Table of letters inCeltic Researches (1804) byEdward Davies (1756–1831)Painting ofDewi Wyn o Eifion (1784–1841) with the title written in Coelbren y Beirdd
The script, analphabet compared to that ofAncient Greek by Welsh writerJane Williams, consisted of forty letters – twenty base letters, and a further twenty devoted tolong vowels andconsonant mutations. It could be carved on four-sided pieces of wood and fitted into a frame called a "peithynen".[1][2] Morganwg presented woodendruidic alphabets to friends and notables, and succeeded in persuading many of its authenticity.
A WelshBardic andDruidic essay, written by his sonTaliesin Williams and published as apamphlet in 1840, defended the authenticity of the alphabet and won the Abergavenny Eisteddfod in 1838.[3][4]
Taliesin Williams's book was written about other Coelbrennau'r Beirdd, which is the name of a Welsh language manuscript in theIolo Manuscripts and two manuscripts inBarddas, one with the subtitle "yn dorredig a chyllell". Iolo Morganwg suggested they were originally the work ofbards fromGlamorgan who had their manuscripts copied into collections stored atPlas y Fan,Neath Abbey,Margam Abbey andRaglan Library, and compiled byMeurig Dafydd andLewys Morgannwg, amongst others, in the 1700s. These were suggested to have again been transcribed byEdward Dafydd,John Bradford andLlywelyn Siôn. Morganwg suggested that he had collected some of Siôn and Bradford's manuscripts, while the majority, including all of Lewys Morgannwg's sources, were lost. Numerous scholars, such asGlyn Cothi Lewis, concluded that the script was a hoax.[5][6][7][8]
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