Cornish Studies

This study examines the reasons for the collapse of the lead mining industry in the Blanchland area on the border of Northumberland and County Durham in the early 1880s, and how the isolated rural community responded to the changes that took place. With a close analysis of data from the five censuses between 1851 and 1891, it is argued

Cornwall, in the far southwest of Great Britain, is only seven miles wide at its narrowest point. Surrounded on three sides by the sea, it has among the lowest permanent population densities of the UK (Office for National Statistics 2021), and much of the region is served by a single main road. Historically, its main industries were fishing and mining; today, despite having towns and a city, Cornwall is marketed to tourists with a romanticised vision of its rural and coastal remoteness. Traditional industries would likely have left the landscape empty: with miners underground (though with 'balmaidens' smashing stones above ground) and fishermen at sea, there must have been a spaciousness, a lack of visible 'busy-ness' (Tuan [1977] 2008: 61). Yet the number of visitors in peak season clashes with the marketed image of quiet rurality that draws to some extent on this historic imaginary. Small fishing villages frequented by tourists easily become blocked by traffic. A boom in holiday rentals, plus an increase in new permanent and temporary residents, has resulted in many local people priced out of their town centres, previously the locus of the community (Duignan 2019). As Tuan observes, 'ample space is not always experienced as spaciousness' ([1977] 2008: 51), and 'for everyone a point is reached when the feeling of spaciousness yields to its opposite-crowding' (Tuan [1977] 2008: 59). The issue of space, clearly, figures prominently in the region's social dynamics. In the context of its intangible cultural heritage (ICH), crowds have traditionally been essential for the liveliness of annual gatherings: the place to meet with extended family, to cook and have an open house, to meet new people, perhaps future partners (Frears 2010). In the present day, too, cultural events are widely acknowledged to be an opportunity to build community (e.g. Duffy & Mair 2014; Arcodia &Whitford 2006) to the extent that they are the annual focal point for many local people. But of course, alongside increased tourism and other demographic changes, it is not only the local community celebrating, as may have been traditionally the case. Known and unknown participants must share space and see each other close-up. Just as there are tensions between insiders and outsiders in Cornwall as a whole, these events offer 'an arena where negotiation is forced upon us' (Massey 2007: 154). In this chapter, we consider the way space functions at two ICH events in Cornwall: both as microcosm of, and reaction to, the spatial relations that are enacted and negotiated within Cornwall's wider socio-cultural landscape.

In traditional Cornish, the phonemes /ð/ and /θ/ were usually both spelled <th>, following English practice.  They are distinguished only in Lhuyd’s writings.  One can work out which etymological phoneme <th> represents by examining cognate words in Welsh, where /ð/ and /θ/ are spelled <dd> and <th> respectively.  This does not prove that the actual realizations corresponded to those in Welsh.  In particular, Nicholas Williams maintains that unstressed final /ð/ and /θ/ were both realized as [θ].  Data from rhymes and evidence from the re-written part of Bewnans Meryasek suggest rather that historical /ð/ and /θ/ were pronounced [ð] and [θ] respectively in all phonetic environments.

The Duchy of Cornwall as a mineral owner and the the operation of the Stannaries. While primarily concerned with the mining of copper and tin, as well as its china clay and stone quarries, in Cornwall and Devon, it also has a section on the Duchy's coal mining property in Somerset

Summary: so much has been written by commentators ancient and modern about the voyage of Pytheas (c.325 BC) to Britain and the enigmatic island of Thule, which he thought lay further north near the frozen zone. It is easy to think that proven facts lie at the end of the trail of references, but the reality is that all our knowledge and opinions rest on just a few fragmentary citations in the works of various classical authors. Some of these believed that Pytheas explored as far north as the arctic circle; others were less convinced. The present analysis will explore the opinion of those ancient writers who doubted Pytheas and why they did not believe him. Perhaps their scepticism was justified. Nevertheless, he is presented to us by modern scholarship as the ancient explorer who discovered Britain and the arctic circle, rather like Captain Cook was formerly taught as the pioneer explorer of Australia and the southern ocean. But these places always existed and were always known to the local inhabitants. They didn’t need a foreign sailor to teach them their own geography.
Contents: Strabo’s curious map, classical sources, Who cited whom? Who believed Pytheas and who did not? Modern Commentaries, Early and Later Citations, the Personal Travels of Pytheas, The Druids, Hecataeus and the Hyperboreans, Tin and Amber sources, the Baltic Sea and Scythia, Plutarch and the Carthaginians, Ogygia.

The history of traditional wrestling is arguably little known amongst many literary scholars, and yet the sport features in a number of historic literary texts, including some by Shakespeare, Chaucer and Thomas Hardy as well as more recent authors such as Winston Graham. This review article suggests that a literary scholar might benefit from learning more about the sport's history. Mike Tripp's Cornish Wrestling: A History is an examination of a little known and, currently, little practised sport which was once popular in both England and amongst the English diaspora, featuring in a number of nineteenth-century English novels, such as R.D. Blackmore's Lorna Doone. The review shows how Tripp's detailed history of the sport might be used to illustrate potentially useful details in selected literary texts, which might otherwise be obscure to a literary researcher, including examination of the wider culture and practice of wrestling in the English West Country, and remarks on how the history of Cornwall can explain the sport's presence and role in various literary texts.

The Arthurian cult, originating from the Romano-British Party, portrayed Arthur as a hero-god destined to save Britain from Saxon invasion. This cult, influenced by Egyptian mythology and the enduring British Celtic tradition, served as a rallying point for preserving British ideals and culture. Over time, the Arthurian legend evolved, becoming a symbol of hope and a source of chivalrous literature, reflecting the lost culture and hidden philosophy of the era.

The Arthurian legend, deeply ingrained in British culture, symbolizes a mystical-military cult that sought spiritual rebirth and national renewal. This cult, possibly led by a figure embodying the deity Hu, engaged in rituals and quests, as depicted in Welsh poems like “The Spoils of Annwn.” The enduring popularity of Arthur and his story, particularly the Grail legend, reflects this cult’s influence, which was later Christianized and continues to inspire British spirituality and national identity.

With Seekers of Wonder, Elena Sottilotta offers the first comparative study of women’s manifold roles in the collection of Italian and Irish folklore and fairy tales between 1870 and 1920. Sottilotta views the often-overlooked work of these women from an interdisciplinary perspective, considering both the politics and poetics of seeking wonder. In so doing, she centers women’s influence on the preservation and dissemination of oral traditions, bringing work that was once relegated to the margins into dialogue with work long regarded as canonical.

https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691263847/seekers-of-wonder

Being Horse (2019) is a film that places its viewer beneath the sackcloth of a hooden horse. The film articulates the experience of walking as a horse effigy, of becoming a creature which is no longer human but only partially horse-like. Orignally shot as continuous footage of a procession, using a camera mounted within a hooden horse, the final film draws upon elements of our individual forms of creative practice and research to produce a new collaborative piece that serves as both documentary and poetry film.

This article offers a very brief overview over the situation of the minority languages in the UK. At first glance, it looks as if there was successful revitalisation of all the minority languages in the UK save Welsh. However, a closer look reveals that there is a great deal of language planning for the Celtic languages, in particular, but little work on and with the languages themselves, e.g. standardisation and their dissemination and implementation outside school environment; a situation that is in no way cured by dreams about IT/AI.

Frederick William Pearce Jago (1838–1892) physician and Cornish language scholar published An English-Cornish Dictionary in 1887. Up to and including this period, Cornish scholarship was undertaken solely by antiquarians, who had no interest in reviving the language. By reversing previously published Cornish-English dictionaries to create and English Cornish dictionary, Jago brought together all the variant forms of each Cornish word under its English equivalent headword. This enabled Morton Nance and Smith normalise the spelling of Cornish words. This, in turn, facilitated the revival of Cornish as it is today.

150 Assibilation and Palatalisation in Cornish 5.1. Old Cornish Assibilation The assibilation of dental stops in Cornish is undoubtedly one of the most characteristic features of the phonology of the language that distinguishes it from Breton and Welsh. ...

Beyond the Veil of the Holy Grail
&
Survival of the Church of Avalon


By Christine Preston

Synopsis
The legendary connection of Joseph of Arimathea with the mythical Holy Grail is unveiled, in this work, as a vestige of a forgotten grail ritual that he observed in the Church he founded at Glastonbury, c. 35 A.D. – the year indicated for the journey of the disciples in some annals of the Vatican Library, as recovered by Cardinal Baronius in the 16th century. Unveiled as a parallel to this ritual, the sacrament of transubstantiation, in Catholicism, an important clue, is ascertained to have been modified by the Church of Rome as a result of Christ’s deification, in the 4th century, with the contention that the Christian dogma, as we know it, did not pre-exist the Council of Nicaea, and that it is an amalgam of some notions from the ancient doctrine - that was preached in Avalon - with the Roman cult of Sol Invictus. The pointer is who Emperor Constantine’s parents were. It is proposed that the dogma related to the Vicarious Atonement and Sacrifice, that is part of Established Christianity and its various denominations, was only accepted by the bishops who attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. because, on the basis of Eusebius’ Church History, Constantine used coercion and threatened to send them into exile if they did not sign the document related to his State Religion. It is argued that Augustine of Hippo’s assessment - that Adam and Eve’s sexual act was an Original Sin - was on the basis of a misinterpretation as to what the Forbidden Tree of Genesis represents. An exegesis for Genesis identifies what allegorical Trees stand for in Scripture. The discovery that, upon Christ’s instruction to Saint Philip, a Church was established by Joseph of Arimathea in Avalon, even before one was founded by Mary Magdalene in France, uncovers the full sense of Francis Bacon’s statement “The Church of the Britons lasted longer than the entire network of the Churches of Europe that were overthrown and gave up their power to the Roman beast”. It is a hint for the truth that the Church of Avalon continued existing, whereas the original network of Ecclesiastical Institutions was toppled. What became the mythical Holy Grail is revealed as pertaining to a concealed doctrine and Tradition previously transmitted by the Melchizedek of the Old Testament to Abraham, for mankind’s recovery of the angelic nature of the Sons of God of Genesis 6, epitomized by Adam and the perfect nature he possessed. Hidden history is reconstructed, revealing the connection of the Holy Grail with a ritual for a recovery of righteousness prerequisite for a shift back of mankind to the conditions of paradise, with the assertion that the objectives of Christ’s doctrine were modified, leaving but the prospect of a salvation for the afterlife. We discover the survival of this Church, and Culdees, was thanks to the fact that its bishops rejected the Pope after Augustine of Rome crossed the Channel at the recorded date of 597 A.D. to preach to pagan Saxons, but instead discovered neophytes of a Church that Rome had forgotten existed, since two of its representatives attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.  The timeline of the Church of Avalon is reconstructed, from a time span indicated by Francis Bacon. Exposed is the fact that a concealed and hostile take-over occurred in the process that the original Faith was modified and that Christ was deified.

More Details
The position is that, in Catholicism, the original grail ritual was modified into the sacrament of transubstantiation following the appearance of a belief in the powers of Christ’s blood, and his deification at the Council of Nicaea to reflect the Vicarious Atonement, or Redemption by a Sacrifice. Known to have an association with a substance that 12th century knights Templar ingested for regeneration, one of which looked like blood, and could have been mistaken for the blood of Christ, the legendary Holy Grail is unveiled as a vestige of the forgotten Grail Ritual that Joseph of Arimathea observed in the Church he founded at the domain that became Glastonbury, a location where a Druidic College previously existed, and for this reason we look at the origin of the Druids being one of the lost Tribes of Israel, as this explains the presence of an ancient Covenant in Britain. The Church would have been established as soon as the disciples, that Joseph of Arimathea was appointed to lead, arrived. Their presence in Avalon is on the basis of testimonies about a journey to France and Britain in 35 A.D., that Venerable Cardinal Caesar Baronius, an ecclesiastical historian and Oratorian, rediscovered in the Annals of the Vatican in the 16th century, as well as an acknowledgement by four Catholic Councils in the 15th century. This is with the contention that, as part of a tradition transmitted from Adam to Noah and Shem, and by the Melchizedek of the Old Testament to Abraham, the grail ritual was designed for mankind to recover the perfect nature that Adam possessed, a requirement to shift back to the conditions of lost paradise, or at least one at which the conquest of the human nature would be achieved to reduce suffering and increase longevity, but has nothing to do with an atonement by a blood sacrifice, to redeem an “Original Sin” as it is about an allegorical Path to follow, one that is identical to what Jesus Christ discovered in his travels in India, Tibet and the Himalayas, where he was remembered as Issa.  The fact that Pelagius opposed Original Sin is proof that it was not accepted in the Church of Avalon that rejected the Pope after Augustine of Rome arrived in the British Isles with a horde of missionaries, in 597 A.D. This ritual would have been instructed by Christ at the Last Supper. However, On the basis of the “Fractio Panis” fresco, in Rome, that dates from 200 A.D., the occasion for the meal at which Jesus is depicted with 12 disciples at a table – seems to be the one at which he multiplied bread and fish to feed “the 4000”. The implication is that the scenario of the Last Supper is a literary device that promotes belief in the Vicarious Atonement. A ritualistic technique to receive the body as well as the blood of Christ, was introduced in the 4th century by the theologian Cyril of Jerusalem imparting notions of Christ’s divinity with a claim of uniqueness that eclipsed the Gnostic “Spirit Within” and potential that eliminate the need for a Sacrifice and doctrine of redemption. The sacrament of transubstantiation replaced the ritual of integration of the Logos encapsulated in the symbolic Holy Grail.
Who Joseph of Arimathea really was, is revealed as identical with Joseph “the Carpenter” (or “Craftman”), as well as the fact that he lived in Glastonbury with Mary, mother of Jesus, and was the brother of her father, King Heli. Being royal and a businessman in the Tin trade, as it can be assumed he inherited King Solomon’s mines, he was extremely rich and this is acknowledged in some records. Jesus, probably born in 5 B.C., built the “vetusta ekklesia” as an apprentice of his father and uncle, Joseph, also previously known as Joseph of Marmore (a location in Egypt). Jesus is revealed as having been educated in one of the Druidic colleges of Albion that, on the basis of Gildas Badonicus’ testimonies, existed at that time. It is ascertained he left for the Himalayas to learn the secrets of the spiritual path from Yogis and Mahatmas, at the age of 14, and at 28, was on his journey back to Jerusalem.
As some stories relating to King Arthur are strangely interwoven with Joseph of Arimathea indicating that Arthur did not live in the 6th century but was a contemporary of Joseph, the discussion moves on to the assessment by John of Glastonbury [1393 – 1464] who was a genealogist, that the knights of the Round Table were related to Joseph of Arimathea, as well as the revelation that the historical Arthur was King Arviragus, who granted 12 hides of land to the disciples at Glastonbury, and Guinevere was his queen Genuissa, or Gwenivyth, the daughter that Claudius gave in marriage to him. The knights of the Round Table are revealed as descendants of Joseph of Arimathea and related to the disciples on the basis of testimonies that they married into the Royal family of the Britons.
An alternative interpretation for the “Forbidden Tree of Knowledge” of Genesis 3 is submitted to expose the errors that are central to Augustine of Hippo’s Original Sin after an exploration of his biographical details.  They uncover that he was interested in Manichaeanism and the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus. It is therefore possible that he was not the all-important exponent for the dogma that the official narrative has maintained. This argument would supplement the theory that the gospels were commissioned by Emperor Vespasian to Flavius Josephus, “for a Roman-friendly version of events”.
The possibility for mankind to “resurrect” from mortality would have formed part of Christ’s instruction, and there is evidence it was known without connection with death, or crucifixion, in antiquity. The kingdom of heaven is revealed as resulting from an integration of the Logos that triggers the human psyche to awaken to the divine Mind, and the righteousness that the Initiate acquires warrants his shift to higher spheres at the level of which the soul inhabits a body more ethereal in substance, but still “corporeal”. The notion that neophytes can achieve an ascension, as opposed to being told they are sinners, does not affect the idea that Christ was one of the “Sons of God”. They are suggested to have been Messiahs in the sense of Initiators who bestowed knowledge upon mankind in the antediluvian, or Atlantean era. They were remembered as having been “self-born” and had in common with Adam that they were not born of human parents. The nature of the Sons of God has remained a mystery and the cause of debates during the ...

"The Revival of Cornish: An Dasserghyans Kernewek" by John J. Parry (1889–1954).  With unpublished comments, corrections and updates by
"Caradar" (A. S. D. Smith, 1883–1950), letter dated May 27, 1946.

Cornish, a Celtic language of southwestern Britain, was essentially extinct as a spoken language by 1800.  But starting about 1900, concerted attempts were made to revive the language.  Dictionaries, grammars, and teaching materials were created, with the goal of reintroducing both written and spoken Cornish, and the creation of a new body of Cornish literature.  The history of the movement up to 1938 is described, and several examples of modern Cornish poetry are quoted.

An unpublished letter to the author from "Caradar" (A. S. D. Smith) is attached.  He makes some minor corrections, and updates the status of the movement as of 1946.  "The Revival was a somewhat tender plant, and the War has seemingly knocked it out …" but he had plans, and hopes, for the future.

Although some history of Francis and his wife Thomasine has been presented over the years in various genealogical works, their whole story has not been told. Francis and Thomasine Matthews were pioneer settlers in the Oyster River settlement.  They lived near a point of land that became known as Durham Point at the mouth of the Oyster River in the present-day town of Durham.  Oyster River was a thriving but spread-out community with ties to the Isle of Shoals in particular Smuttynose Island.  After Francis’ early death in 1648, Thomasine became the matriarch of the family for the next forty-two years. She remained a widow, finished raising her underage children, held on to her husband’s estate and passed it down to their grandchildren.  This was an intriguing story of a woman who took control, challenged her sons and ultimately ruled her own destiny.

The Spriggan’s Child
The 19th century Cornish folklore record includes one definitive account of a fairy changeling1. ‘The Spriggan’s Child’ is a story told in the form of a rhyming ‘droll’ by folklorist Robert Hunt (1865) which appears again as ‘The Changeling of Brea Vean’ in Bottrell (1873). In both versions, after her baby is taken and replaced by a spriggan (a variety of Cornish fairy), a mother uses different magical means, including violence, to try to bring it back again.

Interlinear or marginalia authorial notes as peculiar textual offshoots are particularly characteristic of self-revised holographs. It is not always easy to distinguish this kind of inscriptions from textual additions, expansions, or alternative variants, i.e., “competitive revisions”, when the author did not indicate which of the variants should have priority. The discussion of manuscripts by several twentieth-century Lithuanian poets reveals illuminative editorial misapprehensions and brings us to consider the functional variety of authorial notes. When discussing such cases, we face a more general theoretical problem: how do we modernize the arrangement of textual elements in a reading text so that we may stick to the original as much as possible, without sending false signals to the reader about the nature of textual elements?

Naig Rozmor zo bet ganet, e Kastell-Paol e 1923. Anne Le Bihan eo he anv-plac’h. He zad, ur c’houer, en deus desavet anezhi hag he teir c’hoar e brezhoneg. Neuze he deus desket Naig galleg er skol. Kalz en deus bet he zad da c’houzañv gant e berc’henn, ar pezh he deus kontet Naig en he fezh-c’hoari « Ar Mestr ». Merket eo bet kement gant an darvoud-se ma tivizas ne zimezje ket d'ul labourer-douar evit na vije ket graet sklaved eus he bugale, evel ma lâr-hi hec’h-unan. Setu he doa dimezet d’ur martolod e bloavezh 1947. Anne Corre eo he anv itron. Gant he gwaz he deus beajet e kalz a vroioù er bed a-bezh, met distreiñ a reas da vat da Vreizh evit reiñ d’he bugale ur vuhez skol dereat. Neuze e welas e oa cheñchet ar gevredigezh: kalz a Vretoned o doa mezh ouzh ar brezhoneg neuze. He mignoned a-vihanik a felle dezho toullañ kaoz kentoc’h e galleg eget e brezhoneg. Souezhet gant an dra-se, Naig a fellas dezhi gouzout hiroc’h. Goude ur mare er radio brezhonek en em lakaas da skrivañ. Evit he labour evit ar brezhoneg ez eus bet roet dezhi, etre traoù all, kolier an Erminig.


Naig Rozmor wird 1923 in St.Pol-de-Léon im Département nFinistère geboren. Ihr Mädchenname lautet Anne Le Bihan. Sie ist die Tochter eines Landwirts, der sie und ihre drei Schwestern auf Bretonisch erzieht, sodass sie erst in der Schule Französisch lernt. Ihr Vater hatte viel unter der Willkür seines Landherren zu leiden, was Naig in ihrem späteren Theaterstück „Ar Mestr“ thematisiert. Diese Zeit hat sie nachhaltig beeinflusst, sodass sie ihren Kindern unbedingt das Leben in der Landwirtschaft ersparen will. So heiratet sie 1947 einen Seemann und nimmt den Namen Anne Corre an. Es folgt eine Zeit, in der sie mit ihrem Mann an vielen Orten der Welt lebt, bevor sie sich aus Rücksicht auf ihre Kinder entschließt, in die Bretagne zurückzukehren, um ihren Kindern eine geregelte Schulbildung zu gewährleisten. Dort wird sie aber mit einer veränderten Gesellschaft konfrontiert: Viele Bretonen schämen sich inzwischen ihrer Sprache. Selbst alte Bekannte, mit denen sie ihre Kindheit auf Bretonisch verbracht hatte, ziehen es nun vor, ihr Bretonisch zugunsten des Französischen aufzugeben. Sie will dem auf den Grund gehen. Ihr Lebensweg führt sie schließlich über eine Tätigkeit beim Rundfunk, wo sie für bretonischsprachige Sendungen arbeitet, in das Schriftstellerleben. Für ihren Einsatz für die bretonische Sprache wurde sie unter anderem mit dem Halsband des Hermelinordens ausgezeichnet, einem Ritterorden, der einst von Herzog Johannes IV. im Jahr 1381 gestiftet wurde.

The recent purchase by The Richard III Society of the original letters patent granting Sir James Tyrell the custody of Guînes castle in January 1485 has shed the spotlight on Calais, England's last remaining possession on the continental mainland, during Richard's reign.

The will of Margaret Ludlam's father Edward, a yeoman of Rotherham, was written in 1823 and proved in 1825. It is the only known source for problems associated with his daughter's marriage. Edward at least seems to have been convinced that his daughter and her husband stood little chance of reuniting as a functioning couple and made provisions accordingly.

The will shines some light on the consequences that might occur in the event of marital difficulties, particularly if a family could provide appropriate resources to mitigate the circumstances. In this instance, it seems that the marriage recommenced at some point - when is unknown. Unusually, their only known child was born nineteen years after their marriage.

A second volume of pedigrees of families that lived in, or were associated with, the parish of Stithians in Cornwall. In addition there are appendices on the rectors and other clergy of the parish; the Methodist Society in Stithians in 1767; the place-names of Stithiands; and an index to volumes I and II

Chapter 9 (draft text without illustrations) from Monumental Lies: Early Nevada Folklore of the Wild West (University of Nevada Press, 2023) deals with the relationship of folklore about ghosts and the North American tommyknockers, the spirits who lurked in the mines of the West. This folkloric tradition emigrated with Cornish miners, but unlike many such cultural elements from Europe, beliefs and narratives about knockers survived emigration, adapting and thriving in the new environment. The tradition of the American tommyknocker was entangled with that of ghosts, and this text explores how to deal with the various threads that were expressed in the folklore of the mines, as well as those on the surface. This chapter appears on pages 128-142 in the book.

Chapter 11 (draft text without illustrations) from The Folklore of Cornwall: The Oral Tradition of a Celtic Nation (University of Exeter Press, 2018) deals with the North American tommyknockers, the spirits who lurked in the mines of the West. This folkloric tradition emigrated with Cornish miners, but unlike many such cultural elements, beliefs and narratives about knockers survived emigration, adapting and thriving in the new environment. While mining spirits can be documented internationally in pre-modern examples of the industry, the Cornish knocker was particularly well developed. Its popularity in a New World environment is one of the more remarkable stories in the annals of folklore history. This chapter appears on pages 148-162 in the book.

Chapter 10 (draft text) from The Folklore of Cornwall: The Oral Tradition of a Celtic Nation (University of Exeter Press, 2018) deals with the Cornish knockers, the spirits who lurked in the mines of Cornwall. While this sort of tradition can be documented internationally in pre-modern examples of the industry, the Cornish knocker was particularly well developed. Importantly, the Cornish knocker transformed into the North American tommyknocker in the North American West - the subject of the following chapter of this book. This chapter appears on pages 136-147 in the book.

Owen, Elias. Welsh Folk-Lore: A Collection of the Folk-Tales and Legends of North Wales, Being the Prize Essay of the National Eisteddfod, 1887. Oswestry and Wrexham: Woodall, Minshall, and Co., 1896. This book is a comprehensive compilation of North Welsh folk tales and legends, written by the Rev. Elias Owen. The text was awarded first prize at the 1887 National Eisteddfod. It explores the folklore traditions of the region, focusing on fairy tales, superstitions, and historical customs. Owen, drawing on his personal experiences from his travels as a Diocesan Inspector of Schools, and with input from the local clergy and elderly inhabitants, records a wealth of local stories. The work offers insight into the cultural heritage of Wales, particularly the supernatural beliefs prevalent in the 19th century.

Wirt Sikes, British Goblins: Welsh Folklore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions (London: Sampson, 1880): This controversial book (poorly sourced) is an exploration of Welsh folklore and mythology. The author begins with a discussion on the ancient belief in fairies, focusing on Welsh mythology and stories concerning the fairy king, Gwyn ap Nudd, and the green meadows of the sea. He then provides a classification of Welsh fairies, including the Ellyllon (elves), the Coblynau (mine fairies), the Bwbach (household fairies), the Gwragedd Annwn (lake fairies), and the Gwyllion (mountain fairies). He details the different characteristics and habits of each type of fairy. The author then transitions to a discussion on ghosts and other supernatural entities found in Welsh lore, including the different types of ghosts and the various stories associated with them. He covers topics like haunting houses, transporting spirits, and the different types of spirits believed to haunt the Welsh countryside. The author then delves into Welsh beliefs about bells, wells, stones, and dragons, exploring the various legends and superstitions surrounding these objects. He connects these beliefs with ancient Druidism, suggesting a possible historical basis for some of the beliefs. The final section of the book focuses on Welsh customs and traditions associated with different days and seasons, exploring the significance of these traditions and their origins in both Celtic and Christian cultures. The author discusses the history of the rituals and festivals celebrated throughout the year, such as the New Year’s Day apple gift, Mothering Sunday, the wearing of the leek on St. David's Day, the tradition of the Mari Lwyd (a horse's skull) on Twelfth Night, and the tradition of the cutty wren (a wren placed in a cage). He also provides a detailed account of the tradition of the "Bidding," a custom in which a couple about to be married invites their neighbors to a feast, providing them with food, drink, and gifts. The book concludes with a discussion on the origins of Welsh folklore and mythology, presenting the realistic theory and the poetico-religious theory. The author argues that the realistic theory, which holds that fairies originated from real people who were later mythologized, is not entirely convincing, and prefers to view the origin of fairies as rooted in the ancient mythology of the world. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the historical and cultural context of these beliefs and the ways in which they have been shaped over time by both pagan and Christian influences.

This short case study focuses on medieval new towns (which Maurice Beresford calls “plantations”) in the county of Devon. They were planned communities. Property lots (burbages) were leased, and roads, houses, and town buildings were built quite quickly. They were settled in the spaces between boroughs that were growing organically from villages and older towns, leading to an overlapping of hinterlands made practical by the specialization of the new towns.
Devon is of particular interest as none of the charters were royal, and most of the boroughs were founded by local lay knights, serjeants and freemen. The question is why were they motivated to do so?

Some countries in the northeast of Europe have developed a recognition of their own Celtic identity over the last 150 years. These were territories ruled by "tribes" (23) usually referred to as Celts, described in romanticized terms as "noble savages", whose fragmented identity and heritage have partly survived until the present day. This identity is expressed mainly through cultural features, such as language, art and music. Cornwall, a small peninsula located in the southwest of England, is one such place and the subject of a new book by ethnomusicologist Lea Hagmann. The purpose of this book is twofold. It critically assesses narratives of revivalists who connect Cornish music traditions to the "Celtic heritage" while contextualizing them in current artistic practice and production. Hagmann focuses on the Cornish Music and Dance Revival that developed in the late 1970s. Through archival research, linguistic analysis and ethnography, she engages with conceptualizations of Cornish identity, combining academic theorization with first-hand experience. Her examination of language and the involvement of individuals from the music community provide different perspectives that balance between their interpretation of the Revival and her anthropological analysis. A key theme is the examination of the revivalists' narratives about Cornwall's cultural distinctiveness, which contribute to debates on Cornish independence. The book begins by introducing the Cornish region and its history since the Neolithic age, followed by a greater engagement with musical traditions through literature reviews and archival analyses of sources from the Medieval and early modern periods. The second half of the book reflects Hagmann's fieldwork, undertaken between 2008 and 2018, including participant observations and interviews within the local music community. Hagmann also compares the Cornish Revival with other Celtic movements of the first half of the 20 th century. Influenced by Irish and Scottish models, the Troyl-revivalists re-elaborated local material in line with extreme Celtic imaginaries, developing their "authentic" Cornish folk music. Hagmann defines this process as "Celtification", meaning "conscious attempts to change texts, tonalities and the context of the songs in order to make them appear more 'Celtic' than they are" (17). In contrast with the Troyl-revivalists, the new Nos Lowen-movement proposed new ideas, opening Celtic music to the World music phenomenon. Hagmann describes the clash between the two movements, expanding on existing scholarship about the terms "Celtic" and "authenticity". Troyl-revivalists' vision of "Celtic" corresponds to Michael Dietler's term "Celticism" (an attempt to construct territorially through forms of collective memory and identities), while Nos Lowen-revivalists are closer to the concept of "Celticity" (a wider connection to the idea of Celtic identity). These different interpretations of "Celtic" coincide with diverse notions of authenticity. While the Troyl-revivalists understand authenticity of music as connected to ancientness and Cornwall's historical Celtic roots, the Nos Lowen-revivalists

This essay focuses on the uses of translation from imperial English into colonised Welsh during the Franco-British war of 1793–1802. It explores the complex relationship between political domination and the translator’s position as interpreter of power, but also as part of a Welsh tradition based on the Bible translation of writing fluent TTs which enriched their native TL and culture (Bassnett 2014: 56–60). One of the main goals is to draw attention to the translation experience into colonised languages within Europe before the twentieth century, which, apart from the work of Michael Cronin (Cronin 1996: 3; Cronin 2004), remains neglected in translation research.1 I will argue that, in the case of translation into such colonised languages, a domesticating strategy which results in fluent translations does not necessarily amount to the ‘ethnocentric violence’ which, according to Venuti, characterises such translation from colonised into colonial languages (2008: 16), and has lead hi...

Following the death of Isabella Le Despencer, suo jure Lady of the marcher lordship of Glamorgan, the inheritance of this lordship would eventually fall to Richard Neville, 16 th Earl of Warwick, in the right of Isabella's daughter, his wife, Anne de Beauchamp, who was also herself Lady of Glamorgan, in her own right. Isabella and Anne, the two daughters of Richard Neville, known as the Kingmaker, would each in turn become Lady of Glamorgan and, upon her marriage to Richard, Earl of Gloucester, Anne, would effectively unite the Glamorgan lordship to the Crown when Richard became King Richard III of England in 1483.

Information on pre-Roman Britain, Roman Britannia, post-Roman realms of the Brithons on Britannia Major and in the diaspora, and lists of the most important lines of kings and other rulers in those realms, with an lengthy chronicle-like timeline covering those periods. (revised 16 July 2025; minor corrections)

Talk given at the Leeds IMC 2024 for the Royal Historical Society's  panel on 'The Experience of Local Officialdom, between Order and Disorder, III: Officials As Tools of Governance over and across Distance'

Aspects of Perers’ career have been identified by esteemed scholars, such as Lapsley, Maddicott, Fryde and Saul, but it merits much further attention when considered as a whole. He was once thought to be two men, one a sheriff based in the south of England and affiliated to the earl of Richmond (loyal to Edward II until the Despenser regime), the other a military retainer of Thomas, earl of Lancaster (a constant opponent of the king) and based in the midlands of England. However, I have shown beyond reasonable doubt that they are in fact the same figure, which provides valuable insights into how members of the gentry could negotiate power during a time of extreme crisis within England. Placing Richard into the wider context of the sheriffs of Essex-Hertfordshire in this period, some of whom navigated events much less successfully, he shows himself to have been indispensable to the Lancastrian, Edwardian and Mortimerian regimes of the 1310s and 1320s.

In many parish histories the ordinary people occur as inconsequential extras: mere names that are subordinate to grander themes. in this book I have given detailed histories of ten families that played an important part in the society of one parish in western Cornwall. As well as chronicling their lives, I have also attempted to look at their social background, origins, interrelationships, and ultimate dispersal around the world.

In the first century BCE Diodorus of Sicily described a corner of the British Isles he called Belerion and drew attention to the ingenious way the inhabitants extracted tin and the civilised manner they had acquired through trading that metal. In 2012 a tourist may stay in a bed and breakfast near Penzance or buy books from a shop named after that promontory. However, during the nineteenth century a debate amongst historians arose as to the meaning of Diodorus' Greek text, its relationship to other classical texts and the status of Cornwall in antiquity. The discussion involved at least ten treatments specifically of the topic in Cornwall alone and was incorporated into a variety of other narratives. The debate offers an unusual insight into the role of classical texts in the description and understanding of local identity. This thesis looks at passages from the classical world that have been linked to Cornwall and which often have very little academic scholarship relating to them, and examines how they have been interpreted by Cornish historians. It will show how, despite the inconclusiveness of the ancient material, a connection between Cornwall and Greek and Roman traders has been constructed by Cornish writers, and why they were interested in doing so. This thesis suggests that the political and social contexts of local historiographers has actively shaped the interpretations of the texts often assigning a meaning to classical texts that allows a narrative of independence, cultural sophistication and unbroken mining innovation to be constructed concerning Cornwall. As such this thesis will form part of a rapidly expanding inter-disciplinary interest in our understanding of responses to the Classics and to our conception of the formation of regional historical narrative. 2.3 Beyond the Texts

In the British region of Cornwall, state intervention in long-standing practices of the translation of music lyrics for song competitions has created major shifts, including remarkable competitive successes. Proponents of the Kernewek (Cornish) Language have long used translated musical lyrics as a tool for language revival, especially in annual song competitions, like the Pan Celtic festival. Cornish musicianswho, with few exceptions, cannot speak Kernewekwork with volunteer translators to produce songs for competitions for audiences who also rarely speak Kernewek. This essay is built upon ethnographic fieldwork in Cornwall among language enthusiasts and musicians, as well as on recent interviews with musicians and translators who have competed in the Pan Celtic and similar festivals. It demonstrates a conscious use of language by non-fluent speakers to build identity and community among Cornish people and to promote the recognition of Cornwall's distinctiveness outside of the region. This builds upon previous work on metalinguistic community (Avineri and Harasta 2021) and ethnolinguistic infusion (Benor, Krasner, and Avni 2020), demonstrating the complex and important impact of state funding and coordination to increase the recognition and scope of use of the language.

Nationalist movements are characterized by deep ties to a homeland, and are often deeply concerned about the relationships of both the community and the individual to that land.1 In Cornwall, twentieth-century nationalists seeking to renegotiate the place of Cornwall within the United Kingdom have articulated a new relationship between the Cornish and Cornwall. In doing so, they have turned to the pre-Reformation cult of the saints - in particular Saint Piran, the patron of both Cornwall and tin mining - and the unique relationship between community and saint, and saint and the land. This article explores how the Cornish nationalist movement has utilized the 'Cult of the Saints' and other elements of 'Celtic Christianity' to articulate a new relationship between the Cornish people and their homeland. This process has involved the development of an alternative understanding of the nature of space. I will attempt to show how the Cornish nationalists' resurrection of the veneration of saints challenges the predominant 'placeless', universalistic understanding of space associated with British nationalism, scientific rationalism, industrialism and Nonconformist Protestantism.

I would like to thank everyone who assisted me in this project. My academic adviser, John Burdick, has been an invaluable counselor, editor and cheerleader for years now; alongside his work, I must also recognize the remainder of my committee: Susan Wadley, Hans Buchler, Shannon Novak, Bernard Deacon and Jaqueline Urla, as well as chair Christine Himes. There are numerous other educators who may not have sat at that table but were crucial in getting me to where I am today:

Used by Gemma Gary in the title of her recent book 'Wisht Waters', a cursory internet search tells us that the word 'wisht' is an old English spelling of 'wished', and in Devon it has an association with 'Wistman's Wood' and the 'Wish Hounds' of Dartmoor, where it considered to mean 'eerie' 1. In Cornwall 'wisht' has, over the years, attracted a range of related interpretations. William Bottrell (1873), in defining it, links it to being cursed or ill-wished: WISHT, sad, like a person or thing illwisht 2. Here Bottrell is referring to the effect of witchcraft: belief in ill-wishing or cursing having been a widely held explanation for all manner of misfortunes, including illness in children and animals 3 .

We have just passed the 100th anniversary of the first Old Cornwall Society (OCS). The circumstances of its formation in St Ives in 1920 1 were later described by R. Morton Nance 2 : We came together to strengthen one another in our devotion to all those ancient things that make the spirit of Cornwall-its traditions, its old words and ways, and what remains to it of its Celtic language and nationality… (We are) gleaners of the folkculture of Cornwall, upon which all really Cornish art and literature of the future must be based, and hoping that future generations will arise, Cornish still, to make good use of them…