Giles Watson's poetry and prose
Rhydderch's Elegy
Rhydderch’s Elegy
(on behalf of Llywelyn Fychan of Glyn Aeron)
Marwnad Rhydderch
(dros Llywelyn Fychan o Lyn Aeron)
Where slope of shale meets the skies
Yesterday I heard three cries
And cowered. I have known groans
Enough, but quaked to hear moans
Of mortal men, that rent the ground
In twain: pained, baleful sound
Like hunter’s horn, vale to cloud.
No doom-bell ever clanged so loud.
What tone sings such doleful woe?
What pang of pain decrees it so?
Llywelyn Fychan lent his breath
To break word of Rhydderch’s death,
His brother sworn. He lies in state
Within the court. Too fickle, fate!
As Amis grieved for Amiloun,
As torn mothers weep and swoon,
So, a man who loved his friend
Goes to ground and grieves his end:
Llywelyn’s cry, a tolling knell,
A speechless word of what befell.
Rhydderch’s lips, which kept their word
When giving wine – now interred –
Lie parted, dry, soon to perish.
Brought to dust, all I cherish:
Valour vanquished – shrivelled seed –
And rancid all of Rhydderch’s mead
Slickly running down the drain.
Like a swan upon a chain!
So little stone it takes, to pave
The seven feet that make his grave.
Doleful sermon: that his worth
Lies subdued by dumb, thick earth.
All wealth of love, warmth of wit
Are gifts embraced by the pit:
Unstinting wisdom, worth and right,
Mirth and breath, and body white,
Values, virtues, nature’s gift,
Learning, yearnings, largesse, thrift,
Charm and fame, and talk and song.
All have been, and all are gone.
What a tumult in the soil
When knight succumbs to sexton’s toil.
Rest to Rhydderch! Spade the clod
With love and sweat. Trust to God.
Source material: Dafydd ap Gwilym, paraphrased by Giles Watson. This elegy was written for Rhydderch ab Ieuan Llwyd of Glyn Aeron in Ceredigion, a lawyer, administrator, patron of poets, and perhaps most importantly of all, the owner of the White Book of Rhydderch: surely one of the most important manuscripts in literary history, given that it is one of the two volumes which contain the original tales from the Mabinogion. Ironically, this extraordinary expression of grief for the passing of a knight and patron (written two centuries before the gravemaker scene in Hamlet) was almost certainly a marwnad ffug – an elegy written long before the death of the subject – since Rhydderch was still alive in 1391, more than ten years after the last poems written by Dafydd ap Gwilym. Surprising as it may seem today, such a practice was not uncommon in the century of the Black Death, when elegies for the great (like modern obituaries) were often required at a moment’s notice. Dafydd’s authorship is undisputed, and his hand can certainly be seen in the dark humour of the fourth-last line. Amis and Amiloun (Amlyn am Emig) were heroes of a Middle English romance, which is known to have been translated into Welsh in the fifteenth century, but Dafydd uses Welsh forms of their names, which suggests that he must have read an earlier translation, now lost. Iolo Goch appears to have had access to the same text, since he also uses the Welsh versions of their names. For an affordable version of the romance of Amis and Amiloun in Middle English, see Jennifer Fellows (Ed.), Of Love and Chivalry: An Anthology of Middle English Romance, London, 1993, pp. 73-145.
Rhydderch's Elegy
Rhydderch’s Elegy
(on behalf of Llywelyn Fychan of Glyn Aeron)
Marwnad Rhydderch
(dros Llywelyn Fychan o Lyn Aeron)
Where slope of shale meets the skies
Yesterday I heard three cries
And cowered. I have known groans
Enough, but quaked to hear moans
Of mortal men, that rent the ground
In twain: pained, baleful sound
Like hunter’s horn, vale to cloud.
No doom-bell ever clanged so loud.
What tone sings such doleful woe?
What pang of pain decrees it so?
Llywelyn Fychan lent his breath
To break word of Rhydderch’s death,
His brother sworn. He lies in state
Within the court. Too fickle, fate!
As Amis grieved for Amiloun,
As torn mothers weep and swoon,
So, a man who loved his friend
Goes to ground and grieves his end:
Llywelyn’s cry, a tolling knell,
A speechless word of what befell.
Rhydderch’s lips, which kept their word
When giving wine – now interred –
Lie parted, dry, soon to perish.
Brought to dust, all I cherish:
Valour vanquished – shrivelled seed –
And rancid all of Rhydderch’s mead
Slickly running down the drain.
Like a swan upon a chain!
So little stone it takes, to pave
The seven feet that make his grave.
Doleful sermon: that his worth
Lies subdued by dumb, thick earth.
All wealth of love, warmth of wit
Are gifts embraced by the pit:
Unstinting wisdom, worth and right,
Mirth and breath, and body white,
Values, virtues, nature’s gift,
Learning, yearnings, largesse, thrift,
Charm and fame, and talk and song.
All have been, and all are gone.
What a tumult in the soil
When knight succumbs to sexton’s toil.
Rest to Rhydderch! Spade the clod
With love and sweat. Trust to God.
Source material: Dafydd ap Gwilym, paraphrased by Giles Watson. This elegy was written for Rhydderch ab Ieuan Llwyd of Glyn Aeron in Ceredigion, a lawyer, administrator, patron of poets, and perhaps most importantly of all, the owner of the White Book of Rhydderch: surely one of the most important manuscripts in literary history, given that it is one of the two volumes which contain the original tales from the Mabinogion. Ironically, this extraordinary expression of grief for the passing of a knight and patron (written two centuries before the gravemaker scene in Hamlet) was almost certainly a marwnad ffug – an elegy written long before the death of the subject – since Rhydderch was still alive in 1391, more than ten years after the last poems written by Dafydd ap Gwilym. Surprising as it may seem today, such a practice was not uncommon in the century of the Black Death, when elegies for the great (like modern obituaries) were often required at a moment’s notice. Dafydd’s authorship is undisputed, and his hand can certainly be seen in the dark humour of the fourth-last line. Amis and Amiloun (Amlyn am Emig) were heroes of a Middle English romance, which is known to have been translated into Welsh in the fifteenth century, but Dafydd uses Welsh forms of their names, which suggests that he must have read an earlier translation, now lost. Iolo Goch appears to have had access to the same text, since he also uses the Welsh versions of their names. For an affordable version of the romance of Amis and Amiloun in Middle English, see Jennifer Fellows (Ed.), Of Love and Chivalry: An Anthology of Middle English Romance, London, 1993, pp. 73-145.