Professor Thomas Gwynn Jones
C.B.E.
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
(10 October 1871 – 7 March 1949), more widely known as T. Gwynn Jones, was a leading
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
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* Welsh language, spoken in Wales
* Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales
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poet, scholar, literary critic, novelist, translator, and journalist who did important work in
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, of or about Wales
* Welsh language, spoken in Wales
* Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales
Places
* Welsh, Arkansas, U.S.
* Welsh, Louisiana, U.S.
* Welsh, Ohio, U.S.
* Welsh Basin, during t ...
literature, Welsh education, and the study of Welsh folk tales in the first half of the twentieth century.
He was also an accomplished translator into Welsh of works from English, German, Greek, and Irish.
Personal life
Thomas Jones was born at Y Gwyndy Uchaf in
Betws-yn-Rhos
is a village and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales.
Betws yn Rhos is located about inland between the coastal towns of Abergele and Colwyn Bay. Until 1974, it was part of Denbighshire, but subsequent local government reorganisations s ...
,
Denbighshire
Denbighshire ( ; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, Flintshire to the east, Wrexham to the southeast, Powys to the south, and Gwynedd and Conwy to the west. Rhyl is the largest town, and Ruthi ...
,
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 ...
, the eldest son of Isaac Jones and Jane Roberts. He was educated in
Denbigh
Denbigh ( ; ) is a market town and a community (Wales), community in Denbighshire, Wales. It was the original county town of the Denbighshire (historic), historic county of Denbighshire created in 1536. Denbigh's Welsh name () translates to ...
and
Abergele
Abergele (; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community, situated on the north coast of Wales between the holiday resorts of Colwyn Bay and Rhyl, in Conwy County Borough. It lies within the historic counties of Wales, historic county b ...
. In 1899 he married Margaret Jane Davies, the daughter of Thomas Davies of Denbigh, by whom he had three children.
Career
1890s–1900s: Journalistic period

Always of a fragile physical disposition, Jones was unable to take up a scholarship to
Oxford University
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
due to one of many bouts of ill health which were to plague him throughout his life. He instead moved to
Caernarfon
Caernarfon (; ) is a List of place names with royal patronage in the United Kingdom, royal town, Community (Wales), community and port in Gwynedd, Wales. It has a population of 9,852 (with Caeathro). It lies along the A487 road, on the easter ...
and took up journalism, writing for a number of newspapers in both English and Welsh. By 1890 he was a sub-editor on the Welsh-language newspaper ''
Baner ac Amserau Cymru
The ''Baner ac Amserau Cymru'' (established in 1857) was a weekly Welsh language newspaper, distributed throughout Wales and in the Liverpool area. It contained local and national news and information. It was formed by the amalgamation of ''Baner ...
'' (''Y Faner''). His first novel, ''Gwedi Brad a Gofid'' was serialised in 1898 and he would be writing novels more or less continuously for the next decade; his greatest ambition however had always been to be a poet, and many of his poems appeared in various publications. His first collection of poetry, ''Gwlad y Gân'', was met with mixed reviews, a fact probably not helped by the fact that the title poem satirised the Welsh literary establishment and
Eisteddfod
In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music.
The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, a ...
tradition.
In 1902 however he won the coveted chair at the
National Eisteddfod
The National Eisteddfod of Wales ( Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Europe. Competito ...
in
Bangor for his awdl ''
Ymadawiad Arthur
''Ymadawiad Arthur'' ('The Passing of Arthur') is a Welsh language, Welsh-language poem, some 350 lines in length, by T. Gwynn Jones. It won its author the Chairing of the Bard, Chair at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, National Eisteddfod in ...
'', though he had not expected to win, and indeed was not present at the ceremony. The poem integrated the native Welsh traditions around
King Arthur
According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain.
In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...
as found in the
Mabinogion
The ''Mabinogion'' () is a collection of the earliest Welsh prose stories, compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, created –1410, as well as a few earlier frag ...
with those of the wider European tradition and ushered in a new
Romantic era in Welsh language poetry, with Gwynn as one of its foremost figures. The poem is still one of his best known, though he himself claimed to dislike it.
In 1905 he became editor of the journal ''Papur Pawb'', ushering in a period of intense productivity, producing, in the space of only a few years some five novels and over two hundred short stories, as well as a second Eisteddfod chair in 1908. This led ultimately to a physical collapse, leading to a tour of the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...
and a period spent in
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
to recuperate. Predictably, he spent much of his trip writing, writing a column of his experiences that was later published.
1910s–1940s: Academic period
On his return to Wales he briefly took up journalism again, however in 1910 he left the profession to seek a less strenuous means of maintaining his family, finding work as an archivist at the
National Library of Wales
The National Library of Wales (, ) in Aberystwyth is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million books and periodicals, and the l ...
,
Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth (; ) is a University town, university and seaside town and a community (Wales), community in Ceredigion, Wales. It is the largest town in Ceredigion and from Aberaeron, the county's other administrative centre. In 2021, the popula ...
. Though surrounded by books he disliked the work, however he was able to maintain a parallel career in public lectures and later was appointed as a lecturer in the Welsh department at the
University College of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth University () is a Public university, public Research university, research university in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding member institution of the former federal University of Wales. The university has over 8,000 stude ...
, where he became a professor in 1919 - a remarkable achievement for a man without an undergraduate degree.
His major academic work was an edition of the fifteenth-century poet,
Tudur Aled
Tudur Aled (c. 1465 – 1525) was a late medieval Welsh poet, born in Llansannan, Denbighshire (Sir Ddinbych). He is regarded as a master of cynghanedd.
Beginnings
Tudur Aled was born c. 1465 in Llansannan, in what is now Denbighshire. It is l ...
; he also wrote a famous biography of the great Liberal publisher
Thomas Gee
Thomas Gee (24 January 181528 September 1898), was a Welsh Nonconformist (Protestantism), Nonconformist preacher, journalist and publisher.
Gee was born in Denbigh, Wales. At the age of fourteen he went into his father's printing office, Gwasg ...
, whose work influenced Jones throughout his life. He was extremely highly respected within Celtic Studies and an attempt was made to nominate him for a
Nobel Prize for Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in t ...
, though he refused to accept it, believing himself unworthy.
With journalism he had left behind prose, and Jones would not write another novel after 1910, though some of his earlier work would be published. He would not compete at the Eisteddfod again, however he continued to write poetry however throughout his life, producing many of his finest longer poems later in life, such as ''Madog'', ''Tir-na-nog'' and ''Anatiomaros''. Many of these were in a darker, more modernist idiom than his earlier work. A collection of his own selections from his poetry was published as ''Caniadau''.
A strong opponent of the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Jones walked out of the Tabernacle Chapel in Aberystwyth when the minister offered a prayer for a British victory in the war. He later wrote "If there's anything I understand from the New Testament, it is that Jesus Christ is not a militaristic person. He is the Saviour of the world, he is the Prince of Peace. Therefore those who say they are Christians, followers of Christ must reject war totally."
He was awarded
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
in the
1937 Coronation Honours
The 1937 Coronation Honours were awarded in honour of the coronation of George VI.
Royal Honours
Order of the Thistle
* The Queen
Royal Victorian Chain
* The Queen
* Queen Mary
* Clive, Baron Wigram
Royal Victorian Order (GCVO)
* The Que ...
.
Influence
As a poet
T. Gwynn Jones is widely recognised as a major twentieth century poet in the Welsh language and one of the finest poets in the language of any century.
Though his relationship with the literary establishment was often fraught, particularly when young, he is now recognised in playing a significant role in liberating the Eisteddfod tradition from an obsession with form and in recognising the potential 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 ...
to be put to new uses, and in doing so, liberating it. A master of the art, many of his best known poems are in cynghanedd.
Jones was one of the foremost members of a new
Romantic school of poets in Welsh at the start of the twentieth century alongside such figures as
W. J. Gruffydd,
R. Silyn Roberts,
Eifion Wyn and
Hedd Wyn
Hedd Wyn (born Ellis Humphrey Evans, 13 January 188731 July 1917) was a Welsh-language poet who was killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele during World War I. He was posthumously awarded the bard's chair at the 1917 National ...
.
As a novelist
Gwynn's impact as a novelist is harder to measure; though he was extremely productive in this field, many of his novels were serialised anonymously and most were never published in book form. However, in his biography of Gwynn,
Alan Llwyd suggests that his novels were a significant step forward for prose writing in the language, naming him the "uncle" of the Welsh language novel (with
Daniel Owen
Daniel Owen (20 October 1836 – 22 October 1895) was a Welsh novelist. He is generally regarded as the foremost Welsh-language novelist of the 19th century and the first significant novelist to write in Welsh.
Early life
Daniel Owen was born in ...
the father). One of Gwynn's novels, ''Enaid Lewys Meredydd'', is likely the first
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
novel in the language.
On English literature
T. Gwynn Jones's writings had a significant influence on
Robert Graves
Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were b ...
in his mythopoeic study ''
The White Goddess
''The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth'' is a book-length essay on the nature of poetic myth-making by the English writer Robert Graves. First published in 1948, it is based on earlier articles published in ''Wales'' magazine ...
''. Graves developed his suggestion of a distinction between the restricted poetry of the official Welsh bards, and the more expansive and fanciful unofficial Welsh writings: "The tales and Romances, on the other hand, are full of colour and incident; even characterization is not absent from them. In them fancy...develops into imagination".
Published works
Novels and short stories (selection)
*''Gwedi Brad a Gofid'' (1898)
*''Brethyn Cartref'' (Short Stories; 1913; stories originally published in magazines between 1906-08)
*''Camwri Cwm Eryr'' (1898-99)
*''Gorchest Gwilym Bevan'' (1899) - English translation ''
The Great Deed of Gwilym Bevan'' published 2024.
www.melinbapur.cymru
''The Great Deed of Gwilym Bevan''
*''Rhwng Rhaid a Rhyddid'' (1900)
*''Llwybr Gwaed ac Angau'' (1902)
*''Enaid Lewys Meredydd'' (1905
*'' John Homer'' (1923; original serial 1908)
*''Lona
Lona may refer to:
Places
*Lac de Lona, lake in Valais, Switzerland
*Lona, Samoa, village on the island of Upolu
* Lona, Nantou, Bunun village in Nantou County, Taiwan
* Lona, Comilla, village in Comilla District, Chittagong Division, Bangladesh
...
'' (1923; original serial 1908)
Poetry
*''Gwlad y Gân a cherddi eraill'' (1902)
*''Caniadau'' (1934)
*''Y Dwymyn'' (1944)
*(trans.), ''Awen y Gwyddyl'' (1922) – translated Irish poetry.
*(trans.), ''Blodau o Hen Ardd'' (1927) – translated Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
epigrams.
*(trans.), ''Faust'' by Goethe
Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
(1922)
Academic and other works
*''Astudiaethau'' (1936)
*''Bardism and Romance'' (1914)
*''Beirniadaeth a Myfyrdod'' (1935)
*''Brithgofion'' (1944)
*''Cofiant Thomas Gee'' (1913)
*''Cymeriadau'' (1933)
*''Dyddgwaith'' (1937)
*''Eglwys y Dyn Tlawd'' (1892)
*''Emrys ap Iwan. Cofiant'' (1912)
*(ed.) ''Gwaith Tudur Aled'', 2 vols., (1926)
*''Llenyddiaeth Y Cymry'' (1915)
*''Rhieingerddi'r Gogynfeirdd'' (1915)
*(trans.) ''Visions of the Sleeping Bard'' (1940)
*''Welsh Folklore and Welsh Folk-custom'' (1930)
References
External links
*
Welsh Biography Online – JONES, THOMAS GWYNN (1871–1949), poet, writer, translator and scholar
Description of the ''T. Gwynn Jones and Arthur ap Gwynn Papers''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, T. Gwynn
1871 births
1949 deaths
Academics of Aberystwyth University
British anti–World War I activists
Calvinist and Reformed poets
Calvinist pacifists
Chaired bards
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Epic poets
Mythopoeic writers
Translators of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Translators to Welsh
Welsh anti-war activists
Welsh children's writers
Welsh Eisteddfod winners
Welsh-language poets
Welsh-language writers
Welsh writers
Writers of Arthurian literature
Writers of modern Arthurian fiction