I think Iolo Morgannwg has had an unfair press. Yes, he was a character, and we now know that he wrote poetry and then pretended it had been written by, amongst others, Dafydd ap Gwilym.

However, consider this. The poetry he submitted for publication in a book about Dafydd was considered of such high quality that it was included altogether as an addendum to that book.

Further, some very knowledgeable people in the world of Barddoniaeth at the time considered these works, twenty in all, as the best of all the known work of Dafydd ap Gwilym. So, Iolo Morgannwg was producing poetry in Welsh of a quality at least equal to and perhaps surpassing that of Dafydd ap Gwilym.

Therefore, I think we should be giving Iolo the credit he deserves as a poet. He committed his so called crimes for the sake of Wales and the Welsh language, at a time when Wales lacked the Institutions of National Libraries and Universities that existed both in England and Scotland. Should he have submitted the work as his own, then he could have been credited with being one of the most outstanding poets ever in the Welsh language. Indeed he was.

Had there been a Welsh National University, then it is almost certain that the works of the Welsh poets would have been central to the cultural traditions revered and developed in such an institution, and perhaps Iolo would not have felt the need to attribute some of his best work to another.

The Welsh language would have died out like Cornish and the Gaelic languages had it not been for the outstanding contributions of a few people. People such as Bishop Morgan, Griffith Jones, Edward Williams (Iolo Morgannwg) and O. M. Edwards. That it still has an important place in the political and cultural life of Wales is due in no small part to this small band, one of who is Iolo Morgannwg, as previously stated. Wales owes no small debt to this eccentric genius, let us not forget it.

Of course, poetry was not the only great thing Edward Williams did for Wales.

Iolo was a stonemason, from Flemingston in the Vale of Glamorgan and he invented the Gorsedd, that guild of bards who play such a prominent role in the cultural affairs of Wales today. In their colourful "druids" robes, they provide much of the pageantry and excitement attending the events of the National Eisteddfod each year. We tend to think of the Gorsedd and the National Eisteddfod as a single institution. They are not of course, but that is another story.

Edward Williams established the Gorsedd and also helped make the small eisteddfodau, which still occurred from time to time up to his lifetime, into the National Institutions we now have. Institutions such as the National Eisteddfod, the International Eisteddfod, the Urdd Youth Eisteddfod and all those local eisteddfodau whose competitions distil out for us those who will compete at national and international level. These are institutions that help develop the talent that Wales has in music, song and dance, in literature and in poetry and the performing arts. England, where I was born, has nothing to match them.

Iolo Morgannwg was a very great man indeed, don't let us forget it.

Alex Marshall

Bridgend, Glamorgan

February, 2000