GDG 20

Although he is described in the opening couplet as Taliesin mawl 'Taliesin of praise', it is primarily as a love poet that Gruffudd Gryg (fl. c. 1340–80) is praised in this elegy (on Gruffudd Gryg see Introduction, 'Y Bardd', 21). A few love poems by the Anglesey poet have survived, e.g. DGG LXXII–III, LXXV, but it is reasonable to suppose that he composed a larger body of verse for his beloved Goleuddydd (see 20n below). However, in their bardic debate Gruffudd is highly critical of the dishonesty of Dafydd's popular love poetry; see poem 23 and introductory note.

Since Gruffudd composed two elegies for Dafydd (GDG pp. 427–30), this may well be a fictitious elegy, although that is not immediately apparent in the poem's content or tone, apart, perhaps, from the emphasis on love. On the possibility that the poem was composed when Gruffudd was still alive see Bromwich, APDG 49–50, 159–62, and Huw M. Edwards, 'Murnio marwnadau: golwg ar y ffug–farwnad yng nghyfnod y cywydd', Dwned 5 (1999), 47–70; see also the introductory notes to Dafydd's elegies for Madog Benfras and Gruffudd ab Adda (poems 20–1). The possibility is supported by some of the manuscript titles, though these could be based on the copyists' familiarity with Gruffudd's two elegies for Dafydd rather than on any genuine tradition. Bromwich, APDG 49–50, suggests that the elegy predates the poetic debate since it contains no references to the poets' quarrel, unlike one of Gruffudd's elegies for Dafydd.

2. Taliesin   The sixth–century poet Taliesin was considered the founder of the Welsh eulogistic tradition, see 16.34n. Both Gruffudd Gryg and Madog Benfras compare Dafydd with Taliesin, GDG pp. 428, 425.

4. y trywyr marw   The 'three dead men'. This seems to refer to the popular medieval morality tale of the Three Dead and Three Living Men. See J. Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages (Harmondsworth, 1955), 146: 'Three young noblemen suddenly meet three hideous dead men, who tell them of their past grandeur and warn them of their own near end.' The only other reference to the motif in medieval Welsh literature is from the late fifteenth century, see GIBH 13.21–4n.

19. ei lân lyfr   'His fine book'. Cf. Dafydd's description of Gruffudd as Graifft y plwyf 'the parish scribe' in one of the debate poems, 26.1.

20. Goleuddydd   Gruffudd's pseudonym for his beloved, see DGG LXXV.38; however, in the poetic debate he names Gweirfyl, see 27.50–2 and cf. 144.44n. They may be the same person.

38. Llan–faes   The Franciscan priory near Beaumares, Anglesey; cf. Iolo Goch, GIG VI.91–4.

60. ofyddiaeth   'Ovid's art', cf. 7.22, probably a reference to love poetry rather than love in general. On Dafydd's references to Ovid see Bromwich, APDG 70–1.