Description

Iolo Morganwg was the bardic name of Edward Williams (1747-1826), an influential antiquarian, poet, collector and literary forger. The name is Welsh for "Iolo of Glamorgan". He first came to public notice by revealing some previously undiscovered poetry by Dafydd ap Gwilym, generally considered to be the greatest Welsh poet, in 1789. He moved to London, where he become a significant figure in the Welsh community and he held the first Gorsedd, Gorsedd Beirdd Ynys Prydain, at a ceremony in 1792 at Primrose Hill, London. His philosophy represented a fusion of Christian and Arthurian influences, a proto-romanticism comparable to that of William Blake and the Scottish poet and forger James MacPherson, the revived antiquarian enthusiasm for all things "Celtic", and such elements of bardic heritage as had genuinely survived among Welshlanguage poets. He was the author of the Druid's Prayer or Gorsedd prayer (Gweddi'r Derwydd or Gweddi'r Orsedd in Welsh), which is still a staple of the ritual of both gorseddau and Neo-Druidism. Among his writings was Cyfrinach Beirdd Ynys Prydain, or The Mystery of the Bards of the Isle of Britain (1829), a treatise on Welsh metrics.