11 Facts About Iolo Morganwg

Iolo Morganwg was seen as an expert collector of Medieval Welsh literature, but it emerged after his death that he had forged several manuscripts, notably some of the Third Series of Welsh Triads.

Iolo Morganwg produced a large number of manuscripts as evidence for his claims that ancient Druidic tradition had survived the Roman conquest, the conversion of the populace to Christianity, the persecution of bards under King Edward I, and other adversities.

Iolo Morganwg's forgeries develop an elaborate mystical philosophy, which he claimed as a direct continuation of ancient Druidic practice.

Iolo Morganwg organised the occasion according to what he claimed were ancient Druidic rites.

Iolo Morganwg's papers were used by many later scholars and translators, and for reference by Lady Charlotte Guest as she translated the prose collection Mabinogion.

Iolo Morganwg did not rely on Williams's editions of the tales themselves, except for Hanes Taliesin.

Iolo Morganwg's philosophy represented a fusion of Christian and Arthurian influences, a romanticism comparable to that of William Blake and the Scottish poet and forger James MacPherson, the revived antiquarian enthusiasm for all things "Celtic", and such elements of bardic heritage as had genuinely survived among Welsh-language poets.

Iolo Morganwg developed his own runic system based on an ancient druid alphabet system, in Welsh Coelbren y Beirdd.

Williams aimed to find out exactly how much of Iolo Morganwg's output was based on imagination rather than fact.

Iolo Morganwg established that the poems Iolo attributed to Dafydd ap Gwilym were forgeries.

Iolo Morganwg's researches led him to become a defender of Iolo's reputation as well as a critic.