1550s) adapted the llatai (animal messenger) poem to
her own purpose—the animal carries not a love letter
but rather a message to her friend, Siân Griffi th (née
Owain), with whom she had lost touch. Gwerful
Mechain’s (1460–1502) erotic poems subvert the tradi-
tion medieval love lyric tradition. Her “Cywydd y gont”
(Cywydd of the Cunt), for instance, issues a challenge to
the traditional BLAZON that avoids the most prized part of
a woman’s body, her genitalia: “leaving the middle with-
out praise / and the place where children are conceived”
(ll. 21–22). Similarly introspective, though religious in
nature, are poems by Catrin ferch Gruffudd ap Hywel
(fl. 1500–55) and Elsbeth Fychan that provide personal
responses to the Reformation.
See also CYWYDD, POETS OF THE PRINCES AND POETS OF
THE NOBILITY.
FURTHER READING
Lloyd-Morgan, Ceridwen. “Women and their Poetry in
Medieval Wales.” In Women and Literature in Britain 1150–
1500, edited by Meale Carole, 183–201. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Powell, Nia M. W. “Women and Strict-Metre Poetry in
Wales.” In Women and Gender in Early Modern Wales,
edited by Michael Roberts and Clarke Simone, 129–158.
Cardiff, 2000.
Cathryn A. Charnell-White
WERGILD In pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon society,
satisfaction for the killing or maiming of family mem-
bers by outsiders was exacted either by pursuit of a
feud, which always risked spiraling out of control and
causing enormous social disruption, or by demanding
the appropriate wergild (wer [man] + gild [payment of
money]), a sliding scale of substantial monetary equiv-
alents to be paid by the offending family. In the laws of
the Anglo-Saxon king Ine (r. 688–726), the wergild for
killing a thegn (thane, or nobleman) was 1,200 shil-
lings, and for killing a freeman it was 200 shillings.
The killing of a slave was uncompensated. Although
the coming of Christianity modifi ed the system some-
what, it remained in place until the 12th century.
Problems arose when the rules were violated. A
famous example may be found in BEOWULF. In this EPIC,
Grendel pursues a feud against Hrothgar but violates
his responsibilities as a “hall-thegn” (l. 142) by refus-
ing to offer monetary compensation (wergild) for any of
his killings (ll. 151–158). In contrast, Hrothgar had
paid a heavy wergild to the Wylfi ngas to settle a feud
Beowulf’s father had instigated (ll. 459–472). Part of
Beowulf’s responsibility is to deal with Grendel as an
asocial element who threatens social stability. Yet the
system has its fl aws as Hrethel, Beowulf’s maternal
grandfather, experiences when he has to forgo any
wergild for the accidental killing of his son Herebeald,
slain by his brother Hæthcyn (ll. 2435–2442).
FURTHER READING
Hill, John M. The Cultural World in Beowulf. Toronto: Uni-
versity of Toronto Press, 1995.
Shaun F. D. Hughes“WHAT IS HE, THIS LORDLING, THAT
COMETH FROM THE FYHT” WILLIAM
HEREBERT (before 1333) A poetic paraphrase by
William Herebert (d. 1333) of Isaiah 63:1–7 (“Quis est
iste qui venit de Edom?”), this poem is a liturgical read-
ing for Wednesday of Holy Week written in the West
Midlands dialect of Middle English. A Franciscan friar,
Herebert composed some 20 lyrics from French and
Latin sources and copied them into own miscellany
book, which also contains sermons, recipes and medic-
inal cures.
“What is he.. .” is a poem of divine retribution. In
Herebert’s fi rst quatrain, the speaker is a prophet, one
of the “watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem” (Isa. 62:6),
who sees the approach of the “lordling.” The watcher
challenges the stranger here and in two further lines;
the balance of the poem is a voicing of the response.
That response is vividly heroic and sanguinary. The
avenger’s clothes are red—“mined” with blood: He has
trampled men like grapes in a wine press. Calling him-
self the “champion to heal mankind in fi ght” (l. 6), his
work is not only the spilling of blood but also the visi-
tation of shame on the transgressors. His clothes are
splattered with blood “to their great shame” (l. 13); he
has “drowned them all in shame” (l. 23). Furthermore,
the avenger has done this all alone with none to aid
him. It was his strength alone that brought about this
“remedy” (“bote,” l. 18), and in its aftermath it is God’s
mercy (“mylsfolnesse,” l. 20) he will rely on.“WHAT IS HE, THIS LORDLING, THAT COMETH FROM THE FYHT” 461