C Y M R A E G

Taliesin Williams (1787-1847)


Taliesin Williams (Ab Iolo) was Iolo Morganwg's only son. He was a school master and poet. He was educated for a brief period in Cowbridge before joining his father in his trade as stone mason around 1815. He also kept a school at Gileston and worked as a teacher in Neath.
Taliesin Williams
In 1816 he established his own school, a Commercial School, in Merthyr Tudful. Iolo intended that Taliesin would succeed him, and from 1815 inwards, Taliesin began to take a more prominent role in gorsedd proceedings. He had been inaugurated an ovate in absentia in a Gorsedd meeting in London in 1792 (he was only five years old at the time!), but in 1814, in one of the Rocking-stone Gorseddau in Pontypridd, Taliesin came of age as a Druid.

As Iolo's only son, Taliesin was his father's heir, mediator and interpreter. He assisted his father in preparing Cyfrinach Beirdd Ynys Prydain (1829) for the press and Iolo's archive was entrusted to his care. Nonetheless, Taliesin never realized that bardism was the product of his father's imagination. Through his involvement with the various Cambrian societies which had promoted the Gorsedd, Taliesin managed to maintain the momentum of Gorsedd meetings after Iolo's death. He worked tirelessly editing a comprehensive selection of his father's writings on bardism. Iolo Manuscripts (1848) was published posthumously by the Welsh Manuscripts Society. Taliesin was an ardent competitor in the eisteddfod and frequently asked Iolo for assistance with his poems. His awdl, 'Y Derwyddon' (The Druids) was successful at Cardiff Eisteddfod (1834), and his essay on the Bardic Alphabet was the winning essay on that topic at the eisteddfod at Abergavenny (1838).

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