Welsh Myth and Legend and Magic

Nos Calan Gaeaf • A Welsh Halloween 💀

"All those who had been drowned in the sea came up to ride over the waves on white horses, and held remarkable revels."

hellohistoria.blogspot.com/2016/10/nos-...

#Wales #History

Sin-eating & Singing | A Welsh Funeral. From Ty Corff to Sin-eating, I'll be exploring death, burial and mourning customs/ traditions relating to Wales.

Sin-eating & Singing | A Welsh Funeral ⚰️

"The night before ye Burying all the neighbours & friends of ye Deceased come & watch his Body & to say their prayers."

hellohistoria.substack.com/p/sin-eating...

#Wales #History

It's not clear to me. And what happens when an SM wants to switch parties?

Apparently he referred to him as 'Welsh Dave'.

My hometown of Penarth literally means 'Bear's Head' in modern Welsh but likely derives from pen (head/top)+garth (hill/ridge). It's believed locally that the name comes from the headland being shaped like a bear's head. There's even a pub named The Bear's Head.

There's a book launch for this today, at King's Yard in Cardiff.
www.facebook.com/events/79496...

Early Irish research seminar today:
Nia Wyn Jones is speaking about Trioedd Ynys Prydein, the legendary Welsh "Triads of Britain".

Over The Vale of Glamorgan today & once the rain cleared and the sun popped out this Robin was the first bird out and singing beautiful melodies across the fields 🎶🎶 😍 🪶 🦉 #birdingwales #ukbirding #birds

Paul Hemingway of Operation Nightingale, splendidly attired in ancient garb, playing an Iron Age carnyx in front of a lake.

The lake of Llyn Cerrig Bach, Anglesey-one of those rare places where the veil between then & now can feel like mist, & never more so than, having spent the weekend hunting for its lost Iron Age artefacts, & with its ancient peat ingrained beneath fingernails, someone lifts a carnyx to their lips
1/

#BookologyThursday
"Take this ring and put it on thy finger, and put this stone in thy hand, and close thy fist over the stone; and so long as thou conceal it, it will conceal thee too ..."
The Mabinogion - Eluned helps Owain during his encounter with the Black Knight of the Fountain.

#MythologyMonday
Imprisoned in an underwater cell since infancy, Mabon ap Modron's escape is finally brought about by arthurian knights Cai & Bedwyr, aided by the wisdom of the ancient Salmon of Llyn llyw.
[Mabinogion - Culhwch and Olwen]
🎨heartofthewitchspath & Margaret Jones

Wait till you get to "Gwyn: Don't knock our national heritage, girlie! Them ropy old tales is all we got!"

An ancient landscape of early copper mines & Romano-British roundhouses 🛖⛰️

Cwm Dyli below Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon, Gwynedd

📷 My own, Sunday

Introducing Gwennol - A Fresh Sheep’s Milk Cheese Gwennol - a fresh sheep’s milk cheese made in the traditional feta style, matured in brine for a minimum of two months.

#cawsteificheese #cheese #teificheese #sheepscheese #cawsteifi #rawmilkcheese #welshcheese #realcheese #welshfoodanddrink #welshfood #foodanddrinkwales

The cover of They Are Still Here (Mae Nhw Yma O Hyd). The image is of the sorceror, Gwydion, surrounded by wild animals (wolf, boar, deer) in a Celtic knotwork frame. Gwydion's hat is crowned with antlers. He carries an axe in his right hand and an oak twig in his left. Art by Josh Arklin.

Morning everyone. Another Welsh history story will be coming your way later today, but first I wanted to do an update to thank everyone for a great weekend, and to give a boost to a few other people.
www.kickstarter.com/...

I've been baking soul cakes for the living and for the dead today. Mine are simple, rustic-looking things but made with love. I wrote about their importance in Shropshire over on the blog -

nearlyknowledgeablehistory.blogspot.com/2023/10/hall...

#folklore #folkcustoms #Shropshire #Halloween

That'd be great but Labour never do that whereas PC/GP/LD have cooperated in the past. I don't think any pact between those three would work in the new Senedd system with PR and huge constituencies.

In thanking his patron, Maredudd ap Rhys drew a comparison with a character named Madog who was apparently known in tradition: Mewn awr dda minnau ar ddŵr, O fodd hael, a fydd heliwr. Madog wych, mwyedig wedd, Iawn genau Owain Gwynedd, Ni fynnai dir, f’enaid oedd, Na da mawr ond y moroedd. Minnau rhodiaf yr afon Ar hyd y gro â rhwyd gron. [At a fitting time it is I who will be upon water, Enabled by generous means, a hunter. Splendid Madog, of great countenance, Proper scion of Owain Gwynedd, He did not desire land, he was my inspiration, Nor [did he desire] great wealth other than the seas. I for my part travel the river All along the gravel with a round net.]

This is the oldest surviving reference we have to a relevant Madog, from a fifteenth century Welsh poem - he's clearly known as a voyager, but no mention of America

Translation here by Jerry Hunter, whose full overview you can read with a free JSTOR account:

www.jstor.org/stable/10.56...

The cover of They Are Still Here (Mae Nhw Yma O Hyd). The image is of the sorceror, Gwydion, surrounded by wild animals (wolf, boar, deer) in a Celtic knotwork frame. Gwydion's hat is crowned with antlers. He carries an axe in his right hand and an oak twig in his left. Art by Josh Arklin.

We are over 60% funded, which is fantastic. Soon it will be time to talk about stretch goals. In the meantime, today's update features one of the most famous pieces of Welsh folklore, the story of the woman of Llyn Fan Fach: www.kickstarter.com/...

Plaid, Greens and LD had a Remain pact in Wales in the 2019 GE. Only one of them stood in each constituency. The by-election is FPTP and the SM will only be in until May. Greens and LD have little to gain with these tiny vote proportions but it's very significant for Reform if they get the seat.

I recently bought a off peak period return ticket.
Person at ticket office: "It's an off peak ticket but you can use at any time."
Me: "That's my kind of off peak ticket!"

Celtic languages in the 1880s.

The cover of They Are Still Here (Mae Nhw Yma O Hyd). The image is of the sorceror, Gwydion, surrounded by wild animals (wolf, boar, deer) in a Celtic knotwork frame. Gwydion's hat is crowned with antlers. He carries an axe in his right hand and an oak twig in his left. Art by Josh Arklin.

Today's update in the Kickstarter campaign is about Walter Map, a 12th century writer of amusing stories, some of which featured Welsh folklore.
www.kickstarter.com/...

#WyrdWednesday
King Arthur's quest was in search of the magical Cauldron of Dyrnwch - folklore said that the cauldron would only boil to provide food for the brave, it would never boil for those who were cowardly.

I don't look at them once they're published. Just think about the next book.

A stone grave marker inscribed in Latin stands in a grass covered cemetery

A stone grave marker with church in the background

A 6th century pillar at St Llawddog's #Cilgerran #SirBenfro with a Latin inscription:

TRENEGUSSI FILI MACUTRENI HIC IACIT

'Trenegussus son of Ma(r)cus Treni, here he lies’

and one in og(h)am:

TRENAGUS MAQI MAQITRENI

'Trenagus son of Mac-Treni’

📷 Aug 2015

#EpigraphyTuesday #TombTuesday

Bronze age gold jewellery stolen in raid on St Fagans museum in Cardiff South Wales police issue public appeal for information after burglary at one of Wales’s most beloved museums

Awful news! Following the theft of the Ely Bronze Age torc & a Bronze Age bracelet in 2024,now more Bronze Age gold has been stolen from St Fagans Museum in Cardiff. 😔

#Archaeology 🏺 #Gold #Torcs

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

For those unfamiliar with the tale, I can think of no better place to start than W. Jenkyn Thomas’s delightful retelling from ‘The Welsh Fairy Book’ (1907), or the original account by the Rev Edmund Jones in his seminal ‘A Relation of Apparitions…’ (1780) - both of which are freely available online.

Sunday Supplement - Mandelson, political violence, S4C, Welsh Labour and Welsh Revivalism in Imperial Britain - BBC Sounds Political news, discussions and analysis, plus a review of the Sunday papers.

Last chance to listen to Rhys Kaminski-Jones from CAWCS talking with Vaughan Roderick about his new book, Welsh Revivalism in Imperial Britain 1707–1819: True Britons and Celtic Empires. (43:44 minutes into the programme) @rhyskamjones.bsky.social
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

and unfair.