Maredudd ap Rhys facts for kids

Maredudd ap Rhys was a famous Welsh poet and priest. He lived in Wales between about 1450 and 1485. Maredudd came from an important family in a place called Powys. He was also a teacher for other poets, like Dafydd ab Edmwnd. This made him well-known as both a poet and a teacher.

Maredudd's Life as a Priest

Maredudd ap Rhys was a priest in a town called Ruabon. By 1450, he was also in charge of churches in Meifod and Welshpool. Another poet, Guto'r Glyn, once suggested that Maredudd wanted his job at Valle Crucis Abbey.

Maredudd's Amazing Poetry

Maredudd wrote many poems, at least twenty-one of them. These poems were called cywyddau, which is a special type of Welsh poetry. He wrote about different topics, including love, religion, and nature. He also wrote poems for special events and some that seemed to predict the future.

Poems About Nature and Life

Maredudd was inspired by earlier poets like Dafydd ap Gwilym. He even wrote a poem about the wind, just like Dafydd ap Gwilym did. He also wrote two sad poems when two of his priest friends passed away. In these poems, he blamed winter for keeping him from seeing his friends more often. He then praised spring as a time when friends could be together.

Maredudd loved to fish! He wrote a funny poem about a coracle, which is a small, round boat. He also wrote a poem asking for fishing nets. In this poem, he compared himself to Madog ab Owain Gwynedd. This is one of the earliest mentions of Madog, who some people believed discovered America a long time ago.

Poems About the Future

Some of Maredudd's poems were about the future. He seemed to be one of the people in the 1400s who tried to see what would happen next. He wondered if the fighting in Wales at that time would ever stop. He wrote about how uncertain life was because of all the wars and killings. In 1483, he wrote a poem about King Edward IV after the king passed away. Maredudd had hoped the king would bring peace back to Wales.

Religious Poems

Many of Maredudd's poems were about religion. He wrote about God as the creator of the world. He also wrote about the story of Christ and the importance of the Virgin Mary. One of his poems tells a story about a man who was cured of terrible hip pain. This happened at St. John's church in Chester. Maredudd wrote that in this church, deaf people could hear, mute people could speak, blind people could see, and even the dead could come back to life.

Maredudd's Family Life

Maredudd ap Rhys was married to a woman named Angharad. They had a son named Siôn and a daughter.