Brwynog Farm and the Llyn Alaw Wind Farm from Parciau

Image: © Eric Jones Taken: 13 Jun 2009

Brwynog was the home of the 16thC poet Sion Brwynog (d. 1567?), and the farm from which he took his surname. Translated into English his name would be John Reedy. Sion was the son of William ap Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, a member of the squirearchy. Sion became a strolling poet travelling much of Northern Wales on the so called "bardic circuit" enjoying the hospitality of members of the gentry and squirearchy who were always anxious to enhance their social status by having the services of a skilled, practised bard write poems celebrating their families' births and marriages, their appointment to Crown jobs, their feats on field of battle and to sing the praises of their dead. Many of these "vanity" poems have survived. Each starts with a lengthy recall of the illustrious ancestry of the patron and his wife back to the dawn of time. Sion lived in a time of religious change was a fervent protagonist of the Old Faith. He was particularly scornful of Sir William Williams, the parish priest of Llanfflewin, who had taken himself a wife. Sion married the girl next door, Sian, the daughter of Owen ap Ifan ap Madog of Ucheldre Uchaf, Llanfflewin, and they had a son, William Brwynog. Sion Brwynog is buried in Llanddeusant churchyard.

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