Editing Englyn (section)

==Early history==

The {{lang|cy|englyn}} is found in the work of the earliest attested Welsh poets (the {{lang|cy|[[cynfeirdd]]}}), where the main types are the three-line {{lang|cy|englyn milwr}} and {{lang|cy|englyn penfyr}}.<ref>Rowland, Jenny, ''Early Welsh Saga Poetry: A Study and Edition of the ''Englynion (Cambridge: Brewer, 1990), p. 305.</ref> It is the only set stanzaic metre found in the early Welsh poetic corpus, and explanations for its origins have tended to focus on stanzaic Latin poetry and hymns; however, it is as likely to be a development within the Brittonic poetic tradition.<ref>Rowland, Jenny, ''Early Welsh Saga Poetry: A Study and Edition of the ''Englynion (Cambridge: Brewer, 1990), pp. 305-8.</ref> Whereas the metrical rules of later {{lang|cy|englynion}} are clear (and are based on counting syllables), the precise metre of the early {{lang|cy|englynion}} is debated and could have involved stress-counting.<ref>Rowland, Jenny, ''Early Welsh Saga Poetry: A Study and Edition of the ''Englynion (Cambridge: Brewer, 1990), pp. 308-32.</ref> The earliest {{lang|cy|englynion}} are found as [[marginalia]] written in a tenth-century hand in the [[Juvencus Manuscript]].<ref>''A Selection of Early Welsh Saga Poems'', ed. by Jenny Rowland (London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2014), p. xxvi.</ref> Many early {{lang|cy|englynion}} form poems which seem to represent moments of characters' emotional reflection in stories now lost: {{lang|cy|[[Canu Llywarch Hen]]}}, {{lang|cy|[[Canu Urien]]}}, {{lang|cy|[[Canu Heledd]]}}. Others survey heroic tradition, for example the {{lang|cy|[[Englynion y Beddau]]}} or ''[[Geraint son of Erbin]]'', and others again are lyric, religious meditations and laments such as the famous {{lang|cy|[[Claf Abercuawg]]}} and {{lang|cy|[[Kyntaw geir]]}}.