Quick Facts
- Welsh:
- “Cynddelw the Great Poet”
- Flourished:
- 1155–c. 1195
- Flourished:
- 1155 - 1200
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Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr
Welsh poet
Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr (flourished 1155–c. 1195) was an outstanding Welsh poet of the 12th century, court poet to Madog ap Maredudd, prince of Powys, and then to Madog’s enemy Owain Gwynedd, prince of Gwynedd. Cynddelw was also court poet to Owain Cyfeiliog and is thought to be the author of poems traditionally attributed to Owain.
The extant poems ascribed to Cynddelw (about 50), composed in the Welsh bardic tradition of deliberate archaism, include a small amount of religious verse and a large number of eulogies to the chief princes throughout Wales. Cynddelw seems, therefore, to have been the chief bard of all of Wales.
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