‘Trouble at an Inn’
We have fun in this episode while discussing Dafydd ap Gwilym’s famous self-satirical cywydd. This is a narrative poem which describes an unsuccessful attempt to meet a woman late at night, and by reciting this story Dafydd is satirizing the very bardic persona which is central to so many of his cywyddau. But we note that there are serious themes here as well, despite all of the fun; it’s possible to argue that this cywydd contrasts bodily love with spiritual love and that it is a composition which expresses tensions between the Welsh