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IOLO MORGANWG (1747-1826): BARDISM AND UNITARIANISM D ELWYN DAVIES I will attempt to offer a brief survey of Iolo's interests and contribution to the world of Bardism and Religion because, for the Bard of Glamorgan, these two fields of study often overlapped in definition, if not synonymous in nature and purpose. It would be practically impossible to give a satisfactory description of this complex character, who became a legend in his own days, and even a 'little god' for some or, perhaps, a 'devil' for others. He would describe himself as a "self-educated stone-mason" (sometimes "marble-mason"), but Professor Griffith John Williams, his ruthless critic, can even call this 'journey-man' mason a "professional scholar" and a man of "immense learning and of astonishing versatility". And when Professor Williams criticises Iolo for "seeing his native province, Glamorgan, through a golden haze of dreams", adding that he was "probably the most successful forger in literal history", even he has to admit paradoxically that this "wizard from Flemingstone" was a forger of genius. Let us now listen to Iolo reminiscing on his early years which, obviously, are seen through his romantic lens: I was so very unhealthy whilst a child (and I have continued so), that it was thought useless to put me to school. I learned the alphabet before I can well remember, by seeing my father inscribe grave-stones. My mother, whose maiden name was Matthews, was the daughter of a gentleman who had wasted a pretty fortune. (We will hear later that Iolo was imprisoned for the debts he inherited from his father-in-law).