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

Western Folklore, Fall 1998 by Blyn-Ladrew, Roslyn

3 The word "eisteddfod" consists of two elements, "eistedd" (to sit, sitting) and "bod" (to be, being), and is essentially a "sitting-in" of bards.

4 Unlike Gaelic Ireland and Scotland, Wales lost the continuous link to its medieval narrative tradition. Nineteenth-century Welsh storytellers did not recite tales from The Mabinogi collection that had been translated by Charlotte Guest between 1836-49, but localized supernatural legends often contained elements of magic (Gwyndaf Jones 1970:14, 23). But unlike Ireland under the impact of Yeats, no single literary figure of the time took Welsh folklore into international acclaim. Instead, the newly rediscovered "ancient bardic" identity was visible more through events (eisteddfodau), poetry, costume, and music than through narrative. The revival focused largely on gowns, crowns, thrones, and ceremonies; the use of the Welsh language was emphasized, with only speakers of the language privy to the ritual.

In his illustrated poem Jerusalem, Blake freely mixes imagery of Celtic druids and Stonehenge as if they were contemporaneous (Piggott 1968:226). Today, Stonehenge (Period 1) is dated to about 3000 B.C., and the language and social and religious customs of its builders remain virtually unknown but are generally agreed to predate Celtic culture (Atkinson 1985:20, 29). The beginning of Celtic society is generally dated to about 900-600 B.C., with the Hallstatt culture in central Europe; Celtic presence in Britain is later, the earliest evidence dating to about 500 B.C. (Elu&e 1993:13; Mac Cana 1991:6-7).

6 Meyrick and Smith's print first appeared in their 1815 book, The Costumes of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands, and is reproduced in Piggott (1968: plate 25).

7 While most ethnographic writing today on the Gipsies, particularly from continental Europe, refers to the group as "Romani," the admittedly controversial

use of "Gipsy" is maintained here as it predominates in the British accounts which inform this article. The term "Romani" is based on the Gipsy word for "man," and suggests a more accurate demographic link with the population's homeland, generally agreed to be in north India, and a more accurate link with the Sanskrit language, to which Romani is closely connected. The spelling "Gipsy" instead of "gypsy" is sometimes used today partially to minimize the mistaken idea that the group originated in Egypt, an idea that the Gipsies have occasionally used to their advantage, giving themselves titles such as "the Dukes of Upper and Lower Egypt." The death register for Abram Wood described him as "a traveling Egyptian" Jarman and Jarman 1991:46).

8 The name of the organization was apparently not clear to E.E. Roberts in the actual manuscript, which reads "Ex-member of the Sae. [sic] Harmonic Musical, Antiquarian & other Society." Although questioned by E.E. Roberts (1981:47), the abbreviation "Sae." has been confirmed by the National Library of Wales.

9 Lady Llanover painted watercolors of the "costumes", awarded prizes to others for making them, and in 1834 won a prize at the Gwent and Dyfed Royal Eisteddfod for her essay, The Advantages resulting from the Preservation of the Welsh Language and National Costumes of Wales. Unfortunately, as Payne points out (1964:49), her research shows little similarity to other sources on costume of the time, such as I J. Lewelyn Prichard's 1828 novel, The Adventures of Twm Sh&n Catti, suggesting that neither of these sources was very accurate since they do not agree.