Iolo Morganwg

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Lore & Background

Edward Williams was born in Pen-onn, near Llancarfan, Vale of Glamorgan, and raised in the village of Flemingston. He followed his father as a stonemason. In Glamorgan, he took an interest in manuscript collection, and learnt to compose Welsh poetry from poets such as Lewis Hopkin, Rhys Morgan, and especially Siôn Bradford. In 1773, he moved to London, where the antiquary Owen Jones introduced him to the city's Welsh literary community, and where he became a member of the Gwyneddigion Society. In 1777 he returned to Wales, where he married and tried farming, but without success. During this time he produced his first forgeries. His son, Taliesin, later went on to collect his manuscripts in 26 volumes, a selection being published as the Iolo Manuscripts by the Welsh Manuscripts Society in 1848. Williams first came to public notice in 1789 for Barddoniaeth Dafydd ab Gwilym, a collection of the poetry of the 14th-century Dafydd ap Gwilym. Included were a large number of hitherto unknown poems by Dafydd that he claimed to have found; these are regarded as Williams's first forgeries. His success led him to return to London in 1791, where he founded the Gorsedd at a ceremony on 21 June 1792 at Primrose Hill. He organised the occasion according to what he claimed were ancient Druidic rites. In 1794 he published some of his own poetry, later collected in a two-volume Poems, Lyric and Pastoral. He worked with Owen Jones and William Owen Pughe on The Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales, a three-volume collection published in 1801–1807, which relied partly on manuscripts in Williams's collection, some his forgeries. The forged material included a false Brut chronicle and a book attributed to Saint Cadoc. The second volume contained an additional 'third series' of forged triads, as well as Williams's alterations to the authentic ones. Williams developed an elaborate mystical philosophy, which he claimed as a direct continuation of ancient Druidic practice. His philosophy represented a fusion of Christian and Arthurian influences, a romanticism comparable to that of William Blake and James MacPherson, and elements of bardic heritage. The metaphysics proposed a theory of concentric 'rings of existence', proceeding outward from Annwn through Abred and Ceugant to Gwynfyd. He also developed his own runic system called Coelbren y Beirdd ('the Bardic Alphabet'), said to be the alphabetic system of the ancient druids, consisting of 20 main letters and 20 others. Outside his shop in Cowbridge was a sign saying his sugar was from plantations that employed no slaves. However, he contested a will in order to receive a legacy from one of his three brothers, all of whose plantations in Jamaica used slave labour. By 1799 he had become a Unitarian, and was a leading spirit when a Unitarian Association was formed in South Wales in 1802.

Reader's Guide

Iolo Morganwg's significance lies in his dual role as both a preserver and a forger of Welsh literary tradition. His forgeries, which included poems attributed to Dafydd ap Gwilym and a false third series of Welsh Triads, were so extensive that some of his tampered versions of medieval Welsh texts are better known than the original versions even into the 21st century. Yet his impact on Welsh culture was profound: he founded the Gorsedd, a secret society that successfully co-opted the 18th-century Eisteddfod revival, and his invented Druidic philosophy became a cornerstone of neo-Druidism. His 'Druid's Prayer' is still used by the Gorsedd and by neo-Druid groups. After his death, scholars such as Sir John Morris-Jones exposed his forgeries, calling Morganwg 'hateful' and saying it would be an age 'before our history and literature are clean of the traces of his dirty fingers.' Griffith John Williams later made a full study of Morganwg's work, consulting original documents donated to the National Library of Wales in 1917, and established that the poems attributed to Dafydd ap Gwilym were forgeries. A plaque was mounted in 1926 at the location of his old shop, and a memorial plaque was erected in 2009 on the approximate site of the first Gorsedd ceremony on Primrose Hill. A Welsh-language school in Cowbridge, Ysgol Iolo Morganwg, is named after him.

Did You Know?

• Iolo Morganwg's bardic name is Welsh for 'Iolo of Glamorgan'.
• He founded the Gorsedd at a ceremony on 21 June 1792 at Primrose Hill, claiming it followed ancient Druidic rites.
• His son Taliesin collected his manuscripts in 26 volumes, published as the Iolo Manuscripts in 1848.
• The 'Druid's Prayer', still used by the Gorsedd and neo-Druid groups, was one of his works.
• He developed a runic system called Coelbren y Beirdd ('the Bardic Alphabet'), consisting of 20 main letters and 20 others.