Ystyrir Huw Morys o Bontymeibion yn Nyffryn Ceiriog y mwyaf o feirdd yr ail ganrif ar bymtheg, cyfnod o newid mawr ym myd barddoniaeth Gymraeg. Roedd yn feistr ar ddulliau traddodiadol o ganu ar fesurau’r cywydd a’r englyn, ond roedd yn arloeswr mawr hefyd ar yr hyn a elwir heddiw’n ganu caeth newydd, sef cerddi ar alawon poblogaidd sy’n llawn cynganeddu dyfeisgar.
Hen lanc oedd Huw ac, o’i gartref ym Mhontymeibion – lle roedd yn byw gyda’i frawd Siôn – ymwelai â thai’r tlodion a’r cyfoethogion fel ei gilydd ar hyd a lled dyffrynnoedd Ceiriog, Dyfrdwy a Thanad. Ni waeth beth yr hoffai ei noddwyr ei wneud – codi tŷ, cael dillad newydd, coffáu’r meirw, dathlu priodas – gallai Huw ateb y galw mewn cerddi llawn hwyl, gwreiddioldeb ac argyhoeddiad. Roedd yn frenhinwr di-ildio ac yn Gristion o arddeliad a fu’n warden yn Eglwys Llansilin, lle claddwyd ef yn 1709.
Mae ymhell dros bedwar cant o'i gerddi wedi goroesi, yn cynnwys carolau haf a phlygain, cerddi gofyn a diolch, cywyddau mawl a marwnad, cerddi cysur ac englynion dirifedi – a’r cyfan yn nhafodiaith gyfoethog y dyffryn lle’i magwyd.
Hen lanc oedd Huw ac, o’i gartref ym Mhontymeibion – lle roedd yn byw gyda’i frawd Siôn – ymwelai â thai’r tlodion a’r cyfoethogion fel ei gilydd ar hyd a lled dyffrynnoedd Ceiriog, Dyfrdwy a Thanad. Ni waeth beth yr hoffai ei noddwyr ei wneud – codi tŷ, cael dillad newydd, coffáu’r meirw, dathlu priodas – gallai Huw ateb y galw mewn cerddi llawn hwyl, gwreiddioldeb ac argyhoeddiad. Roedd yn frenhinwr di-ildio ac yn Gristion o arddeliad a fu’n warden yn Eglwys Llansilin, lle claddwyd ef yn 1709.
Mae ymhell dros bedwar cant o'i gerddi wedi goroesi, yn cynnwys carolau haf a phlygain, cerddi gofyn a diolch, cywyddau mawl a marwnad, cerddi cysur ac englynion dirifedi – a’r cyfan yn nhafodiaith gyfoethog y dyffryn lle’i magwyd.
Huw Morys of Pontymeibion in the Ceiriog Valley is considered the greatest Welsh poet of the seventeenth century, a period of great change in Welsh poetry. He was a master of traditional poetry on the cywydd and the englyn metres, but he was also a great pioneer of a new method of composing poems on popular tunes that are full of inventive cynghanedd.
From his home in Pontymeibion, where Huw – who never married – lived with his brother Siôn, he visited the houses of the poor and the rich alike all over the valleys of Ceiriog, Dee and Tanad. No matter what his patrons would like to do – build a house, acquire new clothes, commemorate the dead, celebrate a wedding – Huw could help out with poems full of fun, originality, and conviction. He was an unrelenting royalist and a professed Christian who was for a time a warden at Llansilin Church, where he was buried in 1709.
Well over four hundred of his poems have survived, including summer and matin carols, poems of request and thanks, elegies, poems of comfort and innumerable englynion – and all in the rich dialect of the Ceiriog Valley.
From his home in Pontymeibion, where Huw – who never married – lived with his brother Siôn, he visited the houses of the poor and the rich alike all over the valleys of Ceiriog, Dee and Tanad. No matter what his patrons would like to do – build a house, acquire new clothes, commemorate the dead, celebrate a wedding – Huw could help out with poems full of fun, originality, and conviction. He was an unrelenting royalist and a professed Christian who was for a time a warden at Llansilin Church, where he was buried in 1709.
Well over four hundred of his poems have survived, including summer and matin carols, poems of request and thanks, elegies, poems of comfort and innumerable englynion – and all in the rich dialect of the Ceiriog Valley.
Criw ar daith gerdded o gartref Huw ym Mhontymeibion i Lansilin, Mai 2022