Life
Unusually for a Welsh king or prince, a near-contemporary biography of Gruffudd, The history of Gruffudd ap Cynan, has survived. Much of our knowledge of Gruffudd comes from this source, though allowance has to be made for the fact that it appears to have been written as dynastic propaganda for one of Gruffudd's descendants. The traditional view among scholars was that it was written during the third quarter of the 12th century during the reign of Gruffudd's son, Owain Gwynedd, but it has recently been suggested that it may date to the early reign of Llywelyn the Great, around 1200. The name of the author Is not known.
Most of the existing manuscripts of the history are in Welsh but these are clearly translations of a Latin original. It is usually considered that the original Latin version has been lost, and that existing Latin versions are re-translations from the Welsh. However Russell (2006) has suggested that the Latin version in Peniarth MS 434E incorporates the original Latin version, later amended to bring it into line with the Welsh text.
Read more about this topic: Gruffudd Ap Cynan
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“The animal is one with its life activity. It does not distinguish the activity from itself. It is its activity. But man makes his life activity itself an object of his will and consciousness. He has a conscious life activity. It is not a determination with which he is completely identified.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“This life we live is a strange dream, and I don’t believe at all any account men give of it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There was something so free and self-contained about him, something in the young fellow’s movements, that made that officer aware of him. And this irritated the Prussian. He did not choose to be touched into life by his servant.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)