the art requires a long apprenticeship. Nevertheless it is still a flourishing art used by many young contemporary poets, and it is entirely unique to the Welsh language. It may appear to be an unnecessarily complex and restrictive system, but in fact it does produce memorable lines of poetry in which sound and sense are in perfect harmony. Dafydd ap Gwilym Dafydd ap Gwilym (c. 1320-c.1360) is Wales's greatest lyric poet. His personal and emotionally-charged poems of love and nature in the cywydd metre were a breath of fresh air after the formal odes of the court poets, and opened up Welsh poetry to influences from Europe. Gerallt Lloyd Owen Gerallt Lloyd Owen (born 1944) has been one of the most powerful nationalist voices in recent Welsh poetry, most notably in his collection entitled Cerddi'r Cywilydd ('Poems of the Shame') about the investiture of the English Prince Charles as Prince of Wales in 1969, and in his awdl 'Cilmeri' about the death of the last native prince of Wales which won him the National Eisteddfod Chair in 1982. Gerallt has done a lot to popularize poetry in his role as judge of impromptu competitions at eisteddfodau and on radio and television. Gwerful Mechain Gwerful Mechain is the only Welsh woman poet of the Middle Ages by whom a body of poems has survived. She lived in mid-Wales towards the end of the fifteenth century, and wrote about a wide variety of subjects, including some challenging poems about female sexuality. Some of her work is included in Dafydd Johnston, Medieval Welsh Erotic Poetry (Seren, 1998). Heledd Heledd is one of the main characters in a cycle of sage poems in the englyn metre from the ninth century which deal with border conflicts between Welsh and English, events which actually took place some two hundred years earlier. She was sister to Cynddylan, a warrior-king whose death she laments, most famously in a poem on his ruined hall beginning Stafell Gynddylan ys tywyll heno, 'Cynddylan's hall is dark tonight'. Kate Roberts Kate Roberts (1891-1985) is the finest exponent of the short story in Welsh, and also wrote important novels such as Traed mewn Cyffion ('Feet in Chains') about the slate-quarrying communities of her native Caernarfonshire. She was at her best in depicting the emotional deprivation of working-class women. Her work is available in translation by Joseph Clancy, The World of Kate Roberts (1991). King Arthur If Arthur was a historical figure he was probably a warrior-king leading the British against invaders in the period after the departure of the Romans in the fifth century. There are fragments about him in early Welsh poetry and chronicles, and he is the hero of the eleventh-century tale Culhwch and Olwen, but it was Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae which popularized him as king of a romance court in the twelfth century. He is one of numerous prophesied saviours of the Welsh whose return is awaited. Menna Elfyn Menna Elfyn (born 1951) is a poet and dramatist whose commitment to feminism, pacifism and the cause of the Welsh language figures prominently in her work. She has performed her poetry widely outside Wales, and was the first poet to publish her work in bilingual editions, Eucalyptus (1995) and Cell Angel (1996). Plaid Cymru Literally 'The Party of Wales', Plaid Cymru is the Welsh nationalist political party. Founded in 1925 by Saunders Lewis and others, it gained its first parliamentary seat in 1966, and currently holds four seats in the Westminster Parliament, and is the second largest party in the Welsh Assembly. Its aim is to achieve self-government for Wales, towards which the establishment of the Welsh Assembly is the first step. Saunders Lewis Saunders Lewis (1893-1985) is the most outstanding figure in twentieth-century Welsh literature. Poet, novelist, critic, and above all dramatist, he was also one of the founders of the Welsh Nationalist party, later known as Plaid Cymru, and was responsible for formulating its conservative social policies. In 1937 he was imprisoned together with D. J. Williams and Lewis Valentine for his action in setting fire to an RAF bombing school at Penyberth, one of the key events in the development of modern Welsh nationalism. Much of Lewis's creative writing is available in translation, the plays and poems by Joseph Clancy, The Plays of Saunders Lewis (1985-6) and Selected Poems (1993) , and the novel Monica by Meic Stephens (1998). See also Presenting Saunders Lewis, edited Alun R. Jones and Gwyn Thomas (1983). Strict-metre poetry There are twenty-four official strict metres, any combination of which can be used for the awdl required in competition for an Eisteddfod Chair. The classification goes back to the fifteenth century, and several of the twenty-four are very rarely used now. The most commonly used strict metres today are the cywydd, which consists of seven-syllable lines rhyming in couplets, and the four-line englyn. All strict-metre poetry must contain full cynghanedd. Here is an example of an englyn by Gerallt Lloyd Owen: I Goffau Teulu o Bedwar Er eu syfrdan wahanu'n yr angau, Yr angau gan hynny A'u galwodd i'r un gwely, A galw'r tad i gloi'r ty. To Commemorate a Family of Four Despite the shock of their separation in death, Death thereupon Called them to the same bed, And called the father to lock the house. Taliesin Taliesin is one of the two earliest Welsh poets whose work has survived. Like Aneirin, his poems date from the late sixth century, and relate mainly to the struggle of the tribes of Northern Britain against the Germanic invaders. Taliesin was court poet to Urien, king of the land of Rheged (around what is now the Solway Estuary). Some twelve genuine poems of his have survived, but a great deal more is attributed to him in the fourteenth-century Book of Taliesin, where he appears as a mythic figure possessing arcane knowledge and prophetic powers. The Eisteddfod In the Middle Ages an eisteddfod was an occasional meeting of poets and musicians to compete and to amend the regulations of their guilds. The custom was revived in the late eighteenth century, and it was then that pseudo-druidic pageantry became associated with the eisteddfod. The National Eisteddfod began as an annual festival in the Victorian period, and continues to be held during the first week of August each year, now encompassing a broad spectrum of cultural activities as official competitions and fringe events, including literature, theatre, music, arts and crafts. The Chair is awarded for the best strict-metre poem, and the Crown for the best in free metre. Medals are awarded for prose fiction and drama. There is also Eisteddfod yr Urdd for young people, which is Europe's largest youth festival, and a host of local and regional eisteddfodau which play a vital role in maintaining a high level of popular culture through the medium of the Welsh language. The Four Branches of the Mabinogi The Four Branches of the Mabinogi (Pedair Cainc y Mabinogi) are four separate, loosely connected tales, probably dating from the twelfth century, but much older in origin. They are anonymous, and were probably brought together into a single work by an author drawing on oral material. They are available in several translations, of which the best is still the Everyman version by Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones, The Mabinogion (revised edition 1974). Waldo Williams The poet Waldo Williams (1904-71) was a Quaker and committed pacifist who celebrated the ideal of community (Welsh bro), embodied for him by his native Pembrokeshire. His poems about the Welsh language have inspired generations of activists. His work is available in translation by Tony Conran (1998). Williams Pantycelyn Williams Williams (1717-91) of Pantycelyn in Carmarthenshire is Wales's greatest hymn writer. His vivid hymns reflect the passionate spirituality of the first Methodist converts