Poetry by numbers

All the medieval versions of Gramadegau Penceirddiaid, the Welsh bardic grammars, end with a set of trioedd cerdd “poetical triads” which can be seen not only as a contribution to grammatical thinking within the texts, but also as part of the wider tradition of triadic structuring of knowledge in medieval Wales. The earlier parts of these texts are also numerically structured, much of which is inherited from Latin grammar, but the later sections (dealing with verse and verse-faults) which are uniquely Welsh make far greater use of triadic structuring.