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Poem to the Cross at Chester - Maredudd ap Rhys

Edited by Helen Fulton

This fifteenth-century poem is one of a group of medieval Welsh poems addressed to, or which mention, the holy cross at Chester, located in the church of St John the Baptist. A pilgrim destination for many Welsh people, the cross was attributed with healing powers, as this poem testifies. Other poems to the cross were composed by Guto’r Glyn, his contemporaries Llawdden and Ieuan Brydydd Hir, and the fourteenth-century poet Gruffudd ap Maredudd ap Dafydd (Lewis, 2005).

Author: Maredudd ap Rhys

Metre: Cywydd

Manuscripts:

Printed Text: Roberts, 2003, 25-27; Jones, 1912, 296-7

I’r Groes o Gaer

Poem to the Cross at Chester

1Garllaes fûm â gwayw oerllwm
O’r glun a’r troed a’r glin trwm.
Ni allwn ffo mewn llan na ffair 1
Ond llusgo y naill esgair.
5Mae’n hawdd i minnau heddiw
Wylltio ar hyd allt a rhiw.
Pa nad iach o’m penyd wyf?
Pedestr mawr ei hap ydwyf.
Gwir a brau ’mod ger bron
10Gŵr llawir o Gaerlleon
Y grog drugarog, wiwrym, 2
A fu, Dduw gwiw, feddyg ym.
Urddasol arwydd Iesu
Urddedig o feddyg fu.
15Miragl Duw a gymerais –
Mae’r glun heb y nemor glais.
Llun Duw yng Nghaerlleon deg,
Lle rhoed ym allu rhedeg,
Yn yr un modd y’i rhodded
20Ar bren croes i brynu Cred.
Pam ond er prynu pumoes 3
Yr âi Grist awr ar y groes?
Duw oedd pan fu dioddef
A’i fron yn waed, frenin nef.
25O nef y daeth yn ufydd,
I nef yr aeth yn fyw rydd,
A’i lun yn reiol enwog
Sy grair yn eglwys y grog 4 .
Llyna’r ddelw fyw 5 a elwir,
30 Llanw a’i dug dduw Llun i dir. 6
Llawenydd i’r dydd a’r don
A’i llywiodd i Gaerlleon,
Lle daeth nerth a gallu dwys
O law Agla i’w eglwys.
35Mawr firagl mab Mair Forwyn
A’i wyrthiau sy orau swyn.
Meddyg a ŵyr modd a gwedd
Yw’r grog i wŷr a gwragedd.
A fu feddyg ufyddach?
40A fynnai, a wnâi yn iach:
Crupul i gerdded y gwledydd,
A dall i weled y dydd,
Byddar clustgraff yn braffddadl,
A mud i ddwedyd ei ddadl,
45Ynfyd a ŵyr synhwyrai.
Fu afiach, yn iach a wnâi,
Â’r miragl pur a’r mawredd,
A’r marw yn fyw o’r murn fedd.
Ef a gyfodes Iesu
50 Lasar o fol ddaear ddu, 7
A dynion meirw dianach 8
Fo a’i gwnaeth yn fyw ac yn iach.
Ffyrf yw iôr y ffurfafen
Iacháu ’y mhwynt uwch ’y mhen,
55A gwych wyf, ac iach hefyd,
O wyrthiau’r Gŵr biau’r byd.
Y gwayw oedd i’m gïau i
Yn gweithio yn y gwythi;
Trwy Dduw y treiodd ei waith,
60Tri symud a’i troes ymaith.
I’r glun y bu’r gelyniaeth,
O’r glun ddig i’r glin ydd aeth,
O’r glin i’r troed, gwâr lonydd,
O’r troed i’r coed rhoed fi’n rhydd. 9

1I was limping because of a cold bare spear [wound]
in my thigh and foot and my poor knee.
I couldn’t run in parish or fair 1
without dragging the one leg.
5It’s easy for me today
to run wild over ridge and slope.
Has my penance not made me whole?
I am a walker whose luck is huge.
True and free am I in front of
10a generous man from Chester.
The merciful cross, 2 fitting its strength,
was, dear God, a doctor to me.
A dignified symbol of Jesus,
it was a high-ranking doctor.
15I received a miracle of God –
my knee has hardly a bruise.
An appearance of God in fair Chester,
where I was given the power to run,
in the same way that he was given
20on a wooden cross to redeem Christendom.
Why, if not to redeem five ages, 3
would Christ spend an hour on the cross?
He was God when he was suffering,
his breast bloody, the king of heaven.
25From heaven he came meekly,
to heaven he returned, alive and free,
and his image as magnificent and famous
is a holy relic in the church of the cross. 4
There it is, called a living image, 5
30 a tide 6 brought it on a Monday to the land.
Joy to the day and the wave
that steered it to Chester,
where strength and solemn power came
from the hand of the Lord to its church.
35Great the miracles of the son of the Virgin Mary
and his miracles are the best sign.
A doctor who knows manner and form
is the cross towards men and women.
Was there a more humble doctor?
40Whoever might wish it will be made well:
the crippled to walk the lands,
and the blind to see the day,
the deaf with pinched ear a great talker,
and the dumb to say his piece,
45the insane will know clever things.
Whoever is sick will be made well
with the pure miracle and the greatness,
and the dead made living from the hidden grave.
Jesus raised up
50 Lazarus from the belly of the black earth, 7
and he made dead men, without exception, 8
alive and well.
The Lord of the firmament is mighty [enough]
to heal my condition over me,
55and I am whole, and healthy as well,
from the miracles of the Man who owns the world.
The spear in my sinews
was working in my muscles;
through God it tried out its work,
60three movements turned it away.
There was hostility in the thigh,
from the angry thigh it went to the knee,
from the knee to the foot, tame and calm
from the foot to the wood – I was set free.

Footnotes

1.
llan na ffair, 'parish or fair', in both religious and secular space, i. e. 'everywhere'. Back to context...
2.
Y grog drugarog, 'the merciful cross': the cross at Chester was a wooden crucifix, decorated with gilt and precious stones, supposedly containing wood from the true cross (Lewis, 2005, 20). This relic, with its image of Christ crucified, was located in the collegiate church of St John the Baptist and is attested from the middle of the thirteenth century. William Langland’s poem Piers Plowman contains an oath sworn ‘by the rood of Chester’ (Lewis and Thacker, 2003, pp. 85-6). The cross is the subject of a number of Welsh poems, in which it is clearly regarded as having the power to heal the sick. Another holy cross in Chester, made of stone, used to stand in the south-west corner of the city (on the site of the modern racecourse) in an area known as the ‘Roodee’, or ‘meadow of the cross’, a name attested in a thirteenth-century charter of St Werburgh’s (Lewis, 2005, 1, 28). Back to context...
3.
pumoes, 'five ages': medieval theology taught that there were five ages of the world before the coming of Christ: from Adam to Noah; from Noah to Abraham; from Abraham to David; from David to the capture of Babylon; from the capture of Babylon to the coming of Christ. The sixth age lasts from the birth of Christ to Revelations; the seventh age is the age of humankind until Judgment Day: hence the popular belief in the ‘seven ages of man’. Back to context...
4.
eglwys y grog, 'the church of the cross': St John’s was known as the ‘church of the holy cross’ from the late thirteenth century (Lewis and Thacker, 2003, 85-6). Back to context...
5.
y ddelw fyw, ‘the living image’: a number of these ‘living images’, either of Christ or of the Virgin Mary, existed in churches across Wales. It is assumed that they were wooden statues with some mechanical parts which enabled them to move, hence were ‘living images’ (Williams, 1962, 491). Back to context...
6.
Llanw, 'a tide': popular belief held that the Cross had been carried across the sea to the estuary of the river Dee in north Wales, not far from Chester. Back to context...
7.
Lazarus was raised from the dead by Jesus at the request of his sisters, Martha and Mary of Bethania (see (Jn 11:1-45)). Back to context...
8.
This line probably refers to the 'Harrowing of Hell'. Jesus was believed to have descended to hell before he was resurrected after the crucifixion to liberate the dead who had been imprisoned there since the beginning of the world. The legend was known from the apocryphal (Gospel of Nicodemus). Back to context...
9.
The poet describes the pain of the spear wound descending through his leg and being absorbed by the cross. Back to context...