Gruffudd Hiraethog (died 1564) was a 16th-century

Welsh-language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the 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 colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). ...

poet, born in

Llangollen Llangollen () is a town and community (Wales), community, situated on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, in Denbighshire, Wales. Its riverside location forms the edge of the Berwyn range, and the Dee Valley section of the Clwydian Range and Dee Val ...

, north-east

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. Gruffudd was one of the foremost poets of the sixteenth century to use the

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 ...

metre. He was a prolific author and gifted scholar. Though he was member of the medieval guild of poets and a notable upholder of that tradition, he was also closely associated with

William Salesbury William Salesbury, also Salusbury, (c. 1520 – c. 1584) was the leading Welsh language, Welsh scholar of the Renaissance and the principal translator of the 1567 Welsh New Testament. Early life Salesbury was born some time before 1520 (poss ...

, Wales' leading

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

scholar. He is buried in the vault of the Church of St Collen in Llangollen. One of the first Welsh books to be published was Gruffudd's collection of

proverb A proverb (from ) or an adage is a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and are an example of formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phrase ...

s in 1547, ''Oll synnwyr pen Kembero ygyd'' ("The sense of a Welshman's mind collected together").D.J. Bowen (ed.), ''Gwaith Gruffudd Hiraethog'' (Cardiff, 1990). The standard edition of Gruffudd's verse.

References

1564 deaths Welsh-language poets 16th-century Welsh writers 16th-century Welsh male writers People from Llangollen Year of birth unknown {{Wales-writer-stub