T. Gwynn Jones

Y Prifardd Professor T. Gwynn Jones
Anonymous portrait of T. Gwynn Jones in the National Library of Wales
Born	Thomas Jones 10 October 1871 Y Gwyndy Uchaf, Betws-yn-Rhos, Denbighshire, Wales
Died	7 March 1949(1949-03-07) (aged 77) Willow Lawn, Caradoc Road, Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire, Wales
Other names	Gwynvre ap Iwan
Occupation(s)	Journalist, librarian, academic and poet
Notable work	Ymadawiad Arthur
Title	Emeritus Professor of Celtic
Spouse	Margaret Jane Davies
Children	Eluned, Arthur ap Gwynn, Llywelyn
Parent(s)	Isaac Jones and Jane Roberts
Awards	National Eisteddfod Chair (1902 and 1905), D.Litt (Wales) (1937), D.Litt (Eire) (1937), C.B.E. (1937)

Professor Thomas Gwynn Jones C.B.E. (10 October 1871 – 7 March 1949), more widely known as T. Gwynn Jones, was a leading Welsh poet, scholar, literary critic, novelist, translator, and journalist who did important work in Welsh literature, Welsh education, and the study of Welsh folk tales in the first half of the twentieth century. He was also an accomplished translator into Welsh of works from English, German, Greek, and Irish.

Personal life

Thomas Jones was born at Y Gwyndy Uchaf in Betws-yn-Rhos, Denbighshire, Wales, the eldest son of Isaac Jones and Jane Roberts. He was educated in Denbigh and Abergele. In 1899 he married Margaret Jane Davies, the daughter of Thomas Davies of Denbigh, by whom he had three children.

Career

1890s-1900s Journalism

Always of a fragile physical disposition, Jones was unable to take up a scholarship to Oxford University due to one of many bouts of ill health which were to plague him throughout his life. He instead took up journalism, writing for a number of newspapers in both English and Welsh. By 1890 he was a sub-editor on the Welsh-language newspaper Baner ac Amserau Cymru (Y Faner), but he was also regularly publishing poetry. His first novel, Gwedi Brad a Gofid was serialised in 1898 and he would be writing novels more or less continuously for the next decade. His greatest ambition however had always been to be a successful poet, however; though his first collection of poetry, Gwlad y Gân, was met with mixed reviews, a fact probably not helped by the fact that the title poem satirised the Welsh literary establishment and Eisteddfod tradition.

In 1902 however he won the coveted chair at the National Eisteddfod in Bangor for his awdl Ymadawiad Arthur, though he had not expected to win, and indeed was not present at the ceremony. The poem integrated the native Welsh traditions around King Arthur as found in the Mabinogion with those of the wider European tradition and ushered in a new Romantic era in Welsh language poetry, with Gwynn as one of its foremost figures. The poem is still one of his best known, though he himself claimed to think very little of it.

In 1905 he became editor of the journal Papur Pawb, ushering in a period of intense productivity, producing, in the space of only a few years some five novels and over two hundred short stories, as well as a second chair in 1908. This led ultimately to a physical collapse, leading to a tour of the Mediterranean and Egypt to recouperate.

1910s-1940s: Academia and Retirement

He wrote a famous biography of the great Liberal publisher Thomas Gee, whose work influenced Jones throughout his life. After many years as a journalist, Jones worked at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, and later as a lecturer in the Welsh department at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he became a professor in 1919.

His major academic work was an edition of the fifteenth-century poet, Tudur Aled.

A strong opponent of the First World War, Jones walked out of the Tabernacle Chapel in Aberystwyth when the minister offered a prayer for a British victory in the war. He later wrote "If there's anything I understand from the New Testament, it is that Jesus Christ is not a militaristic person. He is the Saviour of the world, he is the Prince of Peace. Therefore those who say they are Christians, followers of Christ must reject war totally."

He was awarded CBE in the 1937 Coronation Honours.

Influence

T. Gwynn Jones's writings had a significant influence on Robert Graves in his mythopoeic study The White Goddess. Graves developed his suggestion of a distinction between the restricted poetry of the official Welsh bards, and the more expansive and fanciful unofficial Welsh writings: "The tales and Romances, on the other hand, are full of colour and incident; even characterization is not absent from them. In them fancy...develops into imagination".

Published works

Cover of Ymadawiad Arthur a Chaniadau Eraill, a collection of poems in Welsh by T. Gwynn Jones (Caernarfon, 1910).

Novels & Short Stories

• Gwedi Brad a Gofid (1898)
• Brethyn Cartref (Short Stories; 1913; stories originally published in magazines between 1906-08)
• Gorchest Gwilym Bevan (1899) - English translation The Great Deed of Gwilym Bevan published 2024.
• John Homer (1923; original serial 1908)
• Lona (1923; original serial 1908)

Poetry

• Gwlad y Gân a cherddi eraill (1902)
• Caniadau (1934)
• Y Dwymyn (1944)
• (trans.), Awen y Gwyddyl (1922) – translated Irish poetry.
• (trans.), Blodau o Hen Ardd (1927) – translated Greek epigrams.
• (trans.), Faust by Goethe (1922)

Academic and Other Works

• Astudiaethau (1936)
• Bardism and Romance (1914)
• Beirniadaeth a Myfyrdod (1935)
• Brithgofion (1944)
• Cofiant Thomas Gee (1913)
• Cymeriadau (1933)
• Dyddgwaith (1937)
• Eglwys y Dyn Tlawd (1892)
• Emrys ap Iwan. Cofiant (1912)
• (ed.) Gwaith Tudur Aled, 2 vols., (1926)
• Llenyddiaeth Y Cymry (1915)
• Rhieingerddi'r Gogynfeirdd (1915)
• (trans.) Visions of the Sleeping Bard (1940)
• Welsh Folklore and Welsh Folk-custom (1930)

External links

• Works by Thomas Gwynn Jones at Faded Page (Canada)
• Welsh Biography Online – JONES, THOMAS GWYNN (1871–1949), poet, writer, translator and scholar
• Description of the T. Gwynn Jones and Arthur ap Gwynn Papers