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More Here - dysgwr2014

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I remember as a schoolboy being introduced to palindromes. My history teacher chalked the immortal sentence 'Able was I ere I saw Elba' on the board in the course of a lesson on Napoleon and his exile in 1814. I've loved them ever since and was delighted to discover many years ago during one of my frequent attempts to learn Welsh that the word for 'now' in Welsh is 'nawr' or 'rwan' .

There is a graphic which goes some way toward explaining this on this page:-

http://caterpillarandredpostboxes.tumblr.com/post/23497124939/nawr-v-rwan

'Nawr' is used in south Wales and 'rwan' in the north. I remember hearing the word used many years ago on a walking trip in north Wales. I was at the breakfast table at the Inn where I was staying when I heard the landlord announce to his wife - "Dwi'n mynd i siopa rwan".

Of course whether you adopt the north or south Walian pronunciation neither can be enunciated without rolling the 'r'....nawrr or rrwan.

I cant help wondering how this situation arose? Is there anyone with a knowledge of Cymric etymology who can offer an explanation? Is there an explanation?

Anyway, in pursuance of my new years resolution, which is to master basic conversational Welsh by the end of 2014, I am looking forward to John Good's AmeriCymraeg class tomorrow evening at 5.00pm ( Pacific Time ). This will be the first class that I have attended as a student rather than as an administrative overseer and I will be blogging my progress throughout the year in my series of dysgwr2014 blog posts. I hope to be composing the blog in both Welsh and English by the end of the year so keep checking back for daily updates. Better still click the graphic below to join AmeriCymraeg and make 2014 the year that you learn Welsh

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More Here - dysgwr2014

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I may be guilty of sending conflicting signals in my posts on New Years resolutions last year. I seem to recall posting on Facebook that I would "stop kidding myself that I have any will power". On Twitter I announced that 2014 was the year to learn Welsh.

Well, the above mentioned tweet was picked up by the UK Daily Express who deemed it the most "eye-catching" of the season. This puts me in a spot. I cannot really exhort others to 'Learn Welsh' and join our online class without doing so myself!

And so it is with some trepidation that I hereby pledge to master the Welsh language to at least basic conversational level by the end of this year.. I say 'with trepidation' because I have tried before, several times, and failed a month or two after making the initial effort. But this year will be different! I plan to launch a blog and track my progress by discussing some aspect of the Welsh language daily between now and December 31st. At the outset the blog will be written in English rather than Welsh but by years end I hope to write in both languages without recourse to Google Translate.

I'd like to finish this inaugural post with an exhortation. If you have been toying with the idea of learning Welsh please consider joining John Good's AmeriCymraeg online Welsh class.

You couldn't wish for a better or more dedicated instructor and there are live online sessions once a week on Wednesday evenings ( 5-7 pm PST ). The courses cater for beginners and intermediate level learners. Class sizes are small so every student gets plenty of individual attention. Click the graphic below for more details AND remember that the first class of 2014 is on Wednesday 8th of January. So...if you are thinking of enrolling sign up now or email americymru@gmail.com for more details.

You won't know the places or names, and nothing of note occurred except that I found myself caught on Nostalgia Avenue. However, this actually happened how it's put down, and when I put it up on the Facebook page for my home town, Old Colwyn, it went down really well. So I thought I'd share it here too.

I spent the evening of Christmas day at my brothers house with the family. We had a great time and, as is more often than not the case, I was the last to leave. It was about 5 am, and with no taxis about I decided to walk to Tanylan.

On a cloud of alcohol-fuelled melancholy I sauntered up through Old Colwyn, passing The Plough, where I bought my first beer in OC, (after a sixth form Christmas panto I visited while on leave from Junior Leaders) to the crossing where my mam used to wait for me as a child after school. I paused at where Radio Rentals once stood, and remembered how we used to visit once a week to pay the rent on our TV. I always dodged inside to the pet shop next door to speak to the nice old man who used to run it, and ogle the fishes. Always friendly, wed buy budgie seed from him, and he regularly gave a playful wink as he tipped an extra scoop into the bag for us. Little things seem to be so much more with a personal touch.

The Red and The Sun came next, places I occasionally visited during my youth but have played a more prominent role in my trips home over the last couple of years. Up from the tight little road leading from Llawr Pentre, I stopped to look at where The Ship once ruled the waves, sad at its demise. Next to it, Oldhams, where we used to spend a couple of pence for chips after Cubs, before carrying on to Banksy's where I once had a paper round.

My round ran from Endsleigh road through to Tanylan, and Ill never forget the shocked elation at the amount of tips I received on my first Christmas.

They must be happy with you then. Allan Banks said when I told him, which made me feel ludicrously proud at the time.

I walked past the park towards the Lyndale, where my in-laws always stay when they visit from Germany, to what was once the Queens Hotel. The old front entrance is now bricked in but the semblance of a main door is clear to see, and with the lights on, I was suddenly whisked back to a Christmas party that either the British Legion or the Vic Club held there when I was eight or nine. The Queens was the first pub I went to with my Tad for a pint. Strained and alien as it was to sit with the man who ruled our house, its an event that still sits in my head as being one of the barriers crossed from boy to man. Now we talk about everything, but then we were two very different people, trying to find common ground and realising it was too hidden to see.

After passing the Vic, one of the places that symbolised my infrequent visits home as a young soldier, I turned in to the hole in the wall and ambled down St. Davids road. The morning was windy, with a light drizzle, yet clear, and I could see the curve of the bay pegged out in lights. As I always do when I return home, I pondered on what Id lost when I left for the army on that consequential day in September 1983.

Someone a lot wiser than I once said that home is where we were happy as children, and thats what Id left behind. My home.

Born on this day 1974 in Farnborough, Hampshire (of Welsh parents from Penygroes, Gwynedd)

Iwan Thomas -  one of the world’s elite 400mtr runners, who won a silver medal in the 4x400m relay at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.  Over his career, Thomas also won European and Commonwealth titles.  He retired in 2006, only to discover two years later that he was a world champion as well.

Born on this day 1965 in Watford (Welsh grandmother) 

Vinnie Jones - former Wales soccer international and captain. 

As a player, Jones was renowned for his tough man image, being sent off 12 times and at three seconds into a match, holding the record the quickest recorded booking.  Jones also took an uncompromising approach to his subsequent acting career, with his roles in "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch"

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Waldini (1894 -  5 January 1966)  was the stage name of Wallace (Wally) Bishop, a musician, band leader and impresario born in Cardiff, whose career spanned 6 decades

Known also as "The Great Waldini" or "Mr Music",  Waldini founded a concert party whilst serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Egypt, during World War One, after which he worked as  a cinema musician.  During the depression years of the 1930's, he formed a band of unemployed musicians, which he called Waldini and his Gypsy Band and they played every day at Roath Park, Cardiff.  

During World War Two, the band was hired to entertain the troops and after the war, they worked at summer holiday resorts all over the UK, but especially at Happy Valley at the Great Orme, Llandudno.  During his career, he also found time for talent spotting and in the early 1940s gave Peter Sellers one of his first jobs.   

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Traditionally in the Western Church, the First Day of Christmas is Christmas Day, therefore, 5th January is the Twelfth Day of Christmas.   

On the Twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me - Twelve Drummers Drumming.  

Welsh medieval tabor (tabwrdd) player - The tabor is a portable snare drum, suspended by a strap from the forearm.  It is found in Medieval Europe from around 1300 and was often played in unison with a three-holed pipe flute  in the "pipe and tabor" one man band configuration, as since the pipe has only three holes it can be played with one hand, leaving the other available to play the tabor.  It was used for dancing, ceremonies and processions, folk customs and street entertainment. 

Imagine it's a dark midwinter night. You're out on a windy street in Wales. Suddenly an apparition appears before you: a white garbed ghostly figure over six feet tall.
From its ragged cowl protrudes a skull - but no human skull - it has a long snout, huge eyes and many teeth set in a long jaw that snaps together repeatedly as it comes towards you.
Now you notice a band of musicians who strike up a tune, a troupe of strangely-garbed figures.

'Our' Mari Lwyd.

Don't be afraid. It's only me and my associates. We're reviving an old midwinter tradition.
The tradition is called the Mari Lwyd (it means Grey Mary in Welsh). It has links with Punch and Judy, the need to bring cheer during the dark midwinter nights, and I've even discovered a connection that Susan Cooper made in her The Dark is Rising series between the Mari Lwyd and Merlin.
I encountered this tradition for the first time in the midwinter of 2011-12 when my wife Helen Adam, a fiddle player , was asked to accompany two artists who live in Carmarthen and who are obsessed with the Mari (as it's known for short).

Phil Larcher peeps out at Helen!

The artists, Phil Larcher and Viv Morgan, are obsessed to the extent that their entire apartment is decorated with pictures and objects they have made of Maris.

Phyllis Kinney's excellent book Welsh Traditional Music describes the tradition as follows:
"The Mari Lwyd was a horses skull draped in yards of white canvas and looking like a ghostly spirit except for the adornment of coloured ribbons [we use red and green from the Welsh flag] , black bottle-glass eyes [ours has flashing lights] and black cloth or leather ears. Hidden underneath the canvas, a man with a 5 foot pole operated the Mari's jaw, which was on a spring, enabling it to snap."

Viv Morgan leading the Mari Lwyd (Phil Larcher) into a pub.

A host of traditional characters used to accompany the spectral mare: the Ostler or Leader, plus a Corporal, Sargeant, Punch, Judy and Merryman. There are many local variations, and records of the tradition are sporadic and rare throughout Wales. Moreover some areas have completely forgotten about the tradition, despite the recent revival in interest, whereas in others some individuals, upon seeing the Mari coming down the street, give a shout of recognition.
They remember it from their childhoods.
Essentially what used to happen was that the party would knock on a door of a house and a ritualised exchange of banter would occur, each with an occasion for a specific piece of music.

1. The arrival phase has verses greeting the householders and challenging them to a contest;
2. there is then a spontaneous improvised debate in verse (called the pwnco ), largely an exchange of good-natured insults;
3. if the party is then invited indoors (it may not be) havoc could be caused. For instance Punch might use his poker to put out the fire, unless he'd been made to promise not to before entry, or Judy might scatter the ashes over the room. There is even a suggestion that the Mari might be looking for a baby in the house;
4. the hosts give the guests drink (!) and a wassailling song is sung as the visitors wish good luck to their hosts;
5. a further song is sung as the party leaves.

Here are the words of the Mari Lwyd Farewell song:
Dymunwn ich' lawenydd I gynnal blwyddyn newydd Trapari'r gwr dincian cloch Well, well y bo chwi beunydd.
In our part of Wales, Carmarthenshire, as the tradition is being revived we do not visit people's houses but pubs instead. This is the second year I've been involved and the group has got larger partly because my wife has been running a Welsh tunes workshop in which we have been rehearsing the music.
Phil Larcher and Viv Morgan with their Mari Lwyd in the White Horse, Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, in January 2012 with fiddler Helen Adam.

The Mari Lwyd in The Parrot pub, Carmarthen on December 15. You might spot yours truly playing the guitar. Viv Morgan is to my right, Helen on the left.

We made two visits last year towards the end of December. In Carmarthen we stayed in one pub, The Parrot, all evening and were given a cake baked specially for the occasion!
In Llandovery our large party (two fiddlers, guitar, five percussionists including a monk, a flautist and an accordionist - my son Nemos - plus assorted singers) were turned away from the first pub. The second permitted us to terrorise the diners - who didn't know what had hit them!
We visited two more pubs and, halfway through the evening, a twmpath, or ceilidh in the community hall which we proceeded to disrupt - much to the dancers' enjoyment.
When we went to the final pub we found someone who obviously knew we were coming who was wearing a massive papier mach head with a top hat, whom I took to be the Merryman and who danced to our music.
But what are the origins of this madness?

Samhain decoration on the Mari's costume.

Given the link with Punch and Judy, one line of ancestry may lead back to the 16th-century Italian commedia dell'arte, a touring troupe of actors with stock characters. Punch derives from the Neapolitan stock character of Pulcinella, a manifestation of the Lord of Misrule and Trickster figure found in many old mythologies. His wife was originally called Joan.
The Mari Lwyd ritual has also been described as "a pre-Christian horse ceremony" associated with many similar customs throughout the world. Some aspects of it, including some of the music, suggest considerable age.
The Mari could be associated with the Welsh mythic figure Rhiannon, who first appears in the Mabinogion , the Welsh cycle of old stories, riding a shining white horse.
Our Mari is decorated with pagan symbols. The Leader, Viv, carries a broom whose staff is richly decorated, topped with a small black bird, and whose brush is made with freshly picked herbs.
Susan Cooper's brilliant The Dark Is Rising epic cycle of five children's fantasy books includes a character called Merryman. He is one of the Old Ones, on the side of Light. The second book, The Dark Is Rising , and the final book, Silver on the Tree , are set around Aberdyfi, south Gwynedd, in the area where her parents and grandparents lived, and it is likely Susan would have known of the Mari Lwyd tradition.
One of the manifestations of Merryman in the book cycle is Merlin.
You might ask where a horse's skull might be obtained. If you look, they come to you. Viv and Phil swear that they found theirs hanging in the branches of a tree one day when they went for a walk following a storm.
The ritual is not associated with any particular day of the year, just any time around midwinter and the turning of the year, and so it can be repeated in different places. We have one further date on January 11 in Llandeilo, where we will be visiting three pubs during the course of the evening. Perhaps we'll see you.
Traditionally, the host are supposed to give us a drink in each one, but I don't think the publicans have yet cottoned on to this.
Nevertheless it's the best excuse for a pub crawl and a lot of fun on a dark midwinter night that I've come across in a long time. And the Tricksters and Lords of Misrule demand their time. There are those who would like to tame them - but they will not be tamed. Maris are wild.
They have a life of their own. They have been spotted gathering together when the night is dark in wooded valleys where caves can be found.
If you should hear the snapping of jaws and the sound of hooves one dark night - don't venture near. The Maris don't care to be watched by the uninitiated.
Photos: Phil Larcher.

Born on this day 1878 in Tenby

Augustus  John - the leading British portraitist of his period and a brilliant draftsman.

John worked as a war artist for the Canadian army during World War I, after which he adopted a bohemian type of lifestyle, traveling with and painting, Irish travelers, Normandy fisherfolk, and gypsies. He later specialized in commissioned portraits of society figures.  

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Born on this day 1940 in Cardiff.

Professor Brian Josephson - Nobel prize-winning physicist and “pioneer of the paranormal.” and whose motto is “nullius in verba” - take nobody’s word for it.

Josephson was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1973 for his discovery of the “Josephson Effect” which explains how an electrical current can flow between materials with no electrical resistance, even when an insulator is placed between them.  It is used for making immensely sensitive scientific instruments, that are capable for example, of measuring the magnetic field around a mouse’s brain. 

In the late 1960s, he began to explore paranormal themes, such as the relationship between music, language and mind and in the early 1970s started practising transcendental meditation and trying to find a scientific basis for telepathy. 

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Born on this day 1850 in Bettws, Newport

Griffith Jenkins Griffith - Welsh - American industrialist and philanthropist, who donated 3,015 acres of land to the City of Los Angeles which later became Griffith Park.

Griffith emigrated to Pensylvania in 1865, before moving to San Francisco in 1873, where he became manager of the Herald Publishing Company.  In 1878, he became mining correspondent for a San Francisco newspaper and as such he gained extensive knowledge of the mining industry on the Pacific Coast.  His knowledge of mining, led to him being employed by many  mining syndicates and also earned him a significant fortune.

In 1882, he moved into property development and also started an ostrich farm near the Los Angelos River, to supply the feathers used in making women's hats.  After the property rush peaked, in 1896, Griffith donated 3,015 acres of land to the City of Los Angeles, which later became Griffith Park.  He also gave the money to build the park's Greek Theatre and Griffith Observatory. Griffith's legacy, however, was marred by his notorious attempted murder of his wife in 1903, a crime for which he served two years in prison.

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Born on this day 1958 in Swansea.

Gary Jones - actor and writer, best known for his roles in Stargate SG-1, Stargate: Continuum and Stargate: The Ark of Truth.

Jones moved to Vancouver, Canada in 1986 where he worked as an Art Director and award winning comedy writer, before moving into acting.  He is also known as an excellent MC and is in great demand for hosting events, such as award presentations.

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Traditionally in the Western Church, the First Day of Christmas is Christmas Day, therefore, 4th January is the Eleventh Day of Christmas.   

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me - Eleven Pipers Piping.  

Pipes have been documented in Wales since at least the 12th century and more than likely pre-date this considerably.  They would have been used socially for entertainment and accompanying singers as well as a rallying cry in battle.  

*  A Christmas feast which included pipers was held by the Lord Rhys at Cardigan in 1176, which is regarded by many to be the first eisteddfod.  

*  The Welsh Laws of Hywel Dda, in the 10th century and later versions in the 12th and 13th centuries provide information about the status of music in Wales and state that the king should recognize the status of master craftsmen in his service by giving each one an appropriate instrument, specified as harp, crwth, or pipes.  

*  In 1376, the poet Iolo Goch describes the instrument in his Cywydd to Syr Hywel y Fwyall.  Also, in the same century, Brut y Tywysogian ("Chronicle of the Princes"), written around 1330 AD, states that there are three types of wind instrument: Organ a Phibeu a Cherd y got ("organ and pipes and bag music").  

*  In 1784, Edward Jones wrote: `The musical instruments, anciently used in Wales... are six in number, the Telyn, or harp; the Crwth; the Pibgorn, or Horn-pipe; the Pibau-cod, or Pib-braich; that is, the Bagpipes, or the arm pipes: the Tabwrdd, Tabret or Drum; and the Corn-buelin, Cornet.' 

With the general decline of Welsh traditional music in the 19th century, the pipes slowly disappeared from use.  However in the last 30 or so years, there has been a revival of piping in Wales, with pipe bands being established in the cities of Newport, Swansea and Cardiff.