Born on this day 1881 at Pendinas, Tregarth near Bangor,
Sir Ifor Williams, an academic who specialised in the study of Old Welsh, particularly early Welsh poetry.
Williams had an avid interest in Welsh place-names, publishing Enwau Lleoedd ('Place Names') in 1945, a text which is still very much in use today.
His main field of interest was Old Welsh and the earliest Welsh poetry. He published Canu Llywarch Hen in 1935 and in 1938, possibly his most significant work, Canu Aneurin, which has provided the foundation for all subsequent work on this poetry. Canu Taliesin, published in 1960, examined the work of the other 6th-century poet Taliesin.
Old Welsh refers to the Welsh language from about 800 AD until the early 12th century. An earlier period, when Welsh became distinct from Common Brythonic in the 6th century is referred to as 'Primitive' or 'Archaic Welsh'. Many poems and some prose have been preserved from this period, for example the text of y Gododdin, a poem describing events in the kingdom of Gododdin (the area known as Yr Hen Ogledd - modern south-east Scotland and north-east England). The oldest surviving text entirely in Old Welsh is probably that on a gravestone, now in Tywyn church in Gwynedd, thought to date from the 7th century.
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