Iolo Morganwg and the Romantic Tradition in Wales

This is the first full-scale study of the political radicalism of Iolo Morganwg, the renowned Welsh romantic whose colourful life as a Glamorgan stonemason, poet, writer, political activist and humanitarian made him one of the founders of modern Wales. This path-breaking volume offers a vivid portrait of a natural contrarian who tilted against the forces of the establishment for the whole of his adult life. Known as the 'Bard of Liberty' or the 'little republican bard', he moved in highly-politicized circles, embraced republicanism, founded the Gorsedd of the Bards of the Isle of Britain, threw in his lot with Unitarians, promoted a sense of cultural nationalism, and supported the anti-slave trade campaign and the anti-war movement during years of war, oppression and cruelty.

A cunning and successful literary forger, Iolo Morganwg has been a controversial figure within Welsh literary tradition and history ever since his death in 1826. During his lifetime, however, he was largely a figure on the margins of Welsh literary society, who found the task of getting his work into the coveted sphere of print culture a gargantuan one. This book examines how he dealt with the frustrations of his marginality—writing sardonic remarks in the margins of books published by his contemporaries, and submerging himself in a mound of scrap paper on which he wrote numerous drafts of poems and conducted original work on the Welsh language.