Welsh literature

The prose and poetry of Wales, written predominantly in Welsh but also, more recently, in English. Characteristic of Welsh poetry is the bardic system. In the 18th century the eisteddfod (literary festival) movement brought a revival of classical forms.

Ancient literature The chief remains of early Welsh literature are contained in the Four Ancient Books of Wales – the Black Book of Carmarthen, the Book of Taliesin, the Book of Aneirin, and the Red Book of Hergest – anthologies of prose and verse of the 6th–14th centuries. The bardic system ensured the continuance of traditional conventions; most celebrated of the 12th-century bards was Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr (active 1155–1200).

Literature after the English conquest The English conquest of 1282 involved the fall of the princes who supported these bards, but after a period of decline a new school arose in South Wales with a new freedom in form and sentiment, the most celebrated poet in the 14th-century being Dafydd ap Gwilym, and in the next century the classical metrist Dafydd ap Edmwnd (active 1450–1459). With the Reformation, biblical translations were undertaken, and Morgan Llwyd (1619–1659) and Ellis Wynne (1671–1734) wrote religious prose. Popular metres resembling those of England developed – for example, the poems of Huw Morys (1622–1709).

Classical revival Goronwy Owen revived the classical poetic forms in the 18th century, and the eisteddfod (literary festival) movement began: popular measures were used by the hymn writer William Williams Pantycelyn (1717–1791).

Second revival The 19th century saw few notable figures save the novelist Daniel Owen (1836–1895), but the foundation of a Welsh university and the work there of John Morris Jones (1864–1929) produced a 20th-century revival, including T Gwynn Jones, W J Gruffydd (1881–1954), and R Williams Parry (1884–1956). Later writers included the poet J Kitchener Davies (1902–1952), the dramatist and poet Saunders Lewis (1893–1985), and the novelist and short-story writer Kate Roberts (1891–1985). Among writers of the period after World War II are the poets Waldo Williams (1904–1971), Euros Bowen (1904–1988), and Bobi Jones (1929– ), and the novelists Islwyn Ffowc Elis (1924– ), and Jane Edwards (1938– ).

Welsh writers in English Those who have expressed the Welsh spirit in English include the poets Edward Thomas, Vernon Watkins (1906–67), Dylan Thomas, R S Thomas, and Dannie Abse (1923– ), and the novelist Emyr Humphreys (1919– ).