Pennod 92 - Dechreuadau Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg Patagonia

A ninnau wedi rhoi sylw i lenyddiaeth Gymraeg Gogledd America mewn cwpl o benodau cynharach, dyma gyfle i ehangu’r drafodaeth ac ystyried y modd yr ehangodd y ‘diaspora’ Cymraeg wrth i’r Wladfa – neu’r ‘Wladychfa’ – ym Mhatagonia gael ei chreu.

Ond dechreuwn trwy bwysleisio’r cysylltiad rhwng y profiadau Cymreig a Chymraeg yng Ngogledd America a hanes cynnar Y Wladfa trwy graffu ar gyfnod Michael D. Jones yn yr Unol Daleithiau. (Ac mae anghytundeb cyfeillgar ond gweddol boeth rhwng y ddau ohonom, wrth i Richard Wyn Jones geisio hawlio’r clod am ‘ddarlith ymfflamychol’ a draddododd Jerry Hunter mewn cynhadledd yng Nghaerdydd yn 2001, sef ‘Cincinnati: Crud Cenedlaetholdeb Cymreig?’). Ond canolbwynt y bennod yw degawdau cyntaf gwasg Gymraeg y Wladfa, wrth i ni ryfeddu at ymdrech i greu cylchgrawn heb wasg argraffu cyn symud ymlaen i ystyried amrywiaeth ddiddorol o gynnwys Y Dravod.

* The Beginnings of Patagonia’s Welsh Literature

As we’ve given attention to North America’s Welsh-language literature in a couple of earlier episodes, here’s an opportunity to widen the discussion and consider the way in which the Welsh ‘diaspora’ widened as Y Wladfa – or Y Wladychfa – in Patagonia was created.

But we begin by emphasizing the connection between Welsh experiences in North America and the early history of Y Wladfa by examining the period Michael D. Jones spent in the United States. (And there’s a friendly but fairly heated disagreement between the two of us, as Richard Wyn Jones tries to take credit for an ‘inflammatory lecture’ which Jerry Hunter delivered in a conference in Cardiff in 2001, namely ‘Cincinnati: the Cradle of Welsh Nationalism?’)

But most of the episode focusses on the first decades of the Welsh-language press of Y Wladfa, as we are amazed by an attempt to create a periodical without a printing press before moving on to consider an interesting selection from the contents of Y Dravod.

Cyflwynwyd gan: Yr Athro Jerry Hunter a'r Athro Richard Wyn Jones Cynhyrchwyd gan: Richard Martin ar gyfer Mimosa Cymru Cerddoriaeth: 'Might Have Done' gan The Molenes

Darllen Pellach/Further Reading: - E. Wyn James a Bill Jones (goln.), Michael D. Jones a’i Wladfa Gymreig (2009) - R. Bryn Williams, Rhyddiaith Y Wladfa (1949)