Dear Friends,

I wrote this on MosaicMusings.net when I first fell over all these Welsh poetic forms. Forgive an irreverent addition to the procedings in Train .....

There is an infinity of multiplying and bewildering Welsh poetic forms. As a service to poets everywhere I have attempted to back-translate some of these names, and explain a little of the ritual and ancient history behind them.


Englyn Penfyr - this is the most easily understandable form, being close to English (Englyn), and the "Pen" is the symbol of all Welsh poets (also known as "bards"), whose inspiration, when hot, is positively on "fyr".


Gwawdodyn - the equivalent in Welsh of a sort of cross between Lear and Carroll, where the superficial "nonsense" words convey a much deeper inner meaning. A corruption of "Are you going (gwaw) to dodder (dodyn) today ?"

A form much expanded, and expounded upon, and in, by Welsh court jesters, and blatantly plagiarised by every "fool" in Shakespeare's works.


Clogyrnach - the most impenetrable Welsh form, a corruption of "clogged with starch", which is self-explanatory. Also the reason for Offa's d**e, which, contrary to popular belief, was built by the English, to keep the starch out !


Cywydd Llogyrnog - the story-telling, or epic, mode. Early Welsh bards needed to provide a decent night's (or knight's ! ) entertainment. The failure to do so would lead to critical critical appraisal.

If the bard ran out of steam (which had not yet been invented/discovered) or words, before the host and guests were all paralytic and under the table, the 1st "critical" of "critical critical appraisal" came into play, and the bard's performance contract was severed, along with his head.

There is a dispute on the exact meaning of the words, a corruption of "Could you lose the plot", or, "Could you lose the nog" (nog, or noggin = head).


Byr a Thoddaid - undoubtedly the most popular Welsh poetic form, in effect the opposite of the previous Cywydd Llosgyrnog, where approval from the knights and ladies led to plenty of "beer at thyroid", and general celebrations all round.

Thus the term "bard of bards" refers to the amount of beer (bard), consumed by the best bard (poet), amongst much jollity. There was however, one drawback.


In the morning, the bard of bards had the duty of concocting a poetic potion, known as a "hyrofadawg", whose words were supposed to have the magical property of restoring all the previous (k)night's celebrants to total sobriety.

Failure to achieve this, alas, led to further critical critical appraisal. Hence the expression "Tales I lose, heads you win", which survives to this day in a garbled form.


The observant reader will by now have gathered that being a poet in ancient Wales was not a good experience for many. Hence the expression "He's a bard lot".

No Welching to Abet

No hedges here to bet upon
for aye, I’m but a simple pawn.
My eyes but wander all about thy board;
with sword laid down, I quit!

© Daniel J Ricketts 31 Oct 2003

What’s cywydd llosgyrnog?

Can you pronounce this tongue-twist form?
Mouth full of grapes a Welshman’s norm?
How’ll I conform to this gait?
I’d never heard the name before,
so do they write it any more?
Could I adore it or hate?

© Daniel J Ricketts 26 Oct 2003

Thank you, thank you, thank you - my search is over

I've been looking for some good links to Welsh poetry for a while (I have so many gaps in my notes on various poetry forms).

Take care.

alien