''Cerdd dafod'' (literally "tongue craft") is the Welsh tradition of creating verse or poetry to a strict

metre The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

in the

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic languages, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales by about 18% of the population, by some in England, and in (the Welsh c ...

History

The history of ''cerdd dafod'' can be traced to 6th-century Welsh poets such as

Aneirin Aneirin (), also rendered as Aneurin or Neirin and Aneurin Gwawdrydd, was an early Medieval Brythonic war poet who lived during the 6th century. He is believed to have been a bard or court poet in one of the Cumbric kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd ...

and

Taliesin Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Britons (Celtic people), Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the ''Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to ...

, but is probably much older. Studies also suggest that features of this form of poetry are comparable to the ancient Irish versifications and therefore point to an older shared

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

inheritance. The composition of ''cerdd dafod'' requires strict observance of the rules of ''

cynghanedd In Welsh-language poetry, ''cynghanedd'' (, literally "harmony") is the basic concept of sound-arrangement within one line, using Stress (linguistics), stress, alliteration and rhyme. The various forms of ''cynghanedd'' show up in the definitions ...

'': an intricate system of sound arrangement based on stress,

alliteration Alliteration is the repetition of syllable-initial consonant sounds between nearby words, or of syllable-initial vowels if the syllables in question do not start with a consonant. It is often used as a literary device. A common example is " Pe ...

, and internal

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...

within each line. One of the earliest texts on the subject is credited to Einion Offeiriad (fl c. 1320–c. 1349) a bard considered to have been under the patronage of Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd, a powerful nobleman of south-west Wales. In it, he lists 24 canonical metres used for all poems in the writing of ''cerdd dafod''. This was later revised by Dafydd ab Edmwnd who, at an eisteddfod held at

Carmarthen Carmarthen (, ; , 'Merlin's fort' or possibly 'Sea-town fort') is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community (Wales), community in Wales, lying on the River Towy north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. At the 2021 United Kingdom cen ...

around 1450, changed two of Einion's metres to two more complicated versions of his own. These changes were adopted by future competitions as the preferred canon. In 1925 the Celtic linguist Sir John Morris-Jones published ''Cerdd Dafod'', an in-depth study of the traditional metres of the ''cynghanedd'' and a text now seen as the definitive work on the topic.Davies (2008), p. 574 This was brought about after his desire to see a return to traditional poetry and use of strict metre in ''eistedfoddau''. The end of the 20th century saw a renaissance in ''cerdd dafod'', especially in the metres known as '' englyn'' and ''

cywydd The cywydd (; plural ) is one of the most important metrical forms in traditional Welsh poetry ( cerdd dafod). There are a variety of forms of the cywydd, but the word on its own is generally used to refer to the ("long-lined couplet") as it is ...

'', attributed to the poet Alan Llwyd.

Notes

Bibliography

* {{Western medieval lyric forms Welsh poetry Medieval Welsh literature Welsh-language literature Western medieval lyric forms Poetic rhythm