Nofel hanesyddol fyrlymus yn dilyn ol-troed un o gymeriadau mwyaf diddorol hanes Cymru, Iolo Morgannwg (Edward Willimas, 1747-1826). Nofel llawn antur, dirgelwch, cariad, gwrthryfel, trais, cyffuriau, angerdd, ysbiwyr a brad.

This is the first full-scale study of the political radicalism of Iolo Morganwg, the renowned Welsh romantic whose colourful life as a Glamorgan stonemason, poet, writer, political activist and humanitarian made him one of the founders of modern Wales. This path-breaking volume offers a vivid portrait of a natural contrarian who tilted against the forces of the establishment for the whole of his adult life. Known as the ‘Bard of Liberty’ or the ’little republican bard’, he moved in highly-politicized circles, embraced republicanism, founded the Gorsedd of the Bards of the Isle of Britain, threw in his lot with Unitarians, promoted a sense of cultural nationalism, and supported the anti-slave trade campaign and the anti-war movement during years of war, oppression and cruelty.

An industrious academic and charmingly eccentric Romantic poet and forger, Iolo Morganwg (1747-1846) left behind a floor-to-ceiling stack of unpublished manuscripts in his small Welsh cottage. A Rattleskull Genius, based on that trove of unpublished material now held at the National Library of Wales, provides both a celebration and a critical reassessment of the author and his contributions to Welsh cultural tradition.

This volume approaches the fascinating figure of Iolo Morganwg – stonemason, poet and literary forger – from three distinct but interrelated angles. They all take as their starting point Iolo Morganwg’s ‘marginality’ within mainstream literary society both in London and in Wales and demonstrate the strategies that he used to overcome the frustrations of his situation. Iolo’s notoriety as a literary forger provides the context for the first discussion in the volume, which considers his efforts to pass on his own work as that of famous Welsh writers of the past. This chapter looks at how important the editorial apparatus with which Iolo surrounded his forgeries was to his attempt to ensure their satisfactory reception. Secondly, two collections of printed books owned by Iolo and containing marginal commentary in his hand are explored. The discussion here demonstrates Iolo’s keen interest in the forging of a path for the Welsh language within the developing public domain of the regional eisteddfodau and also his complex personal relations with some of the more successful authors of his day. Iolo’s vulnerability and marginality within the context of a Welsh public sphere are both brought to the fore in this chapter. Finally, the volume turns to the marginalia left by Iolo on letters within his collection of correspondence, showing his extraordinary creativity and bringing to attention for the first time some of his unpublished work in the fields of Welsh and English poetry and on matters relating to the Welsh language.