Dafydd Johnston – författare

Dafydd ap Gwilym is the most renowned and original of Wales' medieval poets, and is considered by many to be the greatest Welsh poet ever. His main topics were love and nature, and his poems express an individual response that combines mischievous humour and intense feeling. He was a poetic pioneer who pushed the boundaries of the Welsh language and the craft of Welsh poesy. In this volume the versions in modern Welsh and the notes are an essential aid to allow the reader to appreciate the rich poetry of the original texts.

The late eighteenth century was one of the most exciting and unsettling periods in European history, with the shock-waves of the French Revolution rippling around the world. As this collection of essays by leading scholars shows, Wales was no exception. From political pamphlets to a Denbighshire folk-play, from bardic poetry to the remodelling of the Welsh landscape itself, responses to the revolutionary ferment of ideas took many forms. We see how Welsh poets and preachers negotiated complex London - Wales networks of patronage and even more complex issues of national and cultural loyalty; and how the landscape itself is reimagined in fiction, remodelled a la Rousseau, while it rapidly emptied as impoverished farming families emigrated to the New World. Drawing on a wealth of vibrant material in both Welsh and English, much of it unpublished, this collection marks another important contribution to 'four nations' criticism, and offers new insights into the tensions and flashpoints of Romantic-period Wales.