Taliesin Williams

Background

Ab Iolo was born in Cardiff, went to school in Cowbridge and qualified as an assistant teacher at a boarding-school run by Reverend David Davies in Neath.

Career

He gradually took over leading the proceedings of regional Gorsedds from 1814, when he was awarded the title of Druid. He worked as a stonemason with his father in 1815 and assisted with the publication of his father"s work "Cyfrinach Beirdd Ynys Prydain" in 1829. In 1816 he opened a school in Merthyr Tydfil where he worked as a schoolmaster until the end of his life.

He was left his father"s archive of manuscripts after his death and was somehow hoodwinked into believing they were all genuine.

After much work compiling and editing twenty six volumes, a selection was published under the title of the Iolo Manuscripts by the Welsh Manuscripts Society in 1848. Much of Ab Iolo"s work was based on that of his father who produced many spurious and pseudohistorical works and as such should be treated with a great dose of suspicion.

His position as Archdruid was claimed to have passed to Evan Davies (Myfyr Morganwg) after his death in 1847.

Achievements

• In 1834 he won the bardic chair with an awdl entitled "Y Derwyddon" (The Druids) at the Cardiff Eisteddfod. In 1838 he won the bardic crown for an essay on the Coelbren y Beirdd (the alleged bardic alphabet) at the Abergavenny Eisteddfod that was later published in 1840.