Welsh Journals

Ifan ab y Gof, Llywelyn ab Ifan ab y Gof and Dafydd ab y Gof(Dafydd Athro): Three Anglesey Composers? DAFYDD WYN WILIAM The manuscript copied in c.1613 by Robert ap Huw (1580-1665), the Anglesey harpist and poet, contains three compositions attributed to Ifan (or Ieuan) ab y Gof, one to Llywelyn ab Ifan ab y Gof, and another to Dafydd Athro (named as Dafydd ab y Gof elsewhere).1 Their other compositions have sadly not survived. It is natural to assume that Ifan and Dafydd were contemporaries. This article is an attempt to clothe the bare bones of these composers' names with a little flesh. The starting point is, of course, that manuscript in the National Library of Wales, AB MS Peniarth 55, from south-east Wales, copied about 1500, which includes on page 106 the earliest known refer- ences to compositions which on the one hand could have been written for Ifan ab y Gof and for Dafydd ab y Gof, or on the other could have been created by them. Page 106 is reproduced as Plate 1, and transcribed as Figure 1 (see pp. 28-30 for all figures and plates). Giving neither title nor explanation, the anonymous copyist wrote out the names of twenty-two pieces, including three marwnadau (elegies) which are listed successively:2 barnod Ivan ab y gov barnod ddavydd ab y gov barnod ddavvdd ab gvilym There are also three gostegion listed successively: gsteg Ian ab yg ov gos deg ddavydd ab y gov gos deg bedn trevddvn These bare notes prove that Ifan and Dafydd were composers, and that both died before 1500.