The Ruin (Dafydd Ap Gwilym Poem)
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"The Ruin" () is a ''
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 ...
'' by the 14th-century Welsh poet
Dafydd ap Gwilym Dafydd ap Gwilym ( 1315/1320 – 1350/1370) is regarded as one of the leading Welsh poets and among the great poets of Europe in the Middle Ages. Dafydd’s poetry also offers a unique window into the transcultural movement of cultural pract ...
, widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets. In it the poet, considering a ruined house and remembering the love-affair he once conducted there, reflects on the transience of all worldly pleasures. "The Ruin" is commonly supposed to have been written in Dafydd's old age. It has been called one of his most poignant poems, and it was included in ''The Penguin Book of Welsh Verse'', ''
The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse ''The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse'' (1962), edited by Thomas Parry, is an anthology of Welsh-language poetry stretching from Aneirin in the 6th century to Bobi Jones in the 20th. No translations of the poems are provided, but the introduction ...
'', ''
The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English ''The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English'' is a 1977 poetry anthology edited by the author and academic Gwyn Jones. It covers both Welsh language poetry in English translation and poetry written in English by Welsh poets (often called Angl ...
'' and ''The Longman Anthology of British Literature''.


Synopsis

The poet considers the prospect of a ruined building which was once an inhabited house, and reflects on former days when one of the residents was a woman who loved him and whom he loved, and on the days of pleasure they knew. The house itself replies, lamenting the damage that the winds have wreaked on it. The poet again contrasts the derelict state of the building with the comfortable love-nest he once knew, and finally wonders whether the wreckage he sees before him is a delusion, but the house ends the poem by assuring the poet that the family have gone to their graves.


Manuscripts

The poem survives in 26 manuscripts. Among the key early manuscripts are
Peniarth Peniarth is a village in the community of Meifod, Powys, Wales. It is 87.1 miles (140.2 km) from Cardiff and 156.9 miles (252.5 km) from London. It is represented in the Senedd by Russell George (Conservative). It is part of the Montgo ...
182 (written by Sir Huw Pennant of
Flintshire Flintshire () is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, the Dee Estuary to the north-east, the English county of Cheshire to the east, Wrexham County Borough to the south, and Denbighshire to the west. ...
around 1514); Hafod 26, also known as
Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...
4.330 (written by
Thomas Wiliems Thomas Wiliems (born in Ardda'r Mynaich in Arllechwedd, Wales possibly on 20 April 1545 or 1546; died in or before 13 August 1623) was a Welsh-language antiquarian.“Wiliems, Thomas (b. 1545/6?, d. in or before 1623?),” J. E. Caerwyn Williams i ...
around 1574);
Llansteffan Llansteffan, is a village and community situated on the south coast of Carmarthenshire, Wales, lying on the estuary of the River Tywi, south of Carmarthen. Description The community includes Llanybri and is bordered by the communities of: ...
120 (written by Jaspar Gryffyth between about 1597 and 1607); Cwrtmawr 5 (probably written by Ieuan or Ifan Tudur Owen of Dugoed,
Mawddwy Mawddwy is a Community (Wales), community in the county of Gwynedd, Wales, and is 88.3 miles (142.2 km) from Cardiff and 172.8 miles (278.0 km) from London. In 2011 the population of Mawddwy was 622 with 59.5% of them able to speak We ...
, early 17th century); and Peniarth 49 (written by John Davies in the early 17th century).


Analysis

"The Ruin" is Dafydd's only poem about a house, but it resembles six other poems of his, namely "Summer", "A Cock-thrush", " The Magpie's Advice", "Longing", "A Woodcock", and " His Shadow", in that it represents him in conversation with a non-human interlocutor. This may not be not the only fantastic motif in the poem. Dafydd twice uses the word ''teulu'', "horde";
R. Geraint Gruffydd Robert Geraint Gruffydd Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, FLSW Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (9 June 1928 – 24 March 2015) was a scholar of Welsh language and literature. From 1970 to 1979, he was Professor of Welsh Language and Litera ...
argued that this is a reference to the Phantom Horde of the mythological figure
Gwyn ap Nudd Gwyn ap Nudd (, sometimes found with the antiquated spelling Gwynn ap Nudd) is a Welsh mythological figure, the king of the '' Tylwyth Teg'' or " fair folk" and ruler of the Welsh Otherworld, Annwn, and whose name means “Gwyn, son of Nudd”. D ...
. By this interpretation the poem would compare the wind's destructive passage, stripping away the good old days, to Gwyn's horde. Another critic sees it as implicit in the poem that the figure of the poet-figure is himself a ghost. "The Ruin" is pervaded by a sense of desolation, of the transitoriness and mutability of this world's pleasures, and in particular of the love of women when it is based on physical rather than spiritual attraction. It might be seen as ending with an expression of nostalgia for an existence that now belongs to the irretrievable past, or alternatively with "a conviction that what was good remains so". The ruined house can be seen as an emblem of Dafydd's feeling of "emptiness as he expresses feelings of being laid bare by storms of passion", of his approaching dotage and death, of the fall of man, or even (though this is contentious) of his sense of all that Wales has lost in its conquest by England. The woman in the poem, Dafydd's former love, is never named, but she is by some identified with a figure who appears in several of Dafydd's poems and to whom he gives the name Morfudd. Dafydd described Morfudd as tall, blonde, and well-born, as having religious objections to returning his love, and as eventually being married off by her family to another man.


Analogues

The theme of '' contemptus mundi'', contempt for all that the secular world can offer, is a very common one, not only in Dafydd's other works but in all medieval literature that draws on the teaching of the
Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...
. The ruin as a subject for poetry is one that could have been familiar to Dafydd from the ''
englynion (; plural ) is a traditional Welsh short poem form. It uses quantitative metres, involving the counting of syllables, and rigid patterns of rhyme and half rhyme. Each line contains a repeating pattern of consonants and accent known as . Earl ...
'' collected in the ''
Canu Llywarch Hen ''Canu Llywarch Hen'' (modern Welsh /'kani 'ɬəwarχ heːn/, the songs of Llywarch Hen) are a collection of early Welsh ''englyn''-poems. They comprise the most famous of the early Welsh cycles of ''englynion'' about heroes of post-Roman Nort ...
'' and the ''
Canu Heledd ''Canu Heledd'' (modern Welsh /'kani 'hɛlɛð/, the songs of Heledd) are a collection of early Welsh ''englyn''-poems. They are rare among medieval Welsh poems for being set in the mouth of a female character. One prominent figure in the poems ...
'', such as the well-known poem on the destruction of
Cynddylan Cynddylan (Modern Welsh pronunciation: /kən'ðəlan/), or Cynddylan ap Cyndrwyn was a seventh-century Prince of Powys associated with Pengwern. Cynddylan is attested only in literary sources: unlike many kings from Brittonic post-Roman Britain, h ...
's hall at
Pengwern Pengwern was a Brythonic settlement of sub-Roman Britain situated in what is now the English county of Shropshire, adjoining the modern Welsh border. It is regarded as possibly being the early seat of the kings of Powys before its establish ...
, and it can also be found in poems written in Irish, Anglo-Saxon and Latin. The theme of the remembered love-affair is however a characteristic addition by Dafydd.


English translations and paraphrases

* With the Middle Welsh original in parallel text. * With the Middle Welsh original in parallel text. * ** Rev. repr. in his * ** Rev. repr. in * * * * Lake, A. Cynfael. At * * With the Middle Welsh original in parallel text. * *


Footnotes


References

* * * * * * *


External links


Full text in Middle Welsh at Welsh Wikisource
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruin, The Fictional houses Poetry by Dafydd ap Gwilym Fictional buildings and structures originating in literature