Introduction

Simon and Jude were two of the twelve apostles listed in the New Testament. There is a Welsh-language life of them in Llst 34, a manuscript copied by Roger Morris c. 1580x1600. The deeds of the two saints narrated in this poem correspond closely to the first part of that life (sections 1-4), that is the defeat of the two Persian magicians, the exonoration of Effrosius from the false accusation of fathering a child by causing the newborn babe to speak, and the screeching of the idols when the saints came to the city of Samany. A significant correspondence between this poem and the Welsh life is the name Effrosius, which does not occur in the Latin life in the Legenda Aurea. It is likely that Lewys Glyn Cothi was familiar with an early version of the Welsh life. On the traditions relating to Simon and Jude see the introduction to the life. The poet Lewys Glyn Cothi was from Carmarthenshire, and it may be significant that the only church in Wales dedicated to Simon and Jude is Llanddeusant in that county.

Date

This poem cannot be dated any more precisely than the period of Lewys Glyn Cothi’s activity, that is c. 1447–c.1489.

Previous edition

GLGC poem 5.

Metre andcynghanedd

Cywydd, 56 lines. Cynghanedd: croes 52% (27 ll.), traws 23% (12 ll.), sain 13% (7 ll.), llusg 12% (6 ll.). The three incomplete lines (18, 48 and 54) and the one lacking cynghanedd(51), which may be corrupt, have been disregarded in this analysis. The fault ‘crych a llyfn’ occurs in l. 50 (see note).