Dafydd ap Gwilym
14th-century Welsh poet
Dafydd ap Gwilym (c. 1315/1320 – c. 1352) is regarded as one of the leading Welsh poets and among the great poets of Europe in the Middle Ages. Dafydd's poetry also offers a window into the cultural practices of the period and preservation of culture in the face of occupation.
Life
Tradition has it that Dafydd was born at Brogynin, near Penrhyn-coch (at the time in Llanbadarn Fawr parish), Ceredigion, 6 or 7 miles from Aberystwyth. Although he does not mention Brogynin in his poems, in his poem Taith i Garu (Journey for Love) he mentions a number of places which are close by, showing that he was familiar with the region. He also mentions going to church in Llanbadarn Fawr in the poem Girls of Llanbadarn.
His father, Gwilym Gam, and mother, Ardudfyl, were both from noble families. As one of noble birth it seems Dafydd did not belong to the guild of professional poets in medieval Wales.
R. Geraint Gruffydd suggests c.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Dafydd ap Gwilym” as 14th-century Welsh poet. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as 14th-century Welsh poet. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q517287. VIAF identifies the subject as 27075186. The Library of Congress control number is n79089393. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1315, 1320 and 1352.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Dafydd ap Gwilym” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.