Meirion Pennar (1944–2010)
Autore di Taliesin Poems
Opere di Meirion Pennar
Opere correlate
Glas-nos : poems for peace : an anthology for peace by the poets of Wales (1987) — Collaboratore — 1 copia
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Nome legale
- Pennar, Andreas Meirion
- Data di nascita
- 1944-12-24
- Data di morte
- 2010-12-09
- Sesso
- male
- Nazionalità
- UK
- Luogo di nascita
- Cardiff, Wales
- Luogo di morte
- Swansea, Wales
- Luogo di residenza
- Swansea, Wales
Llandysul, Wales
Adpar, Wales
Newcastle Emlyn, Wales - Istruzione
- Swansea University
Jesus College, Oxford
Dynevor Grammar School, Swansea - Attività lavorative
- poet
academic - Relazioni
- Davies, Pennar (father)
- Organizzazioni
- Dublin University
University of Wales, Lampeter
Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society) - Breve biografia
- A lecturer in Welsh at University of Wales, Lampeter, his specialist fields included medieval Welsh poetry and the Welsh novel in the 19th Century.
His translations of Taliesin poems and The Black Book of Carmarthen were well received and remain in print. He published two volumes of poetry, Syndod y Sêr and Pair Dadeni, and two long poems, Saga and Y Gadwyn.
One of five children, he was the eldest son of the theologian and writer, Dr Pennar Davies. Born in Cardiff, he was brought up in Bangor, Brecon and Swansea. He graduated with an honours degree in Welsh from Swansea University and was a research student at Jesus College, Oxford.
He was a lecturer in Welsh in Dublin until he was appointed lecturer in the Welsh Department, Lampeter in 1975.
He lived in Ceredigion for many years, including Llandysul and Adpar, Newcastle Emlyn, before moving to Swansea to care for his ageing mother and younger brother, Geraint, in the last decade or so.
He published a number of articles in periodicals and magazines about a wide range of topics relating to Welsh literature.
He was a language and political campaigner in the 1970s with the Welsh Language Society, a political columnist with Y Ddraig Goch magazine and was a parliamentary candidate for Plaid Cymru in the Swansea West constituency.
Dr Pennar died at his home in Swansea.
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Statistiche
- Opere
- 3
- Opere correlate
- 1
- Utenti
- 66
- Popolarità
- #259,059
- Voto
- 4.3
- Recensioni
- 1
- ISBN
- 3
Pennar's introduction gives essential information on Taliesin, the kingdoms of 6th-century north Wales and England and historical and cultural context for the poems.
The poems themselves give a fascinating insight into a sparsely documented era, and one which was the foundation for later Arthurian legends. It's not likely you're going to be quoting any of these lines, though it might be fun to try to work:
And until I am old and ailing
in the dire necessity of death
I shall not be in my element
if I don't praise Urien
into a conversation.
Update: On my third reading, I was struck more by the power of Taliesin's verse. Although I didn't find it much more quotable, given that I'm rarely preparing for hand-to-hand combat with the villagers up the road, I seldom rustle cattle these days, nor am I often needing to praise a king for his battle prowess, there is something stirring in Taliesin's declamations of King Urien's might, pre-eminance and generous openhandedness. By contrast, the poem, What if Urien were Dead, is quiet, imbued with the poet's anxiety for the safety of the king, whose extended absence on campaign seems to me to speak of a deeper friendship and companionliness than simply that of a an artist for his patron, or of a subject for his ruler.
I think that's what brings the poems alive - Taliesin speaks directly, often in the first person, of the things he's seen and heard, tells of his own observations and feelings. He's immediate and, despite the hyperbolic agrandisment of his subject, there's an honesty to what he says. I get the strong feeling of a deep affection and friendship, not without its fallings-out and reconciliations (the latter, Pennar says, becoming a particular type of Welsh poetry, copied by later bards from Taliesin's example) between the two men.… (altro)