iain williams's Page

The Old North, still alive as memory even in the fourteenth century

I have been redirected recently to return to the poetry of Ap Gwilym, the Welsh poet that stands within a European context as much as in a Cymric one. (I am thinking of the work of Chotzen). My reference is to the first few poems of Dafydd Ap Gwilym of the collection “Gwaith Dafydd ap Gwilym” by Thomas Parry.
This places the poet in the traditional fabric of the concerns of 12th and 13th century bardic verse. Among these poems… Continue

Who was Taliesin?

Two Taliesins emerge within the corpus of modern scholarship. These need to be distinguished carefully.
There is the Taliesin who as a figure appears in the medieval welsh tale Chwedl Taliesin, a shapeshifter that Taliesin .
But it is the poet who is a professional poet that i am referring to, he who praised his patron, Urien, so prodigiuosly.


He lived in the sixthe century and is believed to have originated in Powys.His sphere of operation is quite vast but it is a moot que… Continue

Dic Jones.docx

A Cautionary Tale

The young man hesitated before taking the challenge that Gwyn had offered. The sound of the flute had been moving and spoke of something that touched him but something he could not give full name to. Gwyn sat on his mound, his green silks about him, making his rock a special place.

- Here the veil is torn and one can hear such music for ever… he said


The young man stepped into the mist and he danced, oh how he danced, until he felt dizzy with the sound. And they feasted; wi… Continue

Pantycelyn was one of the main players in the Welsh Methodist movement.
A hymn writer….but that is history.
His words ring in my head, a solid reminder, a nod towards recollection to one who lives in a Post Christian world, as I do.
I do not know if the poetry inspired the music of the hymns or whether it is the other way round.
I only know that through redirection to them I seem to have a recollection of a more personal Christ.
About joy Williams is emphatic….it will come with the attainment of… Continue