author
Ellis Wynne
1671–1734
Best known for Gweledigaetheu y Bardd Cwsc (Visions of the Sleeping Bard), he helped create one of the enduring classics of Welsh prose. A clergyman as well as a writer, he brought moral seriousness and vivid imagination together in work that stayed influential for generations.
2 Audiobooks
The Sleeping Bard; Or, Visions of the World, Death, and Hell
by Ellis Wynne
The Visions of the Sleeping Bard
by Ellis Wynne
About the author
Born at Lasynys Fawr near Harlech in 1671, Ellis Wynne became a Welsh clergyman and author whose name is closely tied to one of the great landmarks of Welsh-language literature. He studied at Jesus College, Oxford, and later served in the church in Merioneth.
He is remembered above all for Gweledigaetheu y Bardd Cwsc, first published in 1703 and often translated as Visions of the Sleeping Bard. The book is admired for its energetic, richly patterned prose and for the force of its religious and moral vision.
Wynne died in 1734, but his reputation has lasted far beyond his lifetime. Readers still return to his work not only for its historical importance, but also for its striking language and dramatic imagination.