#Bannau Brycheiniog National Park

[dopescissorscashwagon]

The Diving Board, Bannau Brycheiniog National Park

📸 Tim Scanlan Photography

[invisibleicewands]

Bannau Brycheiniog National Park: an  old name for a new way of being. - #2

[theemeraldforesthideout]

"...and finally let go of persistent growth and consumption..."

[crudely-drawn-ben]

Nice to see the Bannau Brycheiniog go back to their old name, the grand future plan seems big on idealistic goals and very small on how they'll be achieved. In particular the talk of bare, rugged uplands really ignores that this is an artificial landscape. It would be nice to see some plans to rewild the park in the report somewhere, but the plan makes them seem very dedicated to continuing the sheep desert landscape even though the economic benefits of sheep farming seem barely perceptible.

Sure, farming sheep on upland landscapes is a tradition. The world is full of traditions and they can't all be good. Sooner or later we have to ask who we're living for, our ancestors or our descendants.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

So today the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park has followed in Eryri's footsteps by shedding its English name entirely, and will henceforth be exclusively known by its Welsh name

The English press is being Very Normal about this

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

David Tennant (and Michael Sheen) on Have I Got News For You 21.04.2023 :)

David: And how are the Brecken Beacons National Park having a rebrand. Who wants to go at pronouncing?

- Banai breckenyog.

-That sounds quite good.

David: Let's cross to our Welsh correspondent.

Michael: The correct pronunciation is Bannau Brycheiniog. Bannau Brycheiniog.

David: Thank you, Michael. - He's very good, isn't he? Michael Sheen.

- Yeah, he's good.

David: He's alright.

- Ohh, he's good. You know what? Anything he does, he carries.

- Oh he does.

- He's got such charisma.

- I mean, he's the actor of his generation,

and I love his floor polish.

- Do people in Scotland like you as much as people in Wales like him?

- He's versatile, that's the thing.

- Comedy and drama, which a lot of actors can't do.

- Doesn't rely on props.

- Exactly that.

- Doesn't rely on props.

David: Oh, he does.

- Yeah, you're not a prop.

- No.

- Come on.

[esoanem]

Prime Minister says he's a "big supporter of the Welsh language and Welsh culture" but refuses to use the Welsh name for a national park (Bannau Brycheiniog) after they dropped the English name

[princesscatherinemiddleton]

The Prince and Princess of Wales abseiled down a rocky facade in Bannau Brycheiniog National Park | April 27 2023

[itmeblog]

Idk how to explain it but listening to Camlann podcast (as someone with very, very limited knowledge of Welsh culture and somehow... even less about king Arthur) is like listening to a love letter to a place you've never been. It's beautiful and passionate and very clearly not addressed to me lol.

And as someone who is obviously reading a letter not addressed to me here's some stuff I had to look up.

Disclaimer: this is cursory top layer research.

Twrch Trwyth - (from Culhwch ac Olwen, a Welsh story that survives in 2 manuscripts according to wikipedia and is considered one of the first Arthurian romances, according to Britannica, from 1325 (the manuscript itself, though I've seen elsewhere that the tale itself may be from the 1100s)) A wild boar that terrorized the Black mountains in king Arthur's tales.

The comb comment refers to the last of the 40 tasks Culhwch (nephew to king Arthur) must complete in order to win Olwen's hand in marriage. Ysbaddaden (Culhwch's dad) attempts to kill him by telling him to find Twrch Trwyth and his piglets and kill him to bring back the comb, razor, and scissors somehow attached between the boar's ears. Read a synopsis here.

Even better the fact that the Gelert is holding the boar off reflects how Twrch Trwyth was chased by dogs during the hunt. Though honestly this just might be how people hunt boars today, I'm truly not going to find out.

Samhain - a Gaelic festival that takes place October 31st to November 1st to mark the end of harvest and the beginning of winter (according to wikipedia)

Gwragedd Annwn - female faeries or Welsh lake maidens that live beneath lakes and rivers in Welsh folktales (or the watery realms of Annwn a version of the underworld.) Think the lady of the lake. In some stories they apparently try to seduce men to drown them (a tale as old as time apparently, though this might be due to conflagration with other stories from different regions) [There were no sources I felt particularly like this is great! on this one so wikipedia and here. I might need to start looking on google scholar... or the library.]

Bannau Brycheiniog - mountain range and national park in Wales.

Caru ti cariad! - I love you (? I love you darling?? Cariad might be some sort of term of endearment with no true english equivalent... because I also saw "love"... so Maybe??? google translate is terrible at colloquialisms also translation is inherently flawed and will almost never truly be 1:1, "Translation is an act of betrayal" (RF Kuang) and whatnot)

From the show notes: The Welsh folk song featured in this episode is Tân yn Llŷn, a protest song about the destruction of Penyberth.

[pollicinor]

Ecco la lista completa di tutte le 52 destinazioni Nord America Parigi, Francia Yamaguchi, Giappone Nuova Zelanda Maui, Hawaii Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni, Arizona Singapore O’Higgins, Cile Ladakh, India Ginevra, Svizzera Dominica, Caraibi Manchester, Gran Bretagna Idaho Baltimora, Maryland Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia Negombo, Sri Lanka Massa e Carrara, Italia Bannau Brycheiniog, Galles Marocco Valencia, Spagna Kansas City, Missouri Antananarivo, Madagascar Yucatan, Messico Lago di Toba, Indonesia Almaty, Kazakhstan Quito, Ecuador Alpi Albanesi. Valbona National Park Arcipelago di Mingan, Quebec Montgomery, Alabama Tasmania, Australia Waterford, Irlanda Tsavo National Park, Kenya Brasilia, Brasile El Salvador Koh Ker, Cambogia Vestmannayjar, Islanda Montevideo, Uruguay Mustang, Nepal Vienna, Austria Brisbane, Australia Pasadena, California Hurghada, Egitto Boundary Waters, Minnesota Thessaloniki (Salonicco), Grecia Normandia, Francia Grenada, Caraibi El Camino de Costa Rica Alpi albanesi Whitehorse, Yukon Choquequirao, Perù Dresda, Germania Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, Messico Flamingo, Florida Ben Youssef Madrasa, Marrakech

Dall'articolo "Dal «Sentiero dell'eclissi» a Massa Carrara: le mete imperdibili nel 2024 per il New York Times" di Marco Trabucchi

[abitofboth]

if you ever wanna know how much the english still suck, the brecon beacons national park in wales has very recently changed its name back to the welsh bannau brycheiniog and I have seen quite literally nothing but pointless uproar for it. it’s 2023 and people still think it’s ridiculous for welsh people to have a little bit of pride in their culture

[invisibleicewands]

Bannau Brycheiniog National Park: an old name for a new way of being. - #1

[theemeraldforesthideout]

Researching the name of one of the waterfalls I visited. The English name is so dull compared. I've noticed this happens with a lot with Welsh place names. Their English versions are often named by what the Welsh words sound like in English, and therefore they often lose their meaning entirely. A town in the Welsh valleys, for an example, is called Pontypool. You probably read that as Pont-ee-pool. Meaning... a kind of... ponty... type of... pool?? (whatever that is). The Welsh name is Pont-y-pŵl. Pont means bridge in Welsh, pŵl means faded or dull and Y in Welsh is 'the' (pronounced ugh). So the literal translation is Bridge-the-faded or Faded Bridge. The waterfall is called Sgwd Gwladus which has mutated into Gwladys and then the English is Lady Waterfall or Lady Falls, based on the latter half of the mutated name. Which has nothing to do with anything. Gwladus is the name of one of the daughters of the 5th century King, King Brycheiniog, of which the national park the waterfall is in, takes its name from: Bannau Brycheiniog.

[lady-wildflower]

(this was going to be in tags but it got too long, I have thoughts. Take with a grain of salt because I'm not Welsh myself, I'm just from another country which has its own often-maligned in comparison with English language)

Okay but let's be clear, Welsh is not that hard. The English give it shit for being spelled 'funny' and mock it, but despite it using the alphabet differently to English it actually follows its own rules. If you pay attention to said rules, things like Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch are actually pretty easy. I can say it and I have a speech impediment, my only trip up is the repeated syllables at the end. It is spelled phonetically. But in English? Oh no.

English has fucking place names like Cholmondeley. Pronounced fucking CHUM-lee. There's a whole fucking Wikipedia page for the places like it in the UK, and most of them are England! Here's a few highlights:

There are two different pronunciations for Acomb! Like Cholmondeley, Cholmondeston (which spellcheck doesn't even accept) is CHUM-stən. Three Alresfords, all different. Two Barughs, both in Yorkshire, both pronounced differently. Brough is pronounced completely unrelatedly to Brougham. Burgh le Marsh's "burgh" is pronounced completely differently to Burgh by Sands' one. Bylaugh is pronounced fucking BEE-lə Godmanchester is GUM-stər. Magdalen(e) College is MAWD-lin Torpenhow (and no, it's not actually hill-hill-hill) is trə-PEN-ə. And there are two ways to pronounce Woolfardisworthy, also two ways for Wybunbury.

Then there's how cester is almost always reduced to 'ster' and wick is reduced to 'ik' except for a few exceptions and you're just expected to know them.

ENGLISH is the language with nonsense in it. The only reason everyone thinks Welsh is the weird one is because of the English declaring it so and gee, I wonder what motivation England might have for that, and for treating the other Gaelic languages in the same way. I mean, people joke that Welsh has no vowels. It has more vowels than English does! Y and W are vowels in Welsh!

To use a recent example, the amount of English people getting their knickers in a twist over the national park being re-given its Welsh name Bannau Brycheiniog over the previous English name is nuts. Just nuts. It's six syllables and all you really might trip over badly if you're an English speaker is AU being the same sound as "eye" if you don't know already. But once you've heard, it you know. Meanwhile you've got Rishi Sunak and the Tories fucking outright refusing to use its name, they insist they'll continue to call it the Brecon Beacons and so will everyone else. You've got the fucking Prime Minister of the UK insisting upon undermining the Welsh language like that!

Michael Sheen: No one except those from Wales can pronounce this 

David Tennant: Hold my whisky 

[denimbex1986]

'Theatr Brycheiniog are celebrating Brecon Pride, which kicks off at 7:30 pm on Thursday the 25th of July, with a special screening of the film Pride. Following that, audiences with have a chance to meet two of the real-life Welsh characters who helped inspire the smash hit film.

Pride tells the true story of how a group of gay and lesbian activists raised money to support striking miners and their families in the Neath, Dulais and Swansea valleys. A key location in the film is the Onllwyn Miners Welfare Hall on the southern border of the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park.

The film, celebrating its tenth anniversary, documents how initial tensions between the two groups grew into mutual support and solidarity. Over the decades since, that has led to some life-long friendships.

One of the local characters portrayed in the film – and taking part in the question-and-answer session at Theatr Brycheiniog - is Siân James. She was part of a group helping to feed over a thousand families a week during the strike.

Sian was played in the film by Jessica Gunning who went on to star in the recent blockbuster Netflix miniseries Baby Reindeer.

Following the strike and after raising her children, Siân went to university and eventually became MP for Swansea East.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast last month, she said: ”We were challenging people. In our little corner of South Wales, we played a big role in changing public perception and public opinion.”

Also taking part in the Theatr Brycheiniog event is Dai Donovan, a miner at the time of the strike and for many years after, a trade union official. He was played in the film by Paddy Considine.

Dai said: “The film Pride is still relevant forty years since the events portrayed and ten years since the release of the film because it offers a message of hope through friendship and solidarity.

“Despite the fact that there are still challenges for the LGBTQ+ community, the events portrayed in Pride offer encouragement over loneliness.“

Theatr Brycheiniog Director Eleri B Jones added: “We are proud to be a venue that is open to all and that celebrates the best Welsh stories.

“Pride is an iconic film and this important part of our diverse heritage would be a lot less well known if it was not for this movie.

“It is showing events that happened only a few miles away. Whether you have seen it before or not, it is well worth a viewing.

“Hearing from Siân and Dai will bring that story to life. It will make for a great evening.”

Tickets for the screening are available from the Theatr Brycheiniog website for just £6 each with £1 from each ticket going to support Brecon Pride. The film is rated 15. The screening starts at 7.30 followed by the question-and-answer event...'