Mae crybwyll y cysylltiadau rhwng Angharad James a Marged Dafydd yn fodd i ni ystyried y ffaith mai dim ond yn ystod y degawdau diwethaf y mae’r byd academaidd Cymraeg wedi dechrau rhoi’r sylw dyledus i farddoniaeth Gymraeg gan ferched.

Canolbwyntiwn wedyn ar waith Angharad James (1677- 1749), Cymraes amryddawn o Ddyffryn Nantlle a enillodd enw iddi’i hun fel telynores, bardd a chopïydd llawysgrifau. Cawn ein swyno gan y cynhesrwydd a’r diffuantrwydd sy’n nodweddu’i barddoniaeth hi, ac wrth ddarllen cerdd sy’n gofyn i gyfeilles ymweld â hi awgrymwn ei bod yn apelio’n fwy atom na chywydd ar yr un thema gan ei chyfoeswr enwog, Goronwy Owen. Ar ôl bwrw golwg ar gerdd hwyliog am briodas craffwn yn fanwl ar y farwnad deimladwy a gyfansoddodd yn sgil marwolaeth ei mab. Ond beth am ddirgelwch ‘Llyfr Coch Angharad James’?

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Mentioning the connections between Angharad James and Marged Dafydd allows us to consider the fact that it is only during the past decades that Welsh academia has started giving women’s poetry the attention it deserves.

We concentrate then on the work of Angharad James (1677- 1749), a multitalented Welsh woman from the Nantlle Valley who earned a reputation as a harpist, a poet and a manuscript copyist. We are charmed by the warmth and sincerity which characterizes her poetry, and while reading a poem asking a female friend to come and stay with her we suggest that it appeals to us more than a cywydd on a similar theme by her famous contemporary, Goronwy Owen. After glancing at a lively poem about marriage, we examine the emotional elegy which she composed following the death of her son. But what about the mystery of ‘The Red Book of Angharad James’?

Cyflwynwyd gan: Yr Athro Jerry Hunter a'r Athro Richard Wyn Jones
Cynhyrchwyd gan Richard Martin i Cwmni Mimosa Cymru
Cerddoriaeth: 'Might Have Done' gan The Molenes

Darllen Pellach/Further Reading:
- Cathryn Charnell-White (gol), Beirdd Ceridwen: Blodeugerdd Barddas o Ganu Menywod hyd tua 1800 (2005).
- Katie Gramich a Catherine Brennan (goln.), Welsh Women’s Poetry 1460-2001 (2003).
- Pennod 27 Yr Hen Iaith [Gwerful Mechain].
- Pennod 38 Yr Hen Iaith [Alis ferch Gruffudd].