Mari Lwyd - the Old Grey Mare

And we met the Mari Lwyd (Welsh for 'Grey Mare'/ 'Holy Mary')... and privileged to see the Mari out of season at Aberdare Hall, Cardiff as part of the entertainment on the Ballad Conference.


The text below I quote from the Folkwales website:

The Mari is unique to South Wales. In its purest form (still to be seen at
Llangynwyd, near Maesteg, every New Year's Day) the tradition involves the
arrival of the horse and its party at the door of the house or pub, where
they sing several introductory verses. Then comes a battle of wits (known as
pwnco)in which the people inside the door and the Mari party outside
exchange challenges and insults in rhyme. At the end of the battle, which
can be as long as the creativity of the two parties holds out, the Mari
party enters with another song.

Our Mari was the Llantrisant one.


It really was an amazing sight! Mari Lwyd is a tradition not too far removed from the Guising traditions of the Northern Isles of Scotland. Although 'dressing up' at Hallowe'en is well-known, its a fairly modern version of the Hogmanay tradition.

In Orkney, the 'guisers' had their own little folk play and songs which had origins in pre-Reformation times, which praise 'Queen Mary' i.e., the Virgin, 'Queen of Heaven'. Chambers' Book of Days has an excellent write up on it.

Of course, there's the obvious visual connection with the Padstow Hobby 'Oss in Cornwall. The Mari snaps and chases after girls, and generally makes a nuisance of itself, as it did in the hall! Very very impressed that this tradition is being revived in Wales.

Well done Rhiannon for persuading the Mari out of its stable early!

Welsh clogs and old dances

Cardiff University Union was the venue for a night celebrating Welsh folk dance. There were a few comments I didn't agree with - i.e. that the Welsh Methodists and Evangelicals killed off folk dance - don't be anti-Christian, you lot! I've had a few conversations on this subject and certain academics are very proud of their evangelical heritage, they also say that these people were also champions of Welsh language and folklore! I have spoken to Gaels who agree that the church had nowt to do with the death of Gaelic, in fact without being made to read the Bible in Gaelic, they would have lost it altogether!! Some of the best 19th century Gaelic was to be found in sermons! Anyway, the Welsh too, benefited from a Welsh Bible which would in turn re-enliven the language...I'm not going into this, I am merely quoting the likes of Rhiannon Ifans who agrees with me - if you want an argument about it, see her, not me, this isn't a place to argue (addressed to the commenter who didn't even leave their name).



ok, that was a digression, it was just something that annoyed me while I was there. The dances were fantastic! They had been remembered through oral tradition and added to with other known country-dance elements. Us Scots could see clear links with the Scottish & English Country dances, and probably French too.



Clog dancing was also represented on the night by the grown ups and a brilliant wee boy who could snuff out a candle with his clog heels!! Jings! I've never seen such talent! Again there were shades of Highland step dancing and the clog dances of Industrial England.





Dance, I think, is a universal folk phenomenon in that one influenced all and vice versa. I even heard that a Scot went to the Circassian republic and discovered his fiddle tunes and dances were very like what was found there in the Russian continent!

Cardiff Bay

It's the name of a Martyn Joseph song, and it's also seen often in Torchwood and Dr Who! Cardiff Bay is pretty impressive even in the monsoon rains we experienced while we were there for the Ballad Conference!!

In this picture we have the remains of the coal industry, the new Welsh assembly, the old dock buildings, and sneaking out of the rear is the dome of the Millenium Centre. The wooden structures in the water were part of the equipment for taking coal off trucks and into ships for export.

The dock building looks like a red palace!

This stunning brick and terracotta building facing the Cardiff Docks was opened in 1897 as the headquarters of the Cardiff Railway Company (formerly the Bute Docks Company). The 2nd and 3rd Marquesses of Bute were the men who made Cardiff. The 2nd Marquis was of Scots descent and born there in 1793. His father, Lord Mountstuart, moved to Wales after acquiring massive estates there through his marriage to Charlotte Windsor. He commissioned the building of the docks on the Bay and his son was the man who rebuilt Cardiff Castle in the 19th century.

The Millenium Centre opened in 2004, designed to be a landmark for cultural and artistic events. Its stunning design which has a bit of a nod to Glasgow's 'Armadillo' is often seen on telly now because of Russell T Davies' influence on Dr Who and Torchwood.

The spooky thing about the front of the building is no matter where I took photos from, the english motto In these stones, horizons sing shines out at you!! The Welsh is a grander expression of the same sentiment. I think it's lovely.

Here are the words to Martyn Joseph's song:

Took my son and his tear stained face out of Sunday School
As Chapel Hymns began to fade away
Left his mother with the other as we drove across our town
Going to the place where the seagulls and the cranes play
On a Sunday over Cardiff Bay

This is one day of our lives
And on a Sunday over Cardiff Bay
Know that I love youAll of my life
And the old man in the side street he made you smile
Waved at us both so we both waved back
Down on through Bute Street to the mud of the low tide
They tear the old things down my son, but some things stay the same
On a Sunday over Cardiff Bay

This is one day of our lives
And on a Sunday over Cardiff Bay
Know that I love you
All of my life

Saw Captain Scott on the Terranova
Setting sail for open sea
And maybe one day when you're older
You'll come down this way and think of me
It'll be a Sunday over Cardiff Bay

Just one day of your life
And on that Sunday over Cardiff Bay
Know that I loved you.
On a Sunday over Cardiff Bay
This is one day of our lives
And on a Sunday over Cardiff Bay
Know that I love you
I hope that's alright…
All of my life…

Lovely...

The Land of Song

I was delighted to discover a few Welsh musical traditions that were new to me in Cardiff. Dr Rhiannon Ifans who is the current secretary of the Welsh Folk Song Society and lecturer in Welsh at the University of Wales, Lampeter, is also championing the Welsh carol-singing tradition of 'Plygain'.

According to the National Museum of Wales' article on the topic, Plygain was a pre-Reformation survival of choral worship which took place in the early hours of Christmas Morning, perhaps even the old Midnight Mass.

So with her friends from the Folk Song Society, Rhiannon treated us to a few examples in the Aberdare Hall, just round the corner from Cardiff University as part of the entertainment for the Ballad Conference.



Have a listen to the well and truly glorious Welsh singing we were treated to! The podcaster lists the tracks and you simply play them like you would on a CD player.

We also had hymns which are also featured here. Singing has always been a part of religious worship from the days of King David who wrote his psalms to express his fears, wants and adoration for God. The Plygain singers come to remember the nativity, but also would have praised Mary and the Saints in earlier days as Rhiannon told me. I was gobsmacked to think that Wales was once Catholic! I suppose I am so used to thinking of it as Celtic, then evangelical, that I never imagined about what happened in between!!

Anyway - this wonderful tradition was another way of preserving the language in the face of all the 'imperialism' which also affected the Gaels. Welsh being a Celtic tongue shared its origin with Gaelic, Irish, Manx, although went down the P-Celtic route which the 'Picts' of NE Scotland and Lothian spoke, or at least they did eventually. There are theorists who believe P-Celtic was the result of those tribes influencing the descendants of the neolithic farmers who could have spoken a non-indo european tongue. Anyway - Welsh, though nothing like Gaelic, sounds beautiful when sung!

The hymns are a miscellany sung by the Bute Babes, from Cardiff Castle. We went there for a banquet on our last night and were blown away by the talent of these young folk who are all students and professional singers that work there in their spare time. You can hear some of us belting out Cym Rhondda when they get to it. The words were written by William Williams in 1745!! That wonderful rousing tune which suits both chapel and rugby parks wasn't with us til 1907, composed by John Hughes of Pontypridd.

Here are the words in Welsh:

Arglwydd, arwain trwy'r anialwch,
Fi bererin gwael ei wedd,
Nad oes ynof nerth na bywyd
Fel yn gorwedd yn y bedd
Hollalluog, Hollalluog
Ydyw'r Un a'm cwyd i'r lan.

2. Colofn dân rho'r nos i'm harwain,
A rho'r golofn niwl y dydd;
Dal fi pan bwy'n teithio'r manau
Geirwon yn fy ffordd y sydd
Rho i mi fanna, rho i mi fanna,
Fel na bwyf yn llwfrhau.

3. Agor y ffynhonnau melus
'N tarddu i maes o'r Graig y sydd;
Colofn dan rho'r nos i'm harwain,
A rho golofn niwl y dydd;
Rho i mi fanna, rho i mi fanna,
Fel na bwyf yn llwfwrhau.

4. Pan bwy’n myned trwy’r Iorddonen
Angeu creulon yn ei rym,
Ti est trwyddi gynt dy hunan,
P'am yr ofnaf bellach ddim?
Buddugoliaeth, buddugoliaeth,
Gwna imi waeddi yn y llif!

5. Ymddiriedaf yn dy allu,
Mawr yw’r gwaith a wnest erioed
Ti gest angau, ti get uffern,
Ti gest Satan dan dy droed
Pen Calfaria, pen Calfaria,
Nac aed hwnw byth o'm cof.

See you at Cardiff Park! ;-)

Fa Hingit the Monkey no.3

Well, the Hartlepool/Boddam monkey went down well in Cardiff! And, surprise, surprise, Matilda Burden, of Stellenbosch University, South Africa, did a paper on another monkey - this one was getting married! 'Die apie se bruilof/ The Monkey's Wedding' is a nonsense song like The Fishermen Hung the Monkey' with a nod to Froggie Went a-Courting, where all the animals in the jungle get together for the Monkey and Ape's nuptials, and have a minibeast-feast!





Matilda borrowed the sock-monkey, which actually belongs to fellow-blogger, Aktoman, for her presentation also. Here we are with Monkey sporting his noose!



I found another monkey wedding song which got the two of us thinking, as Matilda had heard reference to it in the 19th/20th Century Greig-Duncan Folksong Collection! So it could be yet another North East Scots song which clearly travelled the world!



The Monkey's Wedding

The monkey married the baboon's sister,
Gave her a ring and then he kissed her.
She set up a yell.
The bridesmaid stuck on some court-plaster.
It stuck so fast it couldn't stick faster.
Surely 'twas a sad disaster,
But it soon got well.


What do you think the bride was dressed in?
White gauze veil and a green glass breast-pin,
Red kid shoes, quite interestin'.
She was quite a belle.
The bridegroom blazed with a blue shirt-collar,
Black silk stock that cost a dollar,
Large false whiskers the fashion to follow,
He cut a monstrous swell.


What do you think they had for supper?
Chestnuts raw and boiled and roasted,
Apples sliced and onions toasted,
Peanuts not a few.
What do you think they had for a fiddle?
An old banjo with a hole in the middle,
A tambourine and a worn-out griddle,
Hurdy-gurdy too.


What do you think were the tunes they danced to?
What were the figures they advanced to?
Up and down as they chanced to,
Tails they were too long.
"Duck In The Kitchen," "Old Aunt Sally,"
Plain cotillion, "Who Keeps Tally."
Up and down they charge and rally.
Ended is my song.
[From Carl Sandburg's "American Songbag".]



This monkey is male, but Matilda's one was female, and the South-African song concentrates heavily on the wedding feast, which has input from the foodlore text 'Useful Recipes'!!



Matlida has still to send me the text for the Afrikaans version, but I reckon I'll be learning it along with the Hartlepool monkey. The Poolies will be getting to read my paper soon, as I met up with Hartlepool United FC Fanzine editor, John Cooper, a few days ago, and gave him a copy. He seems tickled pink with it.









The rugby team also still uses the hanged monkey logo as you can see!

I think that's the end of this series for now, but I'm sure there is much more to be said about the monkey-hanging legend.