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PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:23 AM

In 1841, William Jones, in The Character of the Welsh as a Nation in the Present Age, praised the perseverance of his people in the face of almost impossible odds:

To exist after so many and preserving attempts at their extinction, and to retain the vernacular use of their primitive, nervous, and enchanting language, after so many revolutions in their civil and religious circumstances, are facts in which they will ever glory; and no good reason appears why our English neighbours should deny us the consolation of these facts, or laugh at us, with so much sarcastic malevolence, when the matter is discussed in their society

Jones could not have foreseen the result of the coming of heavy industry to south Wales in the 19th century, especially its twofold effect on the language and social life of the area. First, with so many Welsh speakers moving into the area in search of jobs, bringing their language (and their chapels) with them, a Welsh culture survived in many fields of valley activity. Many historians have realized that without this immigration, Wales may have suffered a fate similar to that of Ireland where the lack of the raw materials for industry and the heavy reliance upon a single food crop (not to mention the benign neglect of the English Parliament) led to famine and massive emigration. Also unlike the Irish language (and to some extent Breton) the language of scattered, rural communities, Welsh thrived as the medium of everyday communication in large industrial communities (such as Merthyr). One writer in 1804, commenting on the fact that Merthyr Tydfil was now the largest town in Wales, marvelled that :

The workers of all descriptions at these immense works {Cyfarthfa, Merthyr Tydfil} are Welsh men. Their language is entirely Welsh. The number of English among them is very inconsiderable. (The Scenery, Antiquities, and Biography of South Wales

But change was inevitable. At the same time, another culture developed that owed just as much to its non-Welsh immigrants as it did to those who retained the language and culture of the Welsh-speaking areas from which they moved. In 1847 one writer had described the Rhondda Valley thus:

The people of this solitudinous and happy valley are a pastoral race, almost wholly dependent on their flocks and herds for support ...The air is aromatic with wild flowers and mountain plants, a sabbath stillness reigns

Only three years later, the celebrated English author Thomas Carlyle described the same scene in a letter to his wife:

Ah me! 'Tis like a vision of Hell, and will never leave me, that of these poor creatures broiling or in sweat and dirt, amid their furnaces, pits, and rolling mills . . The Town [Merthyr] might be, and will be, one of the prettiest places in the world. It is one of the sootiest, aqualidest and ugliest; all cinders and dust mounds and soot. . .Nobody thinks of gardening in such a locality--all devoted to metallic gambling

Such a heavy toll came to so many areas of the southern valleys. In the counties of Glamorgan and Monmouth, the long, verdant valleys quickly filled up with factories, mills, coal mines, iron smelting works (and later, steel works), roads, railways, canals, and above all, people. Houses began to spread along the narrow hillsides, filling every available space upon which a house could be set, small houses, crammed together in row after row, street after street, town after town all strung together on the valley floor. Houses separated only spasmodically by the grocery store, the somber, grey chapel, or the public house. Above them all loomed the blackened hillsides and the slag heaps of waste coal or industrial refuse. And all this brought about by the discovery of coal.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:24 AM

Survival of the Welsh Language: Part VI

In the southern valleys, an Anglo-Welsh character came into being; one that came to dominate the political, social and literary life of Wales, and it was here also that a new and particular kind of Welshness was forged, symbolized by the cloth-capped, heavy drinking, strike-prone, English-speaking, rugby fanatic of the Valleys..To such a character, and to a certain extent, to the majority of the three large urban areas of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, the people of the West and North, the Bible-toting, chapel-going, teetotal, parsimonious, and above all Welsh-speaking were totally alien beings who might have come from another planet. The repercussions are felt strongly today as only one in five of the inhabitants of Wales use Welsh as a language of everyday affairs. In other areas, the Welsh language had been in decline for over 100 years. In Flintshire, so near to the large urban areas of Merseyside and Cheshire there had long been deliberate attempts to stamp out the Welsh language: a traveller to the area as early as 1799 described the situation:

If therefore, in the colloquial intercourse of the scholars, one of them be detected in speaking a Welsh word, he is immediately degraded with the 'Welsh lump,' a large piece of lead fastened to a string, and suspended round the neck of the offender. The mark of ignominy has had the desired effect: all the children of Flintshire speak English very well

Such drastic measures had their desired effect. By 1804 John Evans wrote that "North Wales is becoming English." In the same year, Benjamin Heath Malkin wrote :

The language of Radnorshire is almost universally English. In learning to converse with their Saxon neighbours, they have forgotten the use of their vernacular tongue

Other areas did not suffer the loss of the language. Lord Tennyson, who in a letter to a friend in 1839 thought "it [is] remarkable how fluently little boys and girls can speak Welsh." Tennyson's romantic views of the Welsh language, however, were not shared by the Government in London, nor by everyone in Wales. In a letter to The Cambrian in September 1840, one writer blamed the Welsh language for the country's moral turpitude:

I cherish the hope that I may yet see the day when Wales, no longer the seat of barbarity and heathenism, will herself take a fit position (from which she has so long been excluded) in moral literature and science. It may be asked how was Wales set aside from that past, which is the glory and pride of every other nation? The answer is simple -- she is bound with fetters as yet indissoluble which she seems to hug with increasing tenacity -- namely her language --The Welshman is a fool, his language is his folly -- he prefers others to enjoy his goods, he prefers he prefers being laughed at as a puppet in Druidic processions and Bardic Eisteddfodau

The writer wished to see the disappearance of Welsh, "without which act, we can never hope to be recognized otherwise than as simple, good-natured, honest barbarians." The letter, astonishingly enough, was written just at the time that Lady Charlotte Guest was making known to the world some of the glories of Welsh literature through her translations of the medieval tales known as the Mabinogion.. Mrs. Guest (Lady Llanover), advised the mothers of Wales,". . .speak Welsh to your children . . .it is from you, and not from their fathers, that they will learn to love God in their own language." Others were not so sympathetic.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:24 AM

Some of the letters published in The Cambrian in the mid 19th Century show an attitude of many Englishmen towards the Welsh language that has persisted until today. In one of them, the writer was amused by the proposal to have the infant Prince of Wales (eldest son of Queen Victoria), instructed in the Welsh language. He wrote that the prince, by trying to pronounce the Welsh "ll" or "ch" would be perceived as having spasmodic affections of the bronchial tubes "that would lead to quinsy or some terrible disease of the lungs and jugulum and would alarm everyone."

The writer, no doubt fully amused at his own cleverness, and obviously completely oblivious to the beauties of the Welsh language and the glories of its culture, goes on to ask his readers to consider the roars of laughter in the House of Commons when the budget of the day includes the following items: "Three thousand pounds per annum for teaching His Royal Highness Welsh, making leek broth, and the national mode of eating it." The idea, he continued. was revolting, "like trying to cram a calf with logic: nature forbids it."

The same kind of fatuous, condescending arguments, of course, appeared in the newspapers of Wales some one hundred and twenty years later when Charles, as the so-called Prince of Wales, was being taught Welsh at Aberystwyth University. The newspapers of the 1990's too, often contain similar letters and articles that discuss the merits of continuing the Welsh language in the schools, of teaching it to newcomers, and of its relevance in the modern world. All despite the fact that, in the earlier period, even Queen Victoria herself, that staunch symbol of Empire, advocated the teaching of Welsh in the schools of the principality.

By the middle of the 19th century, Victoria's views notwithstanding, the tide was running heavily against Welsh. In 1842, a Royal Commission, looking into the state of education in Wales, noted that some Welsh boys employed at mines in Breconshire were learning to read English at Sunday School, but that they could speak only Welsh. This was intolerable to the commissioners.

It was demanded in Parliament that an inquiry be conducted into the means afforded to the laboring classes of Wales to acquire a knowledge of the English tongue. The report of the Commissioners of Inquiry for South Wales in 1844 lamented the fact that "The people's ignorance of the English language practically prevents the working of the laws and institutions and impedes the administration of justice." It didn't seem to occur to the commissioners that it was their own ignorance of the language that was obstructing justice!

The report led to another Royal Commission, conducted in 1847, which was to have a lasting effect on the cultural and political life of Wales. The report, in three volumes bound in blue covers, has become known as Brad y Llyfrau Gleision (The Treachery of the Blue Books, for the three young and inexperienced lawyers who conducted the report had no understanding of the Welsh language, nor, it seems, did they understand non-conformity in religious matters.

Bright, intelligent and well-read Welsh-speaking children were unable to understand the questions put to them in English, and the surveyors pig-headedly assumed that this was due to their ignorance. Their report lamented what they considered to be the sad state of education in Wales, the too-few schools, their deplorable condition, the unqualified teachers, the lack of supplies and suitable English texts, and the irregular attendance of the children. All these were attributed, along with dirtiness, laziness, ignorance, superstition, promiscuity and immorality: to Nonconformity, but in particular to the Welsh language. As the report stated:

The Welsh language is a vast drawback to Wales and a manifold barrier to the moral progress and commercial prosperity of the people. It is not easy to over-estimate its evil effects.

One result, of course, of the publication of such "facts" led to so many of its speakers being made to feel ashamed and embarrassed. The effects of the controversy thus stirred up has lasted up until today; it certainly did much ot bolster the position of those who agreed with much of the report and who saw the language as the biggest drawback to the people of Wales. One drastic remedy, the imposition of English-only Board Schools did much to further has ten the decline of Welsh over a great part of the country. In these schools, as in Flintshire a half century earlier, the "Welsh Not" rule was imposed with severe penalties for speaking Welsh, including the wearing of a wooden board, the old "Welsh lump" around one's neck.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:25 AM

Survival of the Welsh Language: Part VII

In Chambers' Edinburgh Journal (vol 2, 1849), there is an entry that shows the prevalence of attitudes towards "native languages" in other parts of Britain as well as Wales:

That until the middle of the nineteenth century the Celtic tongue in its varieties of Gaelic, Welsh, Irish and Manx, should be employed as a vernacular, is a matter not less of surprise than of national discredit . . . No thought appears to have been bestowed on the fact that large masses of the population were isolated from general progress on account of their inability to speak English

The great Welsh industrialist David Davies of Llandinam expressed similar concerns. In a speech at the National Eisteddfod, Aberystwyth, in 1865 (long before the all-Welsh rule was established), he said:

I am a great admirer of the Welsh language, and I have no sympathy with those who revile it. Still, I have seen enough of the world to know that the best medium to make money is by the English language. I want to advise everyone of my countrymen to master it perfectly; if you are content with brown bread, you can of course, remain where you are. If you wish to enjoy the luxuries of life, with white bread to boot, the only way to do so is by learning English well. I know what it is to eat both

In the same year, in a speech to the Congregational Union, Welshman Griffith Richards stated:

It would be an enormous advantage to the Welsh and to the English if the Welsh language became extinct before tomorrow morning and the Welsh became absorbed into the English nation

The situation was not universally applauded; there were those such as Thomas Price, speaking before the Congregational Union in the same year, who deplored what he saw happening to the language and to his people:

Englishmen, English capital and enterprise, English customs, and unhappily English vices, are rushing in upon us like mighty irresistible torrents carrying away before them our ancient language, social habits, and even our religious customs and influence over the masses

H.L. Spring also commented wistfully on the situation:

Had the mineral wealth of the principality been discovered by the natives, and could it have been properly put to use before they were subdued to English rule, they might have preserved their language and have been the foremost amongst British subjects in wealth, manufactures and arts; but as the English have, through Providence means of opening out her resources, it is plain that the English element must universally prevail. (H.L. Spring, Lady Cambria 1867)

In Caernarfon, Gwynedd, an area still predominantly Welsh-speaking in the 1990's, there is a high school named after Sir Hugh Owen, a pioneer in education in Wales. Owen's untiring efforts to secure a university for Wales led to a commission to promote the idea in 1854, the university itself to be established through voluntary contributions. Owen's pleas to the government for financial help were unheeded, and it was public subscription that brought to fruition the old dream of Owain Glyndwr. In 1872 Aberystwyth University opened its doors to twenty-six students in a very impressive building on the seafront designed as a hotel, but which was fortunately vacant at the time. For the first few years of its existence, the college depended greatly on voluntary contributions from the nonconformist chapels, but it attracted many who would come to have profound influence on the culture of their nation. In so many areas it provided the foundations that led to the national revival of Wales in the late 1890's.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:26 AM

The work of Owen M. Edwards, in a period of language decline, was crucial in this renaissance. A native of Llanuwchllyn on the shores of Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake), Oxford University lecturer and later Chief inspector of Schools of the newly-created Welsh Board of Education, Edwards did much to popularize the use of Welsh as an everyday language. Alarmed by the decline in the language, he published a great number of Welsh books and magazines, with particular interest in works for children. In 1898 he founded Urdd y Delyn, a forerunner of Urdd Gobaith Cymru, the largest youth organization in Wales and one that still conducts its activities through the medium of Welsh.

Despite the success of organizations such as Urdd, one problem has remained for the survival of Welsh ever since the Acts of Union in the middle 1500's. The Welsh language has considered to be a great hindrance to one's feeling of Britishness. Even before the First World War, when British soldiers from all parts of the kingdom marched off under the Union Jack to fight the Boers in South Africa, the feeling took hold that "...side by side with the honourable contribution which the Welsh could make to the British Empire, the Welsh language could be considered an irrelevance..."

This idea was implanted even more firmly in the Welsh mind by the intention of the leaders of the Welsh-speaking community to show that the peculiarities of Welsh culture were not a threat to the unity and tranquility of the kingdom of Britain. When ideas of a separate government for the Welsh people began to take hold in the late 19th century, once again, the idea of a British national identity found itself overwhelming the purely local, isolated, and all too often ridiculed, aspirations of those who wished for a Welsh nationhood.

In mainly English-speaking South Wales in particular, feelings on the matter were sharply expressed. At a crucial meeting in Newport, Monmouthshire, in January 1898 it was firmly stated (by Robert Byrd) that there were thousands of true Liberals who would never submit "to the domination of Welsh ideas." With few exceptions, this seems to sum up the attitude of most Welsh politicians of the next one hundred years. There were too many in Wales whose close ties with English interests made the idea of home rule repugnant and one to be fought against at all costs.

Welsh-speaking Lloyd George, future Prime Minister, who was howled down at the meeting, questioned if the mass of the Welsh nation was willing to be dominated by a coalition of English capitalists who had made their fortunes in Wales. Yet even his motives were held with suspicion as being entirely self-serving. And, as a fluent Welsh speaker, he was mistrusted by many in the audience who looked with suspicion upon those who could speak a language that they could not.

In 1881, the Aberdare Commission's report showed that provisions for intermediate and higher education in Wales lagged behind those in the other parts of Britain; it suggested that there should be two new Welsh universities, Cardiff and Bangor. It was found, however, that there was a lack of adequately trained students for these new colleges and thus, in 1899 the Welsh Intermediate Act came into being that gave the new county councils the power to raise a levy (to be matched by the Government) for the provision of secondary schools.In 1896 came the Central Welsh Board to oversee these schools.

The result was that thousands of Welsh children from all levels of society were able to continue their education at a secondary level. Another result, however, was the continued decline of the status accorded the Welsh language, for the new secondary schools were thoroughly English, only very few even bothering to offer Welsh lessons. An educated class of Welsh people was thus created that fostered the cultural traditions of their country in the language of England.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:26 AM

Survival of the Welsh Language: Part VIII

In the meantime, in an age where radio and movies began to play important roles in the regular everyday life of the people of Wales, the language continued its precipitous decline. North Wales got its news from and followed the events in Liverpool; South Wales was more tied to happenings in Bristol or even London. Links between the two areas of Wales were practically non-existent; roads and rails went West to East, not North to South, and the flow of ideas and language went in the same directions. Any sense of a national Welsh identity was disappearing rapidly along with the language. In an attempt to stop the rot, a new party came into being in 1925, Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru (The National Party of Wales) that was fiercely devoted to purely Welsh causes such as preservation of the language and culture. In 1926, Saunders Lewis took over the presidency, but the party received very little general support and, in some areas of Wales, was the object of ridicule. It was to take forty years before Plaid Cymru was taken seriously and gained its first seat in Parliament. Much had been happening until then to further erode Welsh as a common language and the idea of the Welsh as a common, united people worthy of their own government as part of a greater Britain.

In 1918, politician Arthur Henderson, (leader of the Labour Party), issued the following statement:

Given self-government, Wales might establish itself as a modern Utopia and develop its own institutions, its own culture, its own ideal of democracy in politics, industry and social life, as an example and an inspiration to the rest of the world

Henderson's views were not endorsed by the majority of members of his party. Eleven years later, in Welsh Outlook, Saunders Lewis, at the time a non-politician, echoed the sentiment:

Give [Wales] self-government and you will give her a capital city where her writers will con- gregate and meet artists and form a society. Give her a government and a capital and she will in time gather an urban class which will be the basis of a new aristocracy

The views of Henderson and Lewis, as imaginative and forward-looking as they were, did not appeal to the majority of the Welsh people' at the time, those who thought the politician and the poet were those of a very small minority indeed. In the meantime, the process of anglicization continued unabated; more people living in Wales considered themselves Anglo-Welsh than Welsh. Much of the blame (or for some,the praise), can be placed on the educational system that, even before the outset of the Second World War was geared to producing loyal Britons. When World War ll finally arrived, there was much more unanimity of support throughout Britain than there had been for the First World War. And there was less trauma inflicted upon the people of Wales, for this was a crusade against Fascism and Nazism and Hitler that almost everyone could subscribe to. It was also a fight to preserve the Empire. The heavy bombing meant a large exodus of children from the targeted larger English cities into the more rural areas. In Wales, thousands of refugees learned Welsh, but in many areas their English language overwhelmed the local speech.or tipped the scales against its survival.

To counter the linguistic threat to the Welsh culture at Aberystwyth, a private Welsh-medium school was established.by Ifan ab Owen Edwards, the son of the famous educator. Apart from this little school, however, it wasn't until Llanelli Welsh School began in 1947 that the idea of teaching children through the medium of Welsh began to take hold in earnest. Other schools followed, so that by 1970, even Cardiff had its Ysgol Dewi Sant (St. David's School) one of the largest primary schools in Wales, teaching through the medium of Welsh.

The increase in the Welsh primary schools was accompanied by a demand for a Welsh secondary education, and the first such schools opened in Flintshire, Ysgol Gyfun Glan Clwyd and Ysgol Maes Garmon in areas in which the great majority of the parents were monolingual English. The success of these schools were followed by Ysgol Rhydfelen in Glamorganshire in 1962 and by many others by the 1980's.

It may have taken a long while, and for many, it might have been too late, but the change in the attitude of the Welsh people toward their language has been dramatic since 1962. Not only that, but great strides have been made in convincing immigrants to Wales that their children would not suffer the loss of their English language if they were to be taught through the medium of Welsh, and that a bilingual education may well be superior to one that confines them to a single language. Many a non-Welsh speaking parent is now anxious to point with pride at the achievement of their children in the Welsh language. It is no longer fashionable in Wales to refer to the language as "dying," and the activities of the Eisteddfod as "the kicks of a dying nation," sentiments the author heard at Swansea in 1964. What caused the sea-change?

One place we can start to look for the answer is the media, especially public radio. Beginning in 1922, the BBC broadcasts in Wales were eagerly awaited. its voice, however, was one that gave prestige and authority to its views, the voice of a public-school-educated upper-class Englishman. In addition, the majority of broadcasts led a majority of British people to believe that a BBC accent was not only desirable, but was the correct one, and that their own accent, dialect, or in the case of much of Wales, their language, was inferior. It was Radio Eireann, the voice of the Irish Republic, that broadcast the only regular Welsh language material, beginning in 1927.

At time, and for a long period afterward, incredible as it now seems, the head of the BBC station in Cardiff ignored protests from devotees of the Welsh language who wished to hear Welsh language programs. There were then almost one million speakers of Welsh. But aided by such attitudes of those in authority, a rapid decline was about to begin. This was not inevitable. Perhaps the language would have even advanced, given sufficient air time in the late 1920's and early 30's. The problem was that most Welsh listeners enjoyed their English language programs; it was only the few who realized that their enjoyment was coming at the expense of their cherished, native tongue.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:27 AM

Survival of the Welsh Language: Part IX

One who did take notice, and one who provided the second place to look for the answer was Ifan ab Owen Edwards, whose father Owen M. Edwards had founded Urdd y Delyn in 1898. The son, in his turn, established the most influential of all youth movements in Wales, Urdd Gobaith Cymru in 1922; the movement has involved countless thousands of Welsh boys and girls ever since, conducting their camps, sports activities, singing festivals, eisteddfodau, etc. all through the medium of Welsh and proving that the language was not one that should be confined to an older, chapel-going, puritanical generation. Continued protests against the policies of the BBC, unable and in most cases unwilling to cater to the new, younger generation eventually led to the BBC studio at Bangor broadcasting Welsh language programs. In 1935, and in July of 1937 the Welsh Region of the BBC finally began to broadcast on a separate wavelength. Radio Cymru, however, had to wait until 1977. Another pivotal figure in the fight for survival of the Welsh language, and one who made good use of the power of the radio broadcast was the poet and dramatist Saunders Lewis. Like Ifan ab Owen Edwards, Lewis was greatly concerned that, unless something was done, and done quickly, the Welsh language as a living entity would disappear before the end of the century. Lewis, a major Welsh poet and dramatist, generally considered as the greatest literary figure in the Welsh language of this century, was born in Cheshire into a Welsh family; he later became a lecturer at the newly established University College, Swansea. Heavily influenced by events in Ireland and the struggle for national identity in that country that took place in the political sphere, he was one of the founders of Plaid Cymru in 1925 at the Pwllheli National Eisteddfod, becoming its president in 1926.

Lewis envisioned a new role for the people of Wales that would transform their position as a member of the British Empire into one in which they could see themselves as one of the nations that helped found European civilization. As he viewed it:

What then is our nationalism?...To fight not for Welsh independence but for the civilization of Wales. To claim for Wales not independence but freedom. (Egwyddorion Cenedlaetholdeb, 1926)

Ten years later, with two companions, D.J. Williams and Lewis Valentine, Lewis deliberately set a fire at Penyberth in the Llyn Peninsular, North Wales, a site that the military wished to use for construction of a bombing school. The three then turned themselves in to the authorities and were duly indicted and summoned to appear in court. The failure of the court to agree on a verdict at Caernarfon, a town sympathetic to their cause, meant the removal of their trial to London, where they were each sentenced to nine months imprisonment. Lewis was dismissed from his teaching post at Swansea even before the arrival of the guilty verdict at the Old Bailey. Leading Welsh historians agree that The fire at Penyberth should be regarded as a cause celebre in the struggle for Welsh identity; it certainly had its impact on Welsh thinking, an impact that was not wholly dampened by the onset of Word War ll which again focused the people of Britain on their shared identity in the face of an enemy that threatened their survival as a nation. The pacificism of Lewis was an affront to many, even within Plaid Cymru who saw the need to defeat as overriding any other concern. HIs staunch support of Wales, and his willingness to suffer in her cause, however, was significant in events some years after the war.

With the arrival of peace, the great increase in the number of people owing automobiles and the improvements in the road system meant that many areas in Wales were easy to get to. Their beauty and tranquility became an irresistible magnet to thousands ready to retire from the squalor and overcrowding of the big industrial cities of northern and middle England. Welsh communities, especially along the North Wales coast, found themselves inundated with a flood of newcomers who were either too old to learn the language or couldn't be bothered. Many of the younger couples had no idea that Wales had a language of its own, or when they did find out were adamant that their children be educated through the medium of English. Far more significant was the fact that it was far too easy to get by perfectly well in Wales without knowing a word of its language.

The whole north Wales coast, known as "the Welsh Riviera" became first a weekend playground for, and then an extension of, Merseyside. The mid-Wales coast, similarly was transformed by a huge influx of people from the Midlands. LIverpool accents were more common in Llandudno than Welsh; Birmingham accents common in Borth, or even Aberystwyth. The author vividly remembers visiting a pub in Bangor where every customer but one could speak Welsh, but all of whom used English to defer to a monolingual Englishman (who had been in the area forty years without learning a single word of Welsh). The same situation was found throughout much of North Wales.

The result of such massive invasions, often by retirees, certainly by those with little incentive to learn Welsh was drastic. From almost a million Welsh speakers in 1931, the number fell to just over 500,000 in less than fifty years.despite the large increase in population. Strongholds of the language and its attendant culture were crumbling fast, and it seemed that nothing could be done to stem the tide. In 1957 occurred an event that exemplified the situation: the Liverpool Corporation got the go-ahead from Parliament to drown a valley in Meirionydd (Merionethshire) called Tryweryn, which housed a strong and vibrant Welsh-speaking community. The removal of the people of Tryweryn to make way for a source of water for an English city convinced many in Wales that the nation was on its way to extinction. The survival of the Welsh language seemed irreversibly doomed, and no-one seemed to care.

Then something happened; someone seemed to care after all. At Pontarddulais in 1962, at the summer school of Plaid Cymru, a new movement began. Mainly involving a younger active post-war Welsh generation, many of them college students, the Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society) decided to take matters in their own hands to try to halt the decline of the language by forcing the hand of the government. Saviors to many, scoundrels and troublemakers to others, frustrated members of the Society had been galvanized into action by a talk given on the BBC by Saunders Lewis in February, 1962.

In his talk, entitled Tynged yr Iaith (Fate of the language) Lewis asked his listeners to make it impossible for local or central government business to be conducted without the use of the Welsh language. This was the only way, he felt, to ensure its survival. Plaid Cymru could not help, as it was a political party, so the banner was taken up by Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg. At narrow Trefechan Bridge, Aberystwyth in February, 1963, members of the society sat down in the road and stopped all traffic trying to get into town over the bridge, or trying to leave town on the same route.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:27 AM

Survival of the Welsh Language: Part IX

Undeterred by prison sentences for disturbing the peace and for their subsequent destruction of government property (mostly road signs), and led by such activists as Fred Fransis, and folk-singer Dafydd Iwan, the society began a serious campaign. In the face of much hostility from passivist locals and prosecution from the authorities, Cymdeithas pressed for the right to use Welsh on all government documents, from Post Office forms to television licenses, from driving licenses to tax forms. In particular, the society engaged in surreptitious night time activities, removing English-only sign posts and directional instructions from the highways or daubing them with green paint. All over Wales, in early morning, motorists were faced with the green paint and daubed slogan that mysteriously had appeared overnight. It became frustrating and expensive for local authorities and the Ministry of Transport to keep replacing road signs. Eventually, in 1963, faced with an ever-growing campaign, increased police and court costs, destruction of government property, and the vociferous demands for action by an increasingly angry and frustrated national movement, the central government decided to establish a committee to look at the legal status of Welsh. Its report, issued two years later, recommended that the language be given "equal validity" with English, a diluted version of which was placed into the Welsh Language Act of 1967.

There came about a new feeling in the land. The young people of Wales were answering the call of Saunders Lewis; the older generation began to reconsider their passiveness. Dafydd Iwan and many of his contemporaries inaugurated a whole new movement in popular Welsh music, translating English and American pops into Welsh, or writing stirring new lyrics and music or protest. The popularity of mournful, funereal hymns sung by male voice choirs found a competitor, the loud, heavy rhythms and rebellious music of new bands. Groups such as Ar Log and Plethyn rediscovered ancient Welsh folk music and brought it up to date. The National Eisteddfod entered into the spirit, each year erecting a Roc Pavilion, where such groups could attract the younger audiences. Wales began to finally shake off the shrouds cast by the Methodist Revival of over a century before.

Since the 1960's, in the author's birthplace Flint and in other towns in Clwyd, attempts to reintroduce the Welsh language in the schools have been warmly welcomed by many of the townsfolk, and a whole new generation of children who can speak, read and write Welsh may help ensure the future of the language (and ultimately, of Plaid Cymru) in such heavily anglicized areas. Other areas, such as the Cardiff region and the Valleys have already experienced some growth in the numbers of those able to speak Welsh.

Factors for this increase include the rise of a Welsh bureaucracy; further expansion of the Welsh-oriented mass media; the continued activities of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, with its appeal to the young generation; and the effects of the Welsh Language Act of 1967. Perhaps most important is the subtle change in attitude towards the language brought about by the advantages that can be gained by its speakers in both social and economic fields. Of crucial importance in winning the hearts and minds of the non-Welsh speakers who have young children has been Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin (the Welsh Nursery School Movement) founded in 1971.

In the anglicized areas of Wales, we may yet again read such sentiments as that given by Sir Walter Scott, in a letter to his son, dated December, 1820:

You hear the Welsh spoken much about you, and if you can pick it up without interfering with more important labours, it will be worth while

In the late 1990's, as we shall see, one of the more important labors of many of the Welsh people has been to continue the fight to preserve their language, and with it, much of the culture upon which it depends. To preserve this language, the ancient, magnificent tongue of the British people for so many, many centuries, will be indeed, a labor of love to make up for so much past pain.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:28 AM

Welsh Culture & Traditions

There are many great traditions of Wales, but three stand out that make it culturally distinct from its neighbors: the Eisteddfod, the Noson Lawen and the Cymanfa Ganu. Of these, the Eisteddfod is probably the most ancient and certainly the most popular. Most towns and villages conduct an annual Eisteddfod in one way or another. It is simply a competition, but the word translates as a "Chairing," with the winner being awarded a chair upon which he is ceremoniously crowned to great acclaim. Winners of local eisteddfodau (pl) go on to compete on a county or regional level, eventually reaching the Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales (Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Cymru ) in which they compete with others from all parts of the country. The "National" is the largest folk festival in Europe: held in a different town the first week in August each year. Alternating between a venue in South Wales one year and North Wales the next, it draws vast crowds to enjoy its week-long activities.

Eisteddfod: A Cultural Competition
The idea of the Eisteddfod is very ancient. It began, as did many Welsh institutions, as a challenge from outside. This was the Norman invasion of Britain and the consequent subjugation of much of the population of Wales to Norman rule. In Wales proper, the coming of the Normans had the paradoxical effect of bringing about a brilliant new literary culture that was both Welsh and European in its outlook. There was an explosion of literary activity mainly made possible through the proliferation, throughout Wales, of monasteries and friaries, with their reverence for historical and literary traditions and their expertise in strengthening and preserving those traditions. Of great significance for Welsh culture was the revival of the bardic orders, indeed, the expansion of those orders led to the first eisteddfod, for the bards were anxious to come together in the spirit of competition. It is this era, too, that saw the blossoming of the Arthurian tradition, in which the Welsh people thought of themselves as the true British people, the heirs to Arthur and the glorious heroic age attributed to his time.

A "sitting" of bards, or poets, took place as early as 1176, when the Lord Rhys convened the people of Wales to Cardigan (Aberteifi). Rhys (Rhys ap Grufffudd) had been appointed justice of South Wales by Henry II, and his rights to the territories he controlled were recognized by the king. The purpose of this meeting, apart from demonstrating the position of preeminence held by Lord Rhys among the Welsh princes, was to regulate the business of the bardic orders. Metrical rules were set up, and licenses were given to those who had completed their apprenticeship. The event is described by an anonymous writer in the historical document, "Brut y Tywysogion":

At Christmas in that year the Lord Rhys ap Gruffudd
held court in splendour at Cardigan, in the castle.
And he set two kinds of contests there; one between
bards and poets, another between harpists and crowders
and pipers and various classes of music-craft.
And he had two chairs set for the victors.

Other noteworthy eisteddfodau were held at Carmarthen in 1451, and at Caerwys in 1523 and 1567, when further rules were drawn up and licenses granted. After Caerwys, with the gradual break-up or anglicization of some of the great families of Wales and the loss of their patronage, the tradition of the early Eisteddfod, for all practical purposes, became extinct, and it was only thanks to the vivid imagination of an 18th century London Welshman that it survived and flourished anew.

There is a Welsh expression that translates as "The best Welshmen live outside of Wales," and it is noticeable that most advocates of Welsh nationhood in the late 18th century lived in London. It was there that the visionary Edward Williams, better known to posterity by his bardic title Iolo Morganwg, in a stirring speech to the London Welsh Society, gave his spellbound listeners a sense of what it meant to belong to the ancient Celtic race and what they could do to ensure that the ancient Welsh traditions became better known and handed down to posterity. In 1792, a dramatic address by another London Welshman, Sir William Jones had announced the discovery of North America three hundred years before Columbus by Prince Madoc. Jones spoke of the so-called Welsh Indians, descendants of Madoc's explorers, whom he praised as "a free and distinct people, who have preserved their liberty, language, and some trace of their religion to this very day." Though Jones' discoveries were later discounted, the myth of the founding of America by Madoc and a group of fellow Welsh explorers has persisted; it plays a great part in much Welsh literature written subsequent to the late 18th century. It was Jones, too, working in India, who discovered the link between the Celtic languages and Sanskrit, in which the sacred writings of India were written, and this connection gave to the Welsh language a long and proud ancestry of which the nation could be rightly proud.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:31 AM

In the winning of their independence by the Americans, the writings of Welshman Richard Price had been most influential. When the French Revolution helped spread ideas of liberty throughout Europe, the London Welsh, in a state we can only now describe as euphoria, saw hopes of a revival of Welsh nationhood, if not that of independence from the British Crown. Their first gesture was reestablish the moribund Eisteddfod. The centuries old festival of poetry was to be given a national affirmation, but first it needed a sense of dignity and a clothing of pageantry. Both were provided by the vivid imagination of Iolo Morgannwg. As there was a sad lack of a coherent body of Welsh cultural traditions, Iolo invented them, along with an elaborate and fancy ceremony. Most of these were entirely unknown to the Welsh people, but have since been expanded and elaborated to become a much-loved part of the Eisteddfod ever since. It was Iolo, a stonemason from the Vale of Glamorgan, who invented the Gorsedd (circle), the guild of bards that today plays such a prominent role in Welsh cultural affairs today and which, in their colorful "druids" robes, provides much of the pageantry and excitement attending the events of the Eisteddfod once a year.

In the 1860's the National Eisteddfod Society was founded, and the modern era of the competitions began. The chief contest is still that of poetry, being separated into two categories: for the Chair, and for the Crown. It is still a marvel that thousands of people gather together to hear the adjudications of the entries in the poetry competition and give their applause and admiration to the winning bard. The Eisteddfod, with its modern competitions expanded to include the arts and crafts, country dancing, folk singing, choral competitions of all kinds and drama and prose contests has, over the years, provided a tremendous impetus to the fostering of Welsh as a living, breathing language. No English is allowed on the stage of the huge pavilion. The Eisteddfod even caters to the younger crowd with concerts by modern Welsh Rock groups, and on the Eisteddfod grounds,the Maes (meadow) one can meet old friends, listen to music, browse through hundreds of pavilions that sell Welsh books and records, arts and crafts, goods made of Welsh coal or slate or wool, music and musical instruments, food and drink of all kinds (though alcohol is still forbidden); or catch up with the latest happenings at the various society tents. We must not forget, too, the yearly gathering of the Welsh Youth League (Urdd Gobaith Cymru), second in importance only to the National Eisteddfod of Wales, which also helps keeps the language and cultural traditions of the Welsh people alive by fostering competitions in singing, dancing, poetry, prose and drama, all conducted through the medium of the Welsh language among the nation's youth.

In addition to the National, there is another important Eisteddfod in Wales with, for many, a much broader appeal. After World War II, with its shocking waste of life and disruption of much that had been held dear for so long, a brilliant idea came to the mind of an official of the British Council, Welshman Harold Tudor of Coedpoeth, a little town near Wrexham, Clwyd. 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. The music organizer of the National, W.S. Gwynn Williams, was very receptive to the idea, especially as it entailed the desire of the Welsh people to contribute in their own unique manner to the healing of the terrible scars left by the War. The site chosen for the new festival was along the banks of the River Dee, in a meadow under the ancient castle of Dinas Bran, and the first Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod duly took place in the summer of 1947, with fourteen different nationalities represented. 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 of Llangollen for one whole week every July. (One of the early 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).

Cymanfa Ganu: Hymn Singing
The next Welsh cultural tradition of importance is that of the Cymanfa Ganu. We would expect this to be an ancient custom for a writer as early as Geraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) noted in 1193 that the Welsh people:

". . .in their musical concerts do not sing in
unison like the inhabitants of other
countries, but in many different parts...
You will hear as many different parts as
there are performers who all at length
unite with organic melody."

Yet the Cymanfa Ganu with its emphasis on hymn singing in parts is not an ancient event at all, for it grew out of the Temperance Movement in the mid-nineteenth century. In South Wales, Choral societies were founded as one solution to the grave problem of drink. Because of the unsanitary conditions in the rapidly-growing and hurriedly-thrown together housing developments, water was unsafe to drink and beer was drunk in prodigious quantities. This was one of the worst consequences of the industrialization that was rapidly changing the face of the valleys. To help the workers occupy their time and keep them away from the taverns, the choral movement reflected the social aspirations of the proponents of temperance. On Christmas Day, 1837, a temperance procession marched through the streets of Dowlais, joined by choirs from neighboring towns. Inspired by the success of the day's events, the Gwent and Glamorgan Temperance Movement decided to hold an annual festival of choirs and at the Eisteddfod at Aberdare of 1846, choral competition was added to the list of events. It has remained ever since as one of the most popular and best attended events. Many hymns have been written expressly for the Cymanfa. In the chapels of Wales, choral singing of the beautiful, stirring hymns went hand-in-hand with the temperance movement. In areas of increasing anglicization, the chapels offered a refuge for the besieged language, and in the great religious revivals of the late 19th century, it was inevitable that certain days a year be set aside purely for the singing of hymns. These occasions became the Cymanfaoedd Ganu,(pl) or Hymn Meetings. Conducted entirely in Welsh, they were led by conductors specially trained in bringing forth from their congregations the Welsh hwyl or emotion. Following months of rehearsals in four-part singing, the meetings often lasted all day long. With the decline of attendance in chapel going, especially over the last quarter of a century, many towns in Wales no longer hold the annual Cymanfa, but the tradition has experienced a great revival in North America, where, in a different city each year, thousands of Welsh Americans and Canadians get together to sing their beloved hymns in what has now become a four-day festival.