Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg, was born in the parish of Llancarfan, Glamorgan, south Wales. He claimed, with poetic if not historical truth, to have arrived “on the 21st day of March 1747 (New Stile) at six o clock in the morning at the same instant as I have been told that the rising sun appeared” (Constantine, 2007, p. 2). Solstice and equinox, days of calendrical significance, and metaphors of light and dark, would pattern his thinking all his life. He is known today for his complex legacy to Welsh culture: an adept literary forger and visionary antiquarian, his ‘interference' with early Welsh texts frustrated advances in historical and literary research for most of the nineteenth century. And yet, paradoxically, his inventions also inspired a…
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Citation: Constantine, Mary-Ann. "Iolo Morganwg". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12058, accessed 26 April 2024.]
