#Welsh Heritage

[theterrornaut]

Pretty random post, but recently I visited the South Wales Miners Museum after a relative booked a tour for us. It was, to say the least, extremely interesting and even enlightening. Welsh heritage is something that I’ve grown to love dearly alongside this overall beautiful country. For the colliery side, It was never something I would’ve thought I’d ever be interested in, especially to the point I currently am.

I can’t say it ‘broke my heart’ or anything somber when I heard that the experience wasn’t backed by funding from the council or Welsh Government (such as Big Pit), but it did frustrate me somewhat, knowing how intimate this tour was - even given by those who’re ex-coal miners. A large part of the experience was sharing the understanding of community that coal miners and local townsfolk had with one another, with so much more detail than I could describe (You’d have to see it for yourself). So, as much frustration that I have with the idea of no financial support from the Museum of Wales or what have you, I have so much more respect for how humble it truly is, and thats not to say it’s fuelled by pity. It is GENUINELY so impressive, so immersive and so educational.

I know what I’m saying probably won’t have much of an effect, if any at all. But I just wanted to share. Cause goodness gracious. It’s truly an amazing place.

[art-portraits]

Self-Portrait

Artist: David Jones (British, 1895-1974)

Date: 1928

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, Australia

Biography

Walter David Jones CH (1 November 1895 – 28 October 1974) was a British painter and modernist poet. As a painter he worked mainly in watercolour on portraits and animal, landscape, legendary and religious subjects. He was also a wood-engraver and inscription painter. In 1965, Kenneth Clark took him to be the best living British painter, while both T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden put his poetry among the best written in their century. Jones's work gains form from his Christian faith and Welsh heritage.

[abercynonhistoryblog]

The Abertaf Feeder Bridge

The Abertaf Feeder Bridge spanned the Taff for 167 years. Sadly, it was destroyed in Strom Bert, months before it was due to repoen.

One of the main problems faced by the operators of the Glamorgan Canal was how to keep it topped up with water. If there wasn’t enough water in the canal, it couldn’t operate. Maintaining water levels in the Abercynon 16 set of locks proved particularly problematic. To solve this issue a number of canal feeders were constructed. Opened in 1857 the Abertaf Feeder carried water from a weir at…

[delyth-thomas-art]

Reminder, this is one of the reasons this petition is so important. The very buildings are at risk of these cuts. Including opera, libraries, and other arts and history sectors!

Please help the National Museum Of Wales

Please sign the petition!!!!

You don't need to be living in Wales or the uk to sign.

[catfishofoldin99colours]

personally I think curly's real name is actually Cuthbert and he Hates it so much and curly is his attempt to seem somewhat cooler and less of a bullying target (Jimmy knows his real name and on Pain Of Death he is never allowed to speak it ever)

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

your posts about English folk culture being treated as esoteric within England reminded me of a conversation I had with my dad relatively recently. I was complaining about how much I hated doing scottish country dancing in P.E every year in school and he, having grown up in London, mentioned that he never did any kind of folk dancing in school and it really surprised me.

Having an Irish family and growing up in Scotland I just assumed that folk culture would be a big part of national identity in England because it def is in Ireland and scotland. I mean I grew up in the city and I went to a Catholic school where a lot of pupils didn't come from Scottish backgrounds so I'm sure my experience would be different from somebody who grew up in a smaller town or a rural area, but my school still dragged out the girls who could sword dance every year on burns day y'know

Also now I'm wracking my brain trying to remember all the English folk songs I know and realising that it's comparatively few next to the hoard of Scottish, Irish and American folk songs I've accrued over the past 2 decades. That's definitely partially just due to being connected to the cultures those songs come from and that American folk songs are generally quite a bit younger than the scottish & Irish ones, but it's still not something I've ever really thought about

yeah absolutely. it's something england -- and probably urban england and london especially -- has really lost touch with. a lot of my friends and colleagues are irish, and when the topic of things like irish dance comes up, it's always like "oh yeah i did a bit of that as a kid, everyone did" or "yeah i learned the whistle, obviously, but i stopped when i was eight" -- but there'd be no obviously about that here (even when people learn the recorder at school, it's not often trad tunes they're learning to play!)

i don't know if this is to do with the proportion of the population that's urban vs rural in england compared to ireland or scotland (not sure where wales is at with this, they have a strong song tradition but i don't know much about the welsh equiv of trad dance music nor tbh enough about the song tradition to say anything meaningful on the topic), or if it's a "survival of trad culture to spite oppressive dominant cultures" thing so england lost it due to lack of need to defend it, or if it's predominantly a class issue (but that wouldn't wholly explain schools/the national curriculum, particularly at primary level)... i think there's a lot of factors at work

but it's something i do notice because i spend time in those irish-dominated spaces where the attitude towards trad music and dance is so different. but then those are also often irish language communities, so they're specifically irish communities that are interested in their cultural heritage, and maybe that's not representative of the whole country. still, it feels like even people who aren't interested and haven't carried that interest through to adulthood were exposed to it in childhood in a way that many english people weren't because our equivalent traditions have been relegated to this very niche, marginalised (and potentially very rural) status

[bookofmac]

okay okay okay, thinking thoughts

So I find the concept of Names really interesting in Camlann, reading into the extracanonical stuff put on the tumblr is giving me food for theory crafting. The Catacylsm seems to be some kind of return of magic to the world (possibly heralded by the return of The King of the Britons in their hour of need?) and thus people with significant Names have access to something because of it. they fall into the stories of their namesakes; Perry, Gwaine, and Kay are Knights, Morgan is Morgana Le Fay, and we now have a Gwen in Shújūn.

Based on Kay's dicussion with Perry if more people can fill in the roles of their stories to more 'to plan' the stories will go, Of course this is not good news if you know the general end point of Arthurian legend (Betrayal, muderer, war, most everyone dead, the 'Glory' of camelot gone). It's inherently kind of a doomsday cult if you stay in those stories, you know where parts of this are going (i'll get back to this)

it also seems like there may be some, for lack of a better term, kin drama going on. There are 900 members of the court and Kay mentions that Peredur is a really uncommon name outside of Wales, meaning there are certain knights who are more common, i assume Lancelot's, Kay's, maybe a few Talisin's, a bunch of Gareth's, and like 50 Elaines like in the legends lol

We also dont have the context for how Names work full yet and neither do our characters. I think theres a lot of answers to be had with Shújūn/Gwen with how it works, how you know other than the buzzing in you're head and desire go through the motions and Follow the Story

Now, where does Dai fit in all this?

Dai doesn't have a Name, and I think theres going to be a point where he changes his name in a major way, but not to a Name, but a Bardic name. In welsh poetic and story telling tradtions Welsh poets, THE OG Bards, will take on pseudonyms tell their stories. This practice stems from the medievil era, but goes forth to today, and many modern Welsh and welsh heritage poets have connections to this tradition (Dylan Thomas' middle name was his great uncles bardic name, Sarah Williams published her work under the name Sadie), I believe it's also a requirement to have one if you intend to perform in the major Eisteddfod, (I am Australian so my experiance of Eisteddfods here is very different so if i'm wrong on that let me know)

Why would he do this? I think Dai is going to, at least try, to write him and his friends a way out.

Much ink is spilt over how Arthurian legend doesnt have an 'orginal text', and as such there are lots of stories that are inherently contradictory; Bedwyr is the best knight, but so are Gwaine, Lancelot, and Galahad. Mordred is some random king until his Arthur's son. Arthur has a sister, no he has two, actually he has three and one of them is an Elaine. This could be used to explain any doubles (are you my Gwaine), as well as why we see a few different spelling varients which are, the very welsh Peredur as opposed to Percival or Parzifal, the anglisised and more boarish Kay as opposed to Cei or Caius (this last one might just to keep Dai and Kay distinct tho). These variations are no more or less 'canon' than any other telling of the story, and so often the writer of a given telling of Arthurian legend is going to have their own bias. But things dont HAVE to end the way they always do, and sometime you need to have someone outside the story you're caught in to tell you a new one.

You are not locked into that ever looming cloud of Thomas Mallory and Le Morte d'Arthur.

Other evidence I have for this is that Dai sings at the begining of each episode, and sings in welsh at that. He also is, to a point our narrator, existing both in and out of the current narative. Also his name is an a lyric of Sosban Fach (a song i would be surprised if it wasn't in the show at some point) 'Dai bach y sowldiwr' which is also not from the text the song was based on. Tangential yes, but i think it's worth thinking about.

I think there is also something to be said about choice in what your name is and how it feeds into the overall theme of identiy, and how that plays into other themes at play in the story, like Transness, Imperialism, and Predestination

TL:DR; While he doesnt have a Name, Dai's gonna give himself an epic bard name and save them all by writing a killer hook to get them out of the story

[incorrectwolfstar]

“welsh remus” okay fine yes but have you also considered remus with romani ancestors

[thesquireinvictus]

Considering the English are genetically half Welsh anyway, it seems somewhat absurd to me that (in this day and age) Welsh isn't offered as a major second language option in most British schools.

[the-insouciant-scientist]

I just find it kind of hilarious that the Semi-Automated Mary Lloyd (Mari Lwyd) is found at the Fruits of the Zee and not. Christmas?? Anyways here's Harper having a rollicking good time running around. They're probably rap battling people for honey and black wings absinthe instead of the usual fare though lmao.

Conversation on the right reads:

Harper: Tis the season for Mari Lwyd!

Offscreen person: Don't you mean Mary Lloyd? (And isn't that a summer thing?)

Harper: Yeah Mari Lwyd that's what I said :-) (Well, Yes and No. Hope that helps!)

[elaho]

A preview of the Cultural Flower Dance mod(s) I’m working on!

Abigail - Spanish/Spain (Murcia Region) Penny - Irish (Shinrone gown and Leine chemise)

[yowulf]

Bug the Corgi collection is dropping! Bug is a character I created and wanted to make merch of.. ahh!

Collection dropping on Octobeer 13th at 1:00PM EST! Below are more photos and an animation of but wiggle pin!

This collection will include...

-Butt wiggly enamel pin

-Vinyl Peeker sticker

-Tufted Rug

I hope you all look forward to it!

[idontknowreallywhy]

Virgil and Brains are living their best lives at the railway museum

[eroticcannibal]

"Wales isn't a country because the CIA said so" can Americans PLEASE shut the fuck up about how the UK works thanks

[vigilskeep]

where would fantasy character creators be without arthurian alternate name spellings

[aresstan]

As I’ve been on my journey to learn about Welsh culture and connect with my heritage, I cannot stand it when people call the autumn equinox Mabon. Nothing wrong with celebrating it, I love celebrating it because autumn is my favorite season. It makes zero sense to give it the name of a Welsh deity completely stripped from his original context within Welsh culture, slap it on a pagan-y holiday, treat everything like Celtic neopagan soup, and call it a day.

I’m not on some mission to get the name changed or jump down everyone’s throat’s who use it, cause that’s not my place and I feel weird doing that, but I do feel like it would make more sense to use other titles for celebrating the autumnal equinox. It just bugs me a lot when other neopagans strip all historical and cultural contexts out of their practice and belief systems, with no intent on learning about where their stuff actually comes from. I mean if someone was gonna honor Mabon on that day I see no issue with it whatsoever. it just makes *zero* sense to me when others put a Welsh name on a holiday because it sounds cool and then not do anything to recognize the culture behind that name. I’m wary of cherry picking names, words, and concepts from other cultures without doing the proper research and taking care to represent things accurately.