Notes
GDG 15
This awdl is a traditional eulogy in praise of the Dean of Bangor, who is named as Hywel and associated with Anglesey. In the earliest manuscript, Pen 51, the poem is untitled, but in most copies it is described as a poem in praise of Hywel ap Tudur ab Ednyfed Fychan. Thomas Parry discovered that two Anglesey clerics named Hywel ap Goronwy held posts in the diocese of Bangor during the same period, see GDG xxxviii. One was Hywel ap Goronwy ap Tudur Hen ap Goronwy ab Ednyfed Fychan who belonged to the Tudor family of Penmynydd. He was praised by Gruffudd Fychan ap Gruffudd ab Ednyfed, GSRh no. 10, and lamented by Gruffudd ap Maredudd ap Dafydd, GGMD i, no. 1. Documents dating from 1340 and 1345 show that he had become a cleric by that time, and in 1357 he was Archdeacon of Anglesey, a post which he held until his death in 1366. For further details see ib. 12–14. He may be the person referred to in the manuscript titles, and if so this may be accounted for by his well–known Anglesey connections. According to an eighteenth–century source he was Canon, Archdeacon (1357), Dean (1359), and Bishop of Bangor (1371–2). However, it is most unlikely that he held all these posts and he has probably been confused with another cleric of the same name; see A.H. Dodd and J. Gwynn Williams (ed.), Aspects of Welsh History: Selected Papers of the Late Glyn Roberts (Cardiff, 1969), 192.
Another Hywel ap Goronwy was Dean of Bangor around 1350, see ib. note 7. He also hailed from Anglesey and it is he, according to Thomas Parry, who is the subject of this poem. He was made bishop in 1370 and died in Rome the following year. It is he who is the most likely recipient of the poem. Line 9 suggests that he was descended from Llywarch ap Brân and therefore belonged to one of the three tribes of Anglesey. He could perhaps have been a son (unnamed in the genealogies since he himself was childless) of Goronwy ap Maredudd of Tyddyn Adda. See WG1 'Llywarch ap Brân' 2. Goronwy's wife, Adles, was the daughter of Goronwy ab Ednyfed Fychan, see WG1 'Marchudd' 11.
It is Hywel's godliness which is praised in the first two stanzas, and two of the saints to whom he is compared, Cybi and Elien, are associated with Anglesey. The third stanza refers to his talent as a musician in Bangor Cathedral. The remaining eight verses, composed in a different metre, concentrate on Hywel's hospitality and his unstinting patronage of his poet. He is portrayed as a cultured patron who takes a practical interest in the art of poetry.
1. Mordëyrn Patron saint of Nantglyn in Denbighshire, see LBS iii, 502–4, WCD 483. In light of Hywel ap Goronwy's association with Anglesey, it is worth noting Tudur Aled's description of one of his patrons as Mordëyrn Môn 'Mordeyrn of Anglesey', GTA LXXV.98.
2. gwlad yr hud The 'land of enchantment' is Dyfed, see 6.2n, 21.
3. Cybi Cf. 52.39, 97.27. On Saint Cybi, who is commemorated in several Welsh place–names but is associated mainly with Anglesey, see LBS ii, 202–15.
4. Simon, Sud Two of Christ's disciples. The feast of Simon and Jude, brother of James the Less, is celebrated on 28 October. They are named together by Iolo Goch, GIG XXVII.29–30. Cf. Dafydd's poem, 'Pictures of Christ and the Apostles', 4.28, 37n.
6. Y Gwinau Dau Freuddwyd Literally 'The Auburn–haired One of the Two Dreams'. According to the 'Saints' Genealogy' he was the great–great–grandfather of Llywelyn Sant of Trallwng (Welshpool), see Bartrum, EWGT 59, GDG p. 454, LBS iv, 370–2, WCD 327. Iolo Goch claims that Owain Glyndŵr was descended from the line of Gwinau Dau Freuddwyd, GIG VIII.31.
7. Sain Silin Patron saint of Llansilin in Denbighshire among other places, see LBS iv, 203–6, WCD 588–9.
8. Saint Elien Patron saint of Llaneilian, Anglesey, see LBS ii, 435–44, WCD 240.
9. hil Brân See introductory note. On the line of Llywarch ap Brân see GSDT 8.19–20n; J. Beverley Smith (ed.), Medieval Welsh Society: Selected Essays by T. Jones Pierce (Cardiff, 1972), 260.
11. Both Dafydd and Gruffudd Gryg refer in their bardic debate to the organ at Bangor Cathedral, 25.35–40 (see 35n), 26.15–20.
31–2. The same topos is used by Gruffudd Gryg against Dafydd in 27.53–4. For further examples see DGIA 64–5.
39. Bleddyn A second–rate poet. Possibly Bleddyn Ddu Was y Cwd, who is associated with Anglesey and was probably active as early as 1331, see GBDd 1–4. His surviving verse includes debate stanzas and satire, GBDd poems 7–14. For verse references to a poet of the same name, see ib. 4–8. Dafydd makes playful reference to Bleddyn in his debate with the Anglesey poet Gruffudd Gryg, 30.25–8. Cf. also one of Gruffudd's elegies for Dafydd, GDG p. 428. Dafydd may have been involved in a satirical exchange with Bleddyn of the kind which is thought to have taken place between himself and Rhys Meigen; see introductory note to poem 31.
40. Cynddelwaidd An adjective formed from the name Cynddelw. Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr was an outstanding poet who received patronage in the royal courts of Powys and Gwynedd in the second half of the 12th century. Gruffudd Gryg applies the same adjective to Dafydd's verse in one of his elegies, GDG p. 428.
42. Rhydderchaidd An adjective formed from the name Rhydderch. Rhydderch Hael (the generous) was one of the 'Three Generous Ones' of the Island of Britain, see TYP3 493–5. Cf. 13.14, 16.19, 155.3.