Review:
Llyfr Du Cymru Fydd / The Black Book of the New Wales
by Llywelyn ap Gwilym
From Planet 242

Planet 234

Llŷr Gwyn Lewis
reviews
Llyfr Du Cymru Fydd / The Black Book of the New Wales
by Llywelyn ap Gwilym

by Llywelyn ap Gwilym

Y Lolfa, £4.99

This bilingual pamphlet’s title, Llyfr Du Cymru Fydd or The Black Book of the New Wales, invokes a cultural lineage that reaches back to the Black Book of Carmarthen. A key element of the original Black Book and other manuscripts was the canu brud, the prophetic poetry that sought to make sense of history in order to foresee the future. Likewise, this black book’s author, Llywelyn ap Gwilym, sets out to ‘question what is, and to envision what could be’ in the independent Wales of the future, and does so in a welcome ‘spirit of utopian thinking’.

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About the author

Llyr Gwyn Lewis’s latest book is Fabula (Y Lolfa, 2017) which includes a story set in a future Wales on the brink of independence. Last year he self-published a poetry pamphlet, rhwng dwy lein drên, and later in 2021 Parthian will publish Flowers of War, Katie Gramich’s English translation of his first prose volume, Rhyw Flodau Rhyfel (2014).