Pennod 28 – ‘Bawddyn!’: Ymrysonau’r Cywyddwyr

‘Shit-man!’: Bardic Debates of the Cywyddwyr 

In order to deepen our understanding of the work of ‘The Poets of the Uchelwyr’ or the Cywyddwyr, we look at their ymrysonau or bardic debates in this episode. 

While considering poems exchanged by bards, we examine possible connections between this poetry and lost social contexts. It’s likely that bards engaged in an ymryson for various reasons during the period in question – in order to compete for patronage, in order to establish or confirm one’s reputation, in order to discuss aspects of their art (and argue about them!), and for the sake of fun or entertainment – but we must use our imagination (and some anthropological theory!) in order to understand the relationship between this amazing poems and the context(s) which gave birth to them. We also discuss another very interesting question: why does a poet call his opponent such nasty names, and do so in a discussion about refined topics such as the source of poetic inspiration and the proper function of a poet?