Something about Welsh

As you have no doubt noticed over the past months, I have a particular preference for any and all things Welsh. So, as a treat, I am going to give a short lesson on the Welsh language. I thought you might enjoy learning a few phrases to slip into your conversations when you visit this country so that you can impress your hosts.

One of my favorite idioms is dros ben llestri: literally, 'over heads of dishes'. When someone goes dros ben llestri, they've gone over the top. Pronounced pretty close to the way it looks: drohs ben llestri - double L is aspirated: put your tongue at the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth and force the L sound out in a hiss.

Another saying is cadw cwn a chyfarth ei hun: keeps dogs and barks himself. This describes someone who won't allow anyone to help him, has to be in control of situations. Sound familiar? This phrase is pronounced cah-doo coon ah chyvahrth eye heen - ch is as in loch - aspirated.

When it seems that all good things (or bad) seem to end up in someone else's life, you could say i'r pant rhediff y dwr: to the gully runs the water. Sounds like 'ear pant rhediff uh doer'. Rh is aspirated. In English, some of us say an H in front of the W in words like when, why, where. This is never a heavy sound, more like an exhaled sigh. It's the same in Welsh. A soft H in front of the R.

These days, a lot of people around the world are ar y clwt, literally, on the rag - destitute. Remember that W and Y are both consonants and vowels in Welsh. In this case, the pronunciation is close to what it looks like: ahr uh cloot.

Greeting people in Wales with Shw mae? is always acceptable. It's like asking What's up? or How goes it? Shw is a corruption of sut (sit) which means how. Mae is a form of the verb bod = 'to be'. Shw mae (shoo my) means 'how is'.

All Welsh vowels are Italianate - open and strong which is why Welsh is such a lovely language to sing. If you'd like to know more about Welsh folk music, the National Museum of Wales has a fantastic archive. You can also see examples of Welsh music at Cronfa. The American, Phyllis Kinney, has dedicated her life to Welsh folk music. She and her husband, Meredydd Evans, are renown for their academic work in Welsh traditional music.

People always ask me if I found Welsh hard to learn. Since I've now spoken it on a daily basis, I have to answer No, but in my first days and weeks, I couldn't get my tongue around words like rhwngwladol at all. One of the best ways to learn any language is to sing in it. In my forthcoming novel, The Gatekeeper, Gwennan teaches Jehan-Emíl to sing a simple song to help him learn her language. Learning Welsh for me was one of the most life-altering things I've ever done - for one thing, I would never have written Traitor's Daughter.

Trac is a good place to begin an exploration of Welsh traditional music and dance. This organization is also on Facebook so you can get to know the people who are promoting: The future of the tradition and the tradition of the future.

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Welsh Heroes at Agincourt: Their Legacies

"The result can however be summarized in a single sentence: a regular, trained and disciplined army defeated one that possessed none of these virtues"^1.

^1.Hibbert, C. Agincourt, B.T. Batsford Ltd, London, 1964, p.88

The Battle of Agincourt (25 October 1415) is one of those rallying cries that stir the blood of the English and their Welsh allies but chill the blood of the French. Many accounts give varying testimony and estimates of this famous event during the 14^th and 15^th centuries, an era known as the Hundred Years War.

A recent item on BBC Radio 4, mentioned the plight of the French army and their heavy armor, weighing between 30 and 50 kilos with much of it around the legs of the soldiers. According to the item, this was a significant factor in the defeat of the French. The presenter of this report also mentioned the skill of the longbow archers, in a defensive position while the French were advancing – using all their energy to trudge across the battlefield.

Fatigue was only one deciding factor, as the French also had longbow archers and greatly outnumbered the combined forces of the English and Welsh soldiers. Estimates run from between 10,000 French against 8,000 English and Welsh to 36,000 to 6,000 – the 6,000 being comprised of 900 men-at-arms and 5,000 archers.

Of the archers, the majority were from Wales and especially from the town of Llantrisant, northwest of Cardiff. Because of their bravery and skill, the Welsh archers were honored with the freedom of the town and, to this day, are credited with this victory over the French.

During the battle, Welsh bowmen were known to taunt the French by holding up the index and middle fingers of their hands. Captured bowmen were invariably maimed by the French by having these fingers amputated so that they were unable to draw the bow. To show their defiance, Welsh bowmen gave this two-fingered salute to their opponents. The rebellious gesture survives today as the backhanded “peace” salute used throughout the countries of Great Britain and Ireland. This insolent salute does not have the same meaning as the one-fingered gesture of the American variety.

Among the renown Welshmen who fought for Henry V at Agincourt, Dafydd Gam ('Dafydd Gam ap Llywelyn ap Hywel Fychan ap Hywel ap Einion Sais')*, an opponent of Owain Glyndwr during the Rebellion of 1400, earned his appellation, Gam, in one of two ways, depending on which side of the Rebellion your sympathy falls. Gam comes from cam, meaning either “crooked” (Dafydd either had a squint or had lost an eye) or “wrong”. He is still considered a traitor among some Welsh patriots for his opposition to Owain Glyndwr and support for the Plantagenet Norman rulers of England.

A popular Welsh idiom is: mae hi/e wedi cael cam meaning “s/he has been wronged”. Descendents of Dafydd Gam have adopted the family name of Games. In 1404, Dafydd is said to have attempted the assassination of Owain Glyndwr at the Senedd of Machynlleth at which Owain was recognized as a true Prince of Wales (Tywysog Cymru) – the last native Welshman to hold that title.

According to the Welsh nationalists, all others who proclaim themselves by this title are pretenders as they are not descendents of any Welsh family, but of Norman, and later, German origin. September 16^th is celebrated as Owain Glyndwr Day and the banner of his rebellion against Norman English rule is flown above many civic buildings. Dafydd Gam is not similarly recognized as a national hero of Wales.

*ap is the Welsh equivalent of ‘son of’ and is used here as Dafydd Gam son of Llywelyn son of Hywel Fuchan son of etc . In my novel, Traitor’s Daughter, I have used the longer form: mab and in the case of a daughter, merch. A few Welsh last names that have incorporated this prefix are Bowen (ab Owain), Bevan (ap Ifan), Pritchard (ap Rhisiart), Price (ap Rhys), Powell (ap Hywel). The feminine equivalent is ach, from merch.

I hope you enjoyed reading this brief article. If you would like further information about Welsh history, excellent sources are at http://llgc.org.uk (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru/National Library of Wales) and http://museumwales.ac.uk (Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru/National Museum of Wales).

Diolch yn fawr, Lily Dewaruile

Nine Ways to Get a Celtic Mate

Until codification in the 10^th Century by the Welsh king, Hywel Dda, depending on the tribe, there were many ways to be wed in Celtic Britain. Once Hywel had his clerks go through the plethora of forms, nine laws governed the marital status of a couple in Cymru. Many of them are not allowed these days but were acceptable in the early Celtic civilizations. My sources for this information are Peter Berresford Ellis's book, Celtic Women, and Henrietta Leyser's Medieval Women, as well as Cyfreithiau Hywel Dda yn ôl Llawysgrif (The Laws of Hywel Dda According to Manuscript). These nine forms are also to be found in the eight types of marriage in Hindu law

Polygamy was a commonplace occurrence in the earliest, war-torn times throughout civilization, a practicality, to provide for the many widows who otherwise would have starved to death along with their children. A warrior with many wives served the social needs of his tribe by taking responsibility for the families of his dead soldiers. In Anglo-Saxon society, a widow was expected to throw herself on her husband's pyre.

As necessity waned, polygamy in Celtic society disappeared and, with the conversion to Christianity in Celtic countries by the 6th-7th centuries, was no longer acceptable. In Cymru, some monastic Celtic Church clergy continued to marry until the late 12th century. In Ireland, polygamy continued for some time after the conversion to the Christian church.

In Cymru, the first degree of marriage was priodas(pree-O-das) – the partnership of a man and woman of equal financial position. In this form of marriage, a catalogue of goods is made and shared between the partners for the good of the household.

The second form is agwedi (aG-WED-ee). The woman brings a lesser amount or no property to the partnership.

The third form of marriage is caradas (car-A-das), from the word caru (car-ee)to love. In Cymru, this is when a man lives with a woman with her kin's consent. In Ireland, the third form is the man who has nothing to offer to the wealth of the household. She must love him very much!

The fourth form of marriage in Cymru, deu lysuab (day lees-EE-ab), having no equivalent in Irish marriage law, is the union of two persons related by the marriage of their respective parents, i.e., stepbrother and stepsister. The word llys (ll [an aspirated l] = llees) refers to a court of law; a legal relationship).

The fourth form in Ireland is lánamnas fir thathigthe (sorry, my limited Gaelic won't help with this pronunciation) – a man is given permission to live with a woman with her kin's consent. This is the same as the third form in Cymru.

The fifth type of marital union is called llathlut goleu (llAHth-leet go-lay) means 'open connection' – two people chose to live together openly without the consent of the woman's kin.

Number six on the Celtic wedding hit parade is llathlut twyll (llATth-leet tOO-eell [aspirated l]). An independent-minded woman allows herself to be abducted by a man or is visited by a man in secret without the knowledge of her kin.

Beichogi twyll gwraig lwyn a pherth (bay-CHO[hard CH as in loch]-ee too-eell gur-eyeg loo-een ah phair-th) is number seven, literally "to impregnate a woman between loins and hedge". This is a double entendre as llwyn also means hedge. It can be taken to mean "to make love in the hedgerows".

The eighth form, cynnywedi ar liw ac ar oleu (cun-ee-WED-ee ahr loo ahk ahr O-lay), as well as the nineth, rough literal translation: "to join by color and by light", a union by abduction of a woman without her consent.

Twyll morwyn (tOO-eell MOR-ooeen) is the nineth form of marriage, leading on from the eighth, a marriage by rape. In Ireland, there was a different nineth form: lánamnas genaige – a union of two insane people.

The above are forms of legal marital status, as we use 'common law' or 'civil partnership'. There are many customs and rituals associated with the wedding ceremony and early weeks of a marriage, such as the mis mêl. But I’ll save those for another time.

Photo: Abaty Tintern Abbey, copyright: The Author