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PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 06:17 AM

St. Winifred's Well

It is but a short journey by road from Chester to Holywell, in Flintshire and the next wonder of Wales. On your way, along the "bottom-road," you may wish to stop briefly at Flint, on the shores of the Dee, to visit the much-slighted castle, the first of Edward 1st's chain of imposing fortresses by which he controlled his conquered principality, and where Richard II was forced to abdicate to Bolingbroke in 1399. The castle was one of James of St. George's masterpieces. The massive Dongeon is completely separate from the rest of the castle; with its own water supply, it could serve as an independent, easily defended stronghold. Flint was the first Borough in Wales to receive a royal charter (in 1284, the date of the infamous Statute of Rhuddlan that brought English Law to Wales).

Just four miles uphill from Flint is Holywell (Treffynnon), the town of the Holy Well (one of the Sacred Places of Wales). The well itself, originally formed from a mountain spring, is housed below the town on the side of a steep hill in the shrine of St. Winifride (Gwenffrwd or Gwenfrewi), regarded as the finest surviving example of a medieval holy well in Britain.

The legend of St. Winifred is responsible for the erection of the present shrine on a site chosen originally chosen by St. Beuno for a chapel. When a local chieftain named Caradoc attempted to rape Beuno's niece Gwenffrwd, she ran to the chapel for sanctuary, but though she failed to reach the doors, her refusal to submit to her pursuer caused him to cut off her head in his rage. The head rolled down the hillside, a spring miraculously appearing where it came to rest in a deep hollow. Beuno reattached Gwenffrwd's head, and she lived to become an abbess and later, a saint. The would-be rapist Caradoc, meanwhile, fell dead under the saint's curse.

The well formed from the spring then became a place of pilgrimage visited by the rich and poor and famous, including Richard 1st, to pray for his Crusade; Henry V (both before and after his famous victory at Agincourt), who came on foot from Shrewsbury; and King James II, who came here to pray for a son (a prayer which, in bitter irony, was granted by the birth of the ill-fated Old Pretender).

About 1490, Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Vll, had a new two-storied chapel built over the star-shaped well, which is covered by an ornate vault and surrounded by a processional passage. In the courtyard outside there is a long bathing pool fed by the spring. Just below the surface of the ice-cold water you can see the stone of St. Beuno upon which he is said to have taught Winifred or upon which he bade farewell to her. In the garden below the well are a number of stones believed to be stained with Winifred's blood or covered with a fragrant red moss reputed to be miraculously renewed each year.

St. Winifred's Well is the only shrine in Britain that has an unbroken tradition of pilgrimage since the early Medieval period. It was visited in 1774 by the well-known literary critic (and prude) Dr. Samuel Johnson on his journey around North Wales. The learned doctor remarked on the indecency of a woman bathing there, yet the popularity of the shrine continued to attract pilgrims. Over one thousand visitors came to the well during the first year of a new hospice opened in the 1880's. Since then, following centuries of Protestant neglect, the shrine has received a new lease of life, mainly from visits by considerable numbers of Irish immigrants residing in Liverpool (less than hour's road journey distant) or Manchester.

For those inclined to believe in such, the waters at Holywell contain miraculous healing powers. These waters came from an unfailing spring, gushing prodigiously from the earth, producing three thousand gallons a minute at a constant temperature of 50 degrees. Because of extensive mining operations, however, on nearby Halkyn Mountain in the first quarter of this century, the author's great uncle, a Holywell surveyor and civil engineer (whose first name was Caradoc, ironically), warned the Holywell Town Council that the waters feeding the spring were likely to be diverted and that the well would dry up. This is what consequently happened, so that today's pilgrims see a bubbling spring fed from the town's municipal water supply forced through a cleverly concealed pipe at the base of the well.

While in the vicinity of the well, you might want to visit the Greenfield Valley Heritage Trail, on the site of one of the first industrial valleys in Wales. The pathway leads down the hill past the remains of mills, factories and ponds, to the sad ruins of Basingwerk Abbey, founded in 1131l by the Earl of Chester under the Order of Savigny. The Abbey became Cistercian in 1147, and before being dissolved was the home to many notable Welsh authors and historians. It is most likely the place where Sir Gawain spent the night before crossing the Dee to visit the Green Knight. Plundered mercilessly at the Dissolution; some of the Abbey's remains are found in countless Flintshire churches (including a magnificent roof at Cilcain and stained glass at Gresford).

Another item of interest in the neighborhood is Wat's Dyke, a line of tactical earthworks built under King Athelbald of Mercia from 716-720 to block designs of the Welshmen from Gwynedd upon his territories (and his cattle!). The Dyke was a forerunner of the more well-known and much longer Offa's Dyke which has marked the virtual eastern boundary of Wales since its construction fifty years later. At the Parish Church of St. Peter, located near the Chapel of St. Winifride, you can see the little hand bell that was carried about the town and rung to announce services in the church situated in a hollow from which the bells in the tower could not be heard in the streets, high above. From Holywell, you can take the "top road," the fast, modern highway to return to Chester or Wrexham.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 06:18 AM

Llangollen Bridge

Just half an hour's journey by road from the flat plains surrounding Chester, the little town of Llangollen (the Church of St. Colleen), is nestled snugly in the Dee Valley (Dyffryn Dyfrdwy) among high green hills. So near the border with England, the town has managed to retain much of its Welsh character, but for one week each July, the visitor might be excused for thinking he is in continental Europe. Our destination, 14th century Llangollen Bridge is truly a wonder, not to be missed, for at this time, from one end to the other it will be crowded with dancers, singers, musicians and merrymakers (with the requisite numbers of tourists, of course), from dozens of different nations, resplendent in their national costumes.

A few hundred yards down the street from the bridge (built in 1347 by John Trevor, who later became Bishop of St. Asaph), a huge temporary pavilion houses the annual competitions for choirs, and soloists, folk singers, dancers and musicians. This is the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod, founded in 1947 after the mindless destruction of World War II with its shocking waste of life and disruption of much that had been held dear for so long.

Not long after the War had finally ended, a brilliant idea came to the mind of an official of the British Council, Welshman Harold Tudor of Coedpoeth (a few miles from Llangollen). Harold conceived the idea of an international folk festival, conducted very much along the lines of the Welsh National Eisteddfod, but open to competitors from all parts of the world. He enlisted the support of the music organizer of the National, W.S. Gwynn Williams, who immediately welcomed the idea, especially as it would allow the people of Wales to contribute in their own unique manner to the healing of the terrible scars left by the War. And so it came to be that the first festival took duly took place in the summer of 1947 on the banks of the Dee, under the great hill crowned by the ancient Welsh castle of Dinas Bran.

The actual site chosen for the new festival was in a broad grassy space between the banks of the River Dee and the Llangollen Canal. Fourteen different nationalities were represented, filling the streets of the drab, postwar town with color and spectacle but above all, with glorious sound. It has been held each year since, attracting many thousands of spectators and hundreds of competitors,whose colorful native costumes and delightful singing and dancing fill the streets for one whole week, transforming a little Welsh town into a miniature universe. In the pavilion, choirs from places as diverse as Ukraine, Morocco and Patagonia meet in friendly competition, getting together afterwards to celebrate their wins and losses in such pubs as the Jenny Jones.

In recent years, the competitions have been augmented by "Choir of the Year" and "Singer of the Year" contests. The Choir of the world competition is open to male, female and mixed choirs, attracting performers of a very high standard. One of the competitors was the great tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who came with his father to sing in a choir from Italy in the early years of the festival and who returned to give a goodwill concert in 1995. Llangollen Bridge may be listed as one of the seven wonders of Wales, but it is the International Eisteddfod with its motto: Byd gwyn fydd byd a gano; gwardiadd fydd ei gerddi fo (Blessed is a world that sings; gentle are its songs) that is the true wonder.

When the Eisteddfod is not in session, most visitors to the town land up at Pla Newydd, the home of the famous Ladies of Llangollen during the early 19th century. These two ladies, Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, who came from Ireland to live at Pen y Maes cottage, attracted distinguished visitors from all part of the British Isles to their home (enlarged and renamed Plas Newydd - the new hall). The house was situated on the main coach road from London to Holyhead, thus making it easy for visitors to pay their respects to the eccentric spinsters, who always dressed in men's clothes and who spent their time in "friendship, celibacy, and the knitting of blue stockings." Famous visitors drawn to Plas Newydd with its "most celebrated virgins in Europe," were Lord Byron, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Walter Scott, De Quincy, Wordsworth, Southey, and many others. The Duke of Wellington, who made his name in battles against Napoleon's forces in Spain, attributed his knowledge of Spanish to a book given him as a boy by Lady Eleanor Butler.

Just outside Llangollen, on the steep road that leads up to the Horseshoe Pass (Bwlch Oernant), are the ruins of Valle Crucis Abbey, founded in 1201 as a Cistercian House. In the 15th century, such was the Abbey's fame that many leading Welsh poets wrote of its delights. Not too many years before its final dissolution, Abbot Robert Salbri is recorded as having been removed from Valle Crucis on charges of minting his own money and of being a highway robber. He was imprisoned in The Tower of London for his crimes. Another abbot is recorded as having met Owain Glyndwr, the Welsh patriot while out walking in the nearby hills. "You have risen early, Master Abbot," said the guerilla leader. "Nay, sire," replied the Abbot. "It is you who have risen early, a hundred years before your time."

On the side of the road, one quarter mile up from the Abbey ruins, is a curious stone pillar that most people fail to notice on their way to feed the sheep on the top of the mountain or to take in the magnificent views of the valley below and the great, grey Eglwyseg Rocks. This is the Pillar of Eliseg, or what remains of it, having been broken in half during the English Civil Wars. The inscription on the pillar has all but faded completely away, but in 1696 an inscription was made by Welsh historian and antiquary Edward Lhuyd. His translation of the original Latin tells us that Concenn (Cyngen) erected the pillar sometime in the ninth century to commemorate his great grandfather Eliseg, who had won back the kingdom of Powys "from the power of the English." The pillar also originally contained the admonition: "Whosoever shall read this hand-inscribed stone, let him give a blessing on the soul of Eliseg." Cyngen himself died in 854 on a pilgrimage to Rome.

Perched precariously on its great green hill, one thousand feet above the narrow streets of Llangollen is the ruin of Castell Dinas Bran (the Castle of the City of Bran) built on the site of an Iron-Age hill fort, and later a Welsh, then Norman castle. Reputedly this 13th century stone fortress was the home of the lovely Myfanwy Fechan who spurned the amorous advances of the poet Hywel ap Einion. The broken-hearted suitor's love poem, Myfanwy, set to music by Joseph Parry, has become one of Wales's best-known songs, certainly one of the most requested of its male-voice choirs. The song also appears as a sad lament for a lost love in the Academy Award-nominated film Hedd Wynn about Welsh poet and post-humous Eisteddfod winner Ellis Humphrey Evans.

On the return journey from Llangollen to Chester (or to much nearer Wrexham), one should take minor detour to examine another wonder that is unlisted in our little rhyme, but one that surely deserves inclusion. A triumph of engineering skill rather than an expression of world friendship, this wonder is the Pontcysylle Aqueduct.

In the early days of the industrial revolution when canals were being built to transport raw materials and newly-manufactured goods to all parts of the British Isles, William Telford solved what seemed to be the insurmountable problem faced in taking the Shropshire Union Canal across the narrow, steep-sided Dee valley. His answer was the justly famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, the longest and highest in Britain. The name, unpronouncable to most English visitors, simply means "connecting bridge." Completed in 1805, one month after the Battle of Trafalgar, the 121 ft high aqueduct is 1007ft in length, carrying the Shropshire Union Canal in a completely water-tight cast-iron trough supported by 18 piers. it is a bit of a shock to see barges merrily, and seeming magically glide across an expanse of sky high above the valley below and the road to Chirk (where another Telford masterpiece, the Chirk Aqueduct, takes the canal across the River Ceiriog).

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 06:18 AM

Gresford Bells

It is but a scant few miles by road from Chester (and even fewer from Wrexham) to the village of Gresford, the home of our seventh wonder, the bells of the Parish Church of All Saints. Not only are the peal of bells of note, listed it is said for the purity of their tone, but the Church itself is remarkable for its size, its beauty, its interior monuments, and its yew-filled churchyard.

Though the present edifice was built in the late 13th Century by a Welsh patron with the wonderful name of Trahaearn ap Ithel ap Eunydd (and his five brothers), additions and improvements in the 14th and 15th centuries obscure much of the original building. The very size of All Saints meant that it was probably a place of pilgrimage for centuries, housing a relic or stature of a saint that has since disappeared. A niche in the Lady Chapel is thought to have held this artifact, probably a statue of the Virgin (a modern statue now occupies the space). Some of the stained glass windows in the church came from the dissolved abbey at Basingwerk on the banks of the Dee below Holywell. The church was also richly endowed by Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby, whose intervention at the Battle of Bosworth helped Henry Tudor overcome Richard III in his successful quest for the throne of Britain.

The earliest record of the peal of Gresford bells dates back only to 1714. An apparatus was installed in the belfry in 1877 so that all eight bells could be chimed by one person. The tenor bell is 1.2 tonnes (compare with Britain's largest, the Great Paul in London at 16 tonnes and the largest bell in a ringing peal, the emanuel at Liverpool Cathedral at 4 tonnes). The bells are rung regularly for church services, and the old custom of ringing on November 5th is still continued, though it is unclear whether this is to commemorate the successful landing of William of Orange in 1688, or the Gunpowder Plot of Guy Fawkes to blow up Parliament in 1605. During World War II, the custom of tolling the passing bell was discontinued, as was the practice of signifying the curfew. During the last War, the bells were to be rung only as an invasion warning.

Inside the impressive church, one of the most remarkable finds was discovered in 1907 by workmen, the Gresford Stone. This is a Roman altar that was hidden for centuries, being used as a stone block in the rebuilding of the medieval church. The altar has four carved sides and a decorative depression at the top, used for the placement of offerings to the goddess Nemesis (or Atropos) depicted on one side. She is holding a pair of shears to cut short the thread of a person's life. The altar was probably part of a Romano-Celtic shrine dating back to 100 to 350 A.D.

The wonders of the Church that itself houses the wondrous bells are many, and.a guide book or a personal, guided tour is necessary in order to find them. One item of particular interest is found In a basement or crypt, under lock and key, and carefully guarded in its glass case. It is the large lump of coal that was the very last piece hewn out of the Gresford Colliery before the great disaster of 1934.

During the first half of the 20th century, the work force at the United Wrexham and Westminster Colliery Company, with mines in the Gresford area, reached 2200 men. Alas, in the frantic rush to exploit the newly-discovered coal seams of the region, a whole array of safety procedures and rescue systems was conveniently ignored by the pit owners and managers. A number of totally unqualified junior officials were also put in charge of safety procedures at the Dennis section at the Gresford Colliery, where.their interest lay in simply increasing coal output than in the safety or working conditions of the miners. Shot-firing rules were not observed, and no emergency drills were carried out. We can only imagine the dreadful scene that took place on the twenty-second of September, 1934.

The bells of Gresford solemnly announced to the world that one of the greatest tragedies in the history of Welsh coal mining had taken place that morning when an explosion and fire ripped through the Dennis section of the mine. Apart from the lucky six men who escaped the blast, along with a few men at the pit bottom, all the men working that day were killed -- a total of 266 miners. Such was the force of the explosion and the immensity of the following fire, that the pit was sealed off and the dead miners entombed forever where they lay. Over 160 widows were left in the surrounding villages to provide for over 200 children.

Following the disaster, a court of enquiry was held from October 1934 until July 1936. The miners' families were represented by Sir Stafford Cripps (of later fame as a wartime Cabinet Minister under Attlee), who charged the owners and mine officials with 43 offences of negligence. It is sad to relate that, despite the expertise of Sir Stafford, only six offenses were proved, with ludicrously minor fines imposed. Relieved at their undeserved good fortune, the owners continued to operate the rest of the mine until 1973, with a few mountainous slag heaps still remaining today to show that the area was once a centre of the coal industry.

In 1982 a memorial to the dead miners was erected in the form of the wheel from the old pit head winding gear. On the 6Oth anniversary of the disaster, a memorial painting in Gresford Church was unveiled by the Archbishop of Wales that shows various scenes and people at the colliery the day of the explosion.

The Church is surrounded by a grove of Yews, some of which equal in size and age those of Overton listed in our seven wonders. Twenty-five of these were planted in 1726, but one growing near the south gate is a great deal older. Though its age has been difficult to establish, it is thought to be about 1400 to 1500 years old. It was already an ancient tree at the time of Richard II's proclamation that ordered the general planting of yews to support the army.

We have now viewed all seven wonders of Wales and their attendant attractions and places of interest. It is time to return to the hustle and bustle of Chester's medieval streets in order to contemplate all that we have seen and experienced. Ironically enough, though we do not expect to find much Welsh spoken in Wrexham any more, if we are lucky, we may hear the Welsh language spoken in Chester, for many Welshmen and women live or worship in the city, and many more commute each day to work there. And thus we arrive at our eighth wonder of Wale -- its unique and colorful language.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 06:19 AM

Survival of the Welsh Language: Part I

It is the eighth wonder of Wales that is the most wondrous of them all, the survival of the Welsh language in the face of almost impossible odds. Sometime in the seventh century, a Welsh Bishop heard an Englishman's voice on the bank of the River Severn and was filled with foreboding at the sound.. He recorded his unsettling experience thus: "For the kinsman of yonder strange-tongued man whose voice I heard across the river. . . will obtain possession of this place, and it will be theirs, and they will hold it in ownership."

The bishop was wrong. More than twelve centuries have passed since the strange tongue of the Saxon was heard on the borders of Wales, centuries during which the ancient tongue of the Bishop and his fellow Britons had every opportunity to become extinct and yet which has stubbornly refused to die. The survival of the native language is truly one of the great wonders of Wales, to be appreciated and marvelled at far more than any physical feature or man-made object, and far more than the so-called seven wonders of Wales.

It is a something of a shock when visitors travel from England west into Wales, for, almost without warning, he may find himself in areas where not only the dialects become incomprehensible, but where even the language itself has changed. The roadside signs "Croeso i Gymru" (accompanied by the red dragon, the ancient badge of Wales) let it be known that one is now entering a new territory, inhabited by a different people, for the translation is "Welcome to Wales" written in one of the oldest surviving vernaculars in Europe. For amusement with the language, after getting used to names such as Pontcysyllte, Pen y Mynydd , or Glynceiriog, one can take a little detour off the main route through Anglesey to Ireland and visit the village with its much-photographed sign announcing the now-closed railway station:

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwrndrobwyll-llantisiliogogogoch

To account for the abrupt linguistic change from English into Welsh, one must journey far, far back into history.

It was about 1000 BC that the Celtic languages arrived in Britain, probably introduced by small groups of migrants who became culturally dominant in their new homelands, and whose culture formed part of a great unified Celtic "empire" encompassing many different peoples all over Northern Europe. The Greeks called these people, with their organized culture and developed social structure Keltoi, the Romans called them Celtai.

In spite of the fact that they were perhaps the most powerful people in much of Europe in 300 BC, with lands stretching from Anatolia in the East to Ireland in the West, the Celts were unable to prevent inter tribal warfare; their total lack of political unity, despite their fierceness in battle, ultimately led to their defeat and subjugation by the much-better disciplined armies of Rome. The Celtic languages on Continental Europe eventually gave way to those stemming from Latin.

The Celts had been in Britain a long time before the first Roman invasion of the British Isles under Julius Caesar in 55 BC which did not lead to any significant occupation. The Roman commander, and later Emperor, had some interesting, if biased comments concerning the native inhabitants. "All the Britons," he wrote,"paint themselves with woad, which gives their skin a bluish color and makes them look very dreadful in battle" (De Bello Gallico). It was not until a hundred years later, following an expedition ordered by the Emperor Claudius, that a permanent Roman settlement of the grain-rich eastern territories of Britain begun in earnest.

From their bases in what is now Kent, the Roman armies began a long, arduous and perilous series of battles with the native Celtic tribes, first victorious, next vanquished, but as on the Continent, superior military discipline and leadership, along with a carefully organized system of forts connected by straight roads, led to the triumph of Roman arms. In the western peninsular, in what is now Wales, the Romans were awestruck by their first sight of the druids (the religious leaders and teachers of the British). The historian Tacitus described them as being "ranged in order, with their hands uplifted, invoking the gods and pouring forth horrible imprecations" (Annales)

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 06:20 AM

Survival of the Welsh Language: Part II

The terror was only short-lived; Roman arms easily defeated the native tribesmen, and it was not long before a great number of large, prosperous villas were established all over Britain, but especially in the Southeast and Southwest. Despite defeats in pitched battles, the people of mountainous Wales and Scotland were not as easily settled; their scattered settlements remained "the frontier" -- lands where military garrisons were strategically placed to guard the Northern and Western extremities of the Empire. The fierce resistance of the tribes in Cambria meant that two out of the three Roman legions in Britain were stationed on the Welsh borders. Two impressive Roman fortifications remain to be seen in Wales: Isca Silurium (Caerleon) with its fine ampitheatre, in Monmouthshire; and Segontium, (Caernarfon), in Gwynedd. In Britain, at least for a few hundred years after the Roman victories on mainland Europe, the Celts held on to much of their customs and especially to their distinctive language which has miraculously survived until today as Welsh. The language of most of Britain was derived from a branch of Celtic known as Brythonic: it later gave rise to Welsh, Cornish and Breton (these differ from the Celtic languages derived from Goidelic; namely, Irish, Scots, and Manx Gaelic). Accompanying these languages were the Celtic religions, particularly that of the Druids, the guardians of traditions and learning.

Though the Celtic tongue survived as the medium of everyday speech, Latin being used mainly administrative purposes, many loan words entered the native vocabulary, and these are still found in modern-day Welsh, though many of these have entered at various times since the end of the Roman occupation. Today's visitors to Wales who know some Latin are surprised to find hundreds of place names containing Pont (bridge), while ffenest (window), pysgod (fish), milltir (mile), melys (sweet or honey) cyllell (knife), ceffyl (horse), perygl (danger), eglwys (church), pared (wall or partition), tarw (bull) and many others attest to Roman or Latin influence. (The word Cerbyd, recently coined by the Ministry of Transport for automobile for use on the new motorways, was used by Welsh poet Henry Vaughan in the late 17th century as a term for chariot).

In 440 AD an anonymous writer penned the following:

Britain, abandoned by the Romans, passed into the power of the Saxons (Chronica Gallica )

When the city of Rome fell to the invading Goths under Alaric, Roman Britain, which had experienced hundreds of years of comparative peace and prosperity, was left to its own defences under its local Romano-British leaders, one of whom may have been a tribal chieftain named Arthur. It quickly crumbled under the onslaught of Germanic tribes (usually collectively referred to as Anglo-Saxons) themselves under attack from tribes to the east and wishing to settle in the sparsely populated, but agriculturally rich lands across the narrow channel that separated them. More than two hundred years of fighting between the native Celts, as brave as ever but comparatively disorganized, and the ever-increasing numbers of Germanic tribesmen eventually resulted in Britain sorting itself out into three distinct areas: the Britonic West, the Teutonic East, and the Gaelic North. It was these areas that later came to be identified as Wales, England, and Scotland, all with their very separate cultural and linguistic characteristics (Ireland, of course, remained Gaelic: many of its peoples migrated to Scotland, taking their language with them to replace the native Pictish).

From the momentous year 616, the date of their defeat at the hands of the Saxons in the Battle of Chester, the Welsh people in Wales were on their own. Separated from their fellow Celts in Cornwall and Cumbria, those who lived in the western peninsular gradually began to think of themselves as a distinct nation in spite of the many different rival kingdoms that developed within their borders such as Morgannwg, Powys, Brycheinion, Dyfed and Gwynedd. It is also from this period that we can speak of the Welsh language, as distinct from the older Brythonic.

In a poem dated 633, the word Cymry appears, referring to the country; and it was not too long before the Britons came to be known as the Cymry, by which term they are known today. At this point, we should point out that the word Welsh (from Wealas) is a later word used by the Saxon invaders of the British Isles perhaps to denote people they considered "foreign" or at least to denote people who had been Romanized. It originally had signified a Germanic neighbor, but eventually came to be used for those people who spoke a different language.

The Welsh people themselves still prefer to call themselves Cymry, their country Cymru, and their language Cymraeg. It is also from this time that the Celtic word Llan appears, signifying a church settlement and usually followed by the name of a saint, as in Llandewi (St. David) or Llangurig (St. Curig), but sometimes by the name of a disciple of Christ, such as Llanbedr (St. Peter) or even a holy personage such as Llanfair (St. Mary).

It is in Wales, perhaps, that today's cultural separation of the British Isles remains strongest, certainly linguistically, and for that, we must look to the mid 8th Century, when a long ditch was constructed, flanking a high earthen rampart that divided the Celts of the West from the Saxons to the East and which, even today, marks the boundary between those who consider themselves Welsh from those who consider themselves English. The boundary, known as "Offa's Dyke," in memory of its builder Offa, the king of Mercia (the middle kingdom) runs from the northeast of Wales to the southeast coast, a distance of 149 miles.

English-speaking peoples began to cross Offa's Dyke in substantial numbers when settlements were created by Edward 1st in his ambition to unite the whole of the island of Britain under his kingship. After a period of military conquest, the English king forced Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd to give up most of his lands, keeping only Gwynedd west of the River Conwy.

Edward then followed up his successes by building English strongholds around the perimeter of what remained of Llewelyn's possessions, and strong, easily defended castles were erected at Flint, Rhuddlan, Aberystwyth, and Builth., garrisoned by large detachments of English immigrants and soldiers. Some of these towns have remained stubbornly English ever since. Urban settlement, in any case, was entirely foreign to the Celtic way of life.

In 1294, the Statute of Rhuddlan confirmed Edward's plans regarding the governing of Wales. The statute created the counties of Anglesey, Caernarfon, and Merioneth, to be governed by the Justice of North Wales; Flint, to be placed under the Justice of Chester; and the counties of Carmarthen and Cardigan were left under the Justice of South Wales. Of the Statute, an anonymous scribe wrote, in 1284:

The Divine Providence...has now. . .wholly and entirely transferred the land of Wales with its inhabitants...and has annexed and united the same into the Crown...as a member of the said body

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 06:21 AM

Survival of the Welsh Language: Part III

In the year 1300, the situation seemed permanently established, when "King Edward of England made Lord Edward his son [born at Caernarfon Castle], Prince of Wales and Count of Chester," and ever since that date these titles have been automatically conferred upon the first-born son of the English monarch. The Welsh people were not consulted in the matter, although an obviously biased entry in Historia Anglicana for the year 1300 reads:

In this year King Edward of England made Lord Edward, his son and heir, Prince of Wales and Count of Chester. When the Welsh heard this, they were overjoyed, thinking him their lawful master, for he was born in their lands.

Following his successes in Wales, signified by the Statute of Rhuddlan, sometimes referred to as The Statute of Wales, Edward embarked on yet another massive castle-building program, creating such world-heritage sites of today as Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech, and Beaumaris in addition to the earlier not so-well known (or well-visited) structures at Flint and Rhuddlan. Below their huge, forbidding castle walls, additional English boroughs were created, and English traders were invited to settle, often to the exclusion of the native Welsh, who must have looked on in awe and despair from their lonely hills at the site of so much building activity. Their ancestors must have felt the same sense of dismay as they watched the Roman invaders build their heavily defended forts in strategic points on their lands. The Welsh were forbidden to inhabit such "boroughs" or to carry arms within their boundaries (even today, there are laws remaining on the statute books of Chester, a border town, that proscribe the activities of the Welsh within the city walls). With the help of the architect Master James of St. George, and with what must have seemed like limitless resources in manpower and materials, Edward showed his determination to place a stranglehold on the Welsh. Occasional rebellions were easily crushed; it was not until the death of Edward III and the arrival of Owain Glyndwr (Shakespeare's Owen Glendower), that the people of Wales felt confident enough to challenge their English overlords. One scribe expressed the situation this way:

The Welsh habit of revolt against the English is a long-standing madness . . . and this is the reason. The Welsh, formerly called the Britons, were once noble, crowned with the whole realm of England; but they were expelled by the Saxons and lost both name and a kingdom . . . But from the sayings of the prophet Merlin they still hope to recover England. Hence it is they frequently rebel. (Vita Edward Secundi I c. 1330)

Owain Glyndwr was Lord of Glyndyfrdwy (the Valley of the Dee). He seized his opportunity in 1400 after being crowned Prince of Wales by a small group of supporters and defying Henry IV's many attempts to dislodge him. The ancient words of Geraldus Cambrensis could have served to inspire his followers:

The English fight for power; the Welsh for liberty; the one to procure gain, the other to avoid loss. The English hirelings for money; the Welsh patriots for their country

The comet that appeared in 1402 was seen by the Welsh as a sign of their forthcoming deliverance from bondage as well as one that proclaimed the appearance of Owain. His magnetic personality electrified and galvanized the people of Wales, strengthening their armies and inspiring their confidence. Even the weather was favorable. An entry in Annales Henrici Quarti of 1402 reads as follows:

[Glyndwr] almost destroyed the King and his armies, by magic as it was thought, for from the time they entered Wales to the time they left, never did a gentle air breathe on them, but throughout whole days and nights, rain mixed with snow and hail afflicted them with cold beyond endurance

The Welsh leader's early successes released the long-suppressed feelings of thousands of Welshmen who eagerly flocked to his support from all parts of England and the Continent. Before long, it seemed as if the long-awaited dream of independence was fast becoming a reality: three royal expeditions against Glyndwr failed: he held Harlech and Aberystwyth, had extended his influence as far as Glamorgan and Gwent, was receiving support from Ireland and Scotland; and had formed an alliance with France. Following his recognition by the leading Welsh bishops, he summoned a parliament at Machynlleth, in mid-Wales, where he was crowned as Prince of Wales. It didn't seem too ambitious for Owain to believe that with suitable allies, he could help bring about the dethronement of the English king; thus he entered into a tripartite alliance with the Earl of Northumberland and Henry Mortimer (who married Owain's daughter Caitrin) to divide up England and Wales between them. After all, Henry IV's crown was seen by many Englishmen as having been falsely obtained, and they welcomed armed rebellion against their ruler. Hoping that The Welsh Church be made completely independent from Canterbury, and that appointments to benefices in Wales be given only to those who could speak Welsh, Glyndwr was ready to implement his wish to set up two universities in Wales to train native civil servants and clergymen.

Then the dream died.

Owain's parliament was the very last to meet on Welsh soil; the last occasion that the Welsh people had the power of acting independently of English rule. From such a promising beginning to a national revolt came a disappointing conclusion, even more upsetting because of the speed at which Welsh hopes crumbled with the failure of the Tripartite Indenture. Henry Percy (Hotspur) was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury, and the increasing boldness and military skills of Henry's son, the English prince of Wales and later Henry V, began to turn the tide against Glyndwr. Like so many of his predecessors, Glyndwr was betrayed at home. It is not too comforting for Welsh people of today to read that one of the staunchest allies of the English king and enemy of Glyndwr was a man of Brecon, Dafydd Gam (later killed at Agincourt, fighting for the English).

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 06:21 AM

A sixth expedition into Wales undertaken by Prince Henry retook much of the land captured by Owain, including many strategic castles. The boroughs with their large populations of "settlers," had remained thoroughly English in any case, and by the end of 1409, the Welsh rebellion had dwindled down to a series of guerilla raids led by the mysterious figure of Owain, whose wife and two daughters had been captured at Harlech and taken to London as prisoners. Owain himself went into the mountains, becoming an outlaw. He may have suffered an early death. for nothing is known of him either by the Welsh or the English. He simply vanished from sight. According to an anonymous writer in 1415," Very many say that he [Owain Glyndwr] died; the seers say that he did not" (Annals of Owain Glyndwr). There has been much speculation as to his fate and much guessing as to where he ended his final days and was laid to rest.

There is an expression coined in the nineteenth century that describes a Welshman who pretends to have forgotten his Welsh or who affects the loss of his national identity in order to succeed in English society or who wishes to be thought well of among his friends. Such a man is known as Dic Sion Dafydd, (a term used in a satirical 19th century poem). The term was unknown In fifteenth century Wales, but, owing to the harsh penal legislation imposed upon them, following the abortive rebellion, it became necessary for many Welshmmen to petition Parliament to be "made English" so that they could enjoy privileges restricted to Englishmen. These included the right to buy and hold land according to English law.

Such petitions may have been distasteful to the patriotic Welsh, but for the ambitious and socially mobile gentry rapidly emerging in Wales and on the Marches, they were a necessary step for any chance of advancement.In the military. At the same time, Welsh mercenaries, no longer fighting under Glyndwr for an independent Wales, were highly sought after by the new king Henry V for his campaigns in France. The skills of the Welsh archers in such battles as Crecy and Agincourt is legendary.

Such examples of allegiance to their commander, the English sovereign, went a long way in dispelling any latent thoughts of independence and helped paved the way for the overwhelming Welsh allegiance to the Tudors (themselves of Welsh descent) and to general acquiescence to the Acts of Union. The year 1536 produced no great trauma for the Welsh; all the ingredients for its acceptance had been put in place long before.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 06:22 AM

Survival of the Welsh Language: Part IV

The so-called Act of Union of that year, and its corrected version of 1543 seemed inevitable. More than one historian has pointed out that union with England had really been achieved by the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284. It was welcomed by many in Wales and why not? Didn't it state that "Persons born or to be born in the said Principality . . . of Wales shall have and enjoy and inherit all and singular Freedoms, Liberties, Rights, Privileges and Laws . . . as other the King's subjects have, enjoy or inherit?" Those historians who praise the Acts state that the Welsh people had now achieved full equality before the law with their English counterparts. It opened opportunities for individual advancement in all walks of life, and Welshmen flocked to London to take full advantage of their chances. Yet, one of the most important in the whole history of Wales, the document was passed without consultation with the Welsh people.

The full title is An Act for Laws and Justices to be ministered in Wales in like form as it is in this realm.Its preamble states: "His Highness. . . of the singular love and favour that he bears towards his subjects of this said dominion of Wales, and intending to reduce them to the perfect order, notice and knowledge of the laws of this his Realm, and utterly to extirpate all and singular the sinister usages and customs differing from the same . . . hath . . . ordained, enacted and established that his said country or dominion of Wales shall stand and continue for ever from henceforth incorporated, united and annexed to and with his Realm of England."

Thus the real purpose was to incorporate, finally and for all time, the principality of Wales into the kingdom of England. A major part of this decision was to abolish any legal distinction between the people on either side of the new border. From henceforth, English law would be the only law recognized by the courts of Wales. In addition, for the placing of the administration of Wales in the hands of the Welsh gentry, it was necessary to create a Welsh ruling class not only fluent in English, but who would use it in all legal and civil matters.

Thus inevitably, the Welsh ruling class would be divorced from the language of their country; as pointed out earlier, their eyes were focused on what London or other large cities of England had to offer, not upon what remained as crumbs to be scavenged in Wales itself, without a government of its own, without a capital city, and without even a town large enough to attract an opportunistic urban middle class, and saddled with a language described by Parliament as "nothing like nor consonant to the natural mother tongue used within this realm."

From 1536 on, English was to be the only language of the courts of Wales, and those using the Welsh language were not to receive public office in the territories of the king:

No person or persons that use the Welsh speech or language shall have or enjoy any manor, office or fees within the realm of England, Wales or other of the king's dominions upon pain of forfeiting the . same offices or fees unless he or they use and exercise the speech and language of English

It was the arrival of the Welsh Bible, however, that brought the language back to a respected position. In 1547, Welsh scholar, William Salesbury, alarmed at what he considered the baseness of the Welsh tongue,wrote: "And take this advice from me; unless you save and correct and perfect the language before the extinction of the present generation, it will be too late afterwards." (Oll Synnwyr Pen Kembero Ygyd). Salesbury collaborated with Richard Davies, Bishop of St. David's on a Welsh version of The Book of Common Prayer and The New Testament, both of which were published in 1567. The scholar John Penry of Breconshire had implored the Queen and her Parliament that the Welsh people should be taught the scriptures (and the Prayer Book) in their own language. He was helped by the fact that Elizabeth and her courtiers were appalled at the slow progress of the Welsh in learning the English language (and, more important, their slow progress in adopting Protestantism). Penry's suggestions were welcomed by Parliament; by having Welsh translations placed next to the English texts in church, it was believed the congregations could learn English! The reverse happened, of course, and the Welsh language was given status and a place of honor by being used as a medium for the holy scriptures. Why bother with English, when there was now a perfectly acceptable Welsh in which to worship God?

In 1588, the translation of the whole Bible itself, the climax of the whole movement, made Welsh the language of public worship and thus much more than a generally despised peasant tongue. Perhaps it is to this that much of the present-day strength of the Welsh language is owed, compared to Irish (which did not get its own Bible until 1690) and Scots Gaelic (which had to wait until 1801).

The Welsh Bible, a magnificent achievement, was completed after eight years by William Morgan and a group of fellow scholars. In 1620 Dr John Davies of Mallwyd and Richard Parry, Bishop of St. Asaph, produced a revision of William Morgan's Bible. Most of the nearly one thousand copies of.the earlier book had been lost or worn out, and this revised and corrected edition is the version that countless generations of Welsh people have been thoroughly immersed ever since, it has been as much a part of their lives as the Authorized Version has been to the English-speaking peoples or Luther's Bible to the Germans.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 06:22 AM

In 1630, the Welsh Bible, in a smaller version (Y Beibl Bach), was introduced into homes in Wales and as the only book affordable to many families, became the one book from which the majority of the people could learn to read and write. Other, poorer families, unable to afford the Bible, were able to share its contents in meetings held at the homes of neighbors or in their churches or chapels. Later on, countless generations of children were taught its contents in Sunday School. It is in this way, therefore, that we can say the Welsh Bible "saved" the language from possible extinction.

It has been touch and go all the way since, however, with determined efforts coming from both sides of Offa's Dyke to stamp out the language for ever. Yet every time the funeral bells have tolled, the language has miraculously revived itself. As early as the 12th century, Giraldus Cambrensis gave us the famous Welsh folk tale of the declaration of the old man of Pencader to Henry ll:

This nation, O King, may now, as in former times, be harassed, and in a great measure weakened and destroyed by your and other powers, and it will also prevail by its laudable exertions, but it can never be totally subdued through the wrath of man, unless the wrath of God shall concur. Nor do I think that any other nation than this of Wales, nor any other language, whatever may hereafter come to pass, shall on the day of severe examination before the Supreme Judge, answer for this corner of the earth. (John of Salisbury: recorded in Descriptio Kambriae (1193) by Giraldus Cambrensis)

In 1753 Thomas Richards in his Thesaurus wrote:

Yet our name hath not been quite blotted out from under Heaven. We hitherto not only enjoy the true name of our Ancestors but have preserved entire and uncorrupted . . that primitive language, spoken as well by the ancient Gauls and Britons some thousands of years ago

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 06:23 AM

Survival of the Welsh Language: Part V

For the continued survival of the language, however, there had to be a groundwork laid in the field of general education among the masses. There were still too many people in Wales who could not read or write. As so often in Welsh history, help came from outside the country itself. In 1674, a charitable organization, the Welsh Trust, was set up in London by Thomas Gouge to establish English schools in Wales and to publish books "in Welsh." Over 500 books were printed in 1718 and 1721 at Trefhedyn and Carmarthen respectively. Many of these were translations of popular English works, Protestant tracts that encouraged private worship and prayers, but along with the six major editions of the Bible that appeared during the same period, they had the unpredicted effect of ensuring the survival of the language in an age where many scholars were predicting its rapid demise. Of equal importance were the cheap catechisms and prayer books.highly prized by rural families who read them (along with the Beibl Cymraegd) in family groups during the long, dark winter nights

So successful were educators, benefactors and itinerant teachers that perhaps as many as one third or more of the population of Wales could read their scriptures by the time of Griffith Jones' death in 1761. Jones had realized that preaching alone was insufficient to ensure his people's salvation: they needed to read the scriptures for themselves. Though not intended by such as Jones (the rector of Llanddowror and therefore not a Nonconformist minister), his writings created a substantial Welsh reading public primed and ready to receive the appeal of the ever-growing Methodists, whose ability in such preachers as Hywel Harris was matched by their eloquence in the pulpit, and who obviously filled a great need among the masses.

One influential convert was Thomas Charles who joined in 1784, and who set up the successful Sunday School movement in North Wales that had such a profound and lasting influence on the language and culture of that region. Another preacher of great influence was Daniel Rowland, who had converted in 1737 after hearing a sermon by Griffith Jones. With Hywel Harris, he assumed the leadership of the Methodist Revival. Rowland's enthusiasm along with that of his colleagues, attracted thousands of converts, and though their initial intention was to work within the framework of the established church, opposition from their Bishops, all of whom had little real interest in Wales and knew nothing of its language and culture, led finally to the schism of 1811 when an independent union was founded.

This was the Calvinistic Methodist Church (today known as the Presbyterian Church of Wales). Providing the excitement and fervor that the established church had been lacking for so long, it did much to pave the way for the rapid growth of the other non-conformist sects such as the Baptists and Independents. The movement also was responsible for producing two names that are outstanding in the cultural history of Wales: William Williams and Ann Griffiths (dealt with at length in my History of Wales).

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