Welsh-language literature

[10] The society of the court poets came to a sudden end in 1282 following the killing of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last of native Welsh princes.

As a class, they proved very adaptable: when the princely dynasties ended in 1282, and Welsh principalities were annexed by England, they found necessary patronage with the next social level, the uchelwyr, or landed gentry.

Besides prose and longer poetry, the literature includes the distinctive Trioedd, Welsh Triads, short lists usually of three items, apparently used as aids to memory.

But there were also internal reasons for the decline: the conservatism of the Guild of poets, or Order of bards, made it very difficult for it to adapt to the new world of Renaissance learning and the growth of printing.

[19] By 1571 Jesus College, Oxford, was founded to provide an academic education for Welshmen, and the commitment of certain individuals, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, ensured that the Welsh language would be part of the new Renaissance in learning.

Salesbury was an ardent Protestant and coupled his learning with the new religious ideas from the Continent; he translated the New Testament into Welsh and compiled an English-Welsh dictionary, among other works.

Katherine Philips of Cardigan Priory, although English by birth, lived in Wales for most of her life, and was at the centre of a literary coterie comprising both sexes.

Although Iolo is sometimes called a charlatan because so many of his "discoveries" were based on pure myth, he was also an inveterate collector of old manuscripts, and thereby performed a service without which Welsh literature would have been the poorer.

[31] This represented an enormous increase in the quantity and variety of literature produced in Welsh, its nature steered by the sometimes competing values of the Eisteddfod, the nonconformist tradition, and wider developments in Western Aesthetics such as Romanticism.

Antiquarians, historians, linguists, and lexicographers such as Iolo Morgannwg, William Owen Pughe, Thomas Stephens, Carnhuanawc, Lewis Edwards, and O. M. Edwards were also active in the study and re-discovery of Wales, its literature and the past of both, as were figures from outside Wales such as Charlotte Guest, Matthew Arnold[38] and Ernest Renan;[39] whilst figures like Thomas Gee laboured to teach the Welsh about the wider world.

As the Methodist Revival continued and non-conformist chapels took increasing hold of the spiritual lives of Wales's population, a strong native tradition of hymn-writing emerged drawing on the example of Williams Pantycelyn.

Prominent Welsh hymn-writers of this first part of the century included David Charles (1762-1834) and Robert ap Gwilym Ddu (1766-1850), however undoubtedly the finest and most influential figure in this tradition in this period (and perhaps any) was the short-lived Ann Griffiths (1776-1805A).

Although she died in comparative obscurity and her complete poetic output consists of only seventy stanzas over twenty-seven hymns she would later become recognised as a major religious poet of almost cult-like popularity[40][41] and an important figure in Welsh nonconformism;[42] she would even become the subject of a 21st-century musical.

[45] He, alongside methodists like Eben Fardd (1802-1863)[45] and Gwilym Hiraethog (1802-1883) would also make significant contributions to the Welsh hymn tradition in the second quarter of the century.

With the exception of the dedicated hymn-writers, Eisteddfod success was the ambition of all the major poets of the first part of the century such as Dewi Wyn o Eifion (1784-1841), Ieuan Glan Geirionydd (1795-1855), Alun (1797-1840), Caledfryn (1801-1869), Eben Fardd (1802-1863), Gwilym Hiraethog (1802-1883) and Creuddynfab (1814-1869) among many other lesser names.

[48] They were not immune either to influences from outside Wales: John Milton was a particular favourite,[47] and as the century wore on Romanticism increasingly became the dominant aesthetic, with poets such as Eben Fardd noted for leading the change in this regard.

[57] An ongoing and sometimes fierce debate in the press over the relative merits of cynghanedd and the free metres led to the eventual establishment of the National Eisteddfod's Crown, first awarded in 1880 for the best pryddest, nominally of equal prestige to the Chair.

[63][64] Nevertheless at its best, including in both versions of Y Storm, Islwyn's work shows a "complexity of imagery and intellectual ambition rare in any Welsh poetry of the period.

[71] Ceiriog's most successful lyrics such as Nant y Mynydd (The Mountain Stream) are direct, moving and effective, often describing rural and romantic scenes.

[76] It is notable that despite multiple efforts in some cases, many of the above poets including Islwyn, Ceiriog, Talhaiarn and others failed to win either of the main prizes at the Eisteddfod.

To the name of Ann Griffiths (see above) can be added those of Jane Ellis (d.1840) and Elen Egryn (1807-1876) - both[80] of whom[81] have been claimed to be the first woman to have a book in Welsh published - as well as others such as Buddug (1842-1909).

It was one of the shortest awdlau to win the Chair at the time and reinvigorated the Eisteddfod tradition; Gwynn himself was one of the leading figures in a late flowering of Romanticism in Welsh poetry alongside figures such as R. Williams Parry, W. J. Gruffydd, John Morris Jones and R. Silyn Roberts (whose Trystan ac Esyllt won the Eisteddfod Crown in the same year as Gwynn won the chair).

Modernism was reflected in both the subject matter of Welsh poetry as well as its form: Parry-Williams' sonnet Dychwelyd ("Return") is a bleak expression of nihilism for example, and E. Prosser Rhys courted controversy for his frank (for the time) depictions of sexuality, including homosexuality, in poems such as Atgof ("Memory"), which won the crown at the 1924 Eisteddfod.

Modernism caught on more slowly in prose, and the prominent early twentieth century novelists (most notably T. Gwynn Jones and Gwyneth Vaughan in many respects continued the tradition as codified by Daniel Owen.

The most popular novelists of the first half of the century continued the realist tradition, however, such as E. Tegla Davies Kate Roberts and Elena Puw Morgan.

Lewis, who had been brought up in Liverpool, was a leader of Plaid Cymru jailed for his part in protests; though a poet and a novelist as well as a significant critic and academic, his main literary legacy was in the field of drama.

After a relatively quiet period between 1950–1970, large numbers of Welsh-language novels began appearing from the 1980s onwards, with such authors as Aled Islwyn [cy] and Angharad Tomos.

In the 1990s there was a distinct trend towards postmodernism in Welsh prose writing, especially evident in the work of such authors as Wiliam Owen Roberts and Mihangel Morgan.

Meanwhile, in the 1970s Welsh poetry took on a new lease of life as poets sought to regain mastery over the traditional verse forms, partly to make a political point.

Female poets such as Menna Elfyn gradually began to make their voices heard, overcoming the obstacle of the male-dominated bardic circle and its conventions.