Welsh folklore

A prominent figure in Welsh folklore, Twm Siôn Cati is the subject of many tales of cunning and trickery, who is also said to have been a respected antiquary, genealogist, poet and to have risen to become a magistrate and mayor of Brecon.

Y Tylwyth Teg illustration

Welsh folklore is the collective term for the folklore of the Welsh people. It encompasses topics related to Welsh mythology, folk tales, customs, and oral tradition.

Welsh folklore is related to Irish and Scottish folklore due to its Celtic traditions, as well as English folklore, it also shares similarities with Breton and Cornish folklore due to shared history ^[1]

History

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a number of laws were passed to supress Welsh culture. The 1401 and 1402 act, Penal laws against the Welsh forbid any public assembly for Welsh people as well as prohibiting Welsh men (and English men who married Welsh women) from holding senior public office, bearing arms or purchasing property in English boroughs. The laws were reaffirmed throughout the fifteenth century, before being replaced by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. As such, the Welsh-speaking gentry were replaced with a highly anglicised one, who used the English language and English customs. The laws had a substantial impact on Welsh culture, legally limiting both the Welsh language and culture to the lower classes. ^[2]

Despite the demise of an affluent Welsh class, Wales saw a great number of cultural and educational movements in eighteenth century. As "the decay or demise of an ancient way of life" was matched by an unprecedented level of activity which worked to preserve or develop Welsh culture and an interest in all things Welsh, regardless of social status. ^[3]

While the "historical myth-making of the eighteenth century" saw a new wave of patriotic interest in folklore and folk-culture, the nineteenth century saw this again challenged by wider British state. In 1847 the "Treachery of the Blue Books" was viewed by many as a renewed attack on ordinary Welsh life by the Anglican church and the British government. ^[4] While the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw Wales as a state which "lacked status", it paradoxically saw Welsh folk-culture flourish. ^[5]

Sources

There are many examples of folk literary traditions in Nennius' book Historia Brittonum , written around the start of the 9th century. There are scattered motifs of Middle Welsh prose, and many references can also be found in the works of the bards: for example in some of Taliesin's works and in that of the Poets of the Princes.

It is only comparatively recently that the Welsh folk tales were collected and published. There are English language volumes such as The Cambrian Popular Antiquities by Peter Roberts (1815). One of the first Welsh language books is Ystên Sioned ("Janet's Pitcher", 1882), but this was preceded by a number of articles in Welsh language magazines. Y Genhinen ("The Leek") was established to promote studies of folk literature and to safeguard the traditions of Wales.

See also

• Welsh Mythology

References

1. Owen, Elias (1896). "Welsh Folk-Lore" . Retrieved 2 December 2011.
2. "BBC Wales – History – Themes – The 1536 Act of Union". BBC. Retrieved 2022-09-07.
3. P, Morgan (1983). Ranger, T (ed.). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge University Press. pp. 43, 56. ISBN   9781107604674.
4. P, Morgan (1983). Ranger, T (ed.). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge University Press. p. 98. ISBN   9781107604674.
5. P, Morgan (1983). Ranger, T (ed.). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge University Press. p. 78. ISBN   9781107604674.

Further reading

• Juliette M. Wood (1988). "Classifying Folk Narrative Using the Type/Motif Method: A Case-Study on Welsh Material". In: Folk Life, 27:1, pp. 95-103. DOI: 10.1179/flk.1988.27.1.95