Y Cychwyn (T. Rowland Hughes)

““Bora clir, braf, ynte?” meddai hi wedi iddi groesi at y ffenestr.
“Y? Clir? A’r hen darth ’na dros y pentra’ i gyd!”
Edrychodd hi’n ddryslyd arno.
“Welwch chi gapal Siloam, Nyrs?”
“Gwela’. Ond does ’na neb ar y ffordd eto. Rhy gynnar o lawar.”
“Nyrs?”
“Ia, Robat Ellis?”
“Wela’ i mo’r capal na’r ysgol na’r eglwys na dim.”

After his father's sudden and unexpected decline, Owen Ellis has to grow up quickly. Although a quarryman by profession, his natural talents suggest he is cut out for something more.

But will poverty and responsibility prevent him from fulfilling his ambitions?

As its title suggests, T. Rowland Hughes intended for his novel Y Cychwyn ('The Beginning') to be the first part of a much larger work: a trilogy following Owen Ellis through his life, from his youth to his old age. In the end his own deteriorating health overtook him, and Y Cychwyn would be his last nofel; but in it one of the greatest Welsh novelists of his age in Welsh can be seen at the height of his creative powers.

Paperback, 266pp.