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leahsgf · 2 months ago

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LOSS - mcfoord

mcfoord x child!reader | ireland doesn’t qualify for the euros

little monster masterlist

the energy rippling through the aviva stadium could only be described as electric. the stands, filled almost to the brim by a wave of green, were almost shaking - the sheer noise of the fans bouncing off of every corner.

amongst the chaos and stress of the ireland fans, sat you, perched on caitlin’s lap in the designated ‘mccabe family’ box - a mini ireland scarf clutched in your grasp, and a flag painted on your cheek, now rosy with the sheer bitterness of the dublin air.

katie stood on the pitch metres below, proudly wearing the captain’s armband for her country, and doing what she does best - even if that meant making everyone watch whilst wincing as she teetered on the edge of a second yellow card within minutes.

even at two years old, you understood somewhat how important this game, and this team was to her. it was your entire life in fact - your mother’s bursting passion for her country was engrained in you, having been told one night as she tucked you into your ‘big girl bed’, in the softest voice, how much it meant to her to wear the green jersey, how her team’s hard work was slowly but surely paying off, and, how important it was that you pick ireland over australia, of course.

(the most katie mccabe bed time story imaginable)

and despite how much they both attempted to shield you from the pressure of football, and tonight in particular- you were very much sensing it.

“can you see your mammy down there? she’s doing amazing, like always” caitlin pulled your green (of course) ear defenders away from your head as she whispered in your ear, pointing down to the pitch - whilst rocking you softly, attempting to distract herself from the stress of the game as the minutes dragged on.

the match was only getting more and more intense, every single pass and tackle becoming a battle as ireland fought for a goal, for anything, and wales fought to hold them off. caitlin’s grip on you tightened as full time rapidly approached - leaning forward nervously, as if she could already feel the incoming devastation, as your little eyes darted around, watching every desperate throw in intensely (despite not having a clue what they were doing, you just thought it looked fun)

before long the final whistle blew, and the stadium fell into almost an eerie silence. even your family around you, who had been bellowing and singing the entire time - were completely mute, and that was something you’d never experienced before.

katie practically collapsed down onto her knees on the pitch as the reality sunk in - her face in her hands, sobbing - with many of her fellow players doing the same, their long awaited euros dream well and truly shattered. you simply couldn’t grasp why the cheers had stopped, or why they weren’t kicking the ball around any more.

“why mammy sad?” you turn in the australian’s arms, picking up instantly on her own saddened expression, your tiny voice sounding so loud amongst the quiet - almost piercing the tension with a knife.

caitlin’s heart ached, not only for her partner but also for you, breaking at the idea of explaining this to you when you’d been so excited for weeks about this - adoring absolutely everything that your mammy did, being her little double.

“she’s a bit upset because her team didn’t win.” she spoke gently, “she really wanted this, like she’s been telling you.”

you frowned, clutching your scarf tighter, whimpering slightly at the thought of her being sad without you with her to make it better.

“go there?” you point down to the pitch, shifting to try and climb down, leaning forward to grip the barrier in front of the seat - caitlin almost instantly pulling you back, earning a whine in response.

“let’s wait a little bit pudding, kay? she’s still on the field, we’ll go and find her soon, don’t worry” she stroked your hair softly, suddenly standing up with you balanced on her hip, taking you away from the seats and back inside, away from the chaos for just a moment, bouncing you lightly, knowing all too well that if you can see katie without being able to be with her for a second longer you’ll be quickly on your way to a meltdown.

after a short while, and the heartbroken ireland team slowly started to filter out of the locker room, not wanting to spend another minute drowning in the overwhelming sadness - katie remained planted in her seat. the sting of this defeat cut her particularly deep, not solely because of the loss, but also because of everything in her that she’d poured into this campaign, into being captain in general - the sacrifices, the hours of extra training, and the dreams of being the one to lead her country to something bigger, something they deserve - all of it.

sat on the bench with her head in her hands, her chest rose and fell unevenly, and tears continued to stream down her cheeks as every emotion under the sun swirled through her head.

the door swinging open broke her out of her train of thoughts - revealing a very concerned, almost tearful looking caitlin, with you bundled in her arms.

“katie?”

the irish woman’s head snapped up instantly, her red rimmed eyes meeting the piercingly blue ones of her girlfriend, getting lost in them like she always did. the mere sight of the pair of you - her family, of the little, now smeared ireland flag painted on your face, only made her tears flow faster, the remains of her resolve crumbling.

you wriggled in caitlin’s arms as katie stood up, collecting the remains of her stuff - not wanting to hang around anymore either, reaching out for her desperately.

her arms opened in an instant, allowing you to be passed over into them before even a slight whimper could leave your lips, burying her face into your tiny shoulder as she sobbed a little more, muffled by your warmth, holding you almost impossibly close to her chest.

“it’s okay mammy, no cry” you babble, your words accenting your wonderfully weirdly blended accent, patting her cheek softly, causing the woman to let out a shaky laugh through her tears. “you the best” your little brow furrowed as you continued, poking at the tears on her cheek, having not quite learned how to ‘wipe them away’ properly just yet.

“oh my sweet girl, thank you” she nuzzled her nose against your cheek, pressing a kiss to your forehead as the three of you made your way slowly towards the car, wanting nothing more than to just be away from all of this.

caitlin watched silently as katie buckled you into your car seat, tickling you softly and kissing your cheek, lingering for a second longer than usual, as if she was delaying the inevitable hard part, where she’ll have to process this without an innocent, clueless toddler to distract her.

“you’ve done so much, love, you’ve made them all so proud, you’ve made us proud. you’ve made that little girl so proud - all she’s talked about all day is you.” caitlin wrapped her arms around the irish woman almost immediately after she closed your car door, rubbing her back comfortingly.

“thank you baby, i needed that, thank you for being here. i know you’re probably exhausted.” she sniffled, knowing that her girlfriend flew straight from australia to dublin to be here for her - before moving around to the passenger side, an unfamiliar one to her - but she wasn’t in the headspace to be in charge of a vehicle, not right now.

the drive back to the hotel (that was more of a stopover before you all head back to london in the morning then anything) was an unfamiliarly quiet one, the mood that settled sombre in stark comparison to the constant loop of ‘baby shark’, a personal favourite of yours - that boomed out of the speakers in order to keep you content.

the evening drew in with a lot of tears and hugs from all three of you at different moments - curled up in the plush of the hotel bed, watching some disney movie you’d all seen a million times over - your parents trying to keep the mood fairly light for you, knowing the walls would come crashing down once you were asleep.

despite this, you could sense that your mammy was still sad. very sad. she usually was constantly playing with you, making you screech with giggles, even when you were meant to be getting ready to go to bed and calming down for the night, but tonight she was just quiet, barely saying a word as caitlin got you ready for bed.

“come on then sweetheart, sleep time for you, say goodnight to mammy” your mumma held you and your bottle in her arms, crouching down so katie can kiss and hug you softly.

“milk?” you ask, words muffled by the dummy between your lips as you hold out your bottle towards her, tilting your head - knowing that that was one thing that always made you feel better, and all you wanted to do was make her happy.

and with that, katie couldn’t help but smile, the loss sitting on her shoulder feeling just a little bit lighter.

“i love you, my beautiful little monster”

#woso x reader #arsenal wfc x child reader #arsenal wfc x reader #katie mccabe x child reader #katie mccabe x reader #caitlin foord x child reader #caitlin foord x reader #woso x child reader #mcfoord x child reader #mcfoord x reader

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strawbeii · 2 years ago

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as a dubliner im absolutely praying that scotland, wales & northern ireland get their independance from that trainwreck of a country

also charles looked like a total clown in that outfit, i hope he dies in the most embarrassing way possible

#uk politics #king charles iii #british royal family #scotland #wales #northern ireland #uk #ireland #good luck lads #text

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hope-ur-ok · 9 months ago

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Surprise Song Master post ~ European Leg

5/9 Paris, FR: Paris + LOML

5/10 Paris, FR: Is It Over Now?/OOTW + My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys

5/11 Paris, FR: Hey Stephen + Maroon

5/12 Paris, FR: The Alchemy / Treacherous + Begin Again / Paris

5/17 Stockholm, SE: I Think He Knows / Gorgeous + Peter

5/18 Stockholm, SE: Guilty As Sin? + Say Don't Go / Welcome to New York / Clean

5/19 Stockholm, SE: Message In A Bottle / How You Get The Girl / New Romantics + How Did It End?

5/24 Lisbon, PT: Come Back... Be Here / The Way I Loved You / The Other Side of the Door + Fresh Out the Slammer / High Infidelity

5/25 Lisbon, PT: The Tortured Poets Department / Now That We Don't Talk + You're On Your Own Kid / Long Live

5/29 Madrid, ES: Sparks Fly / I Can Fix Him (No Really Can) + I Look In People's Windows / Snow On the Beach

5/30 Madrid, ES: Our Song / Jump Then Fall + King of My Heart

6/2 Lyon, FR: The Prophecy / Long Story Short + Fifteen / You're On Your Own Kid

6/3 Lyon, FR: Glitch / Everything Has Changed + Chloe Or Sam Or Sophia Or Marcus

6/7 Edinburgh, Scotland UK: Would've Could've Should've / I Know Places + 'Tis the Damn Season / Daylight

6/8 Edinburgh, Scotland UK: The Bolter / Getaway Car + All of the Girls You Loved Before / Crazier

6/9 Edinburgh, Scotland UK: It's Nice To Have A Friend / Dorothea + Haunted / Exile

6/13 Liverpool, England UK: I Can See You / Mine + Cornelia Street / Maroon

6/14 Liverpool, England UK: This Is What You Came For / Gold Rush + The Great War / You're Losing Me

6/15 Liverpool, England UK: Carolina / No Body No Crime + The Manuscript / Red

6/18 Cardiff, Wales UK: I Forgot That You Existed / This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things + I Hate It Here / The Lakes

6/21 London, England UK: Hits Different / Death By A Thousand Cuts + The Black Dog / Come Back Be Here / Maroon

6/22 London, England UK: thanK you aIMee / Mean + Castles Crumbling w/ Hayley Williams

6/23 London, England UK: Us w/ Gracie Abrams + Out Of The Woods / Is It Over Now? / Clean

6/28 Dublin, IE: State of Grace / You're On Your Own Kid + Sweet Nothing / Hoax

6/29 Dublin, IE: The Albatross / Dancing With Our Hands Tied + This Love / Ours

6/30 Dublin, IE: Clara Bow / The Lucky One + You’re On Your Own Kid

7/4 Amsterdam, NL: Guilty as Sin? / Untouchable + The Archer / Question...?

7/5 Amsterdam, NL: imgonnagetyouback / Dress + You Are In Love / Cowboy Like Me

7/6 Amsterdam, NL: Sweeter than fiction / Holy Ground + Mary's Song / So High School / Everything Has Changed

7/9 Zürich, CH: Right Where You Left Me / All You Had To Do Was Stay + Last Kiss / Sad Beautiful Tragic

7/10 Zürich, CH: Closure / A Perfectly Good Heart + Robin / Never Grow Up

7/13 Milan, IT: The 1 / Wonderland + I Almost Do / The Moment I Knew

7/14 Milan, IT: Mr. Perfectly Fine / Red + Getaway Car / Out Of The Woods

7/17 Gelsenkirchen, DE: Superstar / Invisible String + "Slut!" / False God

7/18 Gelsenkirchen, DE: Speak Now / Hey Stephen + This Is Me Trying / Labyrinth

7/19 Gelsenkirchen, DE: Paper Rings / Stay Stay Stay + It's Time To Go / Better Man

7/23 Hamburg, DE: Teardrops On My Guitar / The Last Time + We Were Happy / Happiness

7/24 Hamburg, DE: The Last Great American Dynasty / Run + Nothing New / Dear Reader

7/27 Munich, DE: Fresh Out The Slammer / You Are In Love + Ivy / Call It What You Want

7/28 Munich, DE: I Don't Wanna Live Forever / Imgonnagetyouback + LOML / Don't You

8/1 Warsaw, PL: Mirrorball / Clara Bow + Suburban Legends / New Years Day

8/2 Warsaw, PL: I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can) / I Can See You + Red / Maroon

8/3 Warsaw, PL: Today Was A Fairytale / I Think He Knows + The Black Dog / Exile

8/15 London, England UK: Everything Has Changed / End Game / Thinking Out Loud w/Ed Sheeran + King Of My Heart / The Alchemy

8/16 London, England UK: London Boy + Dear John / Sad Beautiful Tragic

8/17 London, England UK: I Did Something Bad + My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys / Coney Island

8/19 London, England UK: Long Live / Change + The Archer / You're On Your Own Kid

8/20 London, England UK: Death By A Thousand Cut / Getaway Car w/Jack Antonoff + So Long, London

#taylor swift #the eras tour #live audio

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opencommunion · 1 year ago

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In recognition of Bisan Owda's call for protests worldwide from Saturday Feb 17th to Tuesday Feb 20th, and the Global March for Rafah on the 17th: AUSTRALIA Feb 17 Canberra - 1 PM Gold Coast - 4:30 PM Sydney - 1:30 PM Feb 18 Melbourne - 12 PM CANADA Feb 17 Ottawa - 2 PM Toronto - 1 PM Vancouver - 2 PM Feb 18 Montreal - 2 PM EUROPE Feb 17 Amsterdam - 1:30 PM Dublin - 1 PM Glasgow - 1 PM Helsinki - 7:30 PM Istanbul - 3 PM London - 12 PM (UK natl march, see link for transport from Birmingham, Bristol, Coventry, Derby, Newcastle/Durham, North Wales, York/Scarborough. Youths, join the youth bloc!) Mannheim - 5 PM Torino - 2:30 PM

Feb 18 Prague - 1 PM

UNITED STATES Feb 17 Atlanta - 4 PM Denver - 2 PM Greensboro - 2:30 PM Indianapolis - 8 PM New York - 1 PM San Diego - 1 PM Seattle - 12 PM Waterville - 1:30 PM Feb 18 Boone - 3 PM Detroit - 1 PM Milwaukee - 2 PM New Orleans - 11:30 AM Saint Paul - 1 PM

Feb 19 Cambridge - 2 PM Chicago - 11 AM This is far from a complete list so check your local solidarity group's socials, and if you still can't find anything, organize something!

#palestine #action

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fatehbaz · 2 years ago

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Travel back [...] a few hundred years to before the industrial revolution, and the wildlife of Britain and Ireland looks very different indeed.

Take orcas: while there are now less than ten left in Britain’s only permanent (and non-breeding) resident population, around 250 years ago the English [...] naturalist John Wallis gave this extraordinary account of a mass stranding of orcas on the north Northumberland coast [...]. If this record is reliable, then more orcas were stranded on this beach south of the Farne Islands on one day in 1734 than are probably ever present in British and Irish waters today. [...]

Other careful naturalists from this period observed orcas around the coasts of Cornwall, Norfolk and Suffolk. I have spent the last five years tracking down more than 10,000 records of wildlife recorded between 1529 and 1772 by naturalists, travellers, historians and antiquarians throughout Britain and Ireland, in order to reevaluate the prevalence and habits of more than 150 species [...].

In the early modern period, wolves, beavers and probably some lynxes still survived in regions of Scotland and Ireland. By this point, wolves in particular seem to have become re-imagined as monsters [...].

Elsewhere in Scotland, the now globally extinct great auk could still be found on islands in the Outer Hebrides. Looking a bit like a penguin but most closely related to the razorbill, the great auk’s vulnerability is highlighted by writer Martin Martin while mapping St Kilda in 1697 [...].

[A]nd pine martens and “Scottish” wildcats were also found in England and Wales. Fishers caught burbot and sturgeon in both rivers and at sea, [...] as well as now-scarce fishes such as the angelshark, halibut and common skate. Threatened molluscs like the freshwater pearl mussel and oyster were also far more widespread. [...]

Predators such as wolves that interfered with human happiness were ruthlessly hunted. Authors such as Robert Sibbald, in his natural history of Scotland (1684), are aware and indeed pleased that several species of wolf have gone extinct:

There must be a divine kindness directed towards our homeland, because most of our animals have a use for human life. We also lack those wild and savage ones of other regions. Wolves were common once upon a time, and even bears are spoken of among the Scottish, but time extinguished the genera and they are extirpated from the island.

The wolf was of no use for food and medicine and did no service for humans, so its extinction could be celebrated as an achievement towards the creation of a more civilised world. Around 30 natural history sources written between the 16th and 18th centuries remark on the absence of the wolf from England, Wales and much of Scotland. [...]

In Pococke’s 1760 Tour of Scotland, he describes being told about a wild species of cat – which seems, incredibly, to be a lynx – still living in the old county of Kirkcudbrightshire in the south-west of Scotland. Much of Pococke’s description of this cat is tied up with its persecution, apparently including an extra cost that the fox-hunter charges for killing lynxes:

They have also a wild cat three times as big as the common cat. [...] It is said they will attack a man who would attempt to take their young one [...]. The country pays about £20 a year to a person who is obliged to come and destroy the foxes when they send to him. [...]

The capercaillie is another example of a species whose decline was correctly recognised by early modern writers. Today, this large turkey-like bird [...] is found only rarely in the north of Scotland, but 250–500 years ago it was recorded in the west of Ireland as well as a swathe of Scotland north of the central belt. [...] Charles Smith, the prolific Dublin-based author who had theorised about the decline of herring on the coast of County Down, also recorded the capercaillie in County Cork in the south of Ireland, but noted: This bird is not found in England and now rarely in Ireland, since our woods have been destroyed. [...] Despite being protected by law in Scotland from 1621 and in Ireland 90 years later, the capercaillie went extinct in both countries in the 18th century [...].

---

Images, captions, and all text above by: Lee Raye. “Wildlife wonders of Britain and Ireland before the industrial revolution – my research reveals all the biodiversity we’ve lost.” The Conversation. 17 July 2023. [Map by Lee Raye. Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

#paleo #ecologies #multispecies #tidalectics #geographic imaginaries #extinction #interspecies #ecoliving

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gingersnaptaff · 16 days ago

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Y Mab Darogan 1

(Stained glass window depicting Cadwaladr and his flag in Llandaff Cathedral, Charles Powell, 1919)

(King Arthur (top left), St Tewdrig, and St Cadwaladr, stained glass window in Llandaff Cathedral. Situated in the North Aisle, Charles Powell, 1919)

'The awen predicts they will make haste;

We shall have treasures, possessions, and peace

And broader leadership and lively leaders;

And after war, dwellings in every area;

Men fierce in fight-clamour, furious warriors,

Swift in attack, slow to leave defence-

Fighters that scatter foreigners as far as Caer Wair'

- the opening first lines of Armes Prydain

Something a bit different today but I thought I'd yell about ‘Y Mab Darogan’ or The Prophesied Son, who was seen as a messianic figure in Welsh literature and was appellated to four* (!) different lads (including King Arthur). This will be a long one so please have a snack and a drink at hand. You're gonna need ‘em.

Now, Y Mab Darogan as a concept first crops up in the 10th Century poem ‘Armes Prydain’ (The Prophecy of Britain) from the Book of Taliesin. Andrew Breeze postulated that the poem was written in about ‘940 AD.’ Taliesin’s status as ‘a seer’ write Gwyneth Lewis and Rowan Williams in their introduction to The Book of Taliesin: Poems of Warfare and Praise in an Enchanted Britain means that ‘it is not at all surprising’ to find a collection of Prophetic poems alongside the others within Llyfr Taliesin. ‘Its themes,’ Lewis and Williams further write, ‘are recycled in several later poems looking forward to a reunification of the British - usually Under the leadership of Gwynedd - and the advent of a heroic deliverer.’

It's a call for all Celtic nations (Welsh, Scots, Irish, Cornish, Britons, Manx) to come to arms against the Anglo-Saxon invaders - as can be seen in the lines 'long-haired champions, masters of war/ Will come from Ireland to drive out the Saxons.', 'Both loyal men will come from Alt Clud, / A resplendent army to drive them from Britain' 'A powerful host will come from Llydaw (Brittany),' 'Let the Cymry rise up, a war-like company' and 'On all sides shame will be the Saxons destiny' and, although it doesn't feature King Arthur proper it's writing kinda alludes to his death.

To zoom through some background, Hywel Dda (yes, he of Law fame) was seen as very much toeing the line to the Angles - who y'know were (and kinda still are) Wales’ traditional enemies. Now, for ol’ Hywel, this had meant that when Edward the Elder ruled over Wessex had had to cleave to him to ensure that Wales didn't get battered within an inch of its life as had all other Celtic nations in Britain (so the Gaels, the Picts, etc, etc). However, once he was out of the picture and his son, Athelstan, had taken over, an alliance of the kingdoms of the Strathclyde*, Dublin, and Scotland had all risen against him. In a break from tradition - y'know, the whole Men of the North business where it was acknowledged and expected that the Welsh would aid their compatriots - Hywel vehemently denied the three kingdoms’ aid leading to their defeat at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937.

Obviously, this pissed A LOT of Welsh lads off.

I mean, yeah, it'd piss me off too. if I expected a battle only to find out we weren't getting one cuz some lawmaker lad had to keep his neighbours happy I'd be LIVID. So this poem was written! No word if Hywel read it, but I imagine his Goodreads review would've been a firm one star.

In it, it refers to ‘Thus they'll avenge Garmon's* friends with force/ Four hundred and forty years on' and, according to the Annales Cambriae (my absolute beloved) in 537AD there was: ‘The Strife of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut perished; and there was plague in Britain and Ireland.’ which means ‘404 years’ after that is 941. Therefore, the poem is very much looking forward to the annihilation of the Saxons in 941 which kinda happened because Edmund had to accept a humiliating treaty at Leicester in 941, giving the north-east of England to the Viking leader Olaf Guthfrithson.

Also, the poem invokes two famous leaders - Conan of Brittany, and Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon of Gwynedd - in the line: 'Cynan and Cadwaladr, warlords in the armies' Cadwaladr is seen as hot shit - basically on par with Arthur as a ‘Great Deliver’ figure for the Welsh - and, somehow, the Welsh Dragon has become known as Cadwaladr's flag. Cadwaladr is also important because Henry VII (yeah, HIM) claimed descent from him. The hoped-for leader is seen as returning from exile - just as Cadwaladr is said to have done and Henry VII would later do once he'd hot-footed it to France to get aid - or arriving from over the sea - as Owain Lawgoch would later unsuccessfully attempt to do in the 1300’s - and ‘on their return they … overthrow corrupt or alien rulers within Wales, and rally other Welsh kingdoms to resistance and ultimate victory over the English.’

Now, as I previously alluded to, King Arthur is pretty much absent from the early corpus which makes up the ‘Mab Darogan’ legend. The ‘fierce resentment’ of the Armes Prydain makes no mention of him, and, therefore, we must look elsewhere.

We find it in the Gwyddelian composed Historia Brittonum. He's specifically indicated as fighting the Saxons (ons of the main tenets of the job, I think we'll all agree) and doing… okay. T. Charles Edwards states, ‘The victories of a Gwrthefyr, or an Arthur, might be glorious but they had no future,’ and, I think, it is this utter glory and utter ineffectualness that highlights the two main tenets of what makes you mab darogan, well, y mab darogan.

Arthur ‘echoes the achievements of Gwrthefyr’ in his chapter and so brings with it another key building block of y mab darogan. He is an echo of what has coms before and what will - hopefully, futilely - come again. A warrior will rise and lead through Britons - the Welsh, the natives of the land - to a brief taste of freedom before slipping away in a haze.

Furthermore, T. Charles Edwards states, ‘Perhaps the main concern of the author of Historia Brittonum is to encourage the Britons to come to terms with defeat of loss and territory.’ Arthur, like Macsen Wledig before him, is a rallying point for the Welsh. A flashpoint. Arthur is the ‘British Dux’ or warlord, the rebellious leader at will bring the Saxons to heel.

The legend of him being Y Mab Darogan amongst the Welsh is thought to have taken widespread hold after this. He's seen as a rallying cry for various rebellions and poets made use of his stature to advance various other disaffected Welshmen's causes. The Anglo-Norman text ‘The Description of England’ states that ‘openly they [the Welsh] go about saying,... / that in the end, they will have it all; / by means of Arthur, they will have it back... / They will call it Britain again’ So this would firmly put him in the bracket of The Welsh Lord and Saviour, kiss fuckin kiss. Furthermore, Daniel Helbert in his essay, ‘The Prophetic Hope in Twelfth Century Britain,’ states ‘at the close of the twelfth-century, the idea that King Arthur would return from the grave and lead his people to victory was not a new one,’ for the power and popularity of this legend both within Britain and on the continent as a whole (i.e. in Brittany where Arthur - and, later, Owain Lawgoch - is also seen as a somewhat Messianic figure in his own right) had an ‘allure’ to it. This suggests that, to me, the ‘Breton/Briton Hope’ was always a powerful sticking point in people's heads. Arthur had already left an indelible mark on culture, be it Welsh, Anglo-Norman, or otherwise, and people would use it in whatever ways suited them.

But I also must caution against believing this outright. *sigh* Arthur is Welsh*, yes. The building blocks of his myth are Welsh. I do not dispute that. However, O.J. Padel says that no contemporary Welsh source of a prophecy concerning Arthur's return to Britain has been found, and Charles T. Edwards further states: ‘Although the use of a Welsh battle-poem has been suspected, perhaps rightly no such source is likely … And if there was such a poem celebrating Arthur's battles, its date remains entirely uncertain.’ While there exists plenty of poetry on Arthur's ‘descendants’ as it were, Owain Lawgoch and Owain Glyndŵr, there is nothing particularly concrete for Artie and, furthermore, we must both rely on non-Welsh texts AND Henry VII's propaganda during the Wars of the Roses when he was challenging the Plantagenets for the English throne.

(Personally, Arthur just likes to be a tricksy bastard and I wish he'd CEASE AND DESIST. Bro, I went to ur fuckin Grotto in Corwen* when I was a kid. You OWE me.)

Conversely, Arthur has been used to legitimise the English’s rule over the native Britons. Edward I, after his conquest of Wales, used ‘Round Tables’ to celebrate and justify his conquest of Wales - one of many Big Kicks in the Teeth for us, ngl, other than letting the Prince of Wales be a baby because he only babbled*, and having the true last Princess of Wales, Gwenllian, be shut up in a monastery when she was a baby - and the consequent ‘reunification’ of Arthurian Britain. The Galfridian texts also were even used to justify Edward's claim over the Scottish throne - after the House of Dunkeld came to an untimely end with Margaret, the Maid of Norway's, death at sea when she was only 7 - as Arthur conquered Scotland. Geoffrey of Monmouth, I'm hitting your ghost over the head with a boot. One with iron toe caps. And smeared in dung. Arthur's use as a colonial tool by both the Normans’ and the Plantagenet dynasty cannot be overstated. To do so is a great disservice that doesn't do anybody - least of all the Celtic countries who had their great mythological king beaten into this oppressive tool to try and bring them to heel - any favours.

Aled Llion Jones writes in Darogan: Prophecy, Lament, and Absent Heroes in Medieval Literature that the imagined victory of y mab darogan represents a ‘return to a united, unified legendary state of organicism’ which was once conjured in a long-lost son called ‘Unbennaeth Prydain or ‘The Sovereignty of Britain. Furthermore, Brud and Brut (that's Prophecy and History for all you non-Welsh speakers out there) were near-homonyms in medieval Welsh and the Brut y Brenhinedd - ‘Chronicles of the King's,’ which are an adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae - was framed as being the story of how British lordship over Ynys Prydain had been gained, flourished, and lost to the Saxons. Prophecy, therefore, provided how it would ultimately be won back by those who would come after Arthur.

But, I mean, Wales would have to wait to find out who their next Mab Darogan would be. Next week: Owain Lawgoch's Hot Shit Tour of France: How he Became Y Mab Darogan, Fucked About in Guernsey and Got Assassinated When He Was Cutting His Hair.

Some notes!

*Garmon is St. Garmon the Gaulish Bishop who visited Britain in the first half of the fifth century

*You could make the case that Owain Gwynedd could be seen as Y Mab Darogan considering his various run-ins with the Normans. However, you could say that about The Lord Rhys also and, if we’re getting into the meat of it, neither of those two lads are even seen as having faulty alarm clocks. Or chillaxing beneath a mountain.

*Strathclyde wasn't incorporated into Scotland until the 11th Century when it was annexed into the Kingdom of Alba. It would still be known as Ystrad Clud at this time.)

*Technically, Brythonic which is the forerunner to the Britons but, like, the language of the texts he is primarily featured in is Old Welsh. I know he's seen as an English figure but that's wrapped up on years and years of colonialism.

*That baby was later known as King Edward II whose reign was less than impressive, but extremely gay. Nice to see him committing to the Remarkable cosplay ngl. (Idk if he ever did that. I just think it's fun to imagine he did. Bet he was Lance.)

*The Grotto was so fuckin fun. If I can dredge up a photo of the Red and White Dragon fighting then I'll fuckin slap it up because ooooh, baby, it was SO COOL. Also, they had an animatronic Arthur asleep under a mountain. ANYWAY.

*Myrddin/Merlin was also associated with prophecy in the early Welsh texts particularly those about the mab darogan.

Background Reading and Sources:

Land of My Father's by Gwynfor Evans

The History of Wales by J. Graham Jones

Wales: England's Colony? by Martin Johnes (A Banger.)

The Book of Taliesin by Gwyneth Lewis and Rowan Williams

The Arthur of the Welsh by Rachel Bromwich (T. Charles Edwards is included in it. Strongly recommend it.)

The Earliest Welsh Poems by Joseph Clancy

Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature by O. J Padel

The Welsh Triads by Rachel Bromwich

Lastly a quick aside: this is my theory but it is entirely possible that Arthur disinterring Bendigeidfran's head in Branch 2 of the Mabinogi could be seen as him taking up the 'heroic deliverer' role from an earlier Celtic hero. Certainly, while his head remained buried at Gwynfryn (White Hill, speculated to be Tower Hill in London) 'no oppression would ever come from across the sea to this island while that head was in its hiding place.' Bendigeidfran, like Arthur, was seen as the High King of Britain, and there is certainly an echo of Arthur about him. Arthur, in a fit of hubris, disclosed the head of Bendigeidfran from its resting place because 'it did not seem right to him that this Island should be defended by the strength of anyone, but his own.' And this 'was known as one of the Three Unfortunate disclosures,' so the Mabinogion says.

I'm not an academic but it is perhaps something to think about.

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