View source for The Dream (Dafydd ap Gwilym poem)

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[[File:Y Breuddwyd.gif|thumb|The first twelve lines of "The Dream" in its earliest manuscript, [[National Library of Wales]] MS 3057D (Mostyn 161), c. 1560.]]
"'''The Dream'''" (Welsh: ''Y Breuddwyd'') is a medieval Welsh poem in the form of a ''[[cywydd]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bromwich |first1=Rachel |author-link1=Rachel Bromwich |year=1986 |title=Aspects of the Poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym: Collected Papers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3e0rAAAAMAAJ |location=Cardiff |publisher=University of Wales Press |page=76 |isbn=0708309054 |access-date=11 June 2024 }}</ref> Though it is included in both of the modern editions of the works of [[Dafydd ap Gwilym]], widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets,<ref>{{cite book |last=Koch |first=John T. |author-link=John T. Koch |date=2006 |title=Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Volume 5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f899xH_quaMC&q=%22regarded+as+the+greatest+Welsh+poet%22&pg=PA1770 |location=Santa Barbara |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=1770 |isbn=1851094407 |access-date=11 June 2024 }}</ref> it is not typical of his work and doubts have been expressed as to his authorship. The poet's dream is an [[Allegory|allegorical]] one about hunting a white doe in which the doe represents the woman he loves. The large number of manuscripts and of English translations testify to its popularity through the centuries.
== Summary ==
Sleeping, the poet dreams that he has released his greyhounds in a wood and that they have found and pursued a white doe over mountainous terrain. The doe comes to the poet for protection, and he wakes up. When day breaks he seeks out a wise old woman and asks her to interpret his dream. She tells him that the dream is a good omen: the hounds were his ''llateion'' (love-messengers), and the doe was the lady he loves, who will turn to him at last.
== Manuscripts ==
"The Dream" survives in as many as 35 manuscripts, though none of them date from before the middle of the 16th century, most being 17th or 18th century.{{sfn|Lake|2007a}}{{sfn|Johnston|2007a|pp=12, 20–21}} Some preserve the poem in incomplete forms, omitting up to 12 of its 42 lines.{{sfn|Lake|2007b}} Amongst the key manuscripts are [[National Library of Wales]] MS 3057D (Mostyn 161), a collection of poetry made in the [[River Conwy|Conwy Valley]] sometime between 1558 and 1563, perhaps for the Gwydir family; [[Cardiff Central Library]] MS 4.330 (Hafod 26), a collection of most of Dafydd ap Gwilym's poems (along with some by other poets) made in the Conwy Valley about 1574 by the lexicographer [[Thomas Wiliems]]; and [[British Library]] MS [[Stowe manuscripts|Stowe]] 959 (BM 48), which was made in [[Carmarthenshire]] c. 1600. {{sfn|Lake|2007a}}{{sfn|Johnston|2007a|pp=12, 20–21}}
== Attribution ==
Every manuscript of "The Dream" attributes it to Dafydd ap Gwilym apart from one, which gives it no attribution. [[Thomas Parry (writer)|Thomas Parry]] accepted it into his 1952 edition of Dafydd's poems without question, and it is likewise included in the 2007 online edition by Dafydd Johnston ''et al.'' as being one of the 147 poems in the Dafydd ap Gwilym canon rather than one of the 20 whose authorship it considers doubtful.{{sfn|Lake|2007b}}{{sfn|Johnston|2007b|p=8}} Yet this attribution is acknowledged to be problematic. The vocabulary of the poem is quite simple, no compound words being used, and so is the style: there is nowhere any ambiguity or depth of meaning. This is not typical of Dafydd,{{sfn|Lake|2007b}} and Johnston has admitted that "it might well be the work of another poet".{{sfn|Johnston|2007b|p=8}}
== Analogues ==
The poem combines two motifs well-established in Celtic and wider Western literature.
[[Plato]] used the metaphor of the hunt when writing about the lover's pursuit. In later works the deer sometimes represents the poet, as in ''Ideas Mirrour'', a 16th-century poem by [[Michael Drayton]], and sometimes it is the beloved, as in the 13th-century French poem, ''Li dis dou cerf amoreus'',<ref>{{cite book |last=Cartmill |first=Matt |author-link=Matt Cartmill |date=1996 |title=A View to a Death in the Morning: Hunting and Nature Through History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7s6I-QkQw5cC&pg=PA70 |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press |page=70 |isbn=9780674029255 |access-date=11 June 2024 }}</ref> and in one passage (lines 1527–1535) of [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]]'s ''[[Troilus and Criseyde]]''.{{sfn|Watson|2014|p=63}} In earlier Welsh literature, as in Dafydd's poem, the object of the hunt is often a white doe.{{sfn|Edwards|1996|p=198}}
The dream of the beloved was a motif used in another of Dafydd's poems, "The Clock".{{sfn|Edwards|1996|p=198}} It was famously the basis of ''[[Roman de la Rose|Le Roman de la Rose]]'', but is older than that. Such a dream, together with an interpretation by an old crone, appears in [[Walther von der Vogelweide]]'s ''Dô der sumer komen was'', and as far back as [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Amores (Ovid)|Amores]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Aguirre |first=Manuel |date=1990 |title=The Closed Space: Horror Literature and Western Symbolism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jXq7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA45 |location=Manchester |publisher=Manchester University Press |page=45 |isbn=0719032075 |access-date=11 June 2024 }}</ref> A dream of the beloved is even presented in conjunction with a hunting scene in the ''[[Mabinogion]]'''s ''[[Welsh mythology#The Dream of Macsen Wledig|Dream of Macsen]]''.{{sfn|Watson|2014|p=63}}
== Editions ==
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Williams |editor-first1=Ifor |editor-link1=Ifor Williams |editor-last2=Roberts |editor-first2=Thomas |year=1935 |orig-year=1914 |title=Cywyddau Dafydd ap Gwilym a'i Gyfoeswyr |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ha4OAQAAMAAJ |location=Caerdydd |publisher=Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru |pages=61–62 }}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Parry |editor-first=Thomas |editor-link=Thomas Parry (author) |date=1952 |title=Gwaith Dafydd ap Gwilym |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xyc2swEACAAJ |location=Caerdydd |publisher=Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru |pages=107–109 }}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.dafyddapgwilym.net/eng/3win.php |editor-last=Lake |editor-first=A. Cynfael |date=2007 |title=79 – Y Breuddwyd |website=Dafydd ap Gwilym.net |publisher=Welsh Department, Swansea University/Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies |ref=none }}
== Translations and paraphrases ==
* [[Idris Bell|Bell, H. Idris]], in {{cite book |last1=Bell |first1=H. Idris |author-link1=Idris Bell |last2=Bell |first2=David |author-link2=David Bell (artist) |year=1942 |title=Fifty Poems |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fmfSAtW7t4EC&q=%22as+in+secret+place%22 |series=Y Cymmrodor, vol. 48 |location=London |publisher=Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion |pages=165, 167 }} With the Middle Welsh original in parallel text.
* {{cite book |year=1982 |editor-last=Bromwich |editor-first=Rachel |editor-link=Rachel Bromwich |title=Dafydd ap Gwilym: A Selection of Poems |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0yoR3NAnd-0C |location=Llandysul |publisher=Gomer Press |pages=108, 110 |isbn=0850888158 }} With the Middle Welsh original in parallel text.
* {{cite book |last1=Clancy |first1=Joseph P. |year=1965 |title=Medieval Welsh Lyrics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2YdiAAAAMAAJ&q=%22skilled+in+hiding%22 |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |pages=43–44 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Clancy |first1=Joseph P. |year=2016 |title=The Poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DEZ8zQEACAAJ |location=Bath |publisher=Brown Dog |pages=136–137 |isbn=9781785450891 }}
<!--The translation by W. J. Gruffydd listed in S. Rhian Reynolds "A Bibliography of Welsh Literature in English Translation" is actually of a different poem-->
* {{cite book |year=1969 |editor1-last=Gurney |editor1-first=Robert |title=Bardic Heritage |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pIhiAAAAMAAJ |location=London |publisher=Chatto & Windus |pages=101–103 |isbn=0701113286 }}
* {{cite book |last=Humphries |first=Rolfe |author-link=Rolfe Humphries |date=1969 |title=Nine Thorny Thickets |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=onciAAAAMAAJ&q=%22It+must+have+been%22 |location=Kent, OH |publisher=Kent State University Press |page=15 |isbn=9780873380393 }}
<!--The translation by Arthur James Johnes listed in S. Rhian Reynolds "A Bibliography of Welsh Literature in English Translation" is actually of a different poem-->
* {{cite web |url=https://dafyddapgwilym.net/AnaServer?dafydd+159971+compareSimpleEng.anv+edEl=159714&localEl=159971&titleEl=159702 |title=Edited Text: 79 - Y Breuddwyd. English Translation: 79 - Y Breuddwyd |last=Lake |first=A. Cynfael |date=2007 |website=Dafydd ap Gwilym.net |publisher=Welsh Department, Swansea University/Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies |access-date=9 June 2024 }}
* {{cite book |year=1982 |editor1-last=Loomis |editor1-first=Richard Morgan |title=Dafydd ap Gwilym: The Poems |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RfIrAAAAMAAJ |location=Binghamton |publisher=Center for Medieval & Early Renaissance Studies |pages=112–113 |isbn=0866980156 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Merchant |first1=Paul |last2=Faletra |first2=Michael |year=2018 |title=Unless She Beckons: Poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hNayswEACAAJ |location=La Grande, Oregon |publisher=Redbat |pages=33, 35 |isbn=9780997154993 }} With the Middle Welsh original in parallel text.
* {{cite book |year=2001 |editor1-last=Thomas |editor1-first=Gwyn |editor1-link= Gwyn Thomas (poet) |title=Dafydd ap Gwilym: His Poems |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XYxiAAAAMAAJ&q=dozing |location=Cardiff |publisher=University of Wales Press |pages=82–83 |isbn=0708316646 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Giles |year=2014 |title=Dafydd ap Gwilym: Paraphrases and Palimpsests |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gsa4BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA62 |location=npp |page=62 |isbn=9781291866803 |ref=none }}
== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}
== References ==
* {{cite book |last=Edwards |first=Huw M. |date=1996 |title=Dafydd ap Gwilym: Influences and Analogues |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jJdiAAAAMAAJ |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=0198159013 |access-date=11 June 2024 }}
* {{cite web |url=https://dafyddapgwilym.net/docs/The%20Manuscript%20Tradition.pdf |title=The Manuscript Tradition |last=Johnston |first=Dafydd |date=2007a |website=Dafydd ap Gwilym.net |publisher=Welsh Department, Swansea University/Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies |access-date=4 June 2024 }}
* {{cite web |url=https://dafyddapgwilym.net/docs/Authorship.pdf |title=Authorship |last=Johnston |first=Dafydd |date=2007b |website=Dafydd ap Gwilym.net |publisher=Welsh Department, Swansea University/Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies |access-date=11 June 2024 }}
* {{cite web |url=https://dafyddapgwilym.net/manuGetNoHeadEng.php?poemID=79&order=source |title=Poem in manuscript texts #79 'Y Breuddwyd' |last=Lake |first=A. Cynfael |date=2007a |website=Dafydd ap Gwilym.net |publisher=Welsh Department, Swansea University/Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies |access-date=4 June 2024 }}
* {{cite web |url=https://dafyddapgwilym.net/AnaServer?dafydd+160080+viewNotes.anv+titleEl=159702 |title=Nodiadau: 79 – Y Breuddwyd |last=Lake |first=A. Cynfael |date=2007b |website=Dafydd ap Gwilym.net |publisher=Welsh Department, Swansea University/Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies |language=cy |access-date=4 June 2024 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Giles |year=2014 |title=Dafydd ap Gwilym: Paraphrases and Palimpsests |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gsa4BgAAQBAJ |location=npp |page=62 |isbn=9781291866803 }}
== External links ==
* {{Wikisourcelang-inline|cy|Y Breuddwyd}}
* [https://archive.org/details/dafyddapgwilympo00dafyuoft/page/112/mode/2up Translation by Richard Morgan Loomis] at the [[Internet Archive]]
{{Dafydd ap Gwilym}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dream, The (Dafydd ap Gwilym poem)}}
[[Category:Fiction about dreams]]
[[Category:Poetry by Dafydd ap Gwilym]]