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The Antiquaries Journal http://journals.cambridge.org/ANT Additional services for The Antiquaries Journal: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here Welsh Bucklers Ifor Edwards and Claude Blair The Antiquaries Journal / Volume 62 / Issue 01 / March 1982, pp 74 - 115 DOI: 10.1017/S0003581500003991, Published online: 29 November 2011 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0003581500003991 How to cite this article: Ifor Edwards and Claude Blair (1982). Welsh Bucklers. The Antiquaries Journal, 62, pp 74-115 doi:10.1017/S0003581500003991 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/ANT, IP address: 131.217.6.8 on 29 Feb 2016 WELSH BUCKLERS By IFOR EDWARDS and CLAUDE BLAIR, F.S.A. I. Documentary Evidence from Medieval Welsh Poetry1 By Ifor Edwards DESPITE certain variations from early times, the continuation of the traditional form of patronage of the Welsh poets into medieval times ensured a continuity of poetry which varied mainly in its subject matter and form of poetic conceit only. The pattern of Welsh life—of uchelwyr (noblemen) and beirdd teulu (family poets)—was a development over the centuries from the days of the Welsh princes through the period of the Norman Conquest, when the poets were absorbed into the changing fabric of the new society almost unaltered. Patronage by the uchelzvyr existed before 1282—a memorable year for Welsh history in the reign of Edward I—but was overshadowed by that of the princes. After that date the uchelwyr were not bound by law to support the poets, and hence the poets had no legal status. Poets often became peripatetic, although some attached themselves to one particular family when this was possible. As patronage became voluntary there was no legal obligation to bestow gifts. Patrons were praised in several ways: by direct eulogy or elegy (the patron need not be deceased), or by a new genre, the cywydd gofyn, a poem of asking. When a bard or a friend wished to obtain a gift, he would first of all make a request. If the request was granted, then the poet would produce a cywydd gofyn. Usually such a poem gave a detailed account of the patron's ancestors, extolling their noble birth and virtues. Then came dyfalu—a technical bardic term—implying a description of the object requested by comparing it with many, varied objects. This comparison not only implies similarity but the many associations related to that similarity. One of the poems of Guto'r Glyn, an ode 'To David, Abbot of Valle Crucis Abbey, to thank him for a buckler',2 written shortly before 1500, illustrates this point in the lines: 297 Pob gordd yn pwyaw heb gam Pricswng y siop o Wrecsam. (Every blow of the hammer was faultless The prize of the shop at Wrexham.) The prize, the pricksong {pricswng), meant a song/music pricked on to vellum. Guto'r Glyn compared the buckler to a finely executed medieval music manuscript, illuminated in various colours and gold. In the period 1475 to the second half of the sixteenth century many odes and elegies3 were written to the uchelwyr, and among the popular gifts requested were bucklers and swords. From the Welsh poets of this period we are able to elicit descriptions of the bucklers of the period. No doubt, certain regions of England and Wales had their own variations of bucklers. The examples from the poems quoted below instance some of the Welsh varia- WELSH BUCKLERS 75 tions and they serve to throw some light on the attractiveness and craftsmanship of the bucklers of this period. Guto'r Glyn, whose lines were quoted above, was probably a native of the Dee valley above Llangollen. Apart from performing his duties as a poet, he was a soldier and at one time was one of the personal bodyguards to Edward IV. Gutun Owain, whose poetry flourished between 1460 and 1503, was a native of St. Martin's, near Oswestry, about ten miles from Llangollen. Two of his descriptive odes are relevant here: (a) an ode asking for a buckler from John Puleston of Hafod y Wern in Wrexham on behalf of John, son of Elis Eyton of Watstay, Ruabon; and (b) an ode asking for a buckler on behalf of Humphrey Kynaston of Stokes, near Ellesmere, from Gruffudd of Morton, Ruabon, son of Hywel, who lived at Althrey, Bangor on Dee, near Wrexham.4 The poem (a) to John Puleston has a fine description of the buckler which is being requested: it is referred to as being like the Round Table of King Arthur at Caerleon with a boss of round steel, with the finger-lines like a crab.5 The poet was asking for a steel buckler worthy of a man as brave as Owain ab Urien (one of the traditional heroes), one decorative and as round as the moon. 102 A picture of the sun full of rivets A buckler with snowflakes or with flowers of steel scattered all over it. Fine silver dew sparkles in the splendour The rivets are sparks from the sun. Like a games6 table (inlaid) with fine crystal stones A steel frieze, a shield to excite one. 109 There are steel laths in the buckler And three rings on top of the ribs 112 Surround it and its boss hollow. In the ode written for Humphrey Kynaston by Gutun Owain we find the following description of a buckler: 27 A song to you will come from your relative, It was praise—asking for a buckler from him: A steel moon for the old (brave) soldier, It is an addition to a man's left hand. Hollow steel is found on its mantle, (It is very welcome on his white tunic;) With a hundred crosses on the white shirt, A token to be held, it will not allow a wound, (With) a nest for the fist behind the steel. The gown (covering) is moulded like a beehive, A curved cake over a man's limbs. Many ribs are found from its body, Wings to keep a soul. There is a precious stone on every rib, Small white ones like the gems of the swallow. The dew of the blacksmith, bright and beautiful are they, They are the beautiful flowers of the smithy. 76 THE ANTIQUARIES JOURNAL (As beautiful) as the best in the shops of Cheapside,7 Stars as thickly powdered as on the Milky Way. It is likened to a thick bag, Give this, tall brave man, Your nephew desires to receive Your gift, brave, genial man. Give your golden buckler, 50 Your nephew and your gift will come to your aid. Another poet of the period, Tudur Aled, came from the same county of Clwyd but spent his last days in Carmarthen. He flourished from 1480 to the year of his death in 1526. The ode, where he asks the favour of four bucklers from the four sons of Elis Eyton of Ruabon for their uncle, Hywel, son of Jenkin from Tywyn in Gwynedd, has great des- criptive powers with cryptic sketches of the four sons in the opening verses.8 47 Four bucklers of Peredur, Planets in steel honeycombs; Where dwell twelve knuckles, Four bosses snug for the fist; Four balls like holly berries, The smith's pepper in white paper; Each buckler like a streak of lightning, With all its limbs pock-marked; They are leafy, glass honeycombs, Steel dice on the left hand of a man; Relics, stars, like the opening of a causeway; Frozen hurdles in an iron palm; Sparks of the three heavy anvils, Grains of pelting rain on white skin; The colour of stars, entirely sunlit, The eyes of a pike in the sun; 63 Wrought steel, fine, in heat. A second ode by Tudur Aled, an elegy, pays tribute to a renowned buckler maker of Ruabon, near Wrexham: he was Ieuan ap Deicws.9 The requested buckler was to be made by his two pupils who probably worked at the same smithy in Ruabon Parish, after the death of Ieuan. This would have been on the estate of John ab Elis Eyton, referred to above. Ieuan is described as: 10 Ieuan the father of smiths, 6 He was the prince of smithery, Principal author with steel and fire, A prophet in the forge hearth .... 19 A hand that instructs better than any, A hand which is the foundation of all skill.... The area around Ruabon, was renowned for its bloomery forges from early days. In it was an area known as 'Morton Fabrorum', as well as 'Morton Anglicorum' (as distinct from 'Morton Wallicorum', on the Welsh side of Offa's Dyke). In the bloomery forges the WELSH BUCKLERS 77 iron was smelted in the bloom hearth (fabrica bloomeria) and passed to the string hearth {fabrica operand) for working and stretching the iron. These were side by side. Early maps of the region of Morton near Ruabon show a number of small ponds which were probably connected with this early period of iron-making. An indenture of 1472 granted a lease of land to Ieuan ap Deicws for him to raise iron- stone from Ruabon Mountain, which suggests that he had not only a smithy but also a bloomery forge to make his iron.10 This may have been indicative of the pattern of iron- working in Wales at this time, until the 'indirect method' of iron-making arrived, using blast furnace and forge. In the case of Ruabon, a blast furnace was in existence here prior to 1634 when it was occupied by 'Roger Hill'.11 No doubt the siting of the furnace would have been influenced by the presence of cinders from the bloomery forges: these were considered to be an essen- tial additive to the iron ore in the blast furnace.