Llewelyn’s Last Morning
(Mass at Llanynis)
A bright morning
for Llewelyn.
Sun through cloud,
The white trees
in waiting.
River is hushed
And the hymns
urgent and quiet.
Before you and after you,
these stones:
Ship of God,
anchored in meadowland.
Before you and after you:
This carved stone pillar,
Woven knot
and lichen bright.
In memory,
to lay them at peace who fell,
Their names are
grass’s whisper only.
—
The last native Prince of Wales, Llewelyn ap Gruffudd, is said to have had communion at this small church on the morning of 11th December 1282 before he and his troops were betrayed and ambushed a few miles away on their way to capture Builth castle. It is a small church, not now easy to find, and lies in the middle of a field with only one or two farms nearby. Across the River Irfon at Cilmeri is the well where Llewellyn’s severed head was washed. His troops were scattered and the cause of a Wales ruled by their own nasty, Welsh, nobility ( as opposed to nasty Anglo-Norman nobility), lost. The carved cross-stone looks to be an old grave slab, carved on three sides, but I have found no information about it. In general, these stones were carved between the 9th and 13th centuries – so it would probably have been in the church or churchyard in Llewelyn’s time.
simonhlilly 