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Ancient bards, Welsh gipsies, and Celtic folklore in the cauldron of regeneration
Western Folklore, Fall 1998 by Blyn-Ladrew, Roslyn
Woolley was specifically describing the harpists John Roberts (1816-94) and his daughter Mary Ann (1840-ca. 1870). They were just two members of an extended family, the descendants of the English Gipsy fiddler Abram Wood (ca. 1699-1799), which virtually monopolized the revival of traditional Welsh music at a time when the puritanical atmosphere in Wales had condemned secular entertainment as sinful and when many folk traditions were discontinued. The history and musical accomplishments of the Wood and Roberts families have been well documented in recent publications in both English and Welsh, primarily by descendants of the original families (Jarman and Jarman 1979, 1991; E.E. Roberts 1978, 1981). Their importance is indicated by inclusion in reference works such as The Dictionary of Welsh Biography (Jones 1959) and The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales (Stephens 1986a). However, none of these accounts places the phenomenon of Gipsy preservation of non-Gipsy folklore in the broader context of the cycles of inventing and reinventing traditions (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983). The contribution of the Wood and Roberts families to Welsh music could be described in terms of a "reinvented" (or "adapted") tradition as much as an "invented" one, as the cultural interests of resident groups and newcomers continually interact and feed upon each other.
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THE ROLE OF THE GiPSIES IN WELSH CULTURE
It is somewhat surprising that Celtic cultural traditions would be maintained by a group which was not only non-Celtic, but which sojourned first in England and whose social status was low in both Wales and England. Gipsies are well known to have traditionally held a pariah status in whatever country they were found, and Hancock (1988) indicates that the problem is far from solved.7 The Gipsies' actual and perceived disregard for the rules of settled society make them suspect and, in fact, convenient scapegoats for the ills of society at large. And yet in Wales, John Roberts, half Gipsy and half Welsh, achieved remarkable success as a musician, not simply in terms of his sheer skill but as a fink to Wales's newly rediscovered, "ancient bardic" past.
There is no evidence that the Gipsies' first migrations to Britain took them directly to Wales. Rather, they established themselves as English Gipsies (Anglo-Romani) and eventually furthered their territory to include Wales by about 1579. Following closely in time are literary references, such as the description of tax-collecting burgesses as "siapsach a gweflau sipswn" (scabs with Gipsy lips) in a poem from about 1590 by Morris Kyffin (ca. 1555-98) of Oswestry. An early reference describing Welsh-speaking Gipsies in St. Asaph, northeast Wales is in a coarse poem allegedly by Si6n Tudur (1530-1602); a rhyme from about the same time by Hityn Grydd (fl. 1567-1606) mentions newly arrived Gipsies in Wrexham, also in northeast Wales (Jarman and Jarman 1991:33-34).
During Tudor, Stuart and Cromwellian times Gipsies were persecuted all over Britain; there is little other account of Gipsies specifically in Wales, literary or historical. One contemporary work, Ellis Wynne's Gweledigaethau y Bardd Cwsg (The Visions of the Sleeping Bard, 1703) indicates the prevailing opinion. Wynne says that in a dream he saw fairies dancing, and at first feared they "were a pack of hungry gipsies and that the least they would do, would be to kill me for their supper, and devour me saltless. But gazing steadfastly upon them I perceived that they were of better and fairer complexion than that lying, tawny crew..." (Wynne 1976:6, translation quoted in Jarman and Jarman 1991:36). There is some debate as to whether Wynne actually saw the Gipsies in England or Wales, but either way, his work reinforced the popular perception.
