JONES, THOMAS GWYNN

born Oct. 10, 1871, Abergele, Denbighshire, Wales died March 7, 1949, Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire Welsh-language poet and scholar best known for his narrative poems on traditional Celtic themes. After spending much of his earlier life as a journalist, Jones joined the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth in 1909; in 1913 he went to the University of Wales as lecturer and, later, as professor of Welsh literature. Critics have seen his greatest achievement in the poems Tir na n-Og, a lyrical play for performance with music; Broseliawnd, set in the forest of Broceliande; Anatiomaros, set in a district of ancient Gaul; Argoed, depicting an ideal community; and Cynddilig, about the 6th-century Welsh poet Llywarch Hen. His translations of Goethe's Faust (1922) and his collection of Greek poems and Latin epigrams, Blodau o Hen Ardd (1927; Flowers from an Ancient Garden), with H.J. Rose, are considered among the most successful renderings of ancient literature into Welsh.