John Glyn Davies (1870–1953) was a Welsh scholar, poet and songwriter. His three volumes of sea shanties remain very popular. In the age of sail many Welsh people took to the sea but even on ships with a majority of Welsh speakers, shanties were sung in English, as traditions of collective singing in Welsh had died out even by Edwards’ time.
His interest in sailing probably came from visits to Edern on the Llŷn just a short walk from Portinllaen (now Porth Dinllaen). He served in sailing ships from 1887 to 1898 and composed his three volumes of shanties and sea songs (Cerddi Huw Puw 1922, Cerddi Robin Goch 1935, Cerddi Portinllaen 1936) using traditional shanty tunes but writing new lyrics in Welsh, as a response to the lack of easy and fun songs in Welsh especially for children to pick up. His lyrics are colloquial and packed with nautical terminology and he was critical of writing in literary language and poetical metre.
Edwards was born in Liverpool to a Welsh family; his father John was a tea merchant and his mother Gwen was the daughter of the Methodist preacher John Jones Talysarn. In his later career he was a librarian and university lecturer.