RHISIERDYN , a Gwynedd poet of the latter half of the 14th cent.
His canon has not been fixed, and there are textual confusions. In the B.B.C.S., vol. i, part 2, 123-33, Dr. Henry Lewis published a study of the poems attributed to him in the R. B. H. Poetry and in the Myv. Arch. Rhisierdyn sang panegyric awdlau to Gronwy (Fychan) ap Tudur (d. 1382; see under Ednyfed Fychan) and to Myfanwy his wife, and an elegiac awdl to Sir Hywel y Fwyall (q.v.). The awdl to the abbot of Aberconwywhich the Myv. Arch. attributes to Casnodyn is given in N.L.W. MS. 4973C 260b to Rhisierdyn, and Pen. MS. 118 (140) attributes to Rhisierdyn the pious ode ‘y Duw uchaf y Kyfarchaf …’ which is ascribed in R. B. H. Poetry (col. 1251) to Bleddyn Ddu. Many manuscripts (e.g. Bodl. 1 and 2, Pen. 90 and 100) include a panegyric cywydd to Hwlcyn ap Howel ap Ierwerth Ddu of Presaddfed, Anglesey (‘Cad ddirwy keidw ddwyrodd’), which they attribute to Rhisierdyn. A pilgrimage by Hwlcyn to Jerusalem is mentioned in this poem.
Author:
David Myrddin Lloyd, M.A., (1909-81), Aberystwyth / Scotland
