Wiliam Llŷn facts for kids

Wiliam Llŷn (born around 1535 – died 1580) was a famous Welsh poet. He wrote mostly sad poems called elegies and praise poems. Many people think he was the last great poet of the old Welsh bardic tradition. He is often called Wales's best writer of elegies. Two of his poems are even in a very important book called The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse.

Life

Wiliam Llŷn was born around 1534 or 1535. We know this because another poet, Rhys Cain, said Wiliam was not yet 46 when he died. He probably came from the Llŷn Peninsula in Wales, which is why he and his brother, Huw Llŷn, chose that name.

Wiliam learned how to write poetry from several teachers, including a bard named Gruffudd Hiraethog. Gruffudd once said, "There is nothing that Wiliam Llŷn does not know," showing how talented he was. In 1567, Wiliam won a special silver chair at an eisteddfod (a Welsh festival of music and poetry) for being the best poet.

By 1569, Wiliam was living in Oswestry with his wife, Elizabeth. Oswestry is in England, but it was still a very Welsh-speaking town back then. Wiliam was one of the last poets who wrote for wealthy Welsh families. He found people to support his work all over Wales, even far away in Brecknockshire and Anglesey. Most of his supporters lived closer, in places like Merionethshire, Montgomeryshire, Denbighshire, and Caernarfonshire.

Some of Wiliam's students became famous poets themselves, including Morris Kyffin and Siôn Phylip. Besides writing poems, Wiliam also studied family histories (genealogy) and coats of arms (heraldry). His old writings contain a lot of valuable information about Welsh families. Wiliam Llŷn died in Oswestry on August 31, 1580, and was buried there.

Poems

About 25 awdlau and 150 cywyddau (these are different types of Welsh poems) written by Wiliam Llŷn still exist today. Most of them are either praise poems or elegies (sad poems about someone who has died). He wrote only one religious poem and one love poem in these styles.

He also wrote about a hundred englynion, which are shorter poems. In these, he wrote more about religion and love. His elegies are considered his best work. They show how deeply he felt personal loss and how he understood that everyone faces their own destiny.

Wiliam Llŷn sometimes wrote his elegies as if he was talking to the person who had died. This idea came from an older poem called "Lament for Lleucu Llwyd" by Llywelyn Goch ap Meurig Hen. Wiliam's elegies for his teacher, Gruffudd Hiraethog, and other poets like Owain ap Gwilym, are thought to be some of the best Welsh poems of their kind.

Even though his poems followed old traditions, Wiliam also showed signs of new ideas. He knew about ancient Greek poetry and might have believed in Stoicism (a way of thinking about life). These were new ideas from the Renaissance period. He also used many English words in his poems, which was becoming more common.

Evaluation

Experts in Welsh literature have always thought Wiliam Llŷn was an amazing poet, especially when it came to writing elegies. He has even been called "the supreme elegist in the whole history of Welsh poetry."

In the 1800s, a writer named Robert Williams said that Wiliam "excelled all the bards of his time in sublimity of thought, and poetic fire." This means Wiliam had deep ideas and wrote with great passion. Daniel Lleufer Thomas wrote that Wiliam is "generally considered the greatest Welsh poet in the period between Dafydd ab Gwilym and Goronwy Owen." Sir John Edward Lloyd called him "one of the shining stars of Welsh poesy" in 1911.

According to Gruffydd Aled Williams, Wiliam Llŷn was one of the only professional bards from the 1500s who could compare to the very best poets from earlier times in the Middle Ages.