Tudur Aled - Clod Tir Iâl

Hi everyone, 

As you've noticed, I love Celts and I love poetry. This year we had to translate middle welsh poems, which I loved. The rhyme and stilistic thingies in these welsh poems are extraordinary, and that really impressed me. I'm not even impressed by poetry anymore because it is simple if it 'merely' rhymes. 

So here is a poem by Tudur Aled. He lived from 1465 until 1525 (probably) and was a master in 'cynghanedd'

                                               Clod Tir Iâl

1.                 Af i'r ty, fyth, a'r fort fawr

I dir Iâl, hyd yr elawr

At yr haelaf yn treuliaw

Tudur Llwyd, da Duw i'r llaw

5.                 Dy dad a wnaeth dy dai'n wych

Dyma nhwy, da mwynheÿch

Muroedd calch Moreiddig cynt

Mur Sanddef a'r Mars ynddynt

Etifedd wyt Dafydd dda

10.               Llwyd, dewrder llew, at wrda

Tudur, ŵyr Tudur arall,

Tudur Llwyd, tydi yw'r llall

Byw Ifan gynt, bu fan gwyn

Bwyall Iâl, fab Llywelyn

15.               Bron Ynyr bro Anianus

Bryn yn ŷd, heb ronyn us.

As I don't assume everybody understands Welsh I'll post my translation beneath. But this poem is not about what it's about (you gettit?) but about how it sounds, the so-called cynghanedd.
If we just take one line as an example:  Tudur Llwyd, da Duw i'r llaw
Now, ignore all the vowels:                   t   d  r ll     d,d     d      r  ll  w
Now you can split the verse in two:       t   d  r ll   |  t        d      r ll 
And now you see that the consonants match in the two parts of the verse. Now, some of you are really watching closely: why are the two d's a t, and is the last w eliminated?
Well, those are the rules of the cynghanedd. If there's a word that ends with a d, and next is a word that begins with a d, you'll notice that if you pronounce it, the words kind of stick together and form a t- sound.
And the w at the end is not always a consonant in welsh. Really myserious.
Because of this, every sentence is a piece of art. And really, in évery sentence you'll find a kind of cynghanedd. You try this in your language. You'll fail.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynghanedd)

So here's my translation! I originally translated into dutch and made it real poetic, but a simple english translation will do here. I won't come close to Tudur, poetically speaking.

The fame of the country of Iâl

I'll go to the land, fast, and the big fort
In the land of Iâl, until the deathbed
To the most generous of spilling
Tudur Llwyd, to the hand of Good God

Your father made great houses
Watch them, may you enjoy them
Chalk walls of Moreiddig in old times
The walls of Sanddef and the March

You are the heir of Dafydd Llwyd the Good
Brave as a lion, and a nobleman
Tudur, the grandson of another Tudur
Tudur Llwyd, you were the other Tudur

In Ifan's life in old days it was a sacred place
At Iâl, son of Llywelyn
The hill of Ynyr, land of Anianus
A hill full of corn, without a grain of chaff

There are many interpretations possible of this poem, and this was my interpretation. So it's not necessarily the right one. As you see, it's a poem about the mecenas of Tudur Aled, Tudur Llwyd. He praises his lord and his country, and he was probably well paid doing so.

Coming week I'll start school again, after two weeks of doing nothing, so I'll be more busy with learning Irish (hell yeah!) than with other stuff. So then I'll teach you some Irish! ^^

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd

Tomorrow I have a test of the course 'Wales in the Middle Ages', and as I'm noticing avoiding-study-behaviour, I'll tell you all about a figure in the Welsh history I have to know a lot about.

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (nicknamed The Last Prince, tah-tah-tah-taaaaah)

His father Gruffud was the eldest son of Llywelyn the Great, but as this Llywelyn favoured his younger son Dafydd above his eldest, Gruffudd was locked up for half of his life. Dafydd became king but sucked at it, so Gruffud tried to seize power, which he failed to do. Dafydd and the english king locked him up in the Tower of London, where he died at an attempt to escape. (He tied up some sheets and climbed out the window, and fell dead. Pretty pathetic, I know.)

But when Dafydd died childless, the sons of Gruffudd were next in line. Henry III divided parts of Wales under them in the Peace of Woodstock. (That's got nothing to do with hippies.) When Llywelyn, the youngest, defeated his elder brothers and seized control over a big part of Wales, Henry III wasn't amused but let it happen. He didn't see Llywelyn as a threat.
Off course, he couldn't have been more wrong. Llywelyn was a stubborn prince, that never really obeyed Henry. In 1255 he defeats his brother Dafydd (I know, another one) who conspired against him with the lord of Powys. Llywelyn doesn't kill them, but claims Powys as his own. At this point, he's got whole Wales in his hands except for Pembrokeshire and Glamorgan.
In 1265 Llywelyn decides to ally with Simon de Montfort, an english baron, by engaging with his daughter. Henry is pretty pissed about this, and they aren't allowed to marry.
But Llywelyn's power becomes greater and in 1267 he is declared 'Prince of Wales' in the treaty of Montgomery. Woohoo! But then Edward I succeeds Henry III, and Edward is really fixed on defeating Wales. He spends a lot of money on the conquest and Llywelyn's power starts to crumble. But after eleven years of engagement, he is finally allowed to marry Elinor de Montford! Yeah, love rules all! ^^ Pity she dies a year later when giving birth..

In 1282 the Last Battle begins. His brother Dafydd starts a revolt, and Llywelyn decides to join him, but he isn't really happy about it (because Dafydd tried to kill him. So cute they get together in the end!)
But Edward is the least happy about it! The final military conquest of Wales begins and though he loses his fleet and loses the battle of Llandeilo, the revolt starts to crumble and at Builth Castle, Llywelyn is killed by someone who didn't know who he was killing, but well, he's pretty much dead. His head is sent to the king of England, who probably did a little happy dance there.

After Llywelyn's death, Dafydd fights on, but in the end he gets caught and dies a traitor-death (which is nasty. Remember Braveheart?)
So Edward's got Wales, puts all Llywelyn's daughters in monasteries, and thus the royal line of Wales dies out. Darn.

Welcome to my Blog!

Hi there,

I was thinking of creating a blog for quite some time now. Especially because I like so many things, and I want to tell everybody about those things without being annoying.

But the thing I like most, are Celtic languages, culture, music and all other things! I am BA students of Celtic Studies at Utrecht University, I'm in my third year, and the thing I like most is telling all the people I know about every amazing thing I get to learn everyday.

Since I wanted to share those things with the world, and convince everyone how Celtic studies are the most interesting studies, I will update this blog every once in a while with Celtic facts or texts or whatever!!

Kisses,
Lian