"TO his followers, he was a revolutionary poet to rival the Romantic writers of his day"
Maev
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Camden News - by TOM FOOT
Published: 1 October 2009
The Morganwg stone on Primrose Hill
Park objectors say Welsh hero was a criminal
Danny Abse leaps to poet’s defence
TO his followers, he was a revolutionary poet to rival the Romantic
writers of his day, a Welsh druid leader whose visionary ideas
captured the spirit of the age.
But to the Friends of Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill, Iolo Morganwg
was a liar and an opium addict. The Friends claim he was a “bloody
criminal” undeserving of a permanent memorial stone in the park.
A row has erupted after the park’s guardians objected to a stone
plaque commemorating the life of Morganwg – also known as Edward
Williams – in Primrose Hill.
The plaque, with the inscription “truth against the world”, was laid
in Primrose Hill as a temporary installation during a summer solstice
druid event in June attended by Welsh newsreader Huw Edwards and three
Plaid Cymru MPs.
It marks the historic day in 1792 when Morganwg convened the first
meeting of the Gorsedd of Bards of the Island of Britain. The Welsh
cultural group, which still meets more than two centuries later, is
made up of prominent Welsh figures who have made a distinguished
contribution to the nation’s language and culture.
They regard Morganwg’s Primrose Hill assembly as one of the most
important points in Welsh history.
But Friends chairman Malcolm Kafetz said: “The man in question, Edward
Williams, otherwise known as Iolo Morganwg, had an extraordinary and
interesting but not necessarily praiseworthy life. He had a bookshop,
wrote poems and folk songs and discovered a series of influential
medieval chronicles. It was only after some 100 years that these were
discovered to be forgeries. The Friends do not want monuments on the
Hill, but particularly not this one.
“This chap was bankrupt and a forger. A bloody criminal. This plaque
has just appeared out of nowhere. It is a diabolical cheek.”
Mr Kafetz has rallied the 1,200-strong Friends group with a stinging
editorial in the quarterly newsletter – under the headline “Iolo – Who
He?” – ahead of a decision by the Royal Parks Agency on whether the
stone can stay, expected later this month.
Dannie Abse, a Welsh poet and younger brother of political reformer
Leo Abse, said: “Morganwg was a legendary Welsh poet.
“He did forge poems. But he was a great, great scholar – and he fooled
everybody. I’m not sure if he was a drug addict, but he was certainly
the best poet that went to Cardiff jail.”
He added: “Christopher Marlowe died in a pub brawl – but we celebrate
him don’t we?
“Lord Byron was a womaniser, but he is buried in Westminster
Cathedral. So why not commemorate Iolo on Primrose Hill?”
A spokeswoman for the Royal Parks Agency said a decision on the plaque
is expected by the end of the year.
http://www.thecnj.co.uk/camden/2009/100109/news100109_03.html
Maev
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> He added: “Christopher Marlowe died in a pub brawl – but we celebrate
> him don’t we?
NO, he did NOT.
The home of Eleanor Bull, nee Whitney,
was not a pub,
but the house of someone
descended from a titled family with a castle,
and a member of the family of Blanche Parry,
the Queen's close friend,
and of Catherine Carey,
cousin and close friend of the Queen,
married to another cousin,
Charles Howard, Lord High Admiral
(with a home in Deptford, like Eleanor)
Maev
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Iolo Morganwg
Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg
(Welsh pronunciation: [ˈjolo morˈɡanuɡ]) (10 March 1747 – 18 December
1826),
was an influential Welsh antiquarian, poet, collector, and literary
forger.[1][2] He was widely considered a leading collector and expert
on medieval Welsh literature in his day, but after his death it was
revealed that he had forged a large number of his manuscripts.[3]
Regardless, he had a lasting impact on Welsh culture, seen most
notably in his foundation of the Gorsedd, and the philosophy he
developed in his forgeries had a huge impact on the early neo-druid
movement.
His bardic name is Welsh for "Iolo of Glamorgan" (the county's name is
spelt "Morgannwg" in modern Welsh). Iolo is the diminutive of
"Iorwerth", the Welsh form of "Edward".[2]
Contents
1 Early life
2 Literary career
3 Philosophy
4 Bardic alphabet
5 Legacy
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
Early life
Edward Williams was born at Pennon, Glamorgan, Wales, and was raised
in the village of Flemingston (or "Flimston", being "Treffleming" in
Welsh). He followed his father into a career as a stonemason. In
Glamorgan he took an interest in manuscript collection, and learned to
compose Welsh poetry from poets such as Lewis Hopkin, Rhys Morgan, and
especially Siôn Bradford.[2] In 1773 he moved to London where the
antiquary Owen Jones introduced him to the city's Welsh literary
community. In 1777 he returned to Wales, where he married and tried
his hand at farming, but evidently met with no success. It was during
this time that he produced his first forgeries.
Williams' son, Taliesin, whom he had named after the early medieval
bard Taliesin, later went on to collect his manuscripts.
Literary career
From an early date Williams was concerned with preserving, and
maintaining, the literary and cultural traditions of Wales. To this
end he produced a large number of manuscripts as evidence for his
claims that ancient druidic tradition had survived the Roman conquest,
the conversion of the populace to Christianity, the persecution of the
bards under King Edward I, and other adversities. In his forgeries he
develops an elaborate mystical philosophy which he claimed represented
a direct continuation of ancient druidic practice. Williams' reported
heavy use of laudanum may have been a contributing factor.[2]
Williams first came to public notice in 1789 when he produced
Barddoniaeth Dafydd ab Gwilym, a collection of the poetry of the 14th-
century Dafydd ap Gwilym. Included in this edition was a large number
of previously unknown poems by Dafydd that he claimed to have
discovered; these poems are regarded as Williams' first forgeries.[2]
His success led him to return to London in 1791. There he founded the
Gorsedd, a community of Welsh bards, at a ceremony on 21 June 1792 at
Primrose Hill. He organised the proceedings, which he claimed were
based on ancient druidic rites. In 1794 he published some of his own
poetry, which was later collected in the two-volume Poems, Lyric and
Pastoral. Essentially his only genuine work, it proved quite popular.
[2]
Williams worked with Owen Jones and William Owen Pughe on The Myvyrian
Archaiology of Wales, a three-volume collection of medieval Welsh
literature published between 1801 and 1807.[3] The Myvyrian
Archaiology relied partially on manuscripts in Williams' collection,
some of which included his forgeries. Forged material included a false
Brut chronicle, a book attributed to Saint Cadoc, and poems claimed to
be the work of Dafydd ap Gwilym and Iolo Goch. The second volume,
which collected the Welsh Triads, contained an additional "third
series" of forged triads, as well as Williams' alterations to the
authentic ones.[2]
After Williams' death some of his collection was compiled into The
Iolo Manuscripts by his son, Taliesin Williams.[2] His papers were
used by many later scholars and translators, and were used for
reference by Lady Charlotte Guest as she was translating the prose
collection Mabinogion.
Guest did not, however, rely on William's editions of the tales
themselves except for Hanes Taliesin.[2] Later still, more of
Williams' forgeries were published in the text known as Barddas.[4]
This work, published in two volumes in 1862 and 1874, was claimed to
have been a translation of works by Llywelyn Siôn detailing the
history of the Welsh bardic system from its ancient origins to the
present day. Though it contains nothing of authentic druidic lore, it
is the fullest account of the mystical cosmology Williams developed.
[4]
Other works by Williams include the "Druid's Prayer", still used by
the Gorsedd and by neo-druid groups; a treatise on Welsh metrics
called Cyfrinach Beirdd Ynys Prydain ("The Mystery of the Bards of the
Isle of Britain"), published posthumously in 1828; and a series of
hymns published as Salmau yr Eglwys yn yr Anialwch in 1812.
Philosophy
Iolo's philosophy represented a fusion of Christian and Arthurian
influences, a romanticism comparable to that of William Blake and the
Scottish poet and forger James MacPherson, the revived antiquarian
enthusiasm for all things "Celtic", and such elements of bardic
heritage as had genuinely survived among Welsh-language poets. Part of
his aim was to assert the Welshness of South Wales, particularly his
home region of Glamorgan, against the prevalent idea that North Wales
represented the purest survival of Welsh traditions. The metaphysics
elucidated in his forgeries and other works proposed a theory of
concentric "rings of existence", proceeding outward from Annwn (the
Otherworld) through Abred and Ceugant to Gwynfyd (purity or Heaven).
Bardic alphabet
The Bardic Alphabet Iolo Morganwg developed his own runic system, in
Welsh Coelbren y Beirdd ("the Bardic Alphabet"). It was said to be the
alphabetic system of the ancient druids. It consisted of 20 main
letters, and 20 others "to represent elongated vowels and
mutations."[5] These symbols were to be represented in a wooden frame,
known as peithynen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iolo_Morganwg
lackpurity
MM:
Thanks, Maev. We celebrate Marlowe because he was as great as a man
could be. Where, or events, surrounding the deaths of great men, are
of no consequence. For example, one of those crucified with Jesus had
faith in him, and Jesus said he would be with him in the Kingdom of
Heaven, when the day was done. It is only Great Men who can forgive
our many sins.
Michael Martin