author
Ann Griffiths
1776–1805
A gifted Welsh hymn writer whose brief life left a lasting mark on Welsh literature, she is remembered for spiritually intense verse shaped by deep scriptural knowledge. Her hymns survived through oral transmission and were published after her death, helping secure her place as one of Wales’s best-loved religious poets.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born Ann Thomas in April 1776 at Dolwar Fach near Llanfihangel-yng-Ngwynfa, Montgomeryshire, she grew up in rural Wales and later became known as Ann Griffiths after her marriage to Thomas Griffiths in 1804. She wrote in Welsh and is widely remembered as a poet and writer of Methodist Christian hymns whose work is noted for its spiritual fervor and rich use of scripture.
Her surviving body of work is small, but it had an outsized influence. Reference sources describe her hymns as complex, vivid, and deeply felt, and later scholars and literary institutions have treated them as a high point of Welsh religious poetry. Because so little survives in her own hand, her legacy also reflects the efforts of those who preserved and shared her words after her death.
She died in August 1805, only months after her marriage and shortly after the birth of her child. Even with such a short life, her writing continued to be read, sung, and studied, and she remains an important figure in Welsh literary and devotional history.