GDG 9

This is the earliest poem in the cywydd metre in which the poet thanks his patron for a gift. Poems of request and thanks form a distinctive genre in the later medieval period but few have survived from the fourteenth century; see Bleddyn Owen Huws, Y Canu Gofyn a Diolch c. 1350–c. 1630 (Cardiff, 1998), 4, 33–4. The valuable gloves, full of gold and silver, which Dafydd receives are a striking token of Ifor Hael's appreciation of his poet's praise, and the poem is a lasting record of the patron's generosity. Gloves do not feature prominently in the later poetry, although Lewys Môn (fl. 1485–1527) speaks of receiving a similar gift in his elegy to the Dean of Bangor (GLM XVII.9–12). Unlike the later poems the gift is not described in any great detail, the main emphasis being on Ifor's unequalled generosity and the refinement of his court. By identifying his poems to Ifor with Taliesin's praise of Urien in the 'hall of Rheged' in the Old North, Dafydd underlines the closeness of their relationship and places himself in the mainstream of the Welsh eulogistic tradition.

6. gwëydd gwawd   'Weaver of praise'. A common metaphor, cf. 29.23, 102.4.

7. Ceri   A commot in Maelienydd, Powys which extended as far as the border, cf. 107.23n.

9.   A possible allusion to the maritime activities suggested in another of the Ifor Hael poems (11).

30. hyddgen   Deer–skin. D.J. Bowen (1981–4, 182) suggests that Dafydd may have noticed in a law–book belonging to his friend Rhydderch ab Ieuan Llwyd that it used to be customary for the king's falconer to receive a deer skin from the chief huntsman in order to make hawking gloves. He notes that this is an example of Dafydd's awareness of social status, since there were various laws relating to medieval dress according to social class.

34. Rheged   The northern Brittonic kingdom where Taliesin, the earliest Welsh poet whose work has survived, sang the praises of Urien Rheged in the late sixth century.

35. Taliesin   Dafydd compares himself to Taliesin in his relationship with Ifor Hael in 16.33–4 willing expenditure, of mead and wine, / of jewels, [I am] a second Taliesin.

47. y Wennallt   Craig y Wennallt is the name of a wooded area some three miles north–west of Ifor's home at Gwernyclepa, and a mile and a half east of Risca, GDG p. 443.

54. Basaleg   Gwernyclepa was a mile or so south of the present village of Basaleg on the outskirts of Newport.

56.   Cf. the satirical description of the rattlebag as 'a shaking vessel of English stones' (62.29); also, bearing in mind that these are deer–skin gloves, a line from the poem to the roebuck: your coat will not clad an old Englishman (46.44).

58. mwyn   Either 'gentle, pleasant', 'noble', or, as a noun, 'wealth'. The word is more obviously ambiguous in the poem on the month of May (32), see note.