Canu Heledd (modern Welsh /'kani 'hɛlɛð/, the songs of Heledd) are a collection of early Welsh englyn-poems. They are rare among medieval Welsh poems for being set in the mouth of a female character. One prominent figure in the poems is Heledd's dead brother Cynddylan.
Dorothy Ann Bray summarised the cycle thus:
The entire cycle of the Heledd poems ... is a statement of mourning from which a background story has been deduced: Cynddylan, prince of Powys, and his brothers along with his heroic band are slain in battle, defending their country against the English in the mid-seventh century. Heledd, his sister, is one of the few survivors, who witnessed the battle and the destruction of Cynddylan's hall at Pengwern. She has lost not only all her brothers, but also her sisters and her home, and the poems suggest that she blames herself for the destruction of Cynddylan's court because of some ill-spoken words.[1]
As with the other so-called 'saga englynion’ (pre-eminently Canu Llywarch Hen and Canu Urien), there is considerable uncertainty and debate as to how the poems of Canu Heledd might originally have been performed. It is usually assumed that they must have been accompanied by some kind of prose narrative, to which they provided emotional depth; but this is not certain.[2]
As edited by Jenny Rowland, the contents of Canu Heledd are as follows:[3]
| Title | Stanza nos | Summary | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prologue | 1 | An invitation to maidens to contemplate the destruction of Pengwern. | |
| Marwnad Cynddylan | 2–16 | An elegy for the dead Cynddylan, not to be confused with the probably seventh-century awdl-poem of the same name. | |
| A stray verse | 17 | On the burial of Cynddylan. | |
| Stafell Gynddylan | 18–33 | A meditation on the abandoned hall of Cynddylan. | |
| Eryr Eli | 34–39 | A meditation on the eagle of Eli (an unidentified place) and how he eats dead warriors. | |
| Eryr Pengwern | 40–44 | A meditation on the eagle of Pengwern and how he eats dead warriors. | |
| Eglywysau Basa | 45–51 | An elegy for the destroyed churches of Bassa. | |
| Y Drefwen | 52–56 | A meditation on the past glories of the settlement Trefwen (probably Whittington). | |
| Ffreuer | 57–65 | A lament for Heledd's dead sister Ffreuer. | |
| Herding | 66 | An elliptical stanza on a cow. | |
| On the Courses of Rivers | 67–68 | On the rivers Tren (now Tern), Trydonwy (probably the Roden), Twrch (possibly Afon Twrch), Marchnwy (conceivably the River Banwy), Alwen, and Geirw (now Ceirw, a tributary of the Alwen). | |
| Newid Byd | 69–72 | Heledd laments her poverty. | |
| Gorwynion | 73–75 | On Gorwynion's success in protecting his cattle from reavers. | |
| Gyrthmyl | 76 | On the beavement of a warrior called Gyrthmyl. | |
| Ercal | 77 | Describes how the descendants of one Morial are buried in Ercall (a region now in Shropshire, in which High Ercall is sited). | |
| Heledd Hwyedig | 78–79 | Heledd laments her bereavement. | |
| Gazing | 80–81 | Heledd surveys desolation. | |
| Fragment | 82 | Too incomplete to summarise. | |
| Heledd's Brothers | 83–86 | Heledd laments the loss of her brothers Cynan, Cynddylan, and Cynwraith. | |
| Epigram | 87 | Though people have died, the furrows they ploughed remain. | |
| Hedyn | 88–89 | A lament for someone called Hedyn. | |
| The Boar's Den | 90 | An elliptical stanza on a boar's piglets. | |
| Caranfael | 91–97 | An elegy for Caranfael, apparently a cousin or maybe brother of Cynddylan. | |
| Heledd a'i Brawd Claf | 98–101 | Heledd laments the death of her brothers. | |
| Beddau | 102–103 | A meditation on the graves of Heledd's brothers, | |
| Tren | 104–106 | Heledd laments the power vacuum in the region of the River Tren. | |
| Heledd's Sisters | 107–109 | Heledd laments the loss of her sisters Gwladus, Gwenddwyn, Ffreuer, Meddwyl, Meddlan, Gwledyr, Meisir, and Ceinfryd. | |
| Cynddylan and Cynwraith | 110 | Heledd laments the deaths of Cynddylan and Cynwraith. | |
| Maes Cogwy | 111 | A meditation on the dead on the field of the Battle of Cogwy, notable for its elaborate, bardic style. | |
| Llemenig | 112–113 | Praise of one Llemenig mab Mawan, notable for its elaborate, bardic style. |
The poems are attested principally in the Red Book of Hergest, which was written between about 1382 and 1410. They were also included in the White Book of Rhydderch, but are now lost due to damage to the manuscript. However, they are attested in two later manuscripts descended from the White Book, Peniarth 111 (made by John Jones of Gellillyfdy in 1607), whose spelling is very close to the White Book's, and London, British Library, Add. MS 31055 (made by Thomas Wiliems in 1596), which is a less conservative copy.[4] Some other late copies of lost medieval manuscripts of the englynion also exist: National Library of Wales 4973 contains two copies of the cycle, both copied by Dr John Davies of Mallwyd, one of Wales's leading antiquarians and scribes of his day, before 1631.[5] The first copy, NLW 4973a, derives from a lost manuscript closer to the White Book than the Red. The second copy, NLW 4973b, is more complex and may represent a conflation of multiple medieval sources, but seems to have at least some independent value as a witness to the lost archetype of the poems. It is fairly clear that all these manuscripts descend from a lost common original, to which they are all fairly similar, making the creation of a critical edition of the poems relatively straightforward.[6]
Despite surviving first in manuscripts written between about 1382 and 1410 and in largely Middle Welsh orthography, Canu Heledd are thought mostly to have been composed in Old Welsh and transmitted orally and/or in manuscript, due to their archaic style and occasionally archaic spelling: Jenny Rowland dates the cycle to c. 800–900.[7]
Although neither Cynddylan nor Heledd are attested in historical sources such as the Harleian genealogies, Cynddylan is the subject of a lament in awdl-metre, Marwnad Cynddylan (not to be confused with the englynion of the same title in Canu Heledd), which is thought to date from the time of his death, and scholars have not doubted that Cynddylan and Heledd were historical figures in seventh-century Powys. However, while some scholars have thought of other details of Canu Heledd as also being good evidence for seventh-century events, other sources suggest that seventh-century relations between Mercia and Powys were more cordial, and that there was no catastrophic invasion of Powys by the English in this period. Such invasions did characterise the ninth century, however, when Canu Heledd was probably composed. Thus the poems are generally now thought more to reflect ninth-century imaginings of what the seventh century must have been like, telling us more about ninth-century realities than seventh-century ones.[8] [9] [10] Some commentators even consider a tenth-century date for the origin of the text.[11]
Heledd has been supposed by some commentators to have 'taken over the mantle of the old Celtic goddess of sovereignty', but there is no substantial evidence for this.[12] [13]
As edited and translated by Jenny Rowland, stanzas 57–65 of Canu Heledd, entitled 'Ffreuer', run:[14]
Heledd's reception in post-medieval texts has been surveyed by Marged Haycock.[15] These include the novella Tywyll Heno by Kate Roberts.[16]