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Synonyms:
Cym: The Llywarch the Old Cycle
The Canu Llywarch Hen represents a cycle of Middle Cymric poems composed somewhere around 850 CE and centred around the kingdom of Powys. They relate to events in the seventh century, but confusions within the text as to the order of events indicate that the poems were actually composed at a much later date. The poems are generally broken into two cycles, the first relating to Llywarch Hen himself. The second cycle is generaly known as the Canu Heledd (the songs or the cycle of Heledd). Heledd is a woman, sister of Cynddylan who laments her fallen brother.
The majority of the poems presented here are contained in the Llyfr Coch Hergest (and in its counterpart, once part of the Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch known as the Peniarth 6 MS). However, close examination of various other ancient texts reveal fragments of poems that relate to the matter of Llywarch Hen. A good example being some of the Englynion y Beddau (Stanzas of the Graves) from the Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin. There are also poems in later Elizabethan copies of manuscripts that maintain ancient orthography and indicate the existence of manuscripts now lost to us and which have been collected here. Amongst the most interesting of these is a poem originating in the late 15th century Mostyn MS 131 (poem X above) which gives an Englyn to the steed of Gwên, son of Llywarch (and which is attributed to Llywarch). But what is most interesting about this verse is that it has a prose preamble which sets the scene for the poem itself. Now, the prose is written in Elizabethan Welsh but the orthography of the verse itself is much older. In early Welsh texts this is actually a well-known phenomenon and the same interspersion of prose and Englyn is found in the Mabinogi of Math fab Mathonwy.
This form of tale-telling with ancient poetry interspersed in a prose tale harkens back to the days of the cyfarwydd. This name refers to a class of poets and story-tellers and is derived from the word cyfarwyddyd which literally means 'a tale' or a 'legend'. These could either have been entirely of prose or a mixture of prose and poetry (the most striking example of the latter form being the tale of Trystan ac Essyllt and even the Ystoria Taliesin. Thus many of the ancient tales were mixtures of prose and poetry together. The Cymric englyn is a very strict opetic form with consonantal or rhyming correspondences between each line of verse as well as between the lines in the triads themselves. This makes it very difficult to change a verse without losing their structure. As a result, as the date of composition of these verses bacame ever more distant they were written down and recorded as an aide memoire but because the prose component of the tale was simply an outline that could be embellished, changed and updated with changes in language (and vellum was expensive) these were hardly recorded. After all, everyone knenw the basic outline of these tales! As a result the englynion became divorced from the prose explaining the tales relating to them and over the centuries they became lost to us with only the skeletons represented by the englynion remaining. This, undoubtedly, is what happened to the Canu Llywarch Hen and the Canu Heledd with the poetry becoming divorced from the tales about the heroes represented in them.
As detailed in my page on Llywarch Hen he was a hero of the 'Old North' and a cousin of the great chieftain Urien Rheged and it seems that at the time Urien ruled North Rheged, Llywarch ruled Southern Rheged (though whether this was a single cantref or a more extensive realm is a matter of conjecture). From the poem Dym kywardyat unhwch (also known as 'The Death of Urien') it seems that Llywarch was present at Urien's assassination and it was left to him to recover Urien's head. In a similar process to that which ocurred for other such heroes Llywarch was assimilated into and re-located to the emergin nation of the Cymry. His name became especially linked with Powys and late tradition associated him with Llanfor in Meirionydd where a mound was known as Pabell Llywarch (Llywarch's Tent). Further south, a Clwadd Llywarch Hen (Llywarch Hen's Dyke) was known near Llyn Syfaddon. Originally the Hen element in Llywarch's name may have been applied to him as a man of the Old North, however the epithet probably influenced the cycles of poems about him as he became the archetypal veteran, the querulous old man attempting to control the youthful exuberance of his sons.
He was present at the last days of the kingdom of Rheged and there all his sons (24 according to the poems) were slain. Llywarch became disposessed of his lands and migrated like most of his peoples to Wales where he wandered the lands. (This probably explains the allusion to him in Triad 76 of the Trioedd Ynys Prydein as one of the 'Three Wanderers of Arthur's Court'. In gleaning the poems and placing them in a narrative I have, for the most part, followed the work of Ifor Williams in his Canu Llywarch Hen though I have changed the order of some of the poems to place them in better chronological orgder (thus the cycle begins now with the Dym kywardyat unhwch (Unhwch of Dunawd and Urien) which speaks of the Old North before continuing with the traditional cycle as it's found in the Llyfr Coch. I also include the opem Goreiste ar vrynn aeruyn uym bryt (Sitting High Upon a Hill, battling my aspect) which is the lament of a leper. This has been assimilated into the cycle of Llywarch Hen, but it probably doesn't really belong to the corpus of Llywarch Poetry. In addition to the traditional poems I also include an englyn that relates to one of Llywarch's sons, Kyni and which somehow found its way into the Llyfr Aneirin. In addition I include Triads 8 and 76 (the non-arthurian triads) of the Trioedd Ynys Prydein. I'm hoping that this this represents the most complete cycle of Llywarch poetry that's been collected together.
It should be noted that though in the past it was believed that the Canu Llywarch was actually composed by Llywarch, it is now fairly evident that he is simply the main protagonist in this cycle of poems. The author of the poems is one of the foremost of the Cynfeirdd (early bards), though his identity remains unknown.
We now move to the Canu Heledd, a sequence of poems that describe the fall of the Brythonic Cynwydion dynasty of what is now Midland England. These poems are attributed to Heledd who is the sister of (and who laments the passing of) her brother, Cynddylan and who weeps for her brother, his hall and her homeland which has fallen to the Saxons of Mercia. Included here also is the Marwnad Cynddylan a poem known from the Panton 14 MS of Evan Evans (1758) and the British Museum 54 (Addl. 14867) MS (c. 1770) both of which are based on an MS copied by Langford in 1573. Though a recent copy the orthography is ancient and certainly ante-dates the earliest known source manuscript. The form of the Canu Heledd is very similar to that of the Canu Llywarch Hen and both represent poetry probably created in and kept alive by the cyfarwyddyd of Powys. As a result, though they deal with different subject matter it is apposite that they are treated together.
It has recently come to my attention that two other poems refer to Llywarch Hen and Heledd. These are in the late collection known as the Englynion y Clyweit (from the Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies iii, 1927–1928, pp 4–21) and represent englyns created during the late twelfth century as an aide memoire in the recalling of proverbs. There is one verse here (28) to Heledd and one (34) to Llywarch Hen.
The entire cycle of poems can therefore be listed thus:
| Cymraeg Canol | Cymraeg Cyfoes | English | |
| Cynnhwysiawn | Cynnwys | Contents | |
|
Canu Llywarch Hen |
|||
|
Llyfr Coch Hergest |
|||
| I. | Dym kywardyat unhwch | Unhwch o Ddunawd ac Urien | Unhwch of Dunawd and Urien |
|
Kynn bum kein vaglawc bum (part II) |
|||
| II. | II. Gwen ap Llywarch a'i Dat | II. Gwên ap Llywarch a'i Dad | II. Gwên son of Llywarch and his Father |
|
Llyfr Aneirin |
|||
| III. | I. Englyn Kyni | Englyn Cyni | Cyni's Englyn |
|
Llyfr Coch Hergest |
|||
|
Kynn bum kein vaglawc bum (part I) |
|||
| IV. | I. Kan yr Henwr | I. Cân yr Henwr | I. Song of the Old Man |
| V | Mae nwynn tra vum yth oet | Maenwynn pan oeddwn dy oed... | "Maenwynn, When I was Your Age..." |
|
British Museum 54 Addl 14867 |
|||
| VI | Gwahod Llywarch i Lanfawr | Gwahodd Llywarch i Lanfawr | The inviting of Llywarch to Llanfawr |
|
Llyfr Coch Hergest |
|||
| VII. | Goreiste ar vrynn aeruyn uym bryt | Eistedd ar gopa bryn yn ymladd fy mhryd | "Sitting High Upon a Hill, battling my aspect" |
|
Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin |
|||
| VIII. | Mechyd ap Llywarch | Mechydd ap Llywarch | Mechydd son of Llywarch |
| IX. | Enweu Meibon Llywarch Hen | Enwau Meibion Llywarch Hen | The Names of Llywarch Hen's Sons |
|
Mostyn 131 |
|||
| X. | March Gwen | March Gwên | Gwên's Steed |
|
British Museum 32 Addl 31055 |
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| XI. | Am Arwdir Evionydd | Am Dir Garw Eifionydd | For Eifionydd's Rough Land |
| XII. | Am Ei Blant | Am ei Blant | About His Children |
|
Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin |
|||
| XII. | Englynion Beddau, Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin | Englynion Beddau, Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin | Stanzas of the Graves, Black Book of Carmarthen |
|
Peniarth 98 |
|||
| XIII. | Englynion Beddau, Peniarth 98 | Englynion Beddau, Peniarth 98 | Stanzas of the Graves, Peniarth 98 |
|
Peniarth 47 |
|||
| XIV. | Trioedd Peniarth 47 | Trioedd Peniarth 47 | Peniarth 47 Triad |
|
Llyfr Coch Hergest |
|||
| XV. | Canu Heledd | Canu Heledd | The Heledd Cycle |
|
British Museum 54 Addl 14867 |
|||
| XVI. | Canu Heledd: Chwiorydd Heledd | Canu Heledd: Chwiorydd Heledd | The Heledd Cycle: Heledd's Sisters |
|
British Museum 54 Addl 14867 |
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| XVII. | Marwnad Cynddylan | Marwnad Cynddylan | The Elegy of Cynddylan |
|
Bulletion of the Board of Celtic Studies |
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| XVII. | Englynion y Clyweit | Englynion a Glywyd | Englyns that were Heard |
