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| Evan Evans (Ieuan Fardd) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Evan Evans (Ieuan Fardd) |
| Native name | Ieuan Fardd |
| Birth date | c. 1731 |
| Birth place | Llanwrin, Montgomeryshire |
| Death date | 1788 |
| Death place | Bala, Merionethshire |
| Occupation | poet, antiquarian, cleric |
| Language | Welsh language |
| Nationality | Wales |
Evan Evans (Ieuan Fardd) was an 18th-century Welsh poet, scholar, and antiquary noted for his collection of medieval Welsh poetry and contributions to bardic tradition. Active in the circles of Cardiganshire, Montgomeryshire, and Merionethshire, he engaged with leading antiquaries and literary figures of his era and influenced later revivalist movements in Welsh literature.
Evan Evans was born c. 1731 in Llanwrin, Montgomeryshire, into a family connected with rural Welsh parish life and agricultural tenures of North Wales. He studied in local parish schools influenced by Nonconformist and Anglican networks, and is traditionally associated with clerical training that brought him into contact with the diocesan centers of St Asaph and Bangor. His formative influences included exposure to manuscript collections held in private houses of Radnorshire and scholarly circles around Shrewsbury and Chester, where antiquarian interests intersected with contemporary debates in antiquarianism and textual preservation led by figures like William Owen Pughe and Edward Lhuyd.
Evans produced editions, translations, and poetic compositions grounded in medieval sources such as cywyddau and englynion preserved in collections associated with Hengwrt and Peniarth Library. His published works and manuscripts engaged with texts attributed to Taliesin, Dafydd ap Gwilym, and other medieval bards, and he corresponded with antiquaries including Thomas Richards and Owen Jones (talbot) of Betsi Cadwaladr fame. Evans compiled and edited material that circulated among printers and Welsh patrons in London, Bangor, and Carmarthen, contributing to periodicals and collections that influenced later editors like Iolo Morganwg and John Gwenogvryn Evans. Notable for assembling annotated transcriptions, he helped preserve material later cited by scholars at institutions such as the National Library of Wales and universities in Oxford and Cambridge.
As a practicing bard, Evans participated in local and regional eisteddfodau, engaging with the ceremonial and adjudicative practices that traced to medieval bardic courts associated with the houses of Gwynedd and Deheubarth. He contributed to competitions adjudicated by figures from Carmarthen and Aberystwyth and was involved in the revivalist impulses that framed activities at festivals influenced by the patronage networks of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn and clerical patrons in Denbighshire. His work in preparing bardic pedigree materials and rules for metre placed him in dialogue with contemporaneous efforts by Theophilus Evans and later codifiers such as Iolo Morganwg and Robert Williams (Trebor Mai), while his manuscript collections were consulted by judges and poets operating within the institutional frameworks of Welsh cultural societies and provincial libraries.
Evans spent his later years compiling manuscripts and advising collectors and antiquaries from London to Bangor. His papers passed through hands connected with the manuscript markets of Chester and collectors in Cardigan and ultimately influenced 19th-century editorial projects at the National Library of Wales and scholarly enterprises at Aberystwyth University. His role as a transmitter of medieval Welsh texts informed the work of later historians and editors including Lady Llanover, John Rhys, and Sir Ifor Williams, and his materials aided philological studies tied to Celtic studies programs at Oxford University and Cambridge University. Posthumously, Evans has been cited in surveys of the Welsh literary renaissance and the institutionalization of the eisteddfod tradition.
Evans's poetic style reflected traditional bardic forms—cywydd, awdl, and englyn—rooted in metrics codified in medieval treatises associated with the bardic schools of Llanbadarn Fawr and Rhondda patrons. Themes in his compositions and editorial selections included praise-poetry linked to families of Glyndŵr lineage, elegy resonant with the corpus of Dafydd ap Gwilym, and antiquarian commentary that intersected with historiography performed by Humphrey Llwyd and Powel (ap Maredudd). Critics in subsequent generations, including editors at The Cambrian Quarterly Magazine and scholars like John Rhys and G. J. Williams, have debated Evans's editorial methods and his influence on the authenticity debates that also involved Iolo Morganwg and the assembly of bardic lore. While some praised his preservational zeal and textual access, others noted lacunae and editorial interventions typical of 18th-century antiquarian practice. His legacy persists in modern catalogs and manuscript descriptions curated by institutions such as the National Library of Wales and referenced in studies of Welsh medieval literature and the revival movements of the 19th century.
Category:18th-century Welsh poets Category:Welsh antiquaries Category:People from Montgomeryshire