Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

c.1560.4 A list of fourteen names is given under the heading 'master harpers of cerdd dant counted among the geniuses, and of authority in learning' (see Plate 1, p. 193).5 As in the comparable list of masters of the crwth in the same source, the names appear to be presented chronologically: they are reproduced in Table 3 with other early references, spanning a period from the middle of the fourteenth century to the first quarter of the sixteenth century. 1 Gruffudd ab Adda ap Dafydd The earliest of the nine composers represented in the Robert ap Huw manuscript, Gruffudd ab Adda ap Dafydd (/7.1340-70), does not appear in the Gwysaney list; indeed, he is chiefly remembered as a master of the poetic cywydd and as a friend of Dafydd ap Gwilym (fl. 1320-70), who described him as 'aur eos garuaidd' ('an amorous golden nightingale').6 Gruffudd ap Adda has a single piece in the Robert ap Huw manu- script: the eight-bar 'Cainc Ruffydd ab Adda ap Dafydd' (no. 17), to which he refers in one of his own englynion? Little is known of Gruffudd's life aside from the information given in Dafydd ap Gwilym's moving elegy: he was a native of Powys Wenwynwyn (perhaps of the ancient cantref of Arwystli in the Severn Valley), who was killed by an angered kinsman at Dolgellau.8 2 Cynwrig Bencerdd Cynwrig Bencerdd is the twelfth of the fourteen eminent harpers in the Gwysaney list. He has one complete piece in the Robert ap Huw manuscript, the twelve-section 'Caniad Cynwrig Bencerdd', while the title of a lost 'Caniad Gwenfrewi' ('Song of St Winifred'), attributed to Cynwrig in AB MS 2023-B (Panton 56),9 is listed by Robert on page 106 (Table IV, p. 325). Cynwrig is associated with Treffynnon (Holywell) in Flintshire, the centre of St Winifred's cult. In c.1451 he travelled to the Carmarthen Eisteddfod, where he won the silver harp for his playing; on the same occasion the datgeiniad Rhys Bwtling of Prestatyn won the 'silver tongue' for his singing; and the poet Dafydd ab Edmwnd of Hanmer (fl. 1450-97) won the Chair for his revision of the twenty-four measures of poetry.10 All three victors lived within a few miles of one another in Flintshire. The date of Cynwrig's death is unknown, but he must have prede- ceased Rhys Bwtling who wrote an elegy upon him.11 Since Cynwrig was already a pencerdd by c.1451, he may have lived from c.1420, flourishing c.1450-85.