Robert Ellis (Cynddelw)

Robert Elis (Cynddelw)

Other use: Ellis, Robert (1808-1881), Calvinistic Methodist minister.

Robert Ellis (sometimes spelt 'Elis') (3 February 1812 – 19 August 1875) was known by the bardic name 'Cynddelw', after the 12th-century poet Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr. He was born at Tyn y Meini, Bryndreiniog, Pen-y-Bont-Fawr in the historic county of Montgomeryshire in Mid Wales, and was a Welsh language poet, editor, and lexicographer.

Ministry

Ellis was also a Baptist minister: from 1836 to 1840 at Llanelian-yn-Rhos and Llanddulas, Denbighshire; from 1838 to 1840 Glyn Ceiriog in the Ceiriog Valley. From 1847 to 1862 he served at Carmel Chapel,Tredegar, South Wales. Oliver Jones, the renowned local historian, wrote that whilst there Ellis helped Evan Powell, the author of 'History of Tredegar' (1901, originally 1885), to blossom 'into a lover of books and [to become] active in the affairs of the chapel.' (1969: 113) He served from 1862 until his death in 1875 at Caernarfon in North Wales.

Publications

Ellis had his poem Yr Adgyfodiad published in 1849, in the Welsh-language newspaper Seren Gomer. Many other poems, biographies, an autobiography, and a dictionary followed. His dictionary, Geiriadur Cynddelw, which was published by H. Humphreys in Caernarfon in 1868, was one of the first dictionaries to be published only in Welsh (rather than English and Welsh).

Sources

• Jones, Oliver. 1969. The early days of Sirhowy and Tredegar. Risca, Newport: Starling Press.
• Welsh Biography Online