William Rees (Gwilym Hiraethog)
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William Rees (8 November 1802 – 8 November 1883), usually known in Wales by his bardic name of Gwilym Hiraethog, was a Welsh poet and author, one of the major figures of Welsh literature during the 19th century.[1]
Gwilym Hiraethog took his pseudonym from his birthplace, a farm called Chwibren-isaf, near Llansannan, on Mynydd Hiraethog in Denbighshire. He was the second son of Anne and David Rees, a farmer. Age three, he contracted smallpox and lost the sight in his right eye. He worked on the farm and as a sheperd in his teens. His older brother Henry Rees became a Calvinistic Methodist leader.[2][3][4]
Largely self-educated, having only attended the village school in winter, Rees was a polymath, who took an interest in astronomy and political science as well as being a Nonconformist minister and a leading literary figure.[2] A neighbour, Robert ap Dafydd of Cilfach Lwyd, taught Rees the rules of Welsh prosody and Rees went on to win a prize at the 1826 Brecon eisteddfod for a cywydd (poem) on the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson. This gave him public attention.[1] He joined the Independents church and became a popular preacher in the Welsh language. He became a minister in 1831 in Mostyn, later working in Denbigh and Liverpool.[1][2]
In 1843, he founded the Welsh language journal Yr Amserau ("The Times") in Liverpool.[5] He used the newspaper to campaign for the disestablishment of the Church in Wales. Rees also penned the hymn text of Dyma gariad fel y moroedd (Here is love, vast as the ocean), which was first published in 1847 but strongly associated with the 1904-1905 Welsh revival.[6] His Helyntion Bywyd Hen Deiliwr (Predicaments of an Old Tailor) (1877) was a pioneering attempt to fashion a Welsh-language novel.[7]
He retired in 1875 soon after the death of his wife Ann and moved to Chester to live with his daughter, where he died on his birthday on 8 November 1883.[1][2]
Works
[edit]- Emmanuel (1861)
- Tŵr Dafydd sef, Salmau Dafydd (1875) (Metrical Psalms)
- Gweithiau Barddonol Gwilym Hiraethog (1855)
- Llythyrau 'Rhen Ffarmwr (1878)
- Aelwyd F'Ewythr Robert (1852)
- Helyntion Bywyd Hen Deiliwr (1877)
- Y Dydd Hwnnw
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h "REES, WILLIAM (Gwilym Hiraethog; 1802 - 1883), Independent minister, writer editor, and political leader | Dictionary of Welsh Biography". biography.wales. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
- ^ a b c d "Rees, William [pseud. Gwilym Hiraethog] (1802–1883), Congregational minister and writer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23290. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
- ^ "Rees, Henry (1798–1869), Calvinistic Methodist minister". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23284. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
- ^ "REES, HENRY (1798 - 1869), the most famous minister among the Calvinistic Methodists in his day | Dictionary of Welsh Biography". biography.wales. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
- ^ "Newspaper Publishing in Wales". Newsplan Wales. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
- ^ "Cariad Crist". Hymnology Archive. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
- ^ Brooks, Simon (2017), Why Wales Never Was: The Failure of Welsh Nationalism, University of Wales Press, Cardiff, p. 63
Further reading
[edit]- D. Ben Rees - The Polymath: Reverend William Rees (Gwilym Hiraethog 1802-1883) (Modern Welsh Publications)
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