Edrychwn yn y bennod hon ar ddetholiad o gerddi a gyfansoddwyd gan frenhinwyr yn ystod ‘rhyfeloedd cartref’ yr ail ganrif ar bymtheg. Gwelwn fod beirdd wedi addasu hen ddulliau a themâu er mwyn trafod datblygiadau cyfoes a oedd yn ysgwyd eu byd nhw.

Yn ddiddorol ddigon, mae’n bosibl awgrymu bod ceidwadaeth wleidyddol a chrefyddol wedi esgor ar arloesi celfyddydol hynod egnïol. Nodwn fod ffrydiau traddodiadol o ganu serch wedi’u haddasu hyd yn oed, wrth i ferch ganu am filwr seneddol a geisiodd ei denu pan oedd ei chariad i ffwrdd yn ymladd ym myddin y brenin. Ac mae’r uchafbwyntiau yn cynnwys cerdd sy’n dychmygu anfon cath ar daith ar draws sir Feirionnydd gyda neges i filwyr dan warchae yng nghastell Harlech.

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In this episode we look at a selection of poems composed by royalists during the ‘civil wars’ of the seventeenth century. We see that poets adapted old methods and themes in order to treat current developments which were shaking their world. Interestingly enough, It’s possible to suggest that political and religious conservatism generated incredibly energetic artistic innovation.

We note that even traditional modes of love poetry were adapted, as a woman sings about a parliamentarian soldier who tried to seduce her while her lover was away fighting in the king’s army. And the highpoints include a poem which imagines sending a cat on a journey across Merionethshire with a message for besieged soldiers in Harlech castle.

Cyflwynwyd gan: Yr Athro Jerry Hunter a'r Athro Richard Wyn Jones

Cynhyrchwyd gan: Richard Martin

Cerddoriaeth: 'Might Have Done' gan The Molenes

Darllen Pellach / Further Reading:

- Hen Gerddi Gwleidyddol 1558-1660 (1901). [Golygydd di-enw ar ran Cymdeithas Llên Cymru].

- Nesta Lloyd (gol.), Blodeugerdd Barddas o Ganu’r Ail Ganrif ar Bymtheg (1993).

- Jerry Hunter, ‘The Red Sword, the Sickle, and the Author’s Revenge: Welsh Literature and Conflict in the Seventeenth Century’, Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium 36 (2018).