Marwnad yr Ehedydd

"Marwnad yr Ehedydd" ("The Lark's Elegy") is a traditional Welsh folk song. A single verse was published by the Welsh Folk Song Society in 1914. It was attributed to the singing of Edward Vaughan, Plas-rhiw-Saeson, collected by Soley Thomas.

Words with English translation
There has been speculation that it is one of the oldest existing songs in Welsh, because the lark in the song may be a coded reference to Owain Glyndŵr and could have been written by one of his followers. The single stanza has been 'exploded' into longer songs at least four times. The first was by Enid Parry, adding three more verses about other birds. Her words were also published in two books of Welsh folksongs.

A second version was written by Albert Evans-Jones (bardic name Cynan), adding four verses again about other birds.

This second version was used, for example, by Bryn Terfel on CD, and by Arfon Gwilym for Trac Cymru (Folk Development for Wales).

A slightly modified melody, compared to the original field-recording, is used in some publications and recordings.

In 1979, Myrddin ap Dafydd created a third version of the words, based on the idea of it being about Glyndŵr, for the folk group Plethyn who released it on a cassette entitled 'Blas y Pridd', and subsequently in 1990 on a CD.

During the celebration of the 600th anniversary of Glyndŵr's uprising, Myrddin ap Dafydd wrote a fourth version adding five verses to the original, entitled 'Mawl yr Ehedydd' (The Lark's Eulogy).