Editing Dafydd ap Gwilym (section)

== Dafydd's window into Welsh culture ==
The development of culture has been a topic of discussion for many years. As Robert Bartlett argues, European cultures formed in a homogeneous nature, primarily through conquest and settlement.<ref>Robert Bartlett, The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Exchange (Princeton: Princeton Press, 1993), 3.</ref> This view has a favourable outlook if you take Wales in the time of Dafydd. The Welsh had become predominantly subservient to the English after the Edwardian conquests. Bartlett might argue that the cultural developments that came in the period of peace after the conquests is evidence for this principle of assimilation.

Some contend still that cultures developed as a product of their internal audiences. In the case of Dafydd, Helen Fulton argues that his poetry reflected the values admired by Welsh audiences and reflected values of the culture’s uniqueness.<ref>Helen Fulton, ''Dafydd ap Gwilym and the European Context'', (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1989), 12–15.</ref> In this context, Welsh culture is formed outside of outside influences of other cultures.

Others place their arguments somewhere on a spectrum of these two extremes. Andrew Breeze has noted that from even the earliest evidence of Welsh literature, there are many similarities between works of cultures from close and far proximity to the Welsh. While some of these similarities are directly attributed to warfare, there is also an apparent spread of cultural traditions peacefully.<ref>Breeze, ''Medieval Welsh Literature'', 7–10.</ref> The argument is taken further by Carol Llyod Wood, who demonstrates how intermarriage and architectural similarity among various regions also support an idea of passive cultural diffusion.<ref>Carol Llyod Wood, ''An Overview of Welsh Poetry Before the Norman Conquest'', (Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1996), 1–4.</ref> Although, when looking at architecture from after the Edwardian conquests, the narratives of the polarised views tend to be amplified. Architecture tended to reflect the cultures of either the Welsh or English based on the level of authority of either group in the region.<ref>R.A. Griffiths and P.R. Schofield, ''Wales and Welsh in the Middle Ages'' (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011), 183–4.</ref>

Dafydd’s poetry reflects the multiple avenues in which cultural exchange manifested in medieval Europe. Dafydd had clear influences by traditions of foreign origin that became used often in his poetry. Some of Dafydd’s poetry also reflects the assimilation and domination present by the Edwardian conquests. Yet, Dafydd also displays poetic structure that would become part of the Welsh literary identity. Scratching the surface of Dafydd’s poetry reveals that culture was defined and controlled by many aspects, and not just one major force.

When looking at a successor of Dafydd, Guto’r Glyn, one is able see to how these forces that control culture interact in a different context. Like Dafydd, Glyn used cywydd meter and referenced himself in his poetry; however, in Glyn’s “Moliant i Syr Rhisiart Gethin ap Rhys Gethin o Fuellt, capten Mantes yn Ffrainc,” one can see other influences in Welsh literary culture. The poem praises an English lord in the same manner of classic heroes such as Arthur. God is also mentioned as an omnipotent protector.<ref>Guto’r Glyn, “Moliant i Syr Rhisiart Gethin ap Rhys Gethin o Fuellt, capten Mantes yn Ffrainc,” Center for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, <nowiki>http://www.gutorglyn.net/gutorglyn/poem/?poem-selection=001&first-line=008</nowiki>, lines 40–58.</ref> Glyn’s poem demonstrates a much more traditional approach of gallantry and chivalry popular in continental European literature. Glyn also demonstrates the principle of assimilation in the sense that the English are viewed as equals or interchangeable with the Welsh. Despite taking influence from a previous Welsh figure in Dafydd, Glyn also demonstrates the effect outside influences had in shaping Welsh literary culture.

It is fair to say Dafydd was important in establishing certain customs that would become popular among Welsh literary culture. Although literary culture was very prevalent in the identities of medieval cultures, it often gets overlooked in larger debates about the spread of culture. By looking at Dafydd ap Gwilym, literary culture appears as just as an important part of Welsh cultural identity as resistance to occupation was.