Lecture 19: Politics and Literature in Wales
Unveil the turbulent story of English conquest in Wales with this insightful glimpse into Welsh history that includes the unfortunate influence of misplaced loyalty to family that cost the Welsh their sovereignty forever. Then, look at Welsh literature, particularly the wonderful but enigmatic myths of the Mabinogi and the witty poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym.
I appreciates that she shares a few of her favorite pieces of literature from the time to give a flavor of the culture. Some denser history here which could be an entire course in and of itself.
WatchedThe Celtic World by Jennifer Paxton from The Teaching Company, LLC.
Lecture 11: Brittany and Galicia: Fringe of the Fringe
See how both France and Spain welcomed immigrants from a rapidly de-Romanizing Britain. Brittany became a thriving Celtic province that maintained its autonomy through the Middle Ages, while Galicia mostly lost its Celtic identity until a revival of interest in modern times.
46% done
WatchedThe Celtic World by Jennifer Paxton from The Teaching Company, LLC.
Lecture 10: Celtic Britain after Rome North and west of what today is England, where the Romans held far less influence, a paradoxical era of both peaceful immigration and rebellion added to the melting pot of Britain in the first millennium A.D. Discover Cornwall, Wales, and parts of Scotland with a quick appearance of one of Britain's noblest legends: King Arthur.
42% done
Assimilation of Germanic peoples in Britain in 5c.
Breedon on the hill translates to hill hill on the hill
By Tre, Pol, and Pen you shall know the Cornishmen
Discussion of disappearance of British and other languages in place of a growing English dominance. Resurgence of Cornish.
The carnyx was a wind instrument of the Iron Age Celts. Entering battle, Iron Age warriors unnerved their opponents by the sheer volume of noise they could make. This replica of the The Deskford Carnyx was being played by the incredible John Kenny.
There was an unexpected note on page 66 that indicated that J.R.R. Tolkien may have been fascinated by a cursed ring described on a lead tablet in Lydney and a very similar (the same?) gold ring found at the Roman city of Silchester in Hampshire. The text posits that perhaps the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings were potentially inspired by these archaeological finds from Irish myth.
“It is said that during their training, the Druids learn by heart a great many verses, so many that some people spend 20 years studying the doctrine. The do not think it right to commit their teachings to writing. I suppose this practice began originally for two reasons: they did not want their doctrines to be accessible to the ordinary people, and they did not want their pupils to rely on the written word and so neglect to train their memories.”
–Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico 6.14
Highlight (yellow) – 2. Myth Spinners > Page 38
An interesting statement about memory and cultural traditions. Added on Monday, January 1, 2018 night
There is something about committing mythic–or any other–stories to physical form that changes them, because such an act codifies them, freezes-frames them and renders them less organic.
Highlight (yellow) – 2. Myth Spinners > Page 38
Added on Monday, January 1, 2018 night
… the San of southern Africa and the Aboriginal peoples of Australia to name just two, chose and still choose to commit their myths to rock-art. Change still occurs, for it is possible to paint over previous art and to add picture-panels.
Highlight (yellow) – 2. Myth Spinners > Page 39
Added on Monday, January 1, 2018 night
Shape-shifters are common protagonists in Celtic myths.
Highlight (yellow) – 2. Myth Spinners > Page 39
Added on Monday, January 1, 2018 night
Another striking custom in the Welsh stories in the way that tenses change, in order to enhance dramatic effect.
Highlight (yellow) – 2. Myth Spinners > Page 39
Added on Monday, January 1, 2018 night
For it usually does happen that if people have the help of written documents, they do not pay as much attention to learning by heart, and so let their memories become less efficient.
Highlight (yellow) – 2. Myth Spinners > The Druids and Oral Tradition > Page 40
Another snippet on memory Added on Monday, January 1, 2018 night
Late Iron Age bronze figurine of a man holding an egg-like object, perhaps a Druid’s egg, an opject used in prophecy, from Neuvy-en-Suillias, in France.
Highlight (yellow) – 2. Myth Spinners > Page 41
Or an early rugby ball? Added on Monday, January 1, 2018 night
Indeed, it was not until the 17th century, under the relentless onslaught of the English government against the old Irish order and the filidh [teachers, kingly advisers, poets, satirists, and keepers of tradition] disappeared.
Highlight (yellow) – 2. Myth Spinners > The Triplefold Bardic Model > Page 44
Added on Monday, January 1, 2018 night
The Welsh and Irish stories are very different from each other both in content and in timbre. […] It is highly likely that storytellers travelled freely between the courts of Ireland and Wales, and the sharing of storylines between the two countries is not hard to explain.
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Added on Monday, January 1, 2018 night
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I picked this up the other day while browsing at the library. It’s turned out not to have some of the actual mythological tales I was expecting, but, even better, it has some preparatory history and archaeology which I suspect will make my later reading of them more fruitful and interesting.
Highlights, Quotes, & Marginalia
Prelude & Chapter 1
Myths flourish in societies where such issues are not answerable by means of rational explanation. They are symbolic stories, designed to explore these issues in a comprehensible manner.
Highlight (yellow) – 1. Word of Mouth: Making Myths > Page 15
This makes me think of complex issues of modern science like people (wrongly) believing that vaccines cause autism or in our current political situation where many blindly believe the truth of the existence of “fake news” when spewed by politicians who seem to be modern-day story-tellers. Added on Monday, December 25, 2017 night
Medieval Welsh storytelling was close kin to poetry, and often the poet and the cyfarwydd were one and the same. Of course, modern audiences can only access the tales through their written forms but, even so, their beginnings as orally transmitted tales are sometimes betrayed by various tricks of the trade. Each episode is short and self-contained, as though to help listeners (and the storytellers themselves) remember them. Words and phrases are often repeated, again to aid memory. A third device also points in this direction, and that is the ‘onomastic tag’, the memory-hook provided by explanations of personal and place names.
Highlight (yellow) – 1. Word of Mouth: Making Myths > Page 22-23
This is interestingly relevant to some of my memory research and this passage points out a particular memory trick used by storytellers in the oral tradition. Added on Monday, December 25, 2017 night
The Classical mythic centaur, which melds the forms of man and horse, has its Celtic counterpart in the Welsh horse-woman, Rhiannon.
Highlight (yellow) – 1. Word of Mouth: Making Myths > Page 22-23
Origin of the name Rhiannon Added on Monday, December 25, 2017 night
The weapons used were words and they could literally sandblast a man’s face, raising boils and rashes. The power of words to wound was a recurrent bardic theme in medieval Ireland; […]
Highlight (yellow) – 1. Word of Mouth: Making Myths > Page 34
I can’t help but think of the sharp tongued William Shakespeare or old barbs I’ve read from this period before. Obviously it was culturally widespread and Shakespeare is just a well-known, albeit late, practitioner of the art. Added on Monday, December 25, 2017 night
So gessa [singular geis] acted as a device to keep listeners interested, and one can imagine how, perhaps, a storyteller would break off his tale at a crucial moment, leaving his audience to wonder how it would end, avid for the next episode in the ‘soap opera’.
Highlight (yellow) – 1. Word of Mouth: Making Myths > Page 36
This passage makes me think of the too-oft used device by Dan Brown’s Origins which I read recently. Added on Monday, December 25, 2017 night
… red was the color of the Otherworld.
Highlight (yellow) – 1. Word of Mouth: Making Myths > Page 36
This is a recurring thing in myths. The red flames of Hell spring to mind. Added on Monday, December 25, 2017 night
[…] this took place at the end-of-the-year festival of Samhain, the pagan Irish equivalent of Hallowe’en, at the end of October. Samhain was an especially dangerous time because it took place at the interface between the end of one year and the beginning of the next, a time of ‘not being’ when the world turned upside-down and the spirits roamed the earth among living humans.
Highlight (yellow) – 1. Word of Mouth: Making Myths > Page 36
Cultural basis of Hallowe’en? This also contains an interesting storytelling style of multiple cultural layers being built up within the story to bring things to a head. Added on Monday, December 25, 2017 night
Guide to highlight colors
Yellow–general highlights and highlights which don’t fit under another category below Orange–Vocabulary word; interesting and/or rare word Green–Reference to read Blue–Interesting Quote Gray–Typography Problem Red–Example to work through
Late Iron Age bronze figurine of a man holding an egg-like object, perhaps a Druid’s egg, an opject used in prophecy, from Neuvy-en-Suillias, in France.