[4] In the first half the poet expresses his love of his native Gwynedd – its scenery, its men and women – and boasts of his own prowess in defending them; in the second he praises several Welsh ladies and tells us how many of them are sexual conquests of his.
[5] Beginning with the image of the grave of Rhufawn Befr, washed by the "foaming white wave", the poet lists those aspects of Gwynedd that he loves: its landscapes of sea-coast, flourishing lowland and wild mountain, and its sturdy soldiers and beautiful women.
He names them one by one, with a few words of description: Gwenlliant, "summer's glow"; Gweirfyl, "my gift, my grace, never won"; Gwladus, "shy girlish child-bride"; Lleucu, whose "mate will not laugh when hard-pressed"; Nest, "fair as an apple-blossom"; Perweur, "centre of my sin"; Generys, "who cured not my lust"; Hunydd, "concern till doomsday"; and Hawis, "my choice for courtship".
[19] It also has, in Gwyn Williams' words, "much more gaiety and delight and less of boasting and of battle",[20] Love of one's own country – its natural beauty, its men and women – can also be found in early Irish poems, especially "Colum Cille's Greeting to Ireland".
[21] Boasting is a feature of poems by two other Welsh bards of the time, Cynddelw and Prydydd y Moch,[22] and by various European poets, such works being called vanti in Italy, gaps in Provence, and gabs in northern France.
[25] Oliver Padel has argued that a mention of the legendary bard Myrddin in Hywel's "Gorhoffedd" displays the influence, direct or indirect, of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Vita Merlini,[26] though this claim has been contested by John Bollard.