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Born this day 1284 in Caernarfon Castle
Edward II King of England, 1307-27 the youngest son of Edward l and Eleanor of Castile.
In 1301, he was made Prince of Wales in the Lincoln parliament, the first English prince to be given the title He was also given control of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd's lands in Gwynedd and the allegiance of all those lords who owed their titles to Llewelyn.
During Edward's defeat in 1314 by the Scots at the Battle of Bannockburn, Gilbert de Clare, Lord of Glamorgan, was killed and succeeded by his brother-in-law, Hugh le Despenser the elder, his son Hugh le Despenser the younger becoming the new favourite of Edward II.
The War of the Barons against Edward II, led by Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, was an attempt to break the influence of the Caerphilly Despensers on the king, but it failed, with the Despensers now effectively ruling England.Their appetite for land was voracious, with Hugh le Despenser the Younger accumulating lordships which encompassed almost the entire southern coast of Wales.
In 1323 Roger Mortimer of Wigmore escaped from Tower of London and fled to France where he formed an allegiance with Edward's estranged wife, Isabella.They became lovers and plotted to raise an army to overthrow Edward.
Isabella and Mortimer arrived in England in 1326 with their army and met with minimal resistance. Edward II and the younger Despenser fled to Caerphilly Castle. They were later captured near Llantrisant and imprisoned in Monmouth Castle. Despenser was tried and executed at Hereford, whilst Edward II was taken to Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire and later Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire.
In 1327, Gruffydd ap Rhys, lord of Dinorwig and Tregarnedd and Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd, lord of Narberth along with thirteen prominent men of Wales led an unsuccessful plot to free Edward from Berkeley.
1327 In January Edward II agreed to resign his crown in favour of his son Edward and in September Edward II was murdered.
A legacy of Edward's reign, was that Roger Mortimer made himself lord of huge territories in Wales, he had himself named earl of March and the Welsh Marches became his power base.
Born this day 1927 in Ystrad, Rhondda,
Ernest Zobole , who was a painter and art teacher, was described as one of Wales' "most important artists." His paintings reflected the industrial setting of the Rhondda Valleys.
On 25th April 1283 the constable of Castell y Bere surrendered after a siege by the army of Edward I who were seeking the capture of Dafydd ap Gruffudd, who had escaped to Dolbadarn Castle in Snowdonia.
After Llywelyn ap Gruffudd's death in 1282, his brother Dafydd had become Prince of Wales and was on the run from Edward I who had the heartland of independent Wales ringed with a massive army.
John Poyer was a Parliamentary soldier during the English Civil War, who later rebelled and was executed for treason on 25th April 1649 .
Initially a prosperous merchant, mayor and Governor of Pembroke Castle, Poyer raised a force on behalf of Parliament, defending the castle against the Royalists. When, in 1647, he was commanded to disband his army and surrender Pembroke Castle, he refused, claiming that he was owed money. He joined a Royalist rebellion which lost at the Battle of St Fagans.
Poyer, along with fellow rebels Laugharne and Powell, fled to Pembroke, where they were besieged by Oliver Cromwell and forced to surrender on 11 July 1648 . Poyer was executed at Covent Garden in London.
On 25th April 1915 during the landing on V Beach, Gallipoli, Able Seaman William Charles Williams from Chepstow secured the safety of landing craft while under continuous enemy fire . He was killed by a shell and was described by his commander as the bravest sailor he had ever met. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross - the first such award made to a member of the Royal Navy.
James Relly, born in Jeffreyston, near Tenby in Pembrokeshire. (c.1722– April 25 , 1778) was a Methodist minister who adopted Universalism and among whose converts in 1770 was John Murray, the founder of Universalist churches in America.
Universalists believe that God did not create the human race knowing that we are destined for eternal damnation.
Born on this day 1923 in Newport,
Paul Whitsun-Jones , a character actor notable for appearances in the TV series Z-Cars, The Saint, The Avengers, Some Mothers Do Ave Em, Doctor Who and The Persuaders.
Born on this day 1929 in Machen near Caerphilly,
Malcolm Thomas - former Wales rugby captain . A centre, he played club rugby for Newport. He was capped for Wales on 27 occasions and was selected to play in the British Lions on two tours of Australia and New Zealand.
Tolkien And Welsh (Tolkien a Chymraeg): Essays on J.R.R. Tolkien's Use of Welsh in his Legendarium - An Interview With Author Mark T. Hooker
From the product description:- " Tolkien and Welsh provides an overview of J.R.R.Tolkien's use of Welsh in his Legendarium , ranging from the obvious ( Gwynfa —the Welsh word for Paradise ), to the apparent ( Took —a Welsh surname), to the veiled ( Gerontius —the Latinizaton of a royal Welsh name), to the hidden ( Goldberry —the English calque of a Welsh theonym). Though it is a book by a linguist, it was written for the non-linguist with the goal of making the topic accessible. The unavoidable jargon is explained in a glossary, and the narrative presents an overview of how Welsh influenced Tolkien's story line, as well as his synthetic languages Quenya and Sindarin."
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AmeriCymru: Hi Mark, and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru.
Mark: Thank you for inviting me. It’s my honor to do an interview for AmeriCymru.
AmeriCymru: In your book Tolkien is quoted as saying re: The Lord of the Rings , that the Welsh elements of his tale are what has "given perhaps more pleasure to more readers than anything else in it". How true do you think this is?
Mark: Tolkien’s assertion that the Welsh elements in his tale have given more pleasure to more readers than anything else in it, might be an overstatement.
On the one extreme, there is Edward Crankshaw’s infamous critique of Tolkien’s work in which he said that he “disliked its eye-splitting Celtic names.” On the other hand, there are people like me, who write books about Tolkien’s use of Welsh. I think the truth lies somewhere in between.
Crankshaw continued that Tolkien’s work “has something of that mad, bright-eyed beauty that perplexes all Anglo-Saxons in face of Celtic art,” and I think that is where the problem lies. Very few people understand the true beauty of Celtic art, and even fewer understand the beauty of Celtic linguistics.
I, like Tolkien, am a linguist, and when I first read Tolkien’s statement about the Welsh elements in The Lord of the Rings , my immediate impulse was to rush off to learn Welsh. It took a while before I was able to turn that impulse into action, but finally, in 2000, I found a hole in my schedule for the Cwrs Cymraeg Y Mileniwm in Carmarthen. This course run by Cymdeithas Madog gave me the basis I needed to come to grips with Tolkien’s use of Welsh and Welsh folklore. The location of the course was great, because it meant that I could try and speak Welsh with native speakers when I went downtown after class to shop and explore the city. I was really pleased with the course.
You might, therefore, say that my book was twelve years in the making, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I hope it makes it possible for more people to appreciate how big a part of Tolkien’s work is based on Welsh, by showing them how to find the Welsh elements in his work.
My examination of Tolkien’s work through a Welsh lens produces a “myopic” vision of it, but that is intentional, because as Jane Chance said in an interview, “the northern European influence seems more important than the Celtic, from what I have been able to tell. Perhaps that is because so much of the work done on Tolkien’s medievalism thus far has focused on the northern European influence.” Tolkien and Welsh is intended to remedy this imbalance.
AmeriCymru: Can you tell us a little more about Tolkien’s definition of 'Welsh'?
Mark: The “Welsh” that Tolkien knew best was not exactly what people think of when they say “Welsh” today. Tolkien’s academic specialty was historical linguistics, so the “Welsh” that he was most familiar with was the Celtic language known as “Welsh,” before it split into Cornish, Breton, and Modern Welsh. J.S. Ryan, who heard Tolkien deliver the lecture “English and Welsh,” remarks that “Tolkien’s use of the word Welsh would seem to be that found in Old English texts,” where it meant “foreign, or non Germanic.”
Max Förster, an eminent German linguist with whose work Tolkien was familiar, observes that between the fifth and the seventh centuries, the language of the Celtic peoples of Wales and Cornwall would have been little different than the Brittonic from which it stemmed. Even in the period of the ninth and eleventh centuries, remarks Förster, the phonetic differences between Breton, Cornish and Welsh would have been so slight as to be “barely noticeable” for the purposes of his study.
Tolkien’s awareness of this undifferentiated use of Welsh to name the language of modern Wales and present-day Cornwall is perhaps best demonstrated in Tolkien’s tale of Ælfwine (English: Elf Friend ), in which Tolkien wrote “the Welsh language is not strange to him [Ælfwine] … His wife was of Cornwall.”
My wife is “of Holland,” which is why I speak Dutch. The logical conclusion is that the Englishman Ælfwine understood Welsh , because that is what his wife spoke, and she came from Cornwall.
Tolkien’s knowledge of Breton can scarcely be in doubt. He has a note on Breton morphological change in “English and Welsh” that only a linguist well-versed in Breton could make. His knowledge of Breton is further attested by the poem he wrote, entitled The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun . The “names” of the protagonists in the poem— Aotrou and Itroun —are in fact the Breton words for Lord and Lady .
In his Cambriae descriptio ( Description of Wales ), the twelfth century chronicler Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) comments that Welsh, Cornish and Breton are mutually intelligible in almost all instances. The “Welsh,” therefore, of Tolkien’s primary academic interest was more, or less, a “catch-all name” for the ancestor of Cornish, Breton, and Modern Welsh.
Tolkien’s poems “Earendil Was a Mariner” and “Errantry” demonstrate a considerable resemblance to the Welsh medieval poetic technique known as cynghanedd, which is regarded as one of, if not the most sophisticated poetic system of sound-patterning used anywhere in the world. Tolkien certainly knew Welsh well, if he was able to replicate that pattern.
That is not to say that Tolkien did not know Modern Welsh. There are reports of conversations he had in Welsh with various people, and apparently he spoke it quite well.
AmeriCymru: Tolkien is on record as saying that the names and places in The Lord of the Rings were developed on patterns deliberately modeled on Welsh sources, but not identical with them. How evident is this from the text? Care to quote a few examples?
Mark: Unless your Welsh is very good and has a historical tint to it, it is hard to spot some of Tolkien’s “Welsh” names, because he deliberately changed elements in the name to make it harder to see them as such. Some are easy to spot, like Gwynfa ( Paradise ) from Tolkien’s children’s story Roverandom . All you have to do is open a Welsh dictionary to see this one.
Tolkien glossed the woman’s name Rhian as crown-gift , while in Welsh Rhian means queen . All he has done is change the meaning just a little bit, while the name remains easily recognizable as Welsh, because the letter combination ‘Rh’ is so typically Welsh.
The Took Crest |
Goldberry wife of Tom Bombadil |
The name Took is harder to see, because Tolkien used the English spelling. You can only really see that Tolkien intended the Welsh name, when Tolkien spells it Tūca , using a bared ‘Ū’ instead of the Welsh ‘W’ for the vowel. The name was originally Twca (type of sword).
Similarly, Tolkien’s place name Henneth Annûn looks a lot more Welsh, if it is spelled using Welsh orthography as Hennedd Annwn (the old abode in the Otherworld).
Tolkien glosses the place name Amon Lhaw as Hill of the Ear , but if lhaw is converted to modern Welsh orthography, it would be read as Amon Llaw ( Amon of the Hand ).
This is not in the book—as I have only just seen it myself: Tolkien’s Elvish names for the months December and January are based on the Welsh rhew ( ice , frost ). January is Cathriw ( After the Frost ) and December is Ephriw ( Before the Frost ), modeled on the old Anglo-Saxon month names Ærra Jéola ( Before Yule ) | Æftera Jéola ( After Yule ).
It is hard to see, not only because Tolkien changed the vowel in rhew , and because mutation changes rhew to rew , but also because the prefixes before and after are Greek.
The hardest names to spot are the ones that are translated piece by piece into English. The enigmatic name Goldberry becomes much clearer when it is translated back into Welsh, where it becomes Rhos Maelan , the place to which Maelan, the youngest daughter of the Welsh Goddess Dôn, escaped when Caer Arianrhod was flooded.
AmeriCymru: How do the linguistic boundaries in Tolkien’s work reflect those existing between the Germanic and Celtic languages in the British Isles?
Mark: The map of the U.K. is like a patchwork quilt of names, where Celtic, Germanic, Latin and Norman-French elements dot the linguistic countryside, reflecting the history of the comings and goings of the peoples who spoke these languages. Stratford — ford (O.E.) on the stratum (L) or ‘Roman road’—is on the banks of the River Avon , a tautology (a bilingual place name that repeats its meaning in both of its languages), as avon means river in Welsh . Bewdley —a hypercorrection of the Norman-French beau lieu —means beautiful spot . It is located on the banks of the River Severn (Celtic: Ys Hafren , Latin: Sabrina ). Pembridge (Herefordshire) is the End (W: pen ) of the Bridge (E). It is located just south of the River Arrow, which is Celtic in origin: Ar + gwy L> wy = Arwy ( By the Water .)
Tolkien replicates this patchwork quilt in the names of Breeland. Bree was the principal town of Breeland, which consisted of the villages of Archet, Combe, and Staddle. It was built on Bree Hill.
The name Bree Hill is one of Tolkien’s philological jests, a joke only a linguist could love. It is another tautology. It is composed of the elements Bree (Celtic) + hill (English).
The same type of construction is seen in Tolkien’s name for the wood near Bree: Chetwood . In Old Celtic, chet means wood . On the real-world map, this tautological construction shows up in the names Chetwode (south-west of Buckingham) and the Chute Forest in Wiltshire.
The element chet also shows up in the name Archet . The prefix Ar - in the name Archet can be found in a number of Welsh place names, where it means nearby . Tolkien’s name, therefore, means near the woods , which is exactly where he placed Archet in his description of Bree-Land: “on the edge of the Chetwood.” (F.205) Compare: the Welsh place name Argoed (literally: by a wood ).
The name Combe is the Anglicization of the Old Celtic kumb , meaning valley (compare the modern Welsh: cwm , which means hollow ). It was used so extensively that it was adopted into Old English as cumb and has yielded numerous place names based on this root, such as Combe (Oxfordshire, and West Berkshire), Coomb (Cornwall, and Devon).
Linguistically, Staddle is the odd-man-out in BreeLand. Archet , Bree and Combe share a certain Celtic ancestry, while Staddle has a Germanic origin. Tolkien’s names do exactly what place names on the real-world map do.
AmeriCymru: Tolkiens work is rich in philological jests. In your book you point out that there are many place names which will amuse an etymologist both in the book and in modern day Britain. Care to expand on this theme a little?
Mark: Tolkien was a man who liked a good linguistic jest, another of the traits that he shared with the Welsh as described by Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales), the twelfth century chronicler who authored the Cambriae descriptio ( Description of Wales ). Welsh courtiers, and even plain family men have “the reputation of being great wits,” says Giraldus. They are fond of “sarcastic remarks and libelous allusions, plays on words, sly references, ambiguities and equivocal statements.” The description fits Tolkien handily. Most of Tolkien’s puns, however, are the kind that only another linguist can laugh at without being told what the joke is. I try to explain some of them in Tolkien and Welsh .
Many of Tolkien’s jokes are what linguists call “Folk Etymologies,” that is an explanation of a name that makes the name comprehensible to a non-linguist. The Hobbits, for example, changed the Elvish name for the River Baranduin into the name Brandywine . This kind of thing happens all the time in the real world. A real-world example is Golden Valley in Herefordshire, which is the work of French monks who thought that the Welsh dwr ( water ) was the French d’or ( of gold ).
Tolkien says that some members of the Boffin family thought that the name Boffin might mean “one who laughs out loud.” The connection is obviously to the word boff , a bit of slang from the entertainment industry that means “a hearty or unrestrained laugh.” Boffin is in fact a Welsh name that was originally spelled Baughan .
The name Maggot is another linguistic joke of Tolkien’s. While English speakers are trying to figure out why Tolkien would name anyone Maggot , Welsh speakers of Tolkien’s ilk—and remember that means Welsh with a historical tint—know that King Magoth is one of the ancestors of King Arthur, and that the name changed to Baggot in Brittany, and came back to the U.K. in that form with William in 1066. This makes it just another in Tolkien’s nest of names that contain the element ‘bag,’ like Baggins of Bag End.
Orthanc is another of Tolkien’s puns. It has meaning in both Rohirric (Anglo-Saxon) and in Sindarin: In Rohirric, it means cunning mind , while in Sindarin, it means Mount Fang . Mordor yields both a Sindarin ( black land ) and an Old English ( murder < morðor ) gloss.
The pun in the Elvish name Cathriw hinges on the double meaning in the prefix. If you read the prefix as if it were Celtic instead of Greek, the prefix suggests the Irish cath ( battle ), the Welsh cad , the Old Welsh cat , and the Brittonic *kattā. Compare Taliesin’s Cad Goddeu ( The Battle of the Trees ), Cath Maige Tuired ( The Battle of the Plain of the Towers ) from the Irish mythology, and the Welsh name Cadwallawer ( Battle Ruler ) < cad - ( battle ) + gwaladr ( ruler ) L > waladr . A Celtic reading of Cathriw makes it mean Battle of the Frost , which has a certain resonance with Ragnarok, the battle between the Norse Gods and the Frost Giants (hrímþursar) at the end of the world.
Mark: Sir John Rhys (1840–1915) was a famous Welsh scholar, fellow of the British Academy, Celtic Specialist, and the first Professor of Celtic at Oxford University. Tolkien was one of his students. As any diligent student should know, when you take a course from someone who has written a book on the topic of the course, the book will be a part of the course, even if it is not on the required reading list, and Professor Rhys was a well-published author. Lectures on Welsh Philology (1877)
You can tell that Tolkien read Rhys’ books, because the only place that I’ve yet found the name Rhos Maelan attested is in Rhys’ book Celtic Folk-lore .
As I read Rhys’ works, I kept finding things that I recognized from Tolkien’s work. For example: Tolkien has a footnote to the song that Frodo sings at the Prancing Pony, in which Frodo calls the Sun “She.” The footnote says “Elves (and Hobbits) always refer to the Sun as She.” (F.218) Rhys has a very interesting paper in which he explains that the Celts worshipped a Sun Goddess, not a Sun God as is the case in Western tradition.
Books by Sir John Rhys
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AmeriCymru: In The Two Towers , the Welsh folk belief in "corpse candles" is alluded to. Are there other instances of Welsh folk beliefs cropping up in Tolkien’s work?
Mark: In his book on Welsh folklore, Sikes remarks that although Keightley took Shakespeare to task in his Fairy Mythology for the inaccuracy of his use of “English fairy superstitions,” no such thing could be said of the Bard’s use of Welsh folklore. Shakespeare’s knowledge and use of Welsh fairy motifs and lore, notes Sikes, were “extensive and peculiarly faithful.” The same can be said of Tolkien.
Tolkien has a place named Long Lake that is the translation of the reasonably common Welsh name Llyn Hir . One of these “Long Lakes” is in Llanfair Caerneinion parish in Montgomeryshire. It is located on Mynydd y Drum in Powys. There is a legend about this mountain that has lots of elements in common with Tolkien’s tale of treasure in a mountain found in The Hobbit .
The legend is one from Rhys’ Celtic Folk-lore . It is a tale about a wizard (cwmshurwr) who lived in Ystradgynlais, near the mountain. The wizard had heard that there was a great treasure hidden in Mynydd y Drum, but he could not go get it alone. He needed the help of a “plucky fellow“ (dyn ysprydol).
These are the first resonances with Tolkien’s tale. Gandalf stops by Bag-End to recruit someone to go recover a treasure in a mountain, and convinces Bilbo to join in the expedition. Bilbo “plucks up his courage“ three times in The Hobbit : once in the face of the trolls (H.47), once when confronted by the spiders (H.158), and a third time when he talks to Smaug (H.214).
The wizard of Ystradgynlais found just such a man in the person of John Gethin (The Swarthy). John and the wizard climbed the mountain together, and when they got to the top, the wizard drew the symbol for infinity (∞) on the ground. The wizard stepped into one of the circles, and instructed John to enter the other. Under no circumstances, the wizard told him, was he to leave the circle. While the wizard was busy with his books, a monstrous bull appeared, bellowing threateningly, but the plucky John stood his ground, and the bull vanished.
The next stage of the story carries two more resonances with Tolkien’s tale. John is threatened by a “fly-wheel of fire“ that heads straight for him. This proves too much for John, and he steps out of the circle to avoid being hit by it. The wheel immediately turns into the devil, who grabs John to take him away. The wizard was only able to save John by trickery. He convinced the devil to let him keep John for as long as the piece of candle he had with him lasted. As soon as the devil agreed to his request, the wizard blew out the candle. This understandably made the devil quite cross, but he had given his word.
Without much imagination—a trait that Tolkien had in abundance—a “fly-wheel of fire” could be turned into a flying fire-breathing dragon. This is after all the man whose first name for Smaug was the simple Welsh compound Pryftan (literally: Worm of Fire ). The role of the devil seems to have been given to the Goblins who detain Thorin and Co. They are indeed quite cross when Gandalf rescues Bilbo and the Dwarves from their clutches.
John kept the candle stowed away in a cool place, never lighting it. Nevertheless, the candle wasted away. John was so frightened by this that he took to his bed. He and the candle wasted away together, and they both came to an end simultaneously. John simply vanished. For appearances’ sake, they put a lump of clay into the coffin they buried under John’s headstone.
John’s vanishing act recalls Gandalf’s explanation of what the Ring does to its owner. A mortal ringbearer, says Gandalf, “does not die, … he fades .” In the end, he becomes invisible forever, and is condemned to walk in the twilight, under the watchful eye of the Dark Lord who rules the Rings of power. (F.76, Tolkien’s emphasis )
You think that you know all the players in the sub-field of Welsh Tolkienistics, because there are not a lot of us, but when Tolkien and Welsh was published, I got an eMail from Wales from Steve Ponty who is working on a book entitled The Hobbit: Professor J.R.R. Tolkien's Magic Mirror Maps of Wales . In his book, he points out—much to my embarrassment, because I wish I had seen it—that when Gandalf introduces Thorin and Company to Beorn, he announces that they are on their way to the “land of their fathers.” (H.122) Ponty explains that if Thorin had introduced himself , he would have said that they were going to the *‘land of my fathers,’ which, as any specialist in things Welsh should know, is the common English translation of the title of the Welsh National Anthem: Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau .
What makes this idea so attractive is that before the reader can get to the next paragraph where Ponty makes it explicit, the suggestion of Welsh Dwarves triggers the thought that both the Dwarves and the Welsh are famous for their considerable ability as miners.
AmeriCymru: In what way does the theme of matrilineal descent demonstrate a further Celtic influence in Tolkien’s work?
Mark: Matrilineal descent is one of the key characteristics of the Welsh pantheon. Rhys discusses this aspect of Welsh culture at length in Chapter 1 (“The Ethnology of Ancient Wales”) of his book The Welsh People .
Matrilineal descent means that the family tree of the Welsh gods and goddesses is presented with reference to their mothers, rather than to their fathers. So, when Tolkien describes Goldberry as “the River Woman’s daughter,” he is giving her a matrilineal description. This means that Goldberry fits seamlessly in the type of hierarchy that is used for the children of the goddess Dôn, who form the great dynasty of Welsh mythology.
The majority of Tolkien’s characters are described in terms of patrilineal descent. There are, however, characters, whose descent is described in matrilineal terms. The descriptions of the lineage of the three Hobbit Ring Bearers all accent details of who their (grand)mothers were. This makes them stand out among all the patrilineal characters.
In The Hobbit , Tolkien’s narrator begins his introduction of Bilbo with “the mother of our particular hobbit … was the fabulous Belladonna Took, one of the three remarkable daughters of the Old Took.” (H.16) This is the only time that Tolkien uses the word mother in The Hobbit .
Frodo’s relationship to the Old Took is reckoned via one of Old Took’s daughters. Frodo is the son of the daughter of the youngest of the Old Took’s daughters (F.45), a description that is the essence of matrilineal descent. Bilbo’s selection of his mother’s sister’s daughter’s son as his heir and successor is equally in step with matrilineal descent.
Sméagol (Gollum) came from “a family of high repute” that “was ruled by a grandmother of the folk,” a matriarch. (F.84, F.89) She was a “great person” (F.89) who had the power to turn Sméagol out of the family and her hole. (F.85) She is the only ancestor of Sméagol’s who is mentioned, which is clearly another a matrilineal description of familial relationships.
AmeriCymru: How do the landscapes in Tolkien resemble actual geographical areas in Wales? Care to give us an example or two?
Mark: There are so many Welsh (Celtic) place names in Tolkien’s work, that it is hard to make a choice of two to give as examples, but I will give it a try.
In his notes, Tolkien said that Buckland is to The Shire as Wales is to England, so it was, therefore, “not wholly inappropriate” to use names of “a Celtic or specifically Welsh character” as the translations of “its many very peculiar names.”
Normally, Tolkien scholars say that the name Buckland came from Bookland , that is land owned by right of an entry in a book. They are generally unaware that there is a Buckland in Brecknockshire, in Wales that has a meaning that exactly matches the gloss that Tolkien gave for Buckland . He said that the names containing the element buck meant “the word ‘buck’ (animal): either Old English bucc ‘male deer’ (fallow or roe), or bucca ‘he-goat’.” The Brecknockshire Buckland was originally from the Welsh bwch ( buck ).
In The Hobbit , Bilbo and the Dwarves pass The Carrock . The word carrock is strange enough that Bilbo has to ask what it means. Gandalf explains to Bilbo that carrock is the word that Beorn uses for what appears to be a common topographical feature, but Beorn considers this particular one The Carrock “because it is the only one near his home and he knows it well” (H.117).
In the Breton edition of The Hobbit , the translation of The Carrock is Ar Garreg (ar [the ] + karreg [ rock ] garreg ), which demonstrates how clearly the Breton translator perceived the Celtic underpinnings of Carrock , despite Tolkien’s orthographic camouflage.
AmeriCymru: Where can one go to purchase Tolkien And Welsh?
Mark: “Tolkien and Welsh” is available from Amazon.com, from Amazon.co.uk, and from Amazon.de. Those who would like to support AmeriCymru, should, of course, click on the link in the AmeriCymru Bookstore, because Amazon pays AmeriCymru a “finder’s fee” for such sales. Signed copies will be available at the AmeriCymru stand at the Wordstock literary festival 3—6 October 2013 in Portland.
Born this day 1903 in Liverpool,
Mary Elizabeth "Mimi" Smith (grandparents were welsh) who was the maternal aunt and parental guardian of John Lennon.
Other Welsh connections to the Beatles;
* Paul McCartney produced the 13-year-old Pontardawe schoolgirl Mary Hopkin's hit single Those Were The Days.
* Welshman Allan Williams was the Beatles’ first ever manager.
* Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre was the venue for their last-ever UK concert in December 1965.
* The group were visiting Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Bangor for transcendental meditation when they heard of the death of Brian Epstein.
* Comic actor Victor Spinetti appeared in three Beatles movies
* Welsh clothes designer Tommy Nutter dressed three out of the four Beatles for the cover of The Beatles album Abbey Road.
Died this day 1713,
Edmund Meyrick, who was born in Llandderfel, near Bala. He was a cleric and a benefactor of Jesus College Oxford, where scholarships are still awarded in his name.
Born this day 1973 in Leeds,
Gabby Logan, television and radio presenter. She is also a former Wales international gymnast and is the daughter of former Wales soccer international Terry Yorath.
Born this day 1959 in Colwyn Bay,
Paula Yates, television presenter and writer, best known for presenting The Tube and The Big Breakfast.
On this day 1927, Cardiff City won the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium against Arsenal.
It was the first and only time the FA Cup has not been won by an English club. This was also the first cup final to be broadcast live on BBC Radio and the FA Cup anthem Abide With Me was first sung.
The Morriston Orpheus Choir was formed this day 1935.
Formed by Ivor E Sims, it is one of the best-known male voice choirs in the world, receiving standing ovations in the Sydney Opera House and "five standing ovations" at the Carnegie Hall in New York. The choir has also performed in Germany, France, Canada, Spain, Poland, Taiwan, Abu Dhabi, Oman and Ireland.
Alwyn Humphreys was the Musical Director from 1979 to January 2005 and is now the Choir's Conductor Emeritus. His replacement as Musical Director was Sian Pearce who herself was replaced by Joy Amman Davies in 2004. The Choir features regularly on television and has produced over 50 recordings and features in more than 100 compilation albums.
Born this day 1731 in Lebanon, Connecticut (of Welsh descent)
William Williams, merchant and a delegate for Connecticut to the Continental Congress in 1776. He was also among the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, one of sixteen of Welsh descent. He arrived too late to vote for Independence (he replaced Oliver Woolcott, who became seriously ill), but he did sign the Declaration.
Born this day 1914 in Lampeter Velfrey,
Glyn Daniel , scientist, archaeologist and writer of detective fiction. He also appeared on television as host on the game show Animal, Vegetable or Mineral?
Born this day 1895 in Aberystwyth,
John Creyghton Ainsworth-Davis , 4 x 400m relay gold medal winner in the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp.
Situated at the centre of the Snowdonia National Park is the Snowdonia Massif. This was the view on Saturday just gone. Most of the late snow that we have experienced has now gone. This image captures the true geological shape of the massif, as well as making the "Snowdon Horseshoe" very evident. The horseshoe is a challenging days walk comprising the peaks of Y Lliwedd (left on image), Snowdon (centre), and Garnedd Ugain and Crib Goch (right).
In the centre, the main valley, Cwm Dyli, leads up to Snowdon and attracts many walkers.
Welsh connections to Star Wars
* Richard Marquand, director of "Return of the Jedi" was born 22nd April 1938 in Llanishen, Cardiff.
* The full-scale model of the Millennium Falcon was built in Pembroke Dock by Marcon Fabrications.
* Andy Secombe, the son Harry Secombe voiced the computer-generated slave owner Watto, in The Phantom Menace and Attack Of The Clones
* The Church of Jediism, which is a religion based on the philosophical and spiritual ideas of the Jedi as depicted in Star Wars was founded in 2007 by Daniel M Jones on Anglesey, north Wales. The organisation has over 20,000 members across the globe and was the most selected "alternative faith" in a 2012 census of England and Wales.
Born this day 1917 in Cardiff
Leo Abse , solicitor, and Labour MP for Pontypool from 1958 until 1983, and for Torfaen until he retired from Westminster in 1987.
Abse was a colourful character remembered for wearing 18th-century-style dress on Budget days. He courted controversy and knew how to interest the press, once suggesting "an analysis of the repressed homosexual components of the relationship between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair."
But he was also a serious politician and got more reforming legislation on the statute book than any other individual MP in the 20th century especially regarding gay rights. Later in life when 83, he married Ania Czeputkowska, a 33-year-old textile designer from Gdansk in Poland.
Born this day 1937 in Lampeter,
Julian Cayo Evans , nationalist activist and co-founder of the self-styled Free Wales Army.
In Wales in the 1960s, groups such as the Movement for the Defence of Wales undertook "direct action," blowing up pipelines feeding Welsh water to English homes. Cayo's belief was that Wales's problems stemmed from its connections with England, which led to the formation of 'The Free Wales Army.' Members wore paramilitary uniforms, marched at nationalist rallies and gathered for training. This brought them to the attention of the British security forces and Evans was arrested shortly before the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969 and sentenced to 15 months in prison. In Cardiff, 'The Cayo Arms' pub and the beer 'Cwrw Cayo' are named in his memory. He died in 1995.
Born on this day 1789 in Llanymynech, Montgomeryshire,
Richard Roberts who turned Samuel Crompton's invention of the spinning mule into a sophisticated piece of textile machinery. It could be operated by unskilled workers, establishing the potential of the factory system and mass production with immense social repercussions.
By 1833, 100,000 spindles were in operation and the total was 500,000 four years after that. However, the efficiency of Roberts's invention proved to be his down fall as his design made it possible to convert existing mules quite easily. Ultimately Roberts did not prosper and in 1864, like Crompton and so many other inventors before him, he died in poverty, but as a gesture towards his genius and his contribution to British industry, After his death, the Government granted Roberts's daughter a £300 annuity.
Born on this day 1902 in Criccieth.
Lady Megan Lloyd George - daughter of David Lloyd George and the first female MP for a Welsh constituency.
Megan Lloyd George was the first female MP in Wales and remains the longest serving. Her selection to stand for the safe Liberal seat of Anglesey in 1929 initially caused controversy, but accusations of nepotism faded as Megan began a political career that would span thirty years.
She became Deputy Leader of the party and a prominent political personality, championing many Welsh causes. She was the founding president of the ‘Parliament for Wales’ campaign, and later she was prominent in the Treweryn Defence Committee – the body formed to resist the controversial flooding of a village near Bala to provide water for English consumers.
In 1944, Megan Lloyd George opened the first Welsh Day debate at Westminster. She was prominent among those who pushed for the creation of the Welsh Office and the post of Secretary of State for Wales in the early 1960’s. By then she had changed political parties, defecting to Labour in 1951. She returned to parliament in 1957 after winning Carmarthen for Labour and remained an MP until her death nine years later.
On 22nd April 1912 , Denys Corbett Wilson made the first manned flight fully across the Irish Sea, from Goodwick to Crane near Enniscorthy, County Wexford in a time of 1 hour 40 minutes.
Pioneering Photographs inspired by Rembrandt
By Simon Collinge and Andrew Gale
Invitations have now been sent to over 100 groups, societies and organisations who have taken part in the project and the authors look forward to welcoming everyone with an interest in the History of our Town. Courtyard Books, Llangollen Library and Llangollen Museum will also display books on the theme of Llangollen.
Inspired by Rembrandt and Frans Hals portraits Simon Collinge and Andrew Gale applied the Dutch artists dramatic lighting techniques to photograph Llangollens various clubs and societies .
Simon Collinge, said:
The book is a unique record of the people and their activities preserved for posterity providing both an historical record for the town and a fascinating guide for visitors
These 100 plus portraits show how rich and varied an experience living in a small town can be if you simply reach out to find like minded individuals
The book website, llangollencommunity.co.uk , will go live on the 25 th April when the book is on sale. The website will include the content from the book with photographs with their copy and, in addition, contact details for the groups. It will also be possible to purchase copies of the book and prints through the site.
1.00 from every copy sold will be donated to the community venues that were used for some of the locations.
Interesting comment from one of the proof readers that the book, with over 500 named individuals, should be titled Langollen Whos Who?.
What a useful guide for identifying all those people whos faces you recognise but cannot remember their names!.
A selection of prints from the book are also on display in our exhibition at Llangollen Museum during April where large quality photographs from the book can be viewed.
Further details:
http://www.memorybox.org.uk/Llangollen_People.htm
Llangollen Community Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Llangollen-community/287437458043111?ref=ts&fref=ts
Llangiollen Museum Exhibition
https://www.facebook.com/events/282063581927778/
Simon Collinge
Andrew Gale
At last it had been done. Two years after our big move, all my books were in order, unpacked and shelved properly. And for the first time ever, all my Dylan Thomas books were together in one place.
The shelf where they sat was quite wide, with room enough for something to sit in front of the books. A bust of Dylan Thomas would be ideal. Yes, the perfect thing.
So when I was next in town, I looked in the souvenir shops near Cardiff Castle. No luck. The National Museum shop, maybe? Nothing there, either. I widened my search; I went online, asked friends and relatives, contacted poetry society luminaries. Nobody had ever heard of such a thing. As far as anyone knew, nothing like that existed.
I felt a little downhearted when my month-long search ended in failure. If music lovers could have a bust of Beethoven on their piano, then why couldn't literature lovers have a bust of Dylan on their bookshelf? Surely his words had inspired just as many people as had Ludwig Van's music.
Several nights later, I woke suddenly at around 2.30 in the morning, the remnants of a dream still in my head. I dreamt I'd been in a shop and had walked over to a shelf and picked up a bust of Dylan Thomas. This long sought-after treasure was white and about six inches tall; the perfect height to sit on my bookshelf. In my dream, I bought the bust, enthusing the whole time to the shop's owner, and walked home proudly with it.
But the Dylan I had dreamed of wasn't the famous poet. No, it was the young man sitting in his bedroom at Cwmdonkin Drive, head raised slightly, gazing out across Swansea Bay and dreaming in rhyme of the poems that would make him famous.
But my dream made me feel all the more disappointed that I couldn't really find a bust of the poet. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that I had to do something about this sad state of affairs myself - I would get one made!
A friend put me in touch with Barry-based sculptor Jeremy Cooper. I went to talk to him and told him what I wanted. He agreed it would be possible but there were only a handful of photographs of Dylan at the right age. And there was the famous painting by Augustus John, of course.
Jeremy spent two months working away at the bust. Slowly the poet's features began to appear out of the clay. The nose needed adjusting, the mouth wasn't quite right. Then, one day, I visited Jeremy and Dylan Thomas sat there on the table staring up at me. I was delighted.
I watched the light play across its features at different times of the day as it sat on my bookshelf for the next several weeks. It was perfect.
Then a friend visited who was involved in the University Of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize. She noticed the bust and commented on it. I said half-jokingly: "Yes, wouldn't it be nice if you could hand a bronze bust of Dylan to the winner of the prize each year?"
She looked at me and said "Actually ... it would." She went on to explain how the organisers of the prize, which had been set up in 2006 by historian Professor Peter Stead, were thinking of having a trophy made to present to each year's winner along with the cash prize. And, as the Prize was for young writers, my Dylan bust showed the poet at just the right age.
So now I had to make good on my joke. I knew nothing about how you took something made of clay and transformed it by some alchemy into bronze. Fortunately a sculptor friend was thinking of including some bronze elements in his work and had already contacted a foundry in West Wales. So when he went to visit the owner, he took me along.
Yes, it was possible, the owner told me. I'd have to leave my precious bust with him in order for a mould to be taken, but it should only take a month to create, using the age-old 'lost wax' method. That would be cutting it fine - it was already late September and the prize-giving ceremony was in early November.
With a week to spare, the courier delivered the parcel to me and I carefully unwrapped the bronze bust. It had a dull shine like an old penny and looked stunning. The dream I'd had several months before had now been transformed into something fit for a museum.
On the night, I watched as the 2010 prize winner Lucy Caldwell (pictured outside 5 Cwmdonkin Drive) was handed the heavy bronze. She seemed utterly delighted with it and wouldn't let it out of her sight.
One BBC journalist, clearly impressed with the bronze, described it as 'the Oscar of the Dylan Thomas world'. This and other comments convinced me that other people also wanted busts of the poet. So my company Blackmark was born.
I soon found someone who could make copies of the original sculpture. These would be done in a specially-toughened plaster-like material and hand-finished with a coat of silicone, to make them easier to clean. Christening the busts 'Young Dylan', I have now made them available to Dylan fans the world over through a simple, easy-to-use website.
You can find it at www.blackmarkwales.com . Take a look for yourself. If you too want to have 'Young Dylan' on your bookshelf, just get in touch and let me know you saw this article on AmeriCymru, and you can have it for the special discount price of 30 (roughly $45, depending on the exchange rate) plus shipping.
The collector's edition bronze bust is available, too, for 375 (around $570) including shipping.
The Treaty of Woodstock
In April 1247 - Llywelyn ap Gruffydd and his brother Owain Goch ap Gruffydd came to terms with King Henry III of England at his royal residence of Woodstock Pace in Oxfordshire.
Gwynedd was divided with Llywelyn and Owain gaining joint control of Gwynedd Uwch Conwy, the part of Gwynedd west of the River Conwy and Henry himself taking control of Gwynedd Is Conwy, east of the river.
1255 - At the Battle of Bryn Derwin, Owain joined an alliance against Llywelyn, but was defeated and imprisoned and Llywelyn became sole ruler of Gwynedd Uwch Conwy. With Henry III distracted by war with his barons, this cleared the way for Llywelyn to recover and extend Gwynedd's territory until it encompassed much of the rest of Wales and in 1258 to declare himself prince of Wales.
1277 - Under the terms of the Treaty of Aberconwy, peace was agreed between King Edward I of England and Llywelyn, but also essentially guaranteed that Welsh self-governance would end upon Llewelyn's death. Llywelyn also reluctantly released Owain under the terms of the treaty, who retired to his estate in north-west Wales.
1282 - Owain is thought to have died, prior to the catastrophic death of Llywelyn at Cilmeri.
The reign of Henry VIII began this day 1509 on the death of his father Henry VII.
Henry VIII's relationship with Wales;
Henry VIII's father Henry VII was born at Pembroke Castle and took great pride in his Welsh ancestry. After he became king, Henry rewarded many Welsh men with lands and government posts, but he did not pass the same love of Wales to his son Henry VIII.
1491 Henry was born, the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York
1502 Henry's older brother Arthur died, making Henry heir to the throne and Prince of Wales.
1509 Henry VII died and Henry succeeded his father to the throne as Henry VIII.
At this time Wales was divided into two administrative areas:
1. The Principality, which was divided into shires and governed as if it was part of England. The more important towns in the principality were Aberystwyth, Harlech, Caernarfon and Conwy.
2. The Marcher Lordships, which covered the remaining two-thirds of Wales and was governed by the Marcher Lords.
Henry was not happy with the way that the marcher Lords were dealing with law and order along the Welsh and English border. Henry’s concerns increased after his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, as many Marcher lords were Roman Catholic and he doubted their loyalty. He was also concerned that parts of the south-west coast of Wales were poorly defended and open to landings from enemy forces. Henry dealt with this by passing Laws in Wales Acts from 1536 to 1542, in which Wales in effect became a part of England.
English became the sole official language, law courts in Wales only conducted their affairs in English and knowledge of Welsh became a disadvantage. Rich Welsh families who sent their sons to England in an effort to advance themselves, ensured that they only spoke English.
Born this day 1926 at 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair,
Queen Elizabeth II, whose connections to Wales include:
* Elizabeth II claims Welsh descent through Henry VII's daughter Margaret Tudor who married King James IV of Scotland, later crowned James I of England
* During the Second World War, plans were drawn up to quell Welsh nationalism by connecting Elizabeth more closely with Wales. Welsh politicians suggested that she be made Princess of Wales on her 18th birthday, but this was rejected by King George VI because he felt such a title belonged solely to the wife of a Prince of Wales.
* In 1946, she was inducted into the Gorsedd of Bards at the National Eisteddfod of Wales.
* In 1948, she was given the freedom of the city of Cardiff.
* At her coronation on 2 June 1953, Elizabeth's gown was embroidered with the emblems of the Commonwealth countries, among which was a leek, representing Wales.
* Pembroke Welsh Corgis are the favourite breed of Queen Elizabeth II, who has owned more than 30 during her reign.
* Her grandsons HRH Prince William and HRH Prince Harry have chosen the surname Wales.
* She invested her son Charles as Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle in 1969.
* She played a prominent role in the officially opening of the Welsh Assembly on 26 May 1999 in Cardiff.
* On 1 March 2006, The Queen opened the permanent home for the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff.
* A donation of a kilogramme of Clogau Welsh gold was made to The Queen on her 60th birthday in 1986, who also wears a wedding ring of Welsh gold
* The Queen and Prince Phillip visited Aberfan the week following the disaster in 1966, and in 2012, she returned to open Ynysowen Community Primary School during her Diamond Jubilee visit to Wales.
Born this day 1941 in Llandybie, near Ammanford.
Elmer Gethin Rees is a mathematician who has published texts on linear algebra, algebraic geometry, differential geometry and topology.
One of his best-known achievements is establishing the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, "designed to bring together mathematicians and practitioners in science, industry and commerce."
The National Museum of Wales was officially opened on 21st April 1927.
It was initially founded in 1905, with a royal charter being granted in 1907. Prior to this, the Cardiff Museum had shared a building with Cardiff Central Library at The Hayes, being a sub-department of the library. Construction of the new building at Cathays Park was interrupted by the First World War and it did not open to the public until 1922, with the official opening taking place in 1927.
Easter Monday - Llun y Pasg.
One of the Welsh rituals on Easter Monday involves a procession to the top of nearby mountains before sun rise. In some areas, people carry bowls of water to reflect the rising sun while others perform three somersaults as the sun rises.
