Notes

GDG 127, HGDG pp.39–41

As in the poems to the Briar (56), the Mist (57) and the Moon (58), an element of the natural world, in this case a pool in the middle of a peat–pit, hinders the poet's journey to meet his lover. And just like the obstructions described in those poems, the peat–pit is cursed through an accumulation of negative images, although here the dyfalu is less sustained. The peat–pit, like the mist, is associated with the dread of Annwfn, the Celtic underworld. In contrast to the moonlit night which reveals Dafydd's movements in pursuit of love in poem 58, it is utter darkness that hinders him in this poem, as he rides astray in an unfamiliar land. The poem's location is not known. On the possibility that it is set near Rhosyr in Anglesey, see Eurys Rowlands (1967, 22) and D.J. Bowen (1977, 219).

29–30. Gwyn ... Ab Nudd   Gwyn son of Nudd, chief of the fairy people and king of Annwfn, see 57.32n. and compare line 32 below: the place of phantoms and their brood. Similarly the mist is described as towers of Gwyn's tribe / travelling on high (57.31–2) and as a flaccid headland of Gwyn and his tribe (l. 40), and the owl is Gwyn ap Nudd's bird (61.40). These references are discussed by Eurys I. Rowlands, 'Cyfeiriadau Dafydd ap Gwilym at Annwn', LlC 5 (1958–9), 122–35, where it is argued that there is an association between marshland and Annwfn and that this poem may reflect a belief that a pool or pit represented the entrance to the underworld. Compare also 26.54 if I care at all, let Gwyn ap Nudd seize me.

34. ennaint   The meaning 'bath, washing–place' seems more appropriate here than 'ointment'; compare the description of the mist in 57.44 Ennaint gwrachïod Annwn 'ointment of the witches of Annwfn'.

37–8. f'hosanau / Cersi   'my kersey stockings'. Cersi is derived from the English kersey, a kind of coarse narrow cloth woven from long wool, usually ribbed (the earliest example in OED is dated 1390). In the poem 'Choosing One from Four' Dafydd mentions the good stockings (hosanau da) he receives from Elen Nordd in exchange for his poems (120.26).

38. Caer   Probably Caerfyrddin (Carmarthen), a major centre of the wool trade; see poem 1, 'To the Rood at Carmarthen', introductory note.