databas cerddi guto'r glyn
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Dafydd ab Edmwnd, fl. c.1450–97

The poet Dafydd ab Edmwnd is satirized in three poems attributed to Guto (poems 66, 67 and 68). In the first he is a mangy fox hunted by a troupe of poets and in the second he is satirized as a cowardly weakling. The third poem is a satire on Dafydd’s penis in response to a poem composed by Dafydd in which he satirized Guto’s swollen testicles (poem 68a). Furthermore, Dafydd composed another short satirical poem for Guto (poem 68b). Llywelyn ap Gutun refers to the discord between the two in his satire on Guto (65a.47n). There are 77 poems ascribed to Dafydd ab Edmwnd in DE. Nearly two-thirds of his poems, many of them beautiful in their descriptions and brilliant in technique, are addressed to women, but there is also some eulogy, elegy, petition and satire.

Lineage
The genealogical table below is based on WG1 ‘Edwin’ 11, ‘Hanmer’ 1, 2, ‘Trahaearn Goch of Llŷn’ 2, DNB Online s.n. Dafydd ab Edmwnd, and on information in the hand of John Davies of Rhiwlas (1652–c.1718) in LlGC 8497B 66r–7r. The names of Guto’s patrons are underlined.

stema
Lineage of Dafydd ab Edmwnd

It is only Enid Roberts (see GMRh 3) who identifies Dafydd’s mother and describes her as a second cousin of his bardic teacher, Maredudd ap Rhys (according to Bartrum’s genealogies, Madog Llwyd did not have a son named Dafydd). As is shown, Dafydd’s father, Edward, was a second-cousin of Siôn Hanmer of Halghton and Llai. If the information in LlGC 8497B is correct, Dafydd was a brother-in-law of Sieffrai Cyffin of Oswestry.

His career
Dafydd was a brilliant and very important poet as well as a wealthy landowner. He hailed from the parish of Hanmer in Maelor Saesneg and he probably also lived at Pwllgwepra in Northop in Flintshire, his mother’s home district. He owned Yr Owredd, the main home of the Hanmer family, and much other land in Hanmer. His bardic teacher was Maredudd ap Rhys (see GMRh), and Dafydd, in turn, was teacher to two other brilliant poets, Gutun Owain and Tudur Aled, both of whom composed elegies in his memory. Dafydd was also a very important figure in the bardic tradition on account of his revision, which henceforth remained canonical (despite some opposition), of the twenty-four metres at an eisteddfod held at Carmarthen in 1451 in the presence of Gruffudd ap Nicolas, grandfather of Sir Rhys ap Thomas of Abermarlais. See further DE; DWB Online s.n. Dafydd ab Edmwnd; DNB Online s.n. Dafydd ab Edmwnd.


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