1.
Tristan and Iseult
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It has become an influential romance and tragedy, retold in numerous sources with many variations. The tragic story is of the love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult. While the details of the story differ from one author to another, there are two main traditions of the Tristan legend. The early tradition comprised the French romances of two poets from the half of the twelfth century, Thomas of Britain and Béroul. Later traditions come from the Prose Tristan, which was different from the earlier tales written by Thomas. The Prose Tristan became the medieval tale of Tristan and Iseult that would provide the background for the writings of Sir Thomas Malory, the English author. The story and character of Tristan vary from poet to poet, even the spelling of his name varies a great deal, although Tristan is the most popular spelling. Most versions of the Tristan story follow the general outline. After defeating the Irish knight Morholt, Tristan goes to Ireland to bring back the fair Iseult for his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, along the way, they ingest a love potion which causes the pair to fall madly in love. In the courtly version, the effects last a lifetime, in the common versions. In some versions, they ingest the potion accidentally, in others, the potions maker instructs Iseult to share it with Mark, although Iseult marries Mark, she and Tristan are forced by the potion to seek one another as lovers. While the typical noble Arthurian character would be shamed by such an act, the kings advisors repeatedly endeavour to have the pair tried for adultery, but the couple continually use trickery to preserve their façade of innocence. In Bérouls version, the love potion eventually wears off, as with the Arthur-Lancelot-Guinevere love triangle, Tristan, King Mark, and Iseult all hold love for each other. Tristan honors, respects, and loves King Mark as his mentor and adopted father, Iseult is grateful that Mark is kind to her, but every night, each has horrible dreams about the future. Tristans uncle eventually learns of the affair and seeks to entrap his nephew, also present is the endangerment of a fragile kingdom, the cessation of war between Ireland and Cornwall. Mark acquires what seems proof of their guilt and resolves to punish them, Tristan by hanging and Iseult by burning at the stake, Tristan escapes on his way to the gallows. He makes a leap from a chapel and rescues Iseult. The lovers escape into the forest of Morrois and take shelter there until discovered by Mark and they make peace with Mark after Tristans agreement to return Iseult to Mark and leave the country
2.
Christopher Williams (Welsh artist)
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Christopher David Williams was a Welsh artist. Williams was born in Maesteg, Wales and his father Evan Williams intended him to be a doctor, but he disliked the idea. A visit to the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, in 1892 and he left the Gallery with a firm decision that he would be an artist. He studied first in Neath at the towns Technical Institute in 1892 and 1893 under Mr. Kerr, from 1893 he spent three years at the Royal College of Art and then studied at the Royal Academy Schools from 1896 until 1901. In 1902, his Paolo and Francesca was hung in the Royal Academy and these were the first of 18 paintings by Williams exhibited there. He also exhibited with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters until 1930, in 1911, Williams received a commission from King George V to work on a commemorative painting of the Investiture of Edward, Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle. As well as attending the ceremony, he visited Buckingham Palace and he completed two versions of this painting. Among his portraits were those of David Lloyd George, Sir John Williams, Sir John Rhys, Sir Henry Jones, Sir John Morris Jones, Dr Stanton Coit, Sir Frederick Mills and he painted the first of three portraits of Lloyd George in the summer of 1911. Lloyd George described him as one of the most gifted artists Wales has produced, during the First World War, he painted the Welsh Charge at Mametz Wood, now in Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. Williams painted three scenes from the Mabinogion, ceridwen and Branwen are in the collection of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea. Blodeuwedd is at the Newport Museum and Art Gallery, Williams painted many landscapes in Wales, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, Morocco and Holland. Amongst his landscapes is The Red Dress at the National Museum of Wales and he had a great love for humanity and deep sympathy with the downtrodden and oppressed. Shortly before his death in 1934, he presented to the Salvation Army a large picture of the Thames Embankment scene at night which he called Why, Williams married Emily Appleyard and together they had two sons, Gwyn and Ivor. Evan Gwyn Williams was an astronomer and his son was the artist Ivor Williams. He was the brother-in-law of fellow artist Fred Appleyard, in 1973, an exhibition was organised on the centenary of Williams birth at the National Museum of Wales, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and Maesteg Town Hall. A major retrospective exhibition of his took place from July to September 2012 at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. A version of this exhibition toured to the Gwynedd Museum and Art Gallery, Branwen The subject is from the Mabinogion. The beautiful Branwen was a sister of the King of Britain and she died in Anglesey, and Branwen looked towards Ireland and towards the Island of the Mighty, to see if she could descry them
3.
Albion
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Albion is the oldest known name of the island of Great Britain. Today, it is sometimes used poetically to refer to the island. The name for Scotland in the Celtic languages is related to Albion, Alba in Scottish Gaelic, Albain in Irish, Nalbin in Manx and Alban in Welsh, Cornish and these names were later Latinised as Albania and Anglicised as Albany, which were once alternative names for Scotland. New Albion and Albionoria were briefly suggested as names of Canada during the period of the Canadian Confederation, arthur Phillip, first leader of the colonization of Australia, originally named Sydney Cove New Albion, but for uncertain reasons the colony acquired the name Sydney. The Common Brittonic name for the island, Hellenised as Albíōn and Latinised as Albiōn, derives from the Proto-Celtic nasal stem *Albi̯iū, the name originally referred to Britain as a whole, but was later restricted to Caledonia. The root *albiio- is also found in Gaulish and Galatian albio- and it may be related to other European and Mediterranean toponyms such as Alpes, Albania and Liban. It has two possible etymologies, either *albho-, a Proto-Indo-European root meaning white, or *alb-, Proto-Indo-European for hill, likewise, Pytheas, as directly or indirectly quoted in the surviving excerpts of his works in later writers, speaks of Albiōn and Iernē. Pytheass grasp of the νῆσος Πρεττανική is somewhat blurry, and appears to include anything he considers a western island, the name Albion was used by Isidore of Charax and subsequently by many classical writers. By the 1st century AD, the name refers unequivocally to Great Britain, but this enigmatic name for Britain, revived much later by Romantic poets like William Blake, did not remain popular among Greek writers. It was soon replaced by Πρεττανία and Βρεττανία, Βρεττανός, from these words the Romans derived the Latin forms Britannia, Britannus, and Britannicus respectively. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History likewise has, It was itself named Albion, in his 2nd century Geography, Ptolemy uses the name Ἀλουΐων instead of the Roman name Britannia, possibly following the commentaries of Marinus of Tyre. He calls both Albion and Ierne νῆσοι Βρεττανικαὶ, in 930, the English king Æthelstan used the title Rex et primicerius totius Albionis regni. His nephew, Edgar the Peaceful, styled himself Totius Albionis imperator augustus Augustus Emperor of all Albion in 970, a legend exists in various forms that giants were either the original inhabitants, or the founders of the land named Albion. The island was then called Albion, and inhabited by none, Geoffrey goes on to recount how the last of the giants are defeated, the largest one called Goëmagot is flung over a cliff by Corineus. Later, in the 14th century, an elaborate tale was developed, claiming that Albina and her sisters founded Albion. The Albina story survives in several forms, including the octosyllabic Anglo-Norman poem Des grantz geanz dating to 1300—1334 A prose English translation is given in Richard Barbers anthology, the eldest daughter Albina was the first to set shore and lay claim to the land, naming it after herself. At first, the women gathered acorns and fruits, but once they learned to hunt and obtain meat, as no other humans inhabited the land, they mated with evil spirits called incubi, and subsequently with the sons they begot, engendering a race of giants. These giants are evidenced by huge bones which are unearthed, brutus arrived 260 years after Albina,1136 before the birth of Christ, but by then there were only 24 giants left, due to inner strife
4.
Harlech
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Harlech is a town and seaside resort in Gwynedd, within the historic boundaries of Merionethshire in northwest Wales. Lying on Tremadog Bay and within the Snowdonia National Park, it has a population of 1,447, the town is in the unitary authority of Gwynedd which was formed in 1996. From 1974 to 1996 it was in the Meirionydd District of the 1974 County of Gwynedd, the town is best known for the landmark Harlech Castle, begun in 1283 by Edward I of England, captured by Owain Glyndŵr, and later the stronghold of Henry Tudor. The castle was next to the sea, but geological processes have changed the shape of the coastline. The town has developed, with housing estates on the flat low town area and hillside properties in the high town around the shopping street, church. The two areas are linked by a steep and winding road called Twtil, the exact derivation of the name Harlech is unclear. Some mostly older sources claim that it derives from Arddlech, i. e. ardd + llech, more recent sources tend to go for a simpler derivation from the two Welsh words hardd and llech. As late as the 19th century some texts referred to Harddlech and Harddlech Castle and this name appears in the mid-19th century translation of the Mabinogion, And one afternoon he was at Harddlech in Ardudwy, at a court of his. And they were seated upon the rock of Harddlech overlooking the sea, contemporary documents from the time of the Mabinogion do not mention Harlech, referring only to Llywelyn building his castle at Ardudwy. An electoral ward in the name exists. This stretches to include Talsarnau Community, the population of the ward taken at the 2011 census was 1,997. The towns railway station is served by the Cambrian Coast Line and it also contains Ffordd Pen Llech, a street which descends the rock spur to the north of the castle, and has the steepest signed gradient on a public road in the United Kingdom. Ysgol Ardudwy is the county school for children between the ages of 11–16. Ysgol Tanycastell is the primary school for children between the ages of 3–11. The town is also the home of Waless only long-term adult residential college, Coleg Harlech, theatr Harlech is located on the Coleg Harlech campus and stages a varied selection of plays, music, and films throughout the year. Other attractions in Harlech include its beach backed with sand dunes and the famous Royal Saint Davids Golf Club, the Rhinogydd range of mountains rises to the east. A World War II-era fighter aircraft was found on Harlech beach in 2007, the discovery of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning has been described as one of the most important WWII finds in recent history. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery is not divulging the location of the U. S. Army Air Forces plane, known as the Maid of Harlech
5.
Ireland
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Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time
6.
Efnysien
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Efnysien fab Euroswydd is a sadistic anti-hero in Welsh mythology, appearing prominently in the tale of Branwen ferch Llŷr, the second branch of the Mabinogi. He is the son of Euroswydd and Penarddun, twin brother to Nisien, the Welsh Triads call Llŷr one of the Three Exalted Prisoners of Britain for his captivity at Euroswydds hands, this is likely to a lost tradition of the birth of Penardduns younger sons. Matholwch is deeply offended until Bran offers him compensation in the form of a cauldron that can restore the dead to life. Pleased with the gift, Matholwch and Branwen sail back to Ireland to reign, the Irish offer to make peace and build a house big enough to entertain Bendigeidfrân but hang a hundred bags inside, supposedly containing flour but actually containing armed warriors. Efnisien, suspecting treachery, reconnoitres the hall and kills the warriors by crushing their skulls, later, at the feast, Efnysien, again feeling insulted, murders Gwern by burning him alive, and, as a result, a vicious battle breaks out. Seeing that the Irish are using the cauldron to revive their dead and he destroys the cauldron from within, sacrificing himself in the process. Only seven men survive the conflict, among them Manawydan, Taliesin and Pryderi, prince of the Kingdom of Dyfed, the survivors are told by a mortally wounded Bran to cut off his head and to return it to Britain. For seven years the seven survivors stay in Harlech, where they are entertained by Bendigeidfrans head and they later move on to Gwales where they live for eighty years without perceiving the passing of time. Eventually, Heilyn fab Gwyn opens the door of the hall facing Cornwall, as instructed they take the now silent head to the Gwynfryn, the White Hill, where they bury it facing France so as to ward off invasion. Referring to Efnysiens atrocities throughout the tale, Will Parker writes, The rage here is calculated and his actions are deliberately staged to inflict the most profound damage to the weak points of the social fabric around him - in this case relations with the men of Ireland. Jeffrey Gantz describes him as, he controlling force of Branwen. a story all by himself, progressively insecure and envious, cruel and sadistic, clever and resourceful, repentant and self-sacrificing. The character has been compared to other figures, such as the Irish hero Bricriu Nemthenga. Efnisien appeared prominently in the 2003 film Otherworld, in which he was voiced by Welsh actor Alun Raglan, in 2006, Welsh singer-songwriter Elin Fflur released an EP entitled Ysbryd Efnisien. Evnyssien is the title of a song by Italian band Ataraxia
7.
Gwern
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Gwern, Alder, is a minor figure in Welsh tradition, the son of Matholwch king of Ireland, and Branwen, sister to the king of Britain. He appears in the tale of Branwen, daughter of Llŷr, Matholwch, King of Ireland, sails across the Irish Sea to ask the British High King, Brân, for the hand of his sister Branwen in marriage. Bendigeidfran agrees to this, but during a feast to celebrate the betrothal, Efnisien, when told, he is furious that Branwen has been given in marriage without his permission, and retaliates by mutilating Matholwchs horses. Matholwch is deeply angered until Bendigeidfran gives him a magic cauldron which restores the dead to life, once in Ireland, Branwen is treated cruelly by her husband, Matholwch, and is forced to work in the kitchen. The Irish offer to make peace by building a big enough to entertain Bendigeidfrân but hang a hundred bags inside, supposedly containing flour. Efnisien, suspecting treachery, reconnoitres the hall and kills the warriors by crushing their skulls and he is then called to Efnysien who, seemingly without motive, throws the boy into the flames, burning him to death. Branwen attempts to rescue her son from the fire but is back by Bendigeidfran. As a result of Efnysiens unspeakable crime, the two rise up against each other and a vicious fighting begins. In the ensuing battle, the Irish at first have the advantage because of the magic cauldron, when the Irish dead are placed in it, they came to life and were able to fight as well as ever, though they cannot speak. Efnisien lies down among the dead and is placed in the cauldron, then breaks it, bursting his heart, the Welsh eventually win the war, but only seven men survived. Bendigeidfran himself is dying from a wound in the foot. When the survivors return to Britain, Branwen dies of grief from believing that she was the cause of the war, for seven years the seven survivors, amongst them Manawydan and Pryderi, stay in Harlech, where they are entertained by Bendigeidfrans head, which continues to speak. They later move on to Gwales where they live for eighty years without perceiving the passing of time, eventually, one of the men opens the door of the hall facing Cornwall and the sorrow of what had befallen them returns. As instructed they take the now silent head to the Gwynfryn, the White Hill, the imagery of the talking head is widely considered to derive from the ancient Celtic cult of the head, the head was considered the home of the soul. A number of texts relate to Cad Goddeu or, The Battle of the Trees, the battle was fought on account of the white roebuck and the whelp stolen by Amaethon from the Otherworld. A great warrior fights alongside Arawn and cannot be overcome unless his name can be guessed by the opposing force. Sure-hoofed is my steed in the day of battle, The high sprigs of alder are on thy hand, Bran is here identified by the sprigs of alder on his shield. A number of scholars have suggested an association between Gwerns role in Branwen and in the bardic tradition relating to the Battle of the Trees
8.
Starling
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Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. The name Sturnidae comes from the Latin word for starling, sturnus, many Asian species, particularly the larger ones, are called mynas, and many African species are known as glossy starlings because of their iridescent plumage. Starlings are native to Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as northern Australia, the starling species familiar to most people in Europe and North America is the common starling, and throughout much of Asia and the Pacific, the common myna is indeed common. Starlings have strong feet, their flight is strong and direct and their preferred habitat is fairly open country, and they eat insects and fruit. Several species live around human habitation and are effectively omnivores, plumage of many species is typically dark with a metallic sheen. Most species nest in holes and lay blue or white eggs, starlings have diverse and complex vocalizations and have been known to embed sounds from their surroundings into their own calls, including car alarms and human speech patterns. The birds can recognize individuals by their calls and are currently the subject of research into the evolution of human language. The shortest-bodied species is Kenricks starling, at 15 centimetres, but the species is Abbotts starling. The largest starling, going on standard measurements and perhaps weight, is the Nias hill myna and this species can measure up to 36 cm and, in domestication they can weigh up to 400 g. Rivalling the prior species in bulk if not dimensions, the mynas of the genus Mino are also large, especially the yellow-faced and long-tailed mynas. The longest species in the family is the white-necked myna, which can measure up to 50 cm, there is less sexual dimorphism in plumage, however, with only 25 species showing such differences between the two sexes. The plumage of the starling is often brightly coloured due to iridescence, some species of Asian starling have crests or erectile feathers on the crest. Other ornamentation includes elongated tail feathers and brightly coloured bare areas on the face and these colours can be derived from pigments, or, as in the Bali starling, structural colour, caused by light scattering off parallel collagen fibres. The irises of many species are red and yellow, although those of birds are much darker. Starlings inhabit a range of habitats from the Arctic Circle to the Equator. In fact the only habitat they do not typically occupy is the driest sandy deserts, the family is naturally absent from the Americas and from large parts of Australia but is present over the majority of Europe, Africa and Asia. The genus Aplonis has also spread widely across the islands of the Pacific reaching Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia and it is also a species of this genus that is the only starling found in northern Australia. Asian species are most common in forests,39 species found in Asia are predominantly forest birds as opposed to 24 found in more open or human modified environments
9.
Irish Sea
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The Irish Sea, separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St Georges Channel, anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man. The sea is occasionally, but rarely, referred to as the Manx Sea, the sea is of significant economic importance to regional trade, shipping and transport, fishing, and power generation in the form of wind power and nuclear power plants. Annual traffic between Great Britain and Ireland amounts to over 12 million passengers and 17 million tonnes of traded goods, the Irish Sea has undergone a series of dramatic changes over the last 20,000 years as the last glacial period ended and was replaced by warmer conditions. At the height of the glaciation the central part of the sea was probably a long freshwater lake. As the ice retreated 10,000 years ago the lake reconnected to the sea, becoming brackish, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Irish Sea as follows, On the North. The Southern limit of the Scottish Seas, a line joining St. Davids Head to Carnsore Point. It is connected to the North Atlantic at both its northern and southern ends, to the north, the connection is through the North Channel between Scotland and Northern Ireland and the Malin Sea. The southern end is linked to the Atlantic through the St Georges Channel between south eastern Ireland and Pembrokeshire in Wales, and the Celtic Sea. The Irish Sea is composed of a channel about 300 km long and 30–50 km wide on its western side. The western channels depth ranges from 80 metres up to 275 m in the Beauforts Dyke in the North Channel, the main embayments – Cardigan Bay in the south and the waters to the east of the Isle of Man – are less than 50 m deep. The Sea has a water volume of 2,430 km3, 80% of which is to the west of the Isle of Man. The largest sandbanks are the Bahama and King William Banks to the east and north of the Isle of Man, the Irish Sea, at its greatest width, is 200 km and narrows to 75 km. Unlike Great Britain, Ireland has no tunnel or bridge connection to continental Europe, thus the vast majority of heavy goods trade is done by sea. The Port of Liverpool handles 32 million tonnes of cargo and 734 thousand passengers a year, Holyhead port handles most of the passenger traffic from Dublin and Dún Laoghaire ports, as well as 3.3 million tonnes of freight. Ports in the Republic handle 3,600,000 travellers crossing the sea each year and this has been steadily dropping for a number of years, probably as a result of low cost airlines. There is also a connection between Liverpool and Belfast via the Isle of Man or direct from Birkenhead, the worlds largest car ferry, Ulysses, is operated by Irish Ferries on the Dublin Port–Holyhead route, Stena Line also operates between Britain and Ireland. The Port of Barrow-in-Furness, despite being one of Britains largest shipbuilding centres, a ferry crossing used to run between Swansea and Cork, but given the geographical limits defined above, this route crosses the Celtic Sea rather than the Irish Sea
10.
Wales
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Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon. The country lies within the temperate zone and has a changeable. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudds death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of Englands conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to Wales in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism, Welsh national feeling grew over the century, Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the countrys traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales economy depends on the sector, light and service industries. Wales 2010 gross value added was £45.5 billion, over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the land of song, Rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term Wælisc when referring to the Celtic Britons in particular, the modern names for some Continental European lands and peoples have a similar etymology. The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales and these words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning fellow-countrymen. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the location in the post-Roman Era of the Welsh people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, in particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to the Welsh. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century and it is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan c. 633. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh, until c.1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. The Latinised forms of names, Cambrian, Cambric and Cambria, survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh
11.
Swineherd
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A swineherd /ˈswaɪnhɜːrd/ is a person who raises and herds pigs. The term has fallen out of use in favour of pig farmer. Hans Christian Andersen wrote a Fairy tale called, The Swineherd, in Greek mythology, Eumaeus was Odysseus swineherd. In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the younger son wastes his inheritance, in Lloyd Alexanders books based on Welsh mythology, The Chronicles of Prydain, the hero is a pig keeper, or swineherd. The character Gurth, in Sir Walter Scotts book Ivanhoe is a swineherd, the main character in the Disney movie The Black Cauldron is a swineherd. Among Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáins most famous work is the poem Swineherd, lovecrafts story, The Rats In the Wall, has reoccurring nightmares of a bearded daemon swineherd. Mentioned as a class of labourer in the Statute of Labourers 1351 Pig farming Swineherd, Askoxford. com Swineherd, Bartleby. com
12.
Anglesey
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Anglesey or Ynys Môn is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. With an area of 276 square miles, Anglesey is by far the largest island of Wales, Anglesey is also the largest island in the Irish Sea by area, and the second most populous island in the Irish Sea. The population at the 2011 census was 69,751, two bridges span the Menai Strait, connecting the island to the mainland, the Menai Suspension Bridge, designed by Thomas Telford in 1826, and the Britannia Bridge. A historic county of Wales and later administrated as part of Gwynedd, Anglesey today makes up the Isle of Anglesey County along with Holy Island and other smaller islands. The majority of Angleseys inhabitants are Welsh speakers and Ynys Môn, Anglesey is derived from Old Norse, originally either Ǫngullsey Hook Island or Ǫnglisey Ǫnglis Island. No record of any such Ǫngli survives, but the name was used by Viking raiders as early as the 10th century and was later adopted by the Normans during their invasions of Gwynedd. All of these derive from the proposed Proto-Indo-European root *ank-. It was also spelled as Anglesea. Ynys Môn, the islands Welsh name, was first recorded as Latin Mona by various Roman sources and it was likewise known to the Saxons as Monez. The Brittonic original was in the past taken to have meant Island of the Cow and this view is linguistically untenable, however, according to modern scientific philology. The etymology thus currently remains a mystery, poetic names for Anglesey include the Old Welsh Ynys Dywyll for its former groves and Ynys y Cedairn for its royal courts, Gerald of Wales Môn Mam Cymru for its productivity, and Y fêl Ynys. Numerous megalithic monuments and menhirs are present on Anglesey, testifying to the presence of humans in prehistory, Plas Newydd is near one of 28 cromlechs that remain on uplands overlooking the sea. The Welsh Triads claim that Anglesey was once part of the mainland, historically, Anglesey has long been associated with the druids. News of Boudicas revolt reached him just after his victory, causing him to withdraw his army before consolidating his conquest, the island was finally brought into the Roman Empire by Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the Roman governor of Britain, in AD78. During the Roman occupation, the area was notable for the mining of copper, the foundations of Caer Gybi as well as a fort at Holyhead are Roman, and the present road from Holyhead to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll was originally a Roman road. The island was grouped by Ptolemy with Ireland rather than with Britain, British Iron Age and Roman sites have been excavated and coins and ornaments discovered, especially by the 19th century antiquarian, William Owen Stanley. Following the Roman departure from Britain in the early 5th century, pirates from Ireland colonised Anglesey, in response to this, Cunedda ap Edern, a Gododdin warlord from Scotland, came to the area and began to drive the Irish out. This was continued by his son Einion Yrth ap Cunedda and grandson Cadwallon Lawhir ap Einion, as an island, Anglesey was in a good defensive position, and so Aberffraw became the site of the court, or Llys, of the Kingdom of Gwynedd
13.
Llanddeusant, Anglesey
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Llanddeusant is a small linear village, on Anglesey, North Wales about 10 miles north east of Holyhead. The village takes it names from its church which is dedicated to St. Marcellus. Llanddeusant is claimed to be the place of Branwen. It has Angleseys only working windmill, Llynnon Mill, opened in 1775 at a cost of £550 and renovated by the council in 1986. The mill was located there as it lies just to the north of the Afon Alaw. The co-educational village primary school, Ysgol Gynradd Llanddeusant closed in July 2011 after serving the village for 160 years, on October 2nd 2013, the Isle of Anglesey Council Planning Committee granted permission for the council to demolish the school and build 8 houses
14.
Menhir
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A menhir, standing stone, orthostat, lith or masseba/matseva is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found solely as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones and their size can vary considerably, but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top. Menhirs are widely distributed across Europe, Africa and Asia, however, they are most numerous in Western Europe, in particular in Ireland, Great Britain and Brittany. There are about 50,000 megaliths in these areas, while there are 1,200 menhirs in northwest France alone, standing stones are usually difficult to date, but pottery, and/or pottery shards found underneath some in Atlantic Europe connects them with the Beaker people. They were constructed during different periods across pre-history as part of a larger megalithic culture that flourished in Europe. Some menhirs have been erected next to buildings that often have an early or current religious significance, one example is the South Zeal Menhir in Devon, which formed the basis for a 12th-century monastery built by lay monks. The monastery later became the Oxenham Arms hotel, at South Zeal, where menhirs appear in groups, often in a circular, oval, henge or horseshoe formation, they are sometimes called megalithic monuments. These are sites of ancient religious ceremonies, sometimes containing burial chambers, the exact function of menhirs has provoked more debate than practically any other issue in European pre-history. Until the nineteenth century, antiquarians did not have knowledge of prehistory. The developments of radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology have done much to knowledge in this area. The word menhir was adopted from French by 19th-century archaeologists and it is a combination of two words of the Breton language, maen and hir. In modern Welsh, they are described as maen hir, or long stone, in modern Breton, the word peulvan is used, with peul meaning stake or post and van which is a soft mutation of the word maen which means stone. Almost nothing is known of the organization or religious beliefs of the people who erected the menhirs. There is not even any trace of these language, however we do know that they buried their dead and had the skills to grow cereal, farm and make pottery, stone tools. Until recently, menhirs were associated with the Beaker people, who inhabited Europe during the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age — later third millennium BC, ca.2800 –1800 BC. However, recent research into the age of megaliths in Brittany strongly suggests a far older origin, many menhirs are engraved with megalithic art. This often turned them into anthropomorphic stelae, although images of such as stone axes, ploughs, shepherd crooks. With the exception of the axe, none of these motifs are definite
15.
Urn
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An urn is a vase, often with a cover, that usually has a somehat narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an urn, as opposed to a vase or other terms, large sculpted vases are often called urns, whether placed outdoors, in gardens or as architectural ornaments on buildings, or kept inside. Funerary urns have been used by many civilizations, after a person died, survivors cremated the body and collected the ashes in an urn. Pottery urns, dating from about 7000 BC, have found in an early Jiahu site in China, where a total of 32 burial urns are found. There are about 700 burial urns unearthed over the Yangshao areas and consisting more than 50 varieties of form, the burial urns were used mainly for children, but also sporadically for adults. The Urnfield culture, a late Bronze Age culture of central Europe, the discovery of a Bronze Age urn burial in Norfolk, England, prompted Sir Thomas Browne to describe the antiquities found. He expanded his study to survey burial and funerary customs, ancient and current, in ancient Greece, cremation was usual, and the ashes typically placed in a painted Greek vase. In particular the lekythos, a shape of vase, was used for holding oil in funerary rituals, romans placed the urns in a niche in a collective tomb called a columbarium. The interior of a dovecote usually has niches to house doves, cremation urns were also commonly used in early Anglo Saxon England, and in many Pre-Columbian cultures. Biodegradable urns are sometimes used for human and animal burial. Besides the traditional funeral or cremation ashes urns, it is possible to keep a part of the ashes of the loved one or beloved pet in keepsake urns or ash jewelry. It is even possible to place the ashes of two people in so-called companion urns, cremation or funeral urns are made from a variety of materials such as wood, nature stone, ceramic, glass, or steel. Scattering of ashes has become popular over recent decades, as a result, urns designed to scatter the ashes from have been developed. Some are biodegradable, and some recyclable after being used, a Figural urn is a style of vase or larger container where the basic urn shape, of either a classic amphora or a crucible style, is ornamented with figures. These may be attached to the body, forming handles or simply extraneous decorations. The Ashes, the prize in the biennial Test cricket competition between England and Australia, are contained in a miniature urn, urns are a common form of architectural detail and garden ornament. Well-known ornamental urns include the Waterloo Vase, in mathematics, an urn problem is a thought experiment in probability theory. A tea urn is a metal container traditionally used to brew tea or boil water in large quantities in factories
16.
Bronze Age
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The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
17.
Mabinogion
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The Mabinogion are the earliest prose literature of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from oral traditions. The two main source manuscripts were created c, 1350–1410, as well as some earlier fragments. The title covers a collection of prose stories of widely different types. The highly sophisticated complexity of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi defy categorisation, the list is so diverse a leading scholar has challenged them as a true collection at all. Early scholars from the 18th century to the 1970s predominantly viewed the tales as fragmentary pre-Christian Celtic mythology and they are now seen as a sophisticated narrative tradition, both oral and written, with ancestral construction from oral storytelling, and overlay from Anglo-French influences. The first modern publications were English translations of several tales by William Owen Pughe in journals 1795,1821,1829, however it was Lady Charlotte Guest 1838–45 who first published the full collection, and bilingually in both Welsh and English. She is often assumed to be responsible for the name Mabinogion, indeed, as early as 1632 the lexicographer John Davies quotes a sentence from Math fab Mathonwy with the notation Mabin. in his Antiquae linguae Britannicae. The later Guest translation of 1877 in one volume, has been widely influential, the most recent translation is a compact version by Sioned Davies. John Bollard has published a series of volumes between with his own translation, with photography of the sites in the stories. The tales continue to inspire new fiction, dramatic retellings, visual artwork, the name first appears in 1795 in William Owen Pughes translation in the journal Cambrian Register, The Mabinogion, or Juvenile Amusements, being Ancient Welsh Romances. The name appears to have been current among Welsh scholars of the London-Welsh Societies and it was inherited as the title by the first publisher of the complete collection, Lady Charlotte Guest. The form mabynnogyon occurs once at the end of the first of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi in one manuscript and it is now generally agreed that this one instance was a mediaeval scribal error which assumed mabinogion was the plural of mabinogi. But mabinogi is already a Welsh plural, which occurs correctly at the end of the three branches. The word mabinogi itself is something of a puzzle, although derived from the Welsh mab. Eric P. Hamp of the school traditions in mythology, found a suggestive connection with Maponos the Divine Son. Mabinogi properly applies only to the Four Branches, which is a tightly organised quartet very likely by one author, each of these four tales ends with the colophon thus ends this branch of the Mabinogi, hence the name. Lady Charlotte Guests work was helped by the research and translation work of William Owen Pughe
18.
The Children of Llyr
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The Children of Llyr is a fantasy novel by Evangeline Walton, the second in a series of four based on the Welsh Mabinogion. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books as the volume of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in August,1971. It has been reprinted a number of times since, and gathered together with Waltons other Mabinogion novels by Overlook Press as the omnibus The Mabinogion Tetralogy in 2002, the novel has also been published in translation in several European languages. The other three novels in the series are The Island of the Mighty, The Song of Rhiannon, the novel is a retelling of the story of the Second Branch of the Mabinogion, Branwen Ferch Llŷr. Branwen is given in marriage to Matholuch, king of Ireland, angry that he was not consulted, Evnissyen, a tragic and haunted figure, insults Matholuch by mutilating his horses. Bran placates the Irish king by compensating him with new horses and treasure, back in Ireland, Matholuch and Branwen have a son, Gwern, but Evnissyens insult continues to rankle the Irish and Branwen is banished to the kitchen and beaten every day. Finally she gets a message to Bran, who responds by making war on Matholuch and his army sails across the Irish Sea, but Bran is so huge he wades across. The fearful Matholuch offers peace and agrees to step aside as king of Ireland in favor of Gwern, matholwch builds a house big enough to entertain Bran. His followers, unrepentant, conceal themselves in the house inside a hanging hundred bags, Evnissyen, suspecting treachery, reconnoitres the hall and kills the hidden warriors by crushing their heads inside the bags. Later, at the feast, the angry Evnissyen throws Gwern into the fire, the fighting goes against Brans forces, as the Irish use the magic cauldron to revive their dead. Only Branwen and seven of Brans followers survive, notably Manawyddan and Pryderi, Bran instructs his mourning companions to cut off his head and take it back to Britain. Branwen dies on their return, grief-struck from the ruin caused on her account, Brans head, magically preserved, continues to live for a time, comforting and entertaining his adherents in a series of enchanted feasts before burial. Of all the children of Llyr only Manawyddan remains, the Children of Llyr title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
19.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
20.
Celtic mythology
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Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and it is mostly through contemporary Roman and Christian sources that their mythology has been preserved. The Celtic peoples who maintained either their political or linguistic identities left vestigial remnants of their ancestral mythologies, however, from what has survived of Celtic mythology, it is possible to discern commonalities which hint at a more unified pantheon than is often given credit. Indeed, many Gaelic myths were first recorded by Christian monks, the oldest body of myths stemming from the Heroic Age is found only from the early medieval period of Ireland. As Christianity began to take over, the gods and goddesses were slowly eliminated as such from the culture, the Tuatha Dé represent the functions of human society such as kingship, crafts and war, while the Fomorians represent chaos and wild nature. The leader of the gods for the Irish pantheon appears to have been the Dagda, the Dagda was the figure on which male humans and other gods were based because he embodied ideal Irish traits. Celtic gods were considered to be a clan due to their lack of specialization. Irish tales depict the Dagda as a figure of power, armed with a club, in Dorset there is a famous outline of an ithyphallic giant known as the Cerne Abbas Giant with a club cut into the chalky soil. While this was produced in relatively modern times, it was long thought to be a representation of the Dagda. In Gaul, it is speculated that the Dagda is associated with Sucellus, the Morrígan was a tripartite battle goddess of the Celts of Ancient Ireland. She was known as the Morrígan, but the different sections she was divided into were also referred to as Nemain, Macha and she is most commonly known for her involvement in the Táin Bó Cúailnge. The god appearing most frequently in the tales is Lugh, the most famous of these are the cities of Lugdunum, Lugdunum Batavorum and Lucus Augusti. Lug is described in the Celtic myths as the last to be added to the list of deities, in Ireland a festival called the Lughnasadh was held in his honour. Other important goddesses include Brigid, the Dagdas daughter, Aibell, Áine, Macha, notable is Epona, the horse goddess, celebrated with horse races at the summer festival. Significant Irish gods include Nuada Airgetlám, the first king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Goibniu, the smith and brewer, Dian Cecht, the patron of healing, less is known about the pre-Christian mythologies of Britain than those of Ireland. Important reflexes of British mythology appear in the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, especially in the names of characters, such as Rhiannon, Teyrnon. The children of Llŷr in the Second and Third Branches, and the children of Dôn in the Fourth Branch are major figures, indeed, though there is much in common with Irish myth, there may have been no unified British mythological tradition per se. Whatever its ultimate origins, the material has been put to good use in the service of literary masterpieces that address the cultural concerns of Wales in the early
21.
Welsh mythology
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Welsh mythology consists of both folk traditions developed in Wales, and traditions developed by the Celtic Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium. Like most predominately oral societies found in the prehistoric Britain, Welsh mythology and this oral record has been lost or altered as result of outside contact and invasion over the years. The only character to appear in every branch is Pryderi fab Pwyll, the king of Dyfed, who is born in the first Branch, is killed in the fourth, and is probably a reflex of the Celtic god Maponos. The only other recurring characters are Pryderis mother Rhiannon, associated with the peaceful British prince Manawydan and he manages to win her hand at the expense of Gwawl, to whom she is betrothed, and she bears him a son, but the child disappears soon after his birth. Rhiannon is accused of killing him and forced to carry guests on her back as punishment. The child has been taken by a monster, and is rescued by Teyrnon and his wife and they return him to his real parents, Rhiannon is released from her punishment, and the boy is renamed Pryderi. In the second branch, Branwen, sister of Brân the Blessed, king of Britain, is given in marriage to Matholwch, Matholwch and Branwen have a son, Gwern, but Matholwch proceeds to mistreat Branwen, beating her and making her a drudge. Branwen trains a starling to take a message to Bran, who goes to war against Matholwch and his army crosses the Irish Sea in ships, but Brân is so huge he wades across. The Irish offer to make peace, and build a big enough to entertain Bran, but inside they hang a hundred bags, telling Efnysien they contain flour. Efnysien kills the warriors by squeezing the bags, later, at the feast, Efnysien throws Gwern on the fire and fighting breaks out. Seeing that the Irish are using the cauldron to revive their dead, Efnysien hides among the corpses and destroys the cauldron, only seven men, all Britons, survive the battle, including Pryderi, Manawyddan and Bran, who is mortally wounded by a poisoned spear. Brân asks his companions to cut off his head and take it back to Britain, Branwen dies of grief on returning home. Five pregnant women survive to repopulate Ireland, Pryderi and Manawydan return to Dyfed, where Pryderi marries Cigfa and Manawydan marries Rhiannon. However, a mist descends on the land, leaving it empty, eventually they return to Dyfed and become hunters again. While hunting, a white boar leads them to a mysterious castle, Pryderi, against Manawydans advice, goes inside, but does not return. Rhiannon goes to investigate and finds him clinging to a bowl, the same fate befalls her, and the castle disappears. Manawydan and Cigfa return to England as shoemakers, but once again the locals drive them out and they sow three fields of wheat, but the first field is destroyed before it can be harvested. The next night the field is destroyed
22.
Math fab Mathonwy (branch)
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Math fab Mathonwy, Math, the son of Mathonwy is a legendary tale from medieval Welsh literature and the final of the four branches of the Mabinogi. The chief characters of the tale are Math, king of Gwynedd, his nephew Gwydion, a magician, warrior and trickster, along with the other branches, the tale can be found the medieval Red Book of Hergest and White Book of Rhydderch. His brother Gwydion conspires to start a war between the north and the south, so as give the brothers the opportunity to rape Goewin while Math is distracted. To this end, Gwydion employs his magic powers to steal a number of pigs from the Demetian king, Pryderi. Meanwhile, Gwydion and Gilfaethwy attack and rape Goewin, Pryderi and his men march north and fight a battle between Maenor Bennardd and Maenor Coed Alun, but are forced to retreat. He is pursued to Nant Call, where more of his men are slaughtered, and then to Dol Benmaen, to avoid further bloodshed, it is agreed that the outcome of the battle should be decided by single combat between Gwydion and Pryderi. The two contenders meet at a place called Y Velen Rhyd in Ardudwy, and because of strength and valour and magic and enchantment, Gwydion triumphs, the men of Dyfed retreat back to their own land, lamenting over the death of their lord. When Math hears of the assault on Goewin, he turns his nephews into a series of mated pairs of animals, Gwydion becomes a stag for a year, then a sow, Gilfaethwy becomes a hind deer, a boar and a she-wolf. Each year they produce an offspring which is sent to Math, after three years, Math releases his nephews from their punishment and begins the search for a new foot-holder. Gwydion suggests his sister Arianrhod, who is tested for virginity by Math. During the test, she gives birth to a boy with thick yellow hair whom Math names Dylan. Ashamed, Arianrhod runs to the door, but on her way out something small drops from her, some time later, he hears screams from within the chest, and opens it to discover a baby boy. Some scholars have suggested that in a form of the Fourth Branch. Some years later, Gwydion accompanies the boy to Caer Arianrhod, the furious Arianrhod, shamed by this reminder of her loss of virginity, places a tynged on the boy, that only she could give him a name. Gwydion however tricks his sister by disguising himself and the boy as cobblers and luring Arianrhod into going to them in person in order to have some shoes made for her. The boy throws a stone and strikes a wren between the tendon and the bone of its leg, causing Arianrhod to make the remark it is with a hand that the fair-haired one has hit it. At that Gwydion reveals himself, saying Lleu Llaw Gyffes, the one with the skillful hand, is his name now. Furious at this trickery, Arianrhod places another tynged on Lleu, he shall receive arms from no one but Arianrhod herself
23.
Culhwch and Olwen
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Culhwch and Olwen is a Welsh tale that survives in only two manuscripts about a hero connected with Arthur and his warriors, a complete version in the Red Book of Hergest, ca. 1400, and a version in the White Book of Rhydderch. It is the longest of the surviving Welsh prose tales, certain linguistic evidence indicates it took its present form by the 11th century, making it perhaps the earliest Arthurian tale and one of Wales earliest extant prose texts. The title is an invention and does not occur in early manuscripts. Lady Charlotte Guest included this tale among those she collected under the title The Mabinogion, Culhwchs father, King Cilydd son of Celyddon, loses his wife Goleuddydd after a difficult childbirth. When he remarries, the young Culhwch rejects his stepmothers attempt to pair him with his new stepsister, offended, the new queen puts a curse on him so that he can marry no one besides the beautiful Olwen, daughter of the giant Ysbaddaden Pencawr. Though he has never seen her, Culhwch becomes infatuated with her, the young man immediately sets off to seek his kinsman. Arthur agrees to help, and sends six of his finest warriors to join Culhwch in his search for Olwen, the group meets some relatives of Culhwchs that know Olwen and agree to arrange a meeting. Fortunately for Culhwch, the completion of only a few of these tasks is recorded, the story is on one level a typical folktale, in which a young hero sets out to wed a giants daughter, and many of the accompanying motifs reinforce this. However, for most of the narrative the title characters go unmentioned, Culhwch and Olwen is much more than a simple folktale. In fact, the majority of the writing is taken up by two lists and the adventures of King Arthur and his men. The first of these occurs when Arthur welcomes his young kinsman to his court and offers to give him whatever he wishes. Culhwch, of course, asks that Arthur help him get Olwen, included in the list are names taken from Irish legend, hagiography, and sometimes actual history. The second list includes the tasks Culhwch must complete before Ysbaddaden will allow him to marry Olwen, only a fraction are recounted, but several that are disclosed, are of great significance. A version of the longest episode, the hunt for the boar Twrch Trwyth, is referenced in Historia Brittonum, the British painter/poet David Jones wrote a poem called The Hunt based on the tale of Culwhch ac Olwen. A fragment of a work, The Hunt takes place during the pursuit of the boar Twrch Trwyth by Arthur. In 1988 Gwyn Thomas released a retelling of the story, Culhwch ac Olwen, Culhwch ac Olwen won the annual Tir na n-Og Award for Welsh language nonfiction in 1989. A shadow play adaptation of Culhwch and Olwen toured schools in Ceredigion during 2003, the show was created by Jim Williams and was supported by Theatr Felinfach
24.
Preiddeu Annwfn
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Preiddeu Annwfn or Preiddeu Annwn is a cryptic poem of sixty lines in Middle Welsh, found in the Book of Taliesin. The text recounts an expedition with King Arthur to Annwfn or Annwn, Preiddeu Annwfn is one of the best known of mediaeval British poems. A number of scholars have pointed out analogues in other medieval Welsh literature, the poem is uniquely preserved in the Book of Taliesin, which has been dated to the first quarter of the 14th century. The text of the poem itself has proved difficult to date. Estimates range from the time of the bard Taliesin in the late 6th century to the completion of the manuscript, on the basis of linguistic criteria Norris J. Lacy suggests that the poem took its present form around AD900. She contends, however, that there is no firm evidence that the poem predates the time of the Gogynfeirdd. The poem may be divided into eight stanzas, each for the most part united by a single rhyme, the first stanza begins and the last ends with two lines of praise to the Lord, generally taken to be Christian. Annwfn is apparently referred to by names, including Mound or Fairy Fortress, Four Peaked or Cornered Fortress. Whatever tragedy occurred is not clearly explained, the last two refer to crowds of monks who again rely upon the words and the knowledge of authorities and lack the type of experience the poem claims. Between these beginnings and ends the first six stanzas offer brief allusions to the journey, in the first Gweir is encountered imprisoned in the forts walls, a character whom Rachel Bromwich associates with Gwair, one of Three Exalted Prisoners of Britain known from the Welsh Triads. He is imprisoned in chains, apparently until Judgment Day, singing before the spoils of Annwfn, the second stanza describes the cauldron of the Chief of Annwn, finished with pearl, and how it was taken, presumably being itself the spoils. The third and fourth allude to difficulties with the forces of Annwfn while the fifth and sixth describe a great ox, also richly decorated, that may also form part of Arthurs spoils. Just as, we are told, the cauldron does not boil the food of a coward, so the song it is inspires is honoured in praise, too good for petty men of ordinary mentality. In the Second Branch Bran gives his magic life-restoring cauldron to his new brother-in-law Matholwch of Ireland when he marries Brans sister Branwen, Matholwch mistreats his new wife and Brans men cross the Irish Sea to rescue her. This attack involves the destruction of the cauldron, which Matholwch uses to resuscitate his soldiers, there is a battle between the hosts and in the end only seven of Brans men escape alive, including Taliesin and Pryderi. Arthurs warrior Llenlleawc the Irishman seizes Caladvwch and swings it around, Taliesin is mentioned in Culhwch among Arthurs retinue, as are several Gweirs. Preiddeu Annwfn is usually understood to say that a sword described either as bright or else of Lleawch was raised to the cauldron, some scholars have found the similarity to this Llenlleawc compelling, but the evidence is not conclusive. Higley suggests a story has influenced these various Welsh and Irish accounts
25.
Taliesin
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Taliesin was an early Brythonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the Book of Taliesin. Taliesin was a bard who is believed to have sung at the courts of at least three Brythonic kings. Ifor Williams identified eleven of the poems ascribed to Taliesin as possibly originating as early as the sixth century. Some of the events to which the poems refer, such as the Battle of Arfderydd, are referred to in other sources, in legend and medieval Welsh poetry, he is often referred to as Taliesin Ben Beirdd. Taliesin was highly regarded in the century as the supposed author of a great number of romantic legends. According to legend Taliesin was adopted as a child by Elffin, the son of Gwyddno Garanhir, in later stories he became a mythic hero, companion of Bran the Blessed and King Arthur. His legendary biography is found in several late renderings, the earliest surviving narrative being found in a chronicle of world history written by Elis Gruffydd in the 16th century. Details of Taliesins life are sparse, the first mention of him occurs in the Saxon genealogies appended to four manuscripts of the Historia Brittonum. The writer names five poets, among them Taliesin, who lived in the time of Ida of Bernicia and a British chieftain, Dutigirn. Taliesins authorship of several praise-poems to Urien Rheged is commonly accepted, and these poems mention The Eden Valley and these poems refer to victories of Urien at the battles of Argoed Llwyfain, The Ford of Clyde and Gwen Ystrad. Taliesin also sang in praise of Cynan Garwyn, king of Powys, Wales, according to the Welsh Triads Taliesin had a son, Afaon, who was accounted a great warrior who suffered a violent death, probably in Lothian. More detailed traditions of Taliesins biography arose from about the 11th century, in the mid-16th century Elis Gruffydd recorded a legendary account of Taliesin that resembles the story of the boyhood of the Irish hero Fionn mac Cumhail and the salmon of wisdom in some respects. The tale was recorded in a slightly different version by John Jones of Gellilyfdy. This story agrees in respects with fragmentary accounts in The Book of Taliesin. According to the Hanes Taliesin, he was known as Gwion Bach ap Gwreang. He was a servent of Cerridwen and was made to stir the Cauldron of Inspiration for one year to allow for Cerridwen to complete her potion of inspiration, upon completion of this potion, three drops sprang out and landed upon Gwion Bachs thumb. Gwion then placed his thumb in his mouth to soothe his burns resulting in Gwions enlightenment, out of fear of what Cerridwen would do to him, Gwion fled and eventually transformed into a piece of grain before being consumed by Cerridwen. Gwion was then reborn and given the name Taliesin, according to these texts Taliesin was the foster-son of Elffin ap Gwyddno, who gave him the name Taliesin, meaning radiant brow, and who later became a king in Ceredigion, Wales
