Imaging the Bible in Wales

Visual Culture of Wales

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Dafydd ap Gwilym

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Work – Graphic Design – Dafydd ap Gwilym

In creating a new image for the website, I sought to make something that would resonate with the world that Dafydd ap Gwilym knew, and echo the use of nature in his poetry.

The main part of the image draws on the floriate design found on some medieval rood screens which survive from medieval Wales. It suggests the trees and leaves that the poet describes and which form a foundation to poems such as ‘Offeren y Llwyn’ and ‘Y Deildy’.

Detail of the medieval rood screen from Llananno, late fifteenth century

Using parts of the medieval screen at Llananno in Powys, I worked on a section of the ornament which forms the basis of the image. The animals which face each other are two animals that the poet encounters, a fox and a magpie.

The medieval screen at Conwy includes a number of birds and animals, and among its creatures are what may be hunting dogs, one of which I adapted as a fox. The magpie is drawn from an English Bestiary, which dates from the first quarter of the fifteenth century and is now in the Royal Library in Copenhagen.

Screen and detail from the rood screen at Conwy, early sixteenth century

The text in the centre contains the opening lines of ‘Mis Mai a Mis Tachwedd’ from Peniarth 49, a manuscript which includes most of Dafydd ap Gwilym’s poems. The script for Dafydd ap Gwilym.net is taken from this hand, and has been adapted to make it more readable.

Gwaith Dafydd ap Gwilym