1.
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
2.
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
3.
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
4.
Modern Paganism
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Although they do share similarities, contemporary Pagan religious movements are diverse and no single set of beliefs, practices, or texts are shared by them all. Not all members of faiths or beliefs regarded as Neopagan self-identify as Pagan, academic research has placed the Pagan movement along a spectrum, with Eclecticism on one end and Polytheistic Reconstructionism on the other. Polytheism, animism, and pantheism are common features in Pagan theology, rituals take place in both public and in private domestic settings. The Pagan relationship with Christianity is often strained, contemporary Paganism has sometimes been associated with the New Age movement, with scholars highlighting both similarities and differences. From the 1990s onward, scholars studying the modern Pagan movement have established the field of Pagan studies. There is considerable disagreement as to the definition and proper usage of the term modern Paganism. Even within the field of Pagan studies, there is no consensus regarding how contemporary Paganism can best be defined. Most scholars describe modern Paganism as an array of different religions rather than a singular religion in itself. Thus, he expressed the view that although a diverse phenomenon. However, while viewing different forms of Paganism as distinct religions in their own right, the various Pagan religions have been academically classified as new religious movements, with the anthropologist Kathryn Rountree describing Paganism as a whole as a new religious phenomenon. A number of academics, particularly in North America, have considered modern Paganism to be a form of nature religion. Some practitioners eschew the term Pagan altogether, choosing not to themselves as such. This is because the term Pagan has its origins in Christian terminology, alternately, many practitioners within these regions view Native Faith as a category that exists within modern Paganism but which does not encompass all Pagan religions. Other terms sometimes favored by Pagans are traditional religion, indigenous religion, nativist religion, Further, they have suggested that all of these could be defined under the banner of paganism or Paganism. This approach has received critically by many specialists in religious studies. Many scholars have favored the use of Neopaganism to describe this phenomenon, with the prefix neo- serving to distinguish the modern religions from their ancient. Some Pagan practitioners also prefer Neopaganism, believing that the prefix conveys the nature of the religion, including for instance its rejection of superstition. Accordingly, to avoid causing offense many scholars in the English-speaking world have begun using the modern or contemporary rather than neo
5.
Celtic deities
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The gods and goddesses of the pre-Christian Celtic peoples are known from a variety of sources, including ancient places of worship, statues, engravings, cult objects and place or personal names. The ancient Celts appear to have had a pantheon of deities comparable to others in Indo-European religion, each linked to aspects of life and the natural world. By a process of synthesism, after the Roman conquest of Celtic areas, these associated with their Roman equivalent. Most of the information we have therefore comes from Latin writers. More tentatively, links can be made between ancient Celtic deities and figures in early medieval Irish and Welsh literature, although all this was produced well after Christianization. The locus classicus for the Celtic gods of Gaul is the passage in Julius Caesars Commentarii de Bello Gallico in which he names six of them and he says that Mercury was the most honoured of all the gods and many images of him were to be found. Mercury was regarded as the inventor of all the arts, the patron of travellers and of merchants, and the most powerful god in matters of commerce and gain. After him, the Gauls honoured Apollo, who drove away diseases, Mars, who controlled war, Jupiter, who ruled the heavens, and Minerva and he adds that the Gauls regarded Dis Pater as their ancestor. He also presents a neat schematic equation of god and function that is foreign to the vernacular literary testimony. Yet, given its limitations, his brief catalog is a valuable witness, the gods named by Caesar are well-attested in the later epigraphic record of Gaul and Britain. Not infrequently, their names are coupled with native Celtic theonyms and epithets, such as Mercury Visucius, Lenus Mars, Jupiter Poeninus, unsyncretised theonyms are also widespread, particularly among goddesses such as Sulevia, Sirona, Rosmerta, and Epona. In all, several hundred names containing a Celtic element are attested in Gaul, the majority occur only once, which has led some scholars to conclude that the Celtic gods and their cults were local and tribal rather than national. Supporters of this view cite Lucans mention of a god called Teutates, the multiplicity of deity names may also be explained otherwise – many, for example, may be simply epithets applied to major deities by widely extended cults. Evidence from the Roman period presents an array of gods. Certain deities were venerated widely across the Celtic world, while others were limited only to a religion or even to a specific locality. Certain local or regional deities might have greater popularity within their spheres than supra-regional deities, the Celtic sky-god too had variations in the way he was perceived and his cult expressed. Yet the link between the Celtic Jupiter and the wheel is maintained over a wide area, from Hadrians Wall to Cologne. It is sometimes possible to identify regional, tribal, or sub-tribal divinities, specific to the Remi of northwest Gaul is a distinctive group of stone carvings depicting a triple-faced god with shared facial features and luxuriant beards
6.
Goddess
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A goddess is a female deity in polytheistic religions. Goddesses most often have characteristics that are apotheosize in their pure form. However, in some cases goddesses may embody neutral forms personifying both male and female characteristics, or they may even exhibit traits that are associated with the male gender. In some faiths, a female figure holds a central place in religious prayer. For example, Shaktism, the worship of the force that animates the world, is one of the three major sects of Hinduism. Polytheist religions, including Polytheistic reconstructionists, honour multiple goddesses and gods and these deities may be part of a pantheon, or different regions may have tutelary deities. The reconstructionists, like their ancient forebears, honour the deities particular to their country of origin, the noun goddess is a secondary formation, combining the Germanic god with the Latinate -ess suffix. It first appeared in Middle English, from about 1350, the English word follows the linguistic precedent of a number of languages—including Egyptian, Classical Greek, and several Semitic languages—that add a feminine ending to the languages word for god. Joseph Campbell in The Power of Myth, a 1988 interview with Bill Moyers, links the image of the Earth or Mother Goddess to symbols of fertility and reproduction. For example, Campbell states that, There have been systems of religion where the mother is the prime parent, and in Egypt you have the Mother Heavens, the Goddess Nut, who is represented as the whole heavenly sphere. Joseph Campbell, Well that was associated primarily with agriculture and the agricultural societies and it has to do with the earth. The human woman gives birth just as the earth gives birth to the plants. so woman magic, and the personification of the energy that gives birth to forms and nourishes forms is properly female. It is in the world of ancient Mesopotamia, the Egyptian Nile. Campbell also argues that the image of the Virgin Mary was derived from the image of Isis and her child Horus, other Mesopotamian goddesses include Ninhursag, Ninlil, Antu, Gaga Goddesses of the Canaanite religion, Baalat Gebal, Astarte, Anat. Cybele, Her Hittite name was Kubaba, but her name changed to Cybele in Phrygian and Roman culture and her effect can be also seen on Artemis as the Lady of Ephesus. Hebat, Mother Goddess of the Hittite pantheon and wife of the sky god. She was the origin of the Hurrian cult, arinniti, Hittite Goddess of the sun. She became patron of the Hittite Empire and monarchy, leto, A mother Goddess figure in Lykia
7.
Aberdyfi
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Aberdyfi, or Aberdovey is a village and community on the north side of the estuary of the River Dyfi in Gwynedd, on the west coast of Wales. The village was founded around the harbour and shipbuilding industry, but is now best known as a resort with a high quality beach. Penhelig, with its own station, is the eastern part of the town. Aberdyfi is a popular tourist attraction, with many returning holidaymakers, especially from the areas of England, such as the West Midlands. A relatively large proportion of houses in the village are now holiday homes, the town is located within the Snowdonia National Park. In the 2011 census,38. 5% of the population of Aberdyfi ward identified themselves as Welsh, local tradition suggests that the Romans established a track into Aberdyfi as part of the military occupation of Wales around AD78. The strategic location in mid-Wales was the site of conferences between north and south Wales princes in 540,1140, and for the Council of Aberdyfi in 1216. The hill in the centre of Aberdyfi, Pen-y-Bryn, has claimed to be the site of fortifications in the 1150s. The site of Aberdyfi Castle however is said to be at the motte earthworks further up the river near Glandyfi. During the Spanish Armada of 1597, a Spanish ship, the Bear of Amsterdam missed her objective at Milford Haven and she was unable to leave for 10 days because of the wind and could not be boarded as no suitable boats were available. An attempt to burn her was frustrated by winds and when she did leave she ended up being captured by a waiting English fleet off the Cornish coast, in the 1700s, the village grew with the appearance of several of the inns still in current use. Copper was mined in the present Copperhill Street, and lead in Penhelig, an electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward stretches inland along the A494 road and includes Pennal community, the total population of the ward taken at the 2011 census was 1,282. In the 1800s, Aberdyfi was at its peak as a port, major exports were slate and oak bark. Ship building was based in seven shipyards in Penhelig where 45 sailing ships were built between 1840 and 1880, the railway came to Aberdyfi in 1863 built by the Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway. The first train was ferried across the River Dyfi, as the line to Dovey Junction, due to public demand, this section had to use a long tunnel behind Aberdyfi, and further major earthworks and tunnels were needed along the bank of the river. This line, which part of the Cambrian Railways. A jetty was built in 1887, with lines connecting it with the wharf
8.
Thomas Love Peacock
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Thomas Love Peacock was an English novelist, poet, and official of the East India Company. He was a friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley and they influenced each others work. Peacock wrote satirical novels, each with the basic setting. Peacock was born in Weymouth, Dorset, the son of Samuel Peacock and his wife Sarah Love, daughter of Thomas Love and his father was a glass merchant in London, partner of a Mr Pellatt, presumed to be Apsley Pellatt. Peacock went with his mother to live with her family at Chertsey in 1791 and in 1792 went to a run by Joseph Harris Wicks at Englefield Green where he stayed for six. Peacocks father died in 1794 in poor circumstances leaving a small annuity, Peacocks first known poem was an epitaph for a school fellow written at the age of ten and another on his Midsummer Holidays was written when he was thirteen. Around that time in 1798 he was taken from school. In February 1800, Peacock became a clerk with Ludlow Fraser Company and he lived with his mother on the firms premises at 4 Angel Court Throgmorton Street. He won the prize from the Monthly Preceptor for a verse answer to the question Is History or Biography the More Improving Study. He also contributed to The Juvenile Library, a magazine for youth whose competitions excited the emulation of other boys including Leigh Hunt, de Quincey. He began visiting the Reading Room of the British Museum and continued doing so for years, diligently studying the best literature in Greek, Latin, French. In 1804 and 1806 he published two volumes of poetry, The Monks of St. Mark and Palmyra, some of Peacocks juvenile compositions were privately printed by Sir Henry Cole. In around 1806 Peacock left his job in the city and during the year made a walking tour of Scotland. The annuity left by his father expired in October 1806, in 1807 he returned to live at his mothers house at Chertsey. He was briefly engaged to Fanny Faulkner, but it was broken off through the interference of her relations and his friends, as he hints, thought it wrong that so clever a man should be earning so little money. In the autumn of 1808 he became secretary to Sir Home Popham. By the end of the year he was serving Captain Andrew King aboard HMS Venerable in the Downs and his preconceived affection for the sea did not reconcile him to nautical realities. Writing poetry, he says, or doing anything else that is rational, I would give the world to be at home and devote the winter to the composition of a comedy
9.
Robert Graves
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Robert von Ranke Graves was an English poet, novelist, critic and classicist. He produced more than 140 works, Irish literature deeply affected Graves White Goddess theories, specifically the genre aisling. He earned his living from writing, particularly historical novels such as I, Claudius, King Jesus, The Golden Fleece. He also was a prominent translator of Classical Latin and Ancient Greek texts, his versions of The Twelve Caesars and The Golden Ass remain popular, for their clarity, Graves was awarded the 1934 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for both I, Claudius and Claudius the God. Graves was born into a family in Wimbledon, then part of Surrey. Gravess mother was from a recently ennobled German family, the eldest daughter of Heinrich von Ranke, a professor of medicine at the University of Munich and she was also a greatniece of the German historian Leopold von Ranke. At school, Graves was enrolled as Robert von Ranke Graves and in Germany his books are published under that name but before and during the First World War, the name caused him difficulties. In August 1916 an officer who disliked him spread the rumour that he was a spy, the problem resurfaced in a minor way in the Second World War, when a suspicious rural policeman blocked his appointment to the Special Constabulary. Gravess eldest half-brother, Philip Perceval Graves, achieved note as a journalist and his brother, Charles Patrick Graves, was a writer. Among the masters his chief influence was George Mallory, who introduced him to contemporary literature, in his final year at Charterhouse, he won a classical exhibition to St Johns College, Oxford but did not take his place there until after the war. At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Graves enlisted almost immediately and he published his first volume of poems, Over the Brazier, in 1916. He developed a reputation as a war poet and was one of the first to write realistic poems about experience of frontline conflict. In later years, he omitted his war poems from his collections, at the Battle of the Somme, he was so badly wounded by a shell-fragment through the lung that he was expected to die and was officially reported as having died of wounds. He gradually recovered and, apart from a spell back in France. One of Gravess friends at this time was the poet Siegfried Sassoon, in 1917, Sassoon rebelled against the conduct of the war by making a public antiwar statement. Graves feared Sassoon could face a court martial and intervened with the authorities, persuading them that Sassoon was suffering from shell shock. As a result, Sassoon was sent to Craiglockhart, a hospital in Edinburgh. Graves also suffered shell shock, or neurasthenia as it was then called, but he was never hospitalised for it, I thought of going back to France
listen) Ce-rid-wen) was an enchantress in Welsh medieval legend. She was the mother of a hideous son, Morfran, and a beautiful daughter, Creirwy. Her husband was Tegid Foel, and they lived near Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid) in north Wales. Medieval Welsh poetry refers to her as possessing the cauldron of poetic inspiration (Awen) and the Tale of Taliesin recounts her swallowing her servant Gwion Bach who is then reborn through her as the poet Taliesin. Ceridwen is regarded by many modern Pagans as the Celtic goddess of rebirth, transformation, and inspiration.
