SOURCE: Davies, Morgan T. “‘Aed i'r coed i dorri cof’: Dafydd ap Gwilym and the Metaphorics of Carpentry.” Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies, no. 30 (1995): 67-86.

In the following essay, Davies traces the use of carpentry as a metaphor in various genres of literature, centering his argument around the way Dafydd ap Gwilym may have been influenced to use such a metaphor in his own works.

In the first cywydd of his ymryson with Gruffudd Gryg, Dafydd ap Gwilym responds to Gruffudd's opening attack with various countercharges of his own. Among the more substantive of these is his accusation that Gruffudd is derivative, a plagiarist, a poet who can only repeat poems composed by other bards. Thus, near the end of the poem, Dafydd terms his opponent ‘craig lefair beirdd’¹—‘the echo-stone of poets’—a metaphor that suggests not only the passively imitative character of Gruffudd's poetry but also the...