Notes

GDG 41

This poem is set in the poet's own parish of Llanbadarn. As in the poem to the Girls of Llanbadarn (137), upon whom Dafydd wishes a plague since he never managed to have any of them, he portrays himself as an unsuccessful lover with a good deal of self–mockery. It would not be shameful for her / to see me in a bed of leaves (137.11–12), says Dafydd of one of those girls, but that is precisely what concerns the stubborn girl who is the subject of this poem: Lest I be mocked, I wouldn't want / my presence in the birch–grove to be known (25–6). 'While the world endures he'll get no response', says one of the two girls in Llanbadarn Church (137.33); likewise here: 'You won't get an answer, lad from the region's brow, / for I don't know yet' (19–20). Both poems contain witty dialogue and a high percentage of lines which lack cynghanedd. Stylistically this poem is fairly uncomplicated; the emphasis is on the narrative rather than description as the would–be seducer, full of flattery and a little too self–confident, is put firmly in his place.

Unlike the scenario of most of Dafydd's love poems he comes across the girl by chance. This, along with the dialogue and the conventional opening introduced by the formula Fal yr oeddwn ... (As I was ...), has drawn comparison with the popular European genre of the pastourelle. See Ifor Williams (1913–14, 120–1), Dronke in DGChSOC 3, Fulton, DGEC 206–7. But as Bromwich (APDG 96–7; cf. 1985, 65) and Edwards (DGIA 196–7) have argued, the correspondence is in fact fairly superficial. Whilst Dafydd was probably familiar with the genre, this poem need not be read as an imitation or a parody of the medieval pastourelle.

2. gwŷr crefydd Cred   'holy men of Christendom'. Either a reference to the poet's audience or an exclamatory remark similar to an oath.

19. mab o ael y fro   'lad from the region's brow'. A reference to Dafydd's home, Brogynin?

21. Llanbadarn   Dafydd's parish church.

23. argoed   'woods', but possibly a place–name. There is an Argoed Fawr and an Argoed Fach just over a mile south of the village of Tal–y–bont, not far from Dafydd's home. Some of the place–names mentioned in the poem 'Journeying for Love' (96) belong to the same area.

27–8.   Compare the theme of 'A Girl taunts him for his Cowardice' (72).

30.   It is unclear who is meant here. Compare the references to slanderers in 'A Fortress Against Envy' (122), and the two girls who belittle Dafydd in 'The Girls of Llanbadarn' (137).