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Swrdwal Hen
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Barddoniaeth a rhyddiaith,

Forty-four loose leaves (many imperfect and stained) and a fragment containing miscellaneous material in a number of ?late sixteenth and seventeenth century hands. The contents include notes in English and Welsh on palmistry; transcripts, largely incomplete, of Welsh poems in strict and free metres by ? Owen Jones, Griff. ap Dd. Fychan, ? Willi[am] ffylyp, Dd. Llwyd ?Lln. ap Owain, Robin Ddu o Fôn, David Lloyd ap Lln. ap Griffith, Thomas Price, Owen Gwynedd, Wiliam Llyn, Sowdwal, Siôn Keri, Siôn Tudur, Tomas Brydydd, Doctor Siôn Kent, Siôn ap Howel, Gruffudd Hiraethoc, Rys Kain, and Edw[a]rt Maelor; transcripts of two 'englynion', one in English and one in Latin; etc. The inscription 'Hwn o Lyfr Meyryg Dafydd, July 1821' (in the hand of Edward Williams) appears in the volume.

Barddoniaeth,

An imperfect manuscript consisting of thirty folios of uniform size and two smaller leaves, with the two halves of ? the lower cover of an early nineteenth century periodical or part publication, which at one time seems to have served as a protective covering, bound in at the beginning. A considerable part of the original manuscript appears to have been lost as the volume was described by the Reverend John Williams ('Ab Ithel'), circa 1856, as containing 'about 100 pages' (see L. James: Hopkiniaid Morganwg . . . (Bangor, 1909), p. 91). The former protective cover bears the inscription 'Llyfr Llanfihangel Iorwerth. Cywyddau amrafaelion. Siôn Cent hyd Dafydd Hopcin o'r Coetty. Englynion Eiry Mynydd, &c.', in the hand of Edward Williams ('Iolo Morganwg'), and the contents consist of transcripts of Welsh verse mainly in strict metre. Dafydd Hopkin of Coety, co. Glamorgan is sometimes named as the copyist (see L. James: op. cit., p. 91; TLLM, tt. 229, 267; and IMCY, t. 139). The poems include 'cywyddau' and 'englynion' by Thomas Prys, Ieuan Tew Brydydd, Dafydd Hopkin (1734), Ieuan Brechfa, Lewis Morganwg, Iorwerth Fynglwyd, Dafydd ap Gwilym, Rys Dynfwal (sic), Rhys ab Morys, ?Mredydd ap Rees, Swrdwal Hen, Huw Dafydd Probert, Siôn Tudur, Owain Gwynedd, Gwilim ap Ieuan Hen, Dafydd ap Edmwnt, Daio Lliwiell, Ieuan Tew Brydydd Ifangc, Huw Lewis, Gruffydd ab Ifan ab Llewelyn Fychan, Wiliam Cynwal, Morus ab Hywel ab Tudur, Siôn Cent, Hywel ab D'd ab Ieuan ab Rhys, Llywelyn Goch, Gruffydd Dafydd Fychan, Ieuan ab Hywel Swrdwal, Bleddyn Fardd, and Dafydd Llwyd Fach, a series of pseudo- gnomic poems with each stanza commencing with the words 'Eira mynydd' some of which are attributed to Llywarch Hen and Mabclaf ab Llywarch, and poems attributed to Taliesin and Aneurin. There are marginal notes by Edward Williams and his son Taliesin Williams.

Hopkin, Dafydd, fl. early 18 cent.

Miscellanea,

A composite volume containing miscellaneous notes, jottings, etc., of an extremely varied nature in the hand of Edward Williams ('Iolo Morganwg'). Included, pagination in brackets, are small groups or short lists of Welsh words sometimes with English definitions and sometimes with illustrative extracts from the works of Welsh poets, grammatical notes, etc. (41-2, 51, 55, 63-4, 72, 85-6, 89-93 99, 163-6, 168, 171-3, 178); transcripts of 'englynion' attributed to Iorwerth ab Sierlyn 'uwch benn Bedd Siôn Ceiriog . . . 1792' (54) and Huw Llwyd Cynfel (187); extracts consisting of single stanzas, couplets, or even single lines from the works of the Welsh poets D[afydd] ab G[wily]m, W[ilia]m Cynwal, Gruff. ab . . . ab Tudur, Lewys Morys, Edm[wn]d Prys, and [Edward Williams] 'Iolo Morganwg' (38-41), Gwalchmai (48), Wm. Midd[leto]n (49), Thos. Prys of P[las] Iolyn (50), Howel ab Owain Gwynedd (52-3), Iolo Goch or Gruff. Llwyd ab Daf ab Einion (63), Llen. Moel y Pantri, Tudur Aled, and Guttun Owain (to illustrate specific words) (85-6), ? Thos. Redwood (93), and Teilo Sant (95); transcripts of English verse including anonymous stanzas (41), four stanzas with the superscription 'Question in Arithmetic from the Welsh' ( 87), an epitaph by [Edward Williams] 'Iolo Morganwg' (95), and a stanza again by 'Iolo Morganwg' (187); miscellaneous items including a list of six principles headed 'requisites of Language by Ed. Wms.' (17), notes relating to bardic ceremonial (20), two bardic triads (38), notes relating to the division of a community into four classes, viz. grand jurors, jurors, private citizens, and subjects, and their roles in government (45- 6), notes relating to mottoes and titles of bardic 'gorseddau' (56-9), a note on metempsychosis (60), a list of twenty books and authors with a note written sideways in the margin 'Books and Authorities for the History of the Bards' (73), brief notes referring to old inscriptions [in Britain], the features called Caer y Vynwent and Maen y chwyfan in co. Flint, the administration of the Isle of Man, and the Picts (77-80), a brief note relating to medieval North Wales prose (86), notes headed 'August 30th 1808' containing brief topographical, agricultural, etc. memoranda referring to places called Bryn y Menyn [on] Coettre Hen Estate, Cefn Hirgoed, and Hirwaen [? co. Glamorgan] (90), a brief note relating to 'chware cnau mewn Ilaw Morganwg' (93), lists of subject or chapter headings for a ? four - volume work to be divided into 'Volume of Welsh Tracts Translated', 'Historical Volume', 'Vol. III. Barddoniaeth amrafaelion oesoedd a Thestunau', and 'Volume IV' (no headings but to contain sections on, or relating to, 'Meddygon Myddfai', 'Cato Gymraeg', 'Trin Perllanau', 'Hen arddoriaeth', etc.) (94), a brief note on influences on North Walian and South Walian poetry (95), a note on the number of letters in the ? Welsh alphabet at various times (96), a Welsh bardic triad (96), a short list of Welsh proverbs (97), a note referring to the state of the Welsh language and the language of the Normans at the time of the Norman settlement in Wales, the adoption of Welsh by Norman authors such as, allegedly, Robert, earl of Glo[uceste]r, Walter de Mapes, Robert, duke of Normandy, etc. (98), a list of various taxes or fees, e.g. churchwardens' rate, fees for notices to quit, charges for parish register certificates, etc. (100), brief notes relating to the functions of the 'Penrhaith, the most ancient Title of sovereignty in Britain, i.e. Chief or Foreman of the Rhaith or Senatorial Assembly', the lesser officials called 'pencenedl', the assembly called 'Rhaith Gwlad', etc., references to the allegedly false views of the seventeenth century antiquary Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt on these matters in his book British Antiquities Revived, and more general remarks on 'monokingism' and what is termed 'natural Government, not hereditary, not elective' (101-07), a brief note relating to 'corfannau' ( 110), notes referring to scripts of ancient inscriptions headed 'Saxon Characters' (111-112), a note relating to 'Englynion byrron' and 'Englynion hirion' in Glamorgan and the defining of certain types of 'odlau' by . . . Swrdwal (113), a note relating to the word 'rhath' and to the village and church of Rhath near Cardiff (120), statistics relating to the religions of the world 'From Malte Brun's System of Universal Geography, Paris, 1816' (125), a list of various bardic 'cylymau' headed 'Cwlm Eisteddfod, cwlm gorsedd' (166), a note headed 'Sapiential and Satyrical Triades' (167), a list of ten subject or chapter headings under the general superscription 'Collections for a History of the Ancient British Bards and Druids' (169-70), three lists of Welsh historico-literary material and / or authors under the headings (1) 'Oldest Documents', (2) 'Northwalian Grammars', and (3) 'Southwalian recent' (170), a note containing generalisations concerning the Welsh language (179-80), and other miscellanea; extracts from a variety of printed sources including [Henry Home] Lord Kaimes: Elements of Criticism, [John] Lempriere: A Classical Dictionary, [Paul Henri] Mallet: Northern Antiquities, Monthly Review, Month[ly] Mag[axine], The Edinburgh Review, The Critical Review, Courier, and Thomas Langley: [An Abridgement of the Notable Worke of] Polidore Vergile; etc.