Margaret Davies (writer) facts for kids

Margaret Davies, also known as Marged Dafydd, was an amazing Welsh woman. She lived from about 1700 to 1778 or 1785. Margaret was a talented poet, a scribe (someone who copies texts by hand), and a collector of old writings. Her hard work helped save many Welsh poems. She copied them into her own special books, called manuscripts. Thanks to her, we still know about many poems and the people who wrote them.

Early Life of Margaret Davies

Margaret Davies was born in a place called Coetgae-du. This village is near Trawsfynydd in north-west Wales.

Margaret Davies's Work as a Poet and Scribe

Margaret Davies was one of several women poets in north-west Wales. These women, like Margaret Rowlands and Alis ach Wiliam, would meet up. They shared their poems and ideas with each other. Like the earlier poet Angharad James, these women had enough money and free time. This allowed them to write poetry and travel to meet other poets.

Margaret also wrote letters to male poets. These poets were part of a group called the London Celticism movement. No poems written by Margaret were ever printed while she was alive.

Collecting and Copying Poems

Margaret spent a lot of her time collecting and copying Welsh poems. She copied both printed and handwritten poems. She put them all into her own manuscript collections. Her collections include poems from at least six other women poets. Some of these poems would be lost forever if Margaret had not copied them.

For example, her collections are the only place we can find one of the englynion (a type of Welsh poem). This poem was written by a medieval Welsh woman poet named Gwerful Mechain. Also, much of what we know about Angharad James comes from Margaret's copies. This includes the only known copy of a sad poem Angharad wrote. It was about the death of her son.

A scholar named Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan has said how important Margaret's work was. She explained that without Margaret's efforts, many poems would be unknown today. We also would not know the names of the women who wrote them.

Margaret Davies's Legacy

Margaret Davies passed away in either 1778 or 1785.

We know of five manuscripts that are completely in Margaret's own handwriting. There are also three other manuscripts she helped to create. Some of these important writings are kept safe. They are part of the Cwrtmawr Manuscripts collection. This collection is at the National Library of Wales. Her work truly helped preserve Welsh culture and history.