Ancient bards, Welsh gipsies, and Celtic folklore in the cauldron of regeneration

Western Folklore, Fall 1998 by Blyn-Ladrew, Roslyn

Ancient Bards, Welsh Gipsies, and Celtic Folklore in the Cauldron of Regeneration.1

On August 22, 1861 the antiquarian Edward Woolley visited Aberystwyth, attended a Welsh harp concert, and shortly afterwards wrote a glowing account of this event, describing it as "the only legitimate performance we now have of the style in which the ancient bards must have played..." (quoted in E.E. Roberts 1981:46).2 An examination of the time period in which Woolley wrote sheds light on what he might have meant by "ancient bards." An understanding of the context shows how he could so easily but mistakenly juxtapose two widely separated periods (the time of the "ancient bards" and his own Victorian Britain of the 1860s) and reveals that the performers, far from embodying links to the ancient bardic past through heredity or reconstructing ancient styles through careful research, were relative newcomers to the tradition, and in fact, early participants in the folklore revival.

By 1861, the revival of the eisteddfod, originally a convention of bards, was well underway in Wales (Morgan 1983).3 The "Celtic Twilight" would soon descend, created by antiquarian, aesthetic, nationalistic and anti-industrial interests (cf. Yeats 1902). "Celtic" culture would be rediscovered and all the Celtic regions would see a limited but enthusiastic revival of music, dance, language, and costume, and the development of new literary genres for the Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Breton and Cornish languages. While these Celtic-speaking peoples had been colonized or subjugated by their dominant neighbor (England or France) and were the subject of much social critique and caricature, aspects of their culture did appeal, at least to a select few, and generated a sophisticated literary movement. Although the Irish may have been parodied by the Victorians as apes (Curtis 1971), Irish folklore provided inspiration that eventually led to a Nobel Prize for one of its refashioners, William Butler Yeats (18651939). Wales on the other hand had long been maligned, being described in such terms as a "Country in the World's back-side, where every Man is born a Gentleman, and a Genealogist" (Sir John Vanbrugh, in Aesop, ca. 1697, quoted in Morgan 1983: 45). Following several centuries of similar English parody and satire, Welsh traditional culture was now threatened by more pragmatic issues such as industrialization, religious condemnation, assimilation to English culture, and language loss, although revivalists secured a safe niche for a re-created Welsh culture in the eisteddfod.4

The 1789 eisteddfod is generally considered the first of the new eisteddfodau, although lesser events, known as "almanack" eisteddfodau, had been held in taverns for about a century prior to the revival. The earliest documentation is from 1176, far later than the period of pre-Roman Celtic antiquity evoked by the neo-druidic artists and writers such as Edward Williams ("Iolo Morgannwg," 1747-1826), William Blake (17571827).5 and S. R. Meyrick and C.H. Smith, whose 1815 illustration of "An Archdruid in His judicial Habit" provided the basis for revival bardic costume and accessories though it actually combined Celtic (Iron Age) and pre-Celtic (Bronze Age) imagery in an anachronistic collage (Piggott 1968: 226).6 For his part, Williams contributed to the romantic illusion through publications such as the seemingly historic Myvyrian Archaiology [sic], which appeared between 1801 and 1807 and was later shown to contain much work of Williams's own composition. In 1819 Williams enlarged the eisteddfod format by adding the ceremony of the Gorsedd [Chairing] of the Bards of the Island of Britain.

At the same time as Celtic heritage was regaining cultural status, albeit in a remodeled and sometimes newly created format, Gipsies in Britain were the subject of scathing social critique. While a small group of mid-century idealists glamorized Gipsy life, the majority opinion of it was negative, as shown by extensive legal restrictions and by reform movements intent on homogenizing and cleaning up Gipsy society (Crabb 1832). Among those who did value Gipsy culture were Francis Hindes Groome (18511902) and George Borrow (1803-81). Groome became interested in Gipsies as a youth, and by age 20 was attending fairs and races to meet Gipsies and collect their folklore and language. His efforts led to the creation of the Gypsy Lore Society in 1888. Groome's In Gipsy Tents (1880) was an early example of the first-hand ethnographic escape memoir, a genre which continues to this day. Borrow also popularized the Gipsy image through his own escapist literature, such as Lavengro (1851), Romany Rye (1857), and Wild Wales (1862).

But Groome and Borrow represented an intellectual minority willing to appreciate alternative lifestyles. Most considered Gipsies an awkward social burden that they both feared and maligned. This view was no milder in areas where the Irish or Welsh were themselves struggling against prejudice and economic disadvantage. In this negative context, it is surprising to note that the musicians to whom Woolley referred were half Gipsy. They belonged to a family which had been in Wales for only about 110 years and had only been playing the harp since about 1770.