He was born in 1747 in the parish of Llancarfan in Glamorgan, southern Wales,and bought up in the village of Flemington, Although English was his home language he soon became interested in the Welsh language, its literature and history. He was a stonemason by craft and travelled throughout Wales and to London. There, he came into contact with the Gwyneddigion Society and began to move in cultural and radical circles.
Iolo Morganwg was a genius,,one of the founder members of the Unitarian movement in Wales, a political radical who supported the French Revolution, a pacifist, republican, accomplished flute playing, antiquarian,a hymn-writer and an able lyrical poet who called himself 'The Bard of Liberty'. A political radical, religious dissenter and pacifist who believed Wales should have its own national institutions celebrating its unique culture and heritage, known as one of founders of Welsh national consciousness..As a young man working as a stonemason in London, he had seen Welsh culture widely disparaged.,Iolo became heavily involved in the political activities of London - Welsh societies in fostering republican views in Gorsedd ceremonies, and in defending the rights of persecuted Dissenters and freeborn Welshmen. He often styled himself 'Jacobin', 'Citizen' and 'Theocrat', and penned dozens of forthright, satirical and subversive essays and poems. He came close to being jailed himself for seditious libel. On his return to the Vale of Glamorgan in 1795 he was kept under surveillance, especially when he used his Cowbridge bookshop and grocery to support anti-slavery, fair trade and Jacobinism.His shop refused to stock slave grown sugar and he refused to take subscriptions for his books from Brisol slvee merchants.
Iolo denounced 'kingcraft' and 'priestcraft', thundered against war and injustice, and never tired of proclaiming the benefits of 'Breiniau Dyn' (the Rights of Man). A political animal to the core, he played a prominent part in raising the profile of libertarian causes in Wales and in spreading subversive ideas. He believed the Welsh poets were the direct descendants of the Celtic druids, and he set about writing so glorious a history it would put the English to shame, even if he had to forge it.Iolo presented the Welsh s the most important people in Britain and the earliest defenders of the Celtic world against Roman defenders.
In support of this vision, in 1789 he published a collection of poems by 14th-century Welsh bard Dafydd ap Gwilym. Included were many newly-discovered poems Morganwg had “found,” i.e., written himself. He was also a prolific poet in both Welsh and English, but as well as using his own voice, he was more than capable of writing in the guise of others. The book proved to be popular and this inspired him to return to London to take the next step in promoting Welsh culture.
Apart from being in my opinion as I've said a genius, Iolo also was in what in today's terms be an addict, like many of his contemporaries of the time his particular foible was Laudanum.
Iolo had started taking laudanum as a young man to cure a troublesome cough later for a troublesome bad back .Taking laudanum, tincture of opium, was actually both common and fashionable during the eighteenth century, other notable opium eaters of Iolo's time include Samuel Taylor Coleridge, George Crabbe and Thomas De Quincey https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/thomas-de-quincey-1581785-812-1859-on.html among many others. It is generally believed that the drug does not enrich a dull imagination but rather enhances one that is already active. Laudanum produced a paradoxical effect on users. On the one hand, it gave them the impression that their ideas were clearer and more original because of the laudanum: it enabled them to create unexpected creative links, and also bolstered their belief in the distinctness of their own visions. It certainly seemed to consolidate Iolo's. and many many people were taken in by him despite his drug fuelled hallucinations. What a man though. here's his actual poem he wrote about his enabler, some parts could actually read as an ode to a lover ;--
Ode to Laudanum-
Poems, Lyric and Pastoral vol I, pp 1-5 was
Iolo believed that the Welsh bards had inherited the learning and traditions of the Druids of the ancient world. Iolo, however, declared that Druidism had survived in its purest form in Glamorgan, his birthplace. He produced a vast corpus of literary forgeries and Druidic lore to justify this claim, products of his own very fertile, laudanum-addicted imagination. So in 1791, he returned to London proclaiming, in both Welsh and English literary circles, that he was heir to all the mysteries of Druidism.
So on this day, the Summer Solstice of 21st of June, Summer Solstice, 1792, Iolo Morganwg held a ceremony on the nearest mountain he could find, Primrose Hill , and founded the Gorsedd of Bardds (in Welsh the Gorsedd Beirdd Ynys Prydain), a community of Welsh bards dedicated to preserving Welsh language, poetry and music. He developed the ritual for the ceremony from druidic rites described in ancient manuscripts from his own collection that were later found to have been yet again creations of his own. As they say if you've got an idea, you might as well go for it, wish I was capable of pursuing my inner dreams as Iolo did.
Thanks to Iolo's actions on Primrose Hill it would see the revival of the Eisteddfod, otherwise known as the national festival of Wales.The Eisteddfod is a folk festival celebrating Welsh language, music, poetry and literature that traces its lineage back to a grand gathering of musicians and poets held by Lord Rhys of my hometown Cardigan/ Aberteifi in 1176. From that early progenitor, a vast number of provincial gatherings proliferated over the centuries, sponsored by local lords all over Wales.
In 1819 the eisteddfod festivals and the Gorsedd of Bards came together, thanks once again to Iolo Morgannwg, now 72 years old and still with a keen eye towards promoting Welsh civilization. He traveled to the eisteddfod being held at the Ivy Bush Inn in Carmarthen and drew a Gorsedd circle meant to be a sacred circle of standing stones a la Stonehenge, on the lawn using a handful of pebbles from his pockets. He went on to admit poets and druids, including the local bishop and festival patron, Bishop Thomas Burgess of St. David’s. giving them white, blue and green ribbons according to their rank. During the chairing ceremony a new rite took form as poets stood either side of the chair, sheathing and unsheathing a sword above the winning poet’s head. The sword used by Iolo during these 1819 ceremonies can still to be seen at St Fagans National History Museum.
Inscription-
Apart from being in my opinion as I've said a genius, Iolo also was in what in today's terms be an addict, like many of his contemporaries of the time his particular foible was Laudanum.
Iolo had started taking laudanum as a young man to cure a troublesome cough later for a troublesome bad back .Taking laudanum, tincture of opium, was actually both common and fashionable during the eighteenth century, other notable opium eaters of Iolo's time include Samuel Taylor Coleridge, George Crabbe and Thomas De Quincey https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/thomas-de-quincey-1581785-812-1859-on.html among many others. It is generally believed that the drug does not enrich a dull imagination but rather enhances one that is already active. Laudanum produced a paradoxical effect on users. On the one hand, it gave them the impression that their ideas were clearer and more original because of the laudanum: it enabled them to create unexpected creative links, and also bolstered their belief in the distinctness of their own visions. It certainly seemed to consolidate Iolo's. and many many people were taken in by him despite his drug fuelled hallucinations. What a man though. here's his actual poem he wrote about his enabler, some parts could actually read as an ode to a lover ;--
Ode to Laudanum-
.
WHILST, crowding on my woful hour,
Fate's deep'ning glooms indignant low'r,
And crush my wearie soul;
Thou, Laudanum, can'st quickly steep
My burning eyes in balmy sleep,
And ev'ry grief controul.
.
When Reason strives, but strives in vain,
To banish care, to vanquish pain,
And calm sad thoughts to rest;
Thy soothing virtues can impart
A bland sensation to my heart,
And heal my wounded breast.
Whilst fell Disease, with rapid flame
Preys ireful on my feeble frame,
Pervading ev'ry vein;
Thou canst repel the venom'd rage,
The fever'd anguish canst assuage,
And blunt the tooth of Pain.
.
When wakeful Sensibility
Her wrongs recounts, I fly to thee,
And feel her touch no more;
At painful Memory's loud call,
'Twas she, with fingers dipt in gall,
My rankling bosom tore.
.
With soul-corroding thought oppress'd
Whilst keen affliction fills my breast,
And swells the tide of grief;
O! shed thy balm into my heart,
And, plucking thence the piercing dart,
Bestow thy kind relief.
.
Now Comfort shuns my woful sight,
And sad returns the sleepless night,
In sable glooms array'd;
I court thy pow'rs with anxious mind,
And, on the down of rest reclin'd,
I bless thy lenient aid.
.My joyless hours I waste alone,
Unpitied weep, unheeded moan,
Unfriended sigh forlorn;
Consign to grief my crawling years,
The victim of desponding cares,
Existing but to mourn.
.
Thou faithful friend in all my grief,
In thy soft arms I find relief;
In thee forget my woes:
Unfeeling waste my wint'ry day,
And pass with thee the night away,
Reclin'd in soft repose.
.O! still exert thy soothing pow'r,
Till fate leads on the welcom'd hour,
To bear me hence away;
To where pursues no ruthless foe,
No feeling keen awakens woe,
No faithless friends betray.
WHILST, crowding on my woful hour,
Fate's deep'ning glooms indignant low'r,
And crush my wearie soul;
Thou, Laudanum, can'st quickly steep
My burning eyes in balmy sleep,
And ev'ry grief controul.
.
When Reason strives, but strives in vain,
To banish care, to vanquish pain,
And calm sad thoughts to rest;
Thy soothing virtues can impart
A bland sensation to my heart,
And heal my wounded breast.
Whilst fell Disease, with rapid flame
Preys ireful on my feeble frame,
Pervading ev'ry vein;
Thou canst repel the venom'd rage,
The fever'd anguish canst assuage,
And blunt the tooth of Pain.
.
When wakeful Sensibility
Her wrongs recounts, I fly to thee,
And feel her touch no more;
At painful Memory's loud call,
'Twas she, with fingers dipt in gall,
My rankling bosom tore.
.
With soul-corroding thought oppress'd
Whilst keen affliction fills my breast,
And swells the tide of grief;
O! shed thy balm into my heart,
And, plucking thence the piercing dart,
Bestow thy kind relief.
.
Now Comfort shuns my woful sight,
And sad returns the sleepless night,
In sable glooms array'd;
I court thy pow'rs with anxious mind,
And, on the down of rest reclin'd,
I bless thy lenient aid.
.My joyless hours I waste alone,
Unpitied weep, unheeded moan,
Unfriended sigh forlorn;
Consign to grief my crawling years,
The victim of desponding cares,
Existing but to mourn.
.
Thou faithful friend in all my grief,
In thy soft arms I find relief;
In thee forget my woes:
Unfeeling waste my wint'ry day,
And pass with thee the night away,
Reclin'd in soft repose.
.O! still exert thy soothing pow'r,
Till fate leads on the welcom'd hour,
To bear me hence away;
To where pursues no ruthless foe,
No feeling keen awakens woe,
No faithless friends betray.
Poems, Lyric and Pastoral vol I, pp 1-5 was
Iolo believed that the Welsh bards had inherited the learning and traditions of the Druids of the ancient world. Iolo, however, declared that Druidism had survived in its purest form in Glamorgan, his birthplace. He produced a vast corpus of literary forgeries and Druidic lore to justify this claim, products of his own very fertile, laudanum-addicted imagination. So in 1791, he returned to London proclaiming, in both Welsh and English literary circles, that he was heir to all the mysteries of Druidism.
So on this day, the Summer Solstice of 21st of June, Summer Solstice, 1792, Iolo Morganwg held a ceremony on the nearest mountain he could find, Primrose Hill , and founded the Gorsedd of Bardds (in Welsh the Gorsedd Beirdd Ynys Prydain), a community of Welsh bards dedicated to preserving Welsh language, poetry and music. He developed the ritual for the ceremony from druidic rites described in ancient manuscripts from his own collection that were later found to have been yet again creations of his own. As they say if you've got an idea, you might as well go for it, wish I was capable of pursuing my inner dreams as Iolo did.
Thanks to Iolo's actions on Primrose Hill it would see the revival of the Eisteddfod, otherwise known as the national festival of Wales.The Eisteddfod is a folk festival celebrating Welsh language, music, poetry and literature that traces its lineage back to a grand gathering of musicians and poets held by Lord Rhys of my hometown Cardigan/ Aberteifi in 1176. From that early progenitor, a vast number of provincial gatherings proliferated over the centuries, sponsored by local lords all over Wales.
Iolo returned to Wales in 1795, and began collecting material for his magnum opus, 'The History of the British Bards', a book that would, he believed, explain all the history and learning of the Druids to the world. In 1801 and 1807, a large number of his forgeries were published in the Myvyrian Archaiology, (three volumes of Welsh poems, which were crucial to keeping the Welsh language alive) .after he had persuaded the editors that they were texts copied from old manuscripts. Iolo and this is why I like him so much, never wandered or wavered from the devotion to his ideals and inner vision.
In 1819 the eisteddfod festivals and the Gorsedd of Bards came together, thanks once again to Iolo Morgannwg, now 72 years old and still with a keen eye towards promoting Welsh civilization. He traveled to the eisteddfod being held at the Ivy Bush Inn in Carmarthen and drew a Gorsedd circle meant to be a sacred circle of standing stones a la Stonehenge, on the lawn using a handful of pebbles from his pockets. He went on to admit poets and druids, including the local bishop and festival patron, Bishop Thomas Burgess of St. David’s. giving them white, blue and green ribbons according to their rank. During the chairing ceremony a new rite took form as poets stood either side of the chair, sheathing and unsheathing a sword above the winning poet’s head. The sword used by Iolo during these 1819 ceremonies can still to be seen at St Fagans National History Museum.
Iolo Morganwg's sword used in the 1819 ceremony
From then on, the Gorsedd and the eisteddfod continued to develop their relationship, and when the National Eisteddfod was established in 1861, the Gorsedd’s Druidic rituals, now considerably more elaborate than they had been at that first Primrose Hill ceremony of 1792, played a central role, providing high drama and pageantry in the medal ceremonies and in the investiture of important political, religious and cultural figures into the Gorsedd in recognition of their contributions to the nation, language and culture of Wales.
Iolo died in 1826, aged 80 leaving an enormous collection of manuscripts. This collection is now at the National Library of Wales. When Welsh scholars discovered the extent of his forgeries at the beginning of last century, he was rejected and reviled and when a plaque was erected on Primrose
Hill in 2009 in his honour the Friends of Regent's Park and Primrose Hill objected.
Its chair attacked Iolo claiming, “this chap was bankrupt and a forger. A
bloody criminal.”
In response to this attack on Iolo the
Welsh poet, Danny Abse, https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2014/09/dannie-abse-poet-doctor-rip-22923-28914.html pointed out that:
“Morganwg was a legendary Welsh poet. He did forge poems. But he was a great, great scholar – and he fooled
everybody. I’m not sure if he was a drug addict, but he was certainly
the best poet that went to Cardiff jail."
He added :"Christopher Marlow died in a pub brawl-but we celebrate him don't we? Lord Byron was a womaniser, but he is buried in Westminster Cathedral."
Abse was making a very valid point here, Iolo was not exceptional.Nations and nationalisms are human
constructs and involve the creation of a supposed national identity
stretching back into the mists of time.
I personally try not to forget this maverick genius, I have a picture of this poet and visionary in my bathroom, a romantic juggler of truth yes, but what a man. Lets continue to celebrate him as a scholar who sought about reviving Welsh culture, I think my nation actually owes this rebel druid a lot of debt. Happy Summer solstice.
Plaque: Iolo Morganwg
Inscription-
{Around the relief portrait bust:}
1747 Iolo Morganwg 1826
Y gwir yn erbyn y byd
The truth against the world
{In an outer ring:}
This is the site of the first meeting of the Gorsedd of the Bards of the Isle of Britain 22.6.1792.
Yma y cyfarfu Gorsedd Beirdd Ynys Prydain gyntaf
{Welsh text says roughly the same as the English.}
{On the low wall at the southern edge of the viewing area:}
I have conversed with the spiritual sun. I saw him on Primrose Hill. William Blake 1757 - 1827.
The plaque of Anglesey Stone designed and carved by Morris was unveiled at mid-day on the summer solstice, 2009, to commemorate the first meeting of the Gorsedd of the Bards of the Isles of Britain which Iolo Morganwg organised on the summer solstice of 1792.
The Blake quote, recalled by Henry Crabb Robinson in his 1869 diaries, was designed and hand carved by Will Davies over three weeks.
