Pennod 36 – Elis Gruffydd (Rhan 1)

Elis Gruffydd (Part 1)

This is an introduction to a remarkable Welsh author, Elis Gruffydd, a Welshman from Flintshire who served as a soldier in Henry VIII’s army and who was a member of the garrison of Calais. It was there on the continent that he wrote is long chronicle, a history of the world from the Biblical Creation to the start of the 1550s, the longest narrative text ever written in the Welsh language. 

His life spanned the first half of the age of the Tudors, and it’s possible to describe Elis Gruffydd with an apparent contradiction and say that he was a completely unique author who was completely characteristic of his age. One can see the bridging between the old age and the new in his written work, as he went at it ambitiously to record so much knowledge in his native language. Given the fact that Elis discusses his own life in the last part of his chronicle, can it be said that this is the first autobiography in the Welsh language? We also ask why more Welsh people today don’t know about this interesting Welsh writer and his remarkable work? Is it because he was a Welshman who was very loyal to the English monarchy and its army?