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23-398: Cerdd Dant is a unique tradition of singing lyrics over a harp melody. Traditional singers who sang in stately homes tended to sing in a Welsh language that had strict rules about metre, rhyme, and acceleration. Cerdd Dant is usually performed by a solo singer and a harpist; however, it is also performed by choirs and with several harps. A common form is have a harp melody written down or

46-774: A fourth, rhyming, seven-syllable line at the end. Thus it consists of four lines of ten, six, seven and seven syllables. The seventh, eighth or ninth syllable of the first line introduces the rhyme and this is repeated on the last syllable of the other three lines. The part of the first line after the rhyme alliterates with the first part of the second line. This is an englyn unodl union by Alan Llwyd: Ym Mhorth oer y Merthyr on – y merthyr Mwya'i werth o ddig on A hir-fawrha y fro h on Wr dewr o Aberdar on The "soldier's englyn ". This consists of three seven-syllable lines. All three lines rhyme. Otid eiry, gwyn y cn es ; Nid â cedwyr i'w neg es ; Oer llynnau, eu lliw heb d es . The "even englyn ", more common in

69-598: A stanza of three lines. The first line has ten syllables (in two groups of five), the second has five to six; and the third has seven. The seventh, eighth or ninth syllable of the first line introduces the rhyme and this is repeated on the last syllable of the other two lines. The fourth syllable of the second line may echo the final syllable of the first through either rhyme or consonance . Oer gwly pysgawd yng nghysg awd iäen; Cul hydd, cawn barf awd ; Byr diwedydd, gwŷdd gwyr awd . The "straight one-rhymed englyn ", identical to englyn penfyr except that it adds

92-432: A well known tune, while the vocalist improvises their own harmony while singing a poem. When sung in a competition, there are strict rules about rhythm and cadences. When finishing a piece, the final verse has to end on a perfect cadence that is close to the home key so that the ending of the song is clear. In Wales, during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, two arts flourished side by side: cerdd dafod (the craft of

115-783: Is additional cynghanedd . This is a hybrid between an englyn and a toddaid . The first two lines are as for an englyn , and there follow two more lines of ten syllables each. After the first two lines there is just one more line of three syllables or fewer, which follows the rhyme of the first two lines. Here are two englynion by the 12th-century Welsh poet Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr : Balch ei fugunawr ban nafawr ei lef Pan ganer cyrn cydawr; Corn Llywelyn llyw lluydfawr Bon ehang blaen hang bloed fawr. Corn wedi llad corn llawen Corn llugynor Llywelyn Corn gwyd gwydr ai can Corn rueinell yn ol gellgwn The poet Robert Graves wrote an englyn in English, included in

138-473: Is found in the work of the earliest attested Welsh poets (the cynfeirdd ), where the main types are the three-line englyn milwr and englyn penfyr . It is the only set stanzaic metre found in the early Welsh poetic corpus, and explanations for its origins have tended to focus on stanzaic Latin poetry and hymns; however, it is as likely to be a development within the Brittonic poetic tradition. Whereas

161-479: Is identical to the englyn proest dalgron except that the half rhymes must use the ae , oe , wy , and ei diphthongs . The " chain half-rhyme englyn ". In this version there are four lines of seven syllables. The first and third lines rhyme and the second and fourth half rhyme on the same vowel sound as the full rhyme syllables. The "reciprocal half-rhyme englyn ". This has four lines of seven syllables. All four lines half-rhyme, and there

184-412: Is probably much older. Studies also suggest that features of this form of poetry are comparable to the ancient Irish versifications and therefore point to an older shared Celtic inheritance. The composition of cerdd dafod requires strict observance of the rules of cynghanedd : an intricate system of sound arrangement based on stress , alliteration , and internal rhyme within each line. One of

207-585: Is still an important part of Welsh culture and is continued to the present day. It is a major element of the National Eisteddfod and an annual festival celebrating Cerdd Dant is held each year. Cerdd dafod Cerdd dafod (literally "tongue craft") is the Welsh tradition of creating verse or poetry to a strict metre in the Welsh language . The history of cerdd dafod can be traced to 6th-century Welsh poets such as Aneirin and Taliesin , but

230-529: The Englynion y Beddau or Geraint son of Erbin , and others again are lyric, religious meditations and laments such as the famous Claf Abercuawg and Kyntaw geir . There are a number of types of englynion . Details of their structures are as follows; not all of these, however, are included in the Traditional Welsh poetic metres . Also known as "the short-ended englyn ". It consists of

253-505: The Juvinalia (1910–1914) of his Complete Poems A Pot of White Heather Thou, a poor woman's fairing, white heather, Witherest from the ending Of summer's bliss to the sting Of winter's grey beginning. Here is an English-language englyn by novelist Robertson Davies . The Old Journalist He types his laboured column—weary drudge! Senile, fudge and solemn; Spare, editor, to condemn These dry leaves of his autumn. Grace in

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276-471: The Middle Ages than later. This consists of four seven-syllable lines. All four lines rhyme. One example (showing the half-rhyme of -edd with -er ) is: Cyntefin ceinaf ams er , Dydar adar, glas call edd , Ereidr yn rhych, ych yng ngw edd , Gwyrdd môr, brithotor tir edd . The "short crooked englyn ". This is like englyn penfyr , but orders the lines differently: seven syllables in

299-401: The beginning. This is made up of four lines of seven, seven, ten and six syllables. The last syllables of the first, second and last lines and the seventh, eighth or ninth syllable of the third line all rhyme. The "seeking englyn ". This form has four lines of seven syllables each. The final syllables of the first, second, and last line rhyme. The final syllable of the third line rhymes with

322-529: The earliest texts on the subject is credited to Einion Offeiriad (fl c. 1320–c. 1349) a bard considered to have been under the patronage of Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd , a powerful nobleman of south-west Wales. In it, he lists 24 canonical metres used for all poems in the writing of cerdd dafod . This was later revised by Dafydd ab Edmwnd who, at an eisteddfod held at Carmarthen around 1450, changed two of Einion's metres to two more complicated versions of his own. These changes were adopted by future competitions as

345-424: The first, ten syllables (in two groups of five) in the second, and five to six syllables in the third. In the following example, the second line does not participate in the rhyme: Ton tra thon toid tu t ir ; Goruchel gwaeddau rhag bron bannau bre; Braidd allan orsef ir . The "crooked one-rhyme englyn ". This englyn is like englyn byr crwca , except that it adds an extra seven-syllable line at

368-536: The form of an englyn (with cynghanedd shown) in a poem by W. D. Williams: O, Dad, yn deulu dedwydd – y deuwn [ Dad and dedwydd , d <accent> d repeated] Â diolch o newydd , [ deuwn and diolch , d <accent> repeated] Cans o'th law y daw bob dydd [ law and daw rhyming, daw and dydd , d <accent> repeated, cynghanedd sain ] Ein lluniaeth a'n llawenydd. [ ein lluniaeth and a'n llawenydd , ll <accent> n repeated] O, Father, as

391-458: The intensity of curses. The art of poetry was learnt orally, i.e. examples were learnt by heart and exercises given as spoken instruction. Part of the poet or musician's craft was the ability to remember the important work of previous generations. One of the spurs to the active and generous patronage of poets must have been the prospect that one's name and deeds would live forever. In descending social order came: poet, harper, crwth player and

414-450: The metres known as englyn and cywydd , attributed to the poet Alan Llwyd . Englyn Englyn ( pronounced [ˈɛŋ.lɪn] ; plural englynion ) is a traditional Welsh short poem form. It uses quantitative metres , involving the counting of syllables , and rigid patterns of rhyme and half rhyme . Each line contains a repeating pattern of consonants and accent known as cynghanedd . The englyn

437-603: The metrical rules of later englynion are clear (and are based on counting syllables), the precise metre of the early englynion is debated and could have involved stress-counting. The earliest englynion are found as marginalia written in a tenth-century hand in the Juvencus Manuscript . Many early englynion form poems which seem to represent moments of characters' emotional reflection in stories now lost: Canu Llywarch Hen , Canu Urien , Canu Heledd . Others survey heroic tradition, for example

460-470: The preferred canon. In 1925 the Celtic linguist Sir John Morris-Jones published Cerdd Dafod , an in-depth study of the traditional metres of the cynghanedd and a text now seen as the definitive work on the topic. This was brought about after his desire to see a return to traditional poetry and use of strict metre in eistedfoddau . The end of the 20th century saw a renaissance in cerdd dafod , especially in

483-460: The second, third or fourth syllable of the last line: Caradawg fab Cedif or , Gwalch byddin gwerin gor or , Hebawg teulu cu ceinm yn , Anawdd genn yn dy hepg or . In this englyn , there are four seven-syllable lines that half-rhyme with each other (half-rhyme means that the final consonants agree). Adeiliwyd bedd, gwedd gwiwd er , F'enaid, i'th gylch o fyn or : Adeiliawdd cof dy al ar I'm calon ddilon ddol ur . This

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506-472: The specialised singer of bardic verse, the datgeiniad . The crafts of poetry and instrumental music were interdependent and the performance of a new poem, at its most splendid, probably required the services of the datgeiniad , harpist and/or crwth player; no doubt superintended by the poet. Between the beginning of the 14th century and the end of the 16th century Welsh poetical forms were brought to an extreme pitch of elaboration. Cerdd Dant

529-489: The tongue, poetical craft) and cerdd dant (the craft of string music). The poets and musicians were part of an all-embracing bardic system. The poets wrote verse of an occasional nature, praising the exploits and virtues of their patrons: the Welsh nobility and high-ranking clergy. They also provided elegies, devotional poetry, commemorated the generous acts of their patrons and satirised certain people in verses which might have

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