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What was Medieval Wales really like?
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- Опубликовано: 29 авг 2020
- Viking age and Medieval Wales wasn't just a backwater next to Anglo-Saxon England (which didn't really exist for part of the early medieval period anyway) with no sexy archaeology or finds to look at.
The real Medieval Wales was a highly developed society like any other, full of kings, queens and princes, poetry and music, golden treasures, violent medieval battles, and artistic traditions dating back beyond the Romans.
Not to mention King Arthur.
Join Jimmy in digging through the archaeology and history of medieval Wales, and you may even learn a word or two of Welsh along the way!
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I'm from the US but spent some time abroad, and I definitely noticed that Brits talk about the Welsh like their poor country cousins! When I learned more about their history later, I was surprised to realize that the Welsh are basically the only people in Britain, and perhaps some of the few people in the world, who have never been displaced. That is, the Welsh now seem to be descended from the first humans ever to wander into that bit of land -- which is truly extraordinary!
That would be amazing, but unfortunately it’s not true. There have been various population replacement level migrations into Europe over the last 10,000 years. Notably Neolithic Anatolian Farmers about 8 to 9,000 years ago and Bronze Age Steppe Nomads about 4 to 5,000 years ago. The Welsh have certainly been there a long time, but they would be genetically very different to the people who were on that land 10,000, or even 5,000, years ago. There are interesting lectures about it on RUclips from Harvard geneticist Richard Reich. The one on The New Scientist channel is very good.
Not true, the Celts are believed to have originally been from central Europe and displaced many of the more indigenous populations.
The Basque may in fact actually be more like what you're thinking though!
@Penderyn You are wrong. The genetics is clear. There was a 90% population replacement event in Britain about 500 years after the construction of Stonehenge, or about 4,000 years ago. The Neolithic Farmer population was largely replaced. This happened across all of Europe between about 5000 and 4000 years ago, though the replacement was greater in Northern Europe than in Southern Europe. Down in Italy and Spain and the like it was more like a 50% replacement, or mixing. Though linguistically and culturally, the incoming Indo-Europeans became dominant. Almost all modern European languages are Indo-European. Basque, however, as mentioned by asdf asdf above, is thought to possibly be a residual language left from the Neolithic Farmers who occupied Europe before the Bronze Age arrival of Indo-Europeans. In terms of genetics, the people of Sardinia are apparently almost completely descended from the Neolithic people. It seems the Indo-Europeans had very little genetic impact there, unlike pretty much everywhere else, although they do speak an Indo-European language. Other non-Indo-European languages in Europe are Finish, Estonian and Hungarian. But they are all languages that were brought by other more recent incoming peoples, rather than remnant languages of the Neolithic population.
I never said that “the Celts” called themselves Celts, or that the incoming people who replaced the Neolithic Farmers were Celts. The first Indo-Europeans to settle in Britain were a people that archaeologists and geneticists call the Bell Beaker Culture. It used to be debated if this culture arrived as a migration of people, or just of ideas and culture. In the last 15 years archeogenetics has proven it was very much the former. I believe it is not known what language they spoke. It is possible it was what linguists would classify as a Celtic language, even though they did not yet produce what we would call Celtic material culture. The Celtic languages are part of the Indo-European language family (part of a larger group called Italo-Celtic), as are the Germanic, Slavic, Romance and Greek languages. So called “Celtic” material culture may have arrived in Britain more as a transfer of culture than people. But the people in Britain who adopted were in the main part not descended from the earlier Neolithic population, but from Bronze Age Indo-European immigrants/invaders.
Like I said above, check out Harvard Professor David Reich. His book Who We Are And How We Got Here is a great primer on what the new field of Archeo-Genetics has taught us in the last 15 years, when combined with archaeology and linguistics.
@Penderyn Not sure where you're getting that from but that's not at all in line with the current consensus
I'm old as hell and born in the US. When asking about my family ancestry, my great aunt told me to just claim to be English. There was family from Ireland and Wales, but the Irish were all drunks and the Welsh were talented artist and poets but had an 'unhealthy melancholy'. So, in the 1950s the bigotry was there. Turns out I'm mostly Irish and Welsh with one English granny. I'm glad! Take that Aunt Ruby.
I saw an interesting statistic recently. The number of people in the United States claiming English heritage dropped massively between the 1950s and the 1990s. It seems that the social pressures changed a lot in that period, such that people with a mixture of ancestry from the UK and Ireland were incentivised to claim English identity in the 50s, but by the 90s were incentivised to claim Scottish, Irish or Welsh. Says something interesting about the changing dynamics of privileged in-group identity in the second half of the 20th century, I am sure.
Unhealthy melancholy lol well put
Same story with me. So glad I came upon your comment. 🌹
Hearing Talesin and Aneirin pronounced like they should be is so, so lovely on the ears!
:3 I does my best!
He says them wrong. He pronounced it Taliesin instead of Taliesyn
@@macsenwyn7223 northwalien.
I just wanted to let you know that here in the US, there is no bias like that toward the Welsh. There are plenty enough of other biases, but not Welsh. We just kinda see you guys as the ones who held onto all the magic. Well, I do, anyway. 😉
In my experience the American consciousness of Wales doesn't go beyond the fact that it exists, there are sheep, and questionable activities may or may not occur with regards to said sheep. Also the flag's neat.
I come from a wargaming perspective and Americans do tend to believe that your Welsh/British forces should look just like Anglo Saxons only impoverished.
Now the IRISH on the other hand...
(Just kidding; I'm very proud of my Irish American heritage through my grandmother!)
@@Ithirahad We're deeply suspicious of what the Scots and Kiwis do with all their sheep, too.
I swear when I listend to the Welsh National Anthem I thought it was the language JRR Tolkien based Elvish on, it is that otherworldly.
My great-grandmother read to me from the Four Branches of the Mabinogion and the tales from the Red Book of Hergest. I found them totally interesting and I can't imagine how anyone would think the medieval Welsh were poor, uncouth, illiterates.
They were certainly not, unlike the Sausage eating Heathens from Schleswig Holstein, Wales is Bollocks Cymru is the name " Brotherhood " for all you Cornish fans, you spoke the Cymric Brythonic Celtic as did every other Celt in Britain!
I wonder if the "medieval Welsh were poor" comes from England's attempts to squash Welsh culture.
The English attempted to crush Welsh (and Scottish) culture for a long time.
I wouldn't be surprised if something like this was involved.
I mean propaganda against your opponents and areas you've invaded is one of the older tricks in the book.
most likely, I mean they did outlaw our language for alittle over 300 years at one point.
Beware of modern political nationalism in action. The rewriting of history by the Marxist left goes on apace.
@@Reignlief I love that you bought this up. Entire language outlawed and so many people aren't aware of the cultural removal that happened. Even the naming culture has changed due to that, first names go to middle etc.
That’s a part of it yes, it was a two pronged attack by the Catholic Church and the Germanic Royal lineage, for many reasons over many centuries but essentially was all about rewriting history in their own image and to discredit the history of those who had claims to certain historical events they didn’t want future generations to learn about and in so carry on the true history of Britain.
We have to remember, the “Welsh” are actually the British because the Welsh are the native Brits. You had a small pocket of Picts in the highlands of Scotland but other than that, the rest of Britain was what we now know as wales and the Welsh for centuries
British history as we know it and are taught it is based on lies, history from the perspective of the Germanic tribes who invaded it and wrote their own version of history in order to big themselves up an inflate their own egos and also it was essentially self propagandising, they wanted history to look favourably on them when in reality, the truth is very different.
The term “Celt” is an example of this, a term created in the 18th century was a successful attempt to put down and denigrate the different complex cultures and traditions and languages of Britain and Ireland into one box, to make out that they were backwards compared to the Germanic invaders.
I know people use the term Celt as some kind of pride thing but I don’t, I think it’s offensive and we shouldn’t embrace the term because it doesn’t do us justice, it’s grabbing onto a lie when we should be saying, no!! That is not who we are, we are considerably better and more than that fake narrative created as a means to put us down and belittle us and our history.
Our legacy is not Celtic, it’s far greater, our role in world history is far greater than the one that was concocted for us by those who wanted to put us down.
The fake narrative also benefited the church too so they were complicit in pushing the lies because it hid things they didn’t want to be written in history because it contradicted the things they were preaching at the time.
For example the 562AD comet disaster than wiped out millions upon millions of Brits and was what left Britain vulnerable to invasion by the likes of the Angles and Saxons and Jutes etc and ultimately led to the overpowering of the Brits which then led to the Norman Invasion.
Why was this significant, well, firstly, the church at the time said that no rock could fall from the sky, this event disproved that, so they had to cover it up and destroy any written account of the event, of which they were largely for the most part successful and secondly, because the event caused the majority of Britain to be inhabitable and which left Britain basically undefended, allowing to Germanic tribes to invade pretty much untested, that wasn’t glamorous enough for the history books.
The Brits had successful held all invaders at bay even the Romans for decades, Britain was notorious for being nigh on impossible to invade and settle, so for propaganda purposes, they couldn’t let the history books say they successfully invaded Britain without any resistance because that’s like bragging at beating a one armed blind man at a game of boxing, there is no honour in that, you want history to say that they were David defeating Goliath because that makes a better more heroic story, so that’s what they did and they created the dark ages version of history and the church were happy to oblige and play along with it because it meant no talk of the rock falling from the sky, it was win win for both sides and that’s just one example of a major historical event in British history that was white washed by the establishments in order to further their own agendas and resulted in the false history which is still protected to this day, despite the shed loads of evidence that verifiably contradicts what’s the history books claim, they would rather knowingly continue the lie than to accept and admit that what we are taught is a lie.
I would say it’s the biggest cover up and lie in possibly the whole of history!
French person here, the only contact I've had with medieval Welsh culture is the Mabinogion, and those stories translate such a high and epic quality to me, it has never occurred to me that people thought of medieval Wales as kind of backwards and poor.
I thoroughly enjoyed this, thank you.
The Welsh aren't alone, the Cornish have been ignored too. The only thing most people know is King Arthur & Tintagel castle which is garbage anyway - thank you English Heritage. English Heritage & the National Trust have mismanaged some of our best sites & others have been ignored completely. I grew up very close to what was thought to be an Iron Age hillfort but nothing has been done to explore it in my lifetime (50+); if I recall rightly the only finds in the county museum from this site date from the 1930s.
Indeed, and in the period Cornwall and Wales were simply Britons. Alas!
@@TheWelshViking Yeah if you think reenacting early medieval Wales can be rough try Cornwall!
For some reason people really believe the region where (from 300AD or so) the majority of Europes Tin came from was some poor backwater. They ignore the proactive settlement of Brittany by SW Britons and the clear signs of trade links and settlement by Vikings and Irish too.
God, Last Kingdom says we don't even know not to put holes in our shields!
I know you say not looking at Facebook but we are working hard at Morvleydh to change that:
Www.facebook.com/Morvleydh
@@BrotherJing1 Cornwall tends to get the shitty end of the stick when it comes to the English and British viewing them as their own national identity. I've always viewed them as incredibly individual and it's awful that even Last Kingdom didn't bring them up well. I love Bernard Cornwell but that's a giant error.
@@MH-gc2hr yeah the book is better then the series at least...those stupid wicker shields with holes in the middle haunt my dreams
English Heritage is still hanging onto Battle as the location where Harold lost his crown. We now have enough evidence to discredit this but they ignore it. So they won’t have a hope in the west.
me: immediately goes to look at books and into medieval Wales.
I am from Coventry and my public schooling did not mention Wales in the medieval period, like it never existed. Ashamed to admit it never crossed my mind.
I watched this amazing five part documentary series on RUclips a few years back, it covers the history of Wales from cavemen to now. Great info on the medieval period in there. Here's the first episode, if that interests you. ruclips.net/video/hfKYqjempvc/видео.html
Honestly my schools didn't either down south (Kent), if not for my family I'd be clueless. It's a really great deep dive on what makes up the British people that has a lot of fun culture too and I'd say not as boring as the Normans with their kings.
So, I'm over a year late, but I've had an interest in Welsh folklore ever since reading the Chronicles of Prydain as a child and then finding out where its inspiration came from. In fact, the first book I wrote is a historical fantasy set in late 4th century Roman Wales (or what would now be Wales, obviously). It makes me sad that Wales doesn't get the recognition it deserves, especially considering that the Arthurian legend, once you disentangle Charlemagne from it, has its origins there. Also, Brythonic languages sound so much prettier than old English, but that's neither here nor there.
Anyway, I only recently found your channel but I absolutely love the quality of your content. If you're reading this, thanks Jimmy! If you're not reading this, thanks all the same.
I have to say, other than the history my favorite part of your videos is when you speak Welsh. Its such a beautiful language and i'm glad that people are keeping it alive. ^.^
As an American with Welsh ancestry this is fascinating to learn. Is it perhaps a particularly English prejudice? It makes me think I should learn to speak Welsh, too!
You should! Please do! We’d love to have you in the gang!
Traditionally, I would say yes, but I have to say that many English people simply aren’t taught about Wales and its history.
I have found there is this English bias towards Welsh culture even still. The idea that it has a culture at all is a surprise or a punch line of some very bad jokes. It stems from the utter lack of education on Welsh history taught. Colonisers are not keen on explaining their thief and murder.
Growing up in North Wales and moving to England was quite a culture shock. Things like poetry, music and art are the backbone of Welsh school experience. In England these are "rich people things". I enjoy your channel quite a bit and it is good to hear Welsh.
Same, Lucy. I remember moving to England and the culture shock was real!
Diolch yn fawr am rhannu’ch brofion :)
That's weird; where I live in America, I've been reminded on a near daily basis for my entire life that people who colonized the Americas were genocidal, racist, slave driving thieves and rapists, and told that because I look like those people, that I should bear a certain amount of guilt for their crimes against humanity, even though not a single one of my ancestors had a single thing to do with the settlement of the Americas.
Do you guys feel biculturally British & Welsh, then? & not English?
(like those of South or East Asian descent, they are Indian/ Pakistani/ Chinese & British, but not fully "English"...?)
Genuinely would love to know.
@@Jumpoable I'm British that doesn't make me Welsh. I could be Indian and South Asian. But i'm not Pakistani
As a massive fan of Gaelic & Brythonic languages, I'm absolutely delighted to hear there's such an extensive collection of old Welsh poems in existance. Looking forward to read all of that (when my knowledge of Welsh extends beyond singing along to 'Dacw Nghariad', that is). Also, the absence of midroll ads is much appreciated !
What a tune, though! A great way to learn my tongue! :D
@@TheWelshViking :)
Thanks for this. As a Madog research fellow working on the Welsh contributions to medicine and deep diving into the Meddygon Myddfai I came across the kings gifting clothing/fabric to doctors so it's nice to have a tertiary resource for that as well. Diolch. (also the Meddygon Myddfai are a fascinating side venture into Medieval Wales between the reality and the folklore behind their story)
I blame the English: Prince of Wales indeed. And have you ever contemplated the fact that Wales has an awesome dragon on their flag, while England's flag is the cross of St. George?
Badass dragon flag, gold mines, delicious singing, King Arthur, Ioan Gryffydd, the Mabinogion, Diana Wynne Jones.
We just rock, honestly.
@@TheWelshViking We do - don't we ^-^
@@hetrodoxly1203 Wessex! \m/
@@hetrodoxly1203 The Red Dragon is a symbol that predates the Normal English one. There are historical theories the white vs red was Norman vs Welsh.
st george the dragon killer
I love a good history rant. God knows I got off on enough of them myself if the various topics of my own history wheelhouses even vaguely get mentioned. Then I have to put another coin into the "lecturing about history when nobody asked" jar. :D
Speaking of coin, congrats on getting monetized!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge of Medieval Wales, an area which is grossly overlooked in history teaching in the UK. Didderol iawn!
South Walian here studying to be a historian. This video summarises why I got in to studying history. Just wanted to thank you for putting videos up and telling people of our culture! Where I grew up we never heard any history past the valleys and the mines, so people such as yourself are a blessing. Diolch yn fawr, fy ddyn!
Excellent! The historian in me loves your take on a country my ancestors came from and the deserved pride you show. Love your language too, even if I don’t understand it.
Never too late to learn, m’lady!
The Welsh Viking Might be. Hard enough to remember NA English 😂
Thanks for this! I am a fairly ignorant American and even I managed to figure out when I worked with people in the U. K. that they seemed to treat Wales like a joke / full of dirty people. It was always a puzzlement to me, especially since the Welsh landscape seems so beautiful in pictures. Looking forward to learning more!
It depends where you go and who you meet. Ignorant people can be found everywhere sadly ... I was lucky to learn about Wales without all that nonsense. I suppose I was taught that they were all really good singers, though, which I guess might be a bit of a stereotype. I think things are improving. And Jimmy is helping one video at a time!
Saying that Tom Jones boss singer
Filled the gap nicely, I got decent English, Scottish, Scandinavian and Irish, vloggers, now I finally got a decent Welsh one, thanks.
There's a really good book trilogy called ''The Warlord Chronicles'' Basically 5th century Wales with King Arthur . ''The Winter king'', ''Enemy of God'', ''Excalibur''. I pretty much heard nothing about welsh before that series and it just blew my mind . I found it beautiful ! It has lots of welsh culture in it.
Well, if it makes you feel better, I'm American and I was just learning about Owain Glyndwr. I'm also a little bit obsessed with the Merlin character. So it is out there. One must go a bit deeper to finally get to Welsh history but it is a rich and fascinating history.
Subbed, completely agree, as someone that's Welsh born and bred and proud of their heritage, it's incredibly insulting to hear people portray Welsh people in such a discriminatory manner.
Don’t forget the great masterpieces like the Four Branches of the Mabinogi. Epic, mysterious and gives you a real way of looking at medieval Wales. Those books looked really great. I guess I have added two more books to my unlimited list of wanted books.
Diolch a da iawn!!!!!!!!
Cymru am byth!!!!!!
That PR campaign by Edward I is still going strong.
Friends who can source their information with academic research are the best kind of friends!
Love hearing a bit of the history of Wales. And very much enjoying the bits of Welsh language sprinkled in.
Dwi mor falch! Diolch yn fawr! :)
I lived in an area called gelligaer in a 5 mile area we have roman and pre roman settlements, neolithic standing stones and wonderful stories of ancient brithonic ruling families. Wonderful stories One of my favorite books is fairy tales of the Rhymney valley. We had a wonderful history teacher at school and the area almost creaks under the weight of it
This was really educational. Thank you. I actually never thought about Welsh history much, so this has opened a whole new world for me. Instant subscription
Bravo sir! Thank you for sharing about the Welsh culture! Also, I am thoroughly enjoying hearing the language.
Well, thank you back! I’ll keep up the Welsh side of things, both culturally and linguistically :)
It's a shame growing up in Wales, going to wsh stream schools and studying history up to a level that we were never really taught about Welsh history and culture. In Welsh lessons we learned about the stories of Branwen and Cantre'r Gwaelod from the Mabinogion, and Taliesin was maby mentioned once or twice untill a level when he is actually covered but as it is an optional subject by then very phew in our school study it.
History was worse as we only studied 1 unit in year 12 where we had to consider the affect of the Tudor monarchy on the people of Wales which is an optional unit that can be swapped with the Russian revolution.
In primary school we also learnt about Santes Dwinwen (Welsh patron Saint of love), Owain Glyndwr (who was our local historical figure), and Dewi Sant for 1 day each every year untill we reached high school
It is appalling that we are seen as a proud national who are proud of our heritage and yet our history is not taught in schools
Yep, I remember those choices in school. Communism or the Tudors. Nothing on the actual kingdoms of medieval Wales, nothing on the development of our long and storied culture.
But you might get one of the Mabinogion if you’re lucky!
Ofnadwy, ‘de?
Keep spreading it out there though, and I promise to do the same :)
You were lucky to learn about Owain Glyndwr in primary school! I'd heard the name, but I knew nothing about him until about three years ago when I decided to look into it myself - and I'm now in my 40s! We never learned anything about him in school, despite being only a few miles from where he lived. For me in school history lessons in the 1990s, Wales began as a country in the late 1800s. It didn't exist before then.
I went through English medium and didn't even realise we had our own language until secondary school, although I will say things do appear to be a lot better on that regards with my nephews & nieces going through the same school. My children are attending Welsh language medium and they are learning quite a bit more, especially about their local history etc they even mention the Celts which I only learnt about from trips to museums with my family. My main welsh history education was Rebecca, Merthyr, Chartists in Newport and some stuff on the pre-fabs after the second world war.
I agree, I did history until I finished secondary (might do it at uni) and it was not a lot of Welsh. Don't get me wrong I love learning a bit of history from other countries. But when you do ww2 and only get a little brief description of Wales in the 40s and a statistic here and there...that's not correct. When your history of medieval Wales is that there's castles and there was Owain Glyndwr....that's also not right. I know more English history than I do of Wales and Its embarrassing.
Also I love the Mabinogion of Branwen because my name is Branwen 😅 had a book with illustrations that were a little scary for 5 year old me.
I’m binge-watching you this morning whilst I do some packing to move to Ceredigion. Everything you say resonates - diolch yn fawr iawn!
Wales is an amazing country! I have lived in Cardiff and in Holyhead and I love it there! Bangor is a lovely town and I played with their local theatre group as well, so I spent a lot of time in that place. And just from that I have always known about the very rich cultural heritage of Wales. Holyhead is very proud of its history so it's hard to ignore when you love there! Thank you so much for all this wonderful information - more people need to know how wonderful and rich a place it is!
Awesome video! It's so important to debunk potentially harmful myths and stereotypes in history. Especially when the archaeology DOES NOT support them!
Jimmy is finds-driven and will not accept no bogus history! NO SIR.
I love that you mention the trade routes, they are really important for context! I have been looking at trade route influences as well, in the Irish context, and once you see it you simply cannot ignore the significant impact on the culture.
Congrats on monetization too!
I studied in Wales and England，but Wales always have a special place in my heart. You can really feel the culture when you go to wales and see a lot of beautiful castle and stunning sites. And i think bbc made a doc about the history of wales, which did a good job explain the sufficicated history of wales. It was really in the forefront of modern day law.
Totally ok with you having ads at the start! These videos add some fun and knowledge to my life, you definitely should get paid a bit for them if you can! Plenty of people getting paid a lot more for less accurate stuff (cough Vikings cough).
I was briefly in the SCA around the year 2000, and I choose a Welsh persona. No one in my group even had resources regarding the Welsh one way or another. I feel like this video was more informative than anything I was able to research then
I'm SCA with a Welsh persona, I also had a really hard time finding good resources so I'm soaking this adorable man up!
Thanks for the vid--there is a corpus of Welsh verse out there proving how sophisticated the culture was! The Rhydderch Hael cycle, the Eagle of Pengwern, Taliesin, the triads--so much lost but so much still preserved. Yeah, the US does not have a prejudice against Wales (that I have ever seen), just ignorance (sigh). Thank you for the book titles!
Happy to hear the crannog reference, I'm visiting one on Wednesday : )
"I don't see it so it never existed" as an attitude annoys me. Especailly when they just haven't looked.
Oh! Congrats on being monetised, time to bringe you work, again!
Wahey! Diolch yn fawr!
Ooh, which crannog? I love the things. Such a mad idea
@@TheWelshViking The Scottish crannog Center, on Loch Tay in Perthshire. They're actually about to move to a new location as they're running out of space for repairs after ~20 years. Do check them out, They have some fab resources : D
Congratulations friend! I didn't realize you had reached monetization! How exciting. Keep up the great stuff. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us.
Thanks! And congrats on your Community tab!
Da iawn byti, spot on, thanks for the refreshing video. Its definitely something that genuinely annoys me when people say the medieval / pre medieval welsh were backwards, poor tribal savages.
Simply not true I've been researching the "age of the saints" for a few years and how many of the ancient kings later became saints for example St. Brychan, St. Gwynllyw, St. Tewdrig.
Also the 6th century church and hamlet of Llanwonno which is not far from where I live.
Wales has a rich history which I throughly enjoy researching, our ancestors certainly weren't poor.
Thanks again 👍
Thanks for the video. From Sweden here, did not know much about Wales.
I laughed and almost spat out my cider at the idea that it rains in Wales. I think I've always assumed that the Welsh courts were as sophisticated as those anywhere else in Europe. Why wouldn't they be? Anyway, I'm looking forward to learning more.
Right? Silly nonsense that becomes accepted history
All this Arthur stuff can be found in Central Scotland where Welsh hung on in places as late as Bannockburn.
Arthur's Seat, Ben Arthur, Camelon, Badenheath, Arthur's Oon
Etc.
Excellent wee book, "Welsh Origins of Scottish Place Names" by William Oxenham.
Carreg Gwalch. £6.50.
*adds Welsh to the loooong list of impressions that I'd like to do*
Also, all my knowledge of medieval Wales come from reading the Cadfael books which make Welsh culture seem so much more civilised that the English (Saxon or Norman hehehe).
Can I vote for a subtitled history video in Welsh?
Sure thing! I’ll work towards that :)
Oh, Cadfael is absolutely wonderful!
I am happy that you are monetized! I like the idea that someone that teaches me things can make money doing so!
This is actually helpful at just the right time! Been part of reenactment for 2 rears now, and as I'm Welsh I'm building a Welsh archer persona! Fab!
I play, or at least DID play(finances suck, particularly when you don’t have any lol) the harp, so as a part of that is an interest in the instrument, it’s history and the history of the cultures that prized it. In this case it’s the the Irish with your Turlough O’Carolans, and earlier still, the Welsh. Taliesin is a byeword for bard, a maker of tales and songs, a poet. Hywel the Good’s laws were a model for lawmakers in centuries long after his kingdom was gone. The Welsh were a vital culture just like all the other cultures in the British isles and I can understand your frustration, since I’ve always thought of the “Celtic” cultures as rather splendid, educated and advanced(for their era) and it surprises me that it’s not general knowledge....yes some people were poor, some were most definitely NOT, and EVERYone liked a bit ‘o bling to the degree that they could afford it.
This 👆This right here. This succinct summation of EVERYTHING about medieval Wales and her culture.
Diolch for making and posting this video.
I enjoyed that. It's always good to learn about places and peoples that one knows very little about. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge about early Wales. I learned something new today, so that makes it an excellent day. Take care. (The ads are fine. I usually just knit through them 😁)
I know people that didn't even realize Wales is an actual country. They thought it was an English county.
*loads rpg with holy intent*
Who?
I heard people say that sometimes and I got really annoyed 😂😂😂
*Calls upon Ddraig Goch with rebellious intent*
I know a london guy who night think Wales was a real county and more just an area of England. He even had a towel with the Welsh flag on it. Took him to Saint Fagans to sort that out lol
Great video thankyou, good to see some true welsh history🏴 well done
Once again, a concise and most illuminating video. Thanks Jimmy, you're are so good at this!
I’m happy with anything that helps you keep making your videos!
It was time for this culture to emerge as well. For those of us who are not English, it is difficult to grasp the history of Wales. Thank you so much for taking the time to teach us about this time in Wales
Wales also hosted the Mold gold cape, too. :)
My ancestors come from Wales, the Sole family line. So it's nice to see someone stick up for us being forgotten about.
Love Wales. Looking forward to going there again.
Is there a reason why it took longer for Wales to become unified than a place like England or Scotland?
I took a class on the History of Britain and Ireland last semester and we largely focused on England and Ireland. It sucks that British history is overshadowed by just the English. Personally as someone who loves Scottish history I took every opportunity to do my projects on Scotland.
A lot of political infighting, really. But Wales was unified in the 11th and 13th centuries. Sadly, being such a small area, it was relatively easy to march across
@@TheWelshViking Isn't it at least partly because the Welsh had an inheritance system that tended to fragment rather than consolidate power and land? The Normans were heavily into primogeniture and favoured legitimate heirs, while the Welsh shared the inheritance between all sons, legimate or not.
Rachel Boersma-Plug that was actually common to most of the “Celtic” cultures in the British isles. It was part of their tribally based society(kingship is just an extension of tribal leadership in essence)
greater linguistic, genetic, and cultural diversity where you get mountains. Hard to invade without a ton of troops. You see it in other places too to a much greater extent: Afghanistan, the Caucuses, the alps. Scotland is a little different due to the lowland expanse - Wales's lowland expanse was England which took longer to consolidate than than Strath Clyd and Dal Raita.
@@rachelboersma-plug9482 I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there, but when did the Anglo-Normans stop this practice? I know William the Conqueror split his lands between his sons but eventually this stopped, I wonder when and why?
I saw that cranog on Time Team! Wales is fascinating. I never really knew anything until Time Tram and reading Ken Follett’s century trilogy. I’m also a devotee of Cerridwen and so have done research on my own. Excellent video! Thanks is for sharing your expertise!
LOVE!! Thank you for the references - so excited! My stepfather’s family is from Wales and I feel so connected that I took a little Welsh in the one university in the US teaching Welsh at the time. We recently found a family gravestone (not medieval!) that was inscribed with a lovely long poem in the grand Welsh literary tradition. I think perhaps Tolkien modeled the hobbits after the modern “view” of the Welsh - cosy, comfort-loving and unpretentious but the stalwart heroes in the end! And they loved poems as well. I had hoped to attend Eisteddfod this year but alas, plague struck. Yay for Wales and the Welsh!
Oh, I hope you get to come and enjoy it soon! It’s a splendid celebration of modern Welsh culture. You certainly count as Welsh in my book, and I heartily encourage you to keep plugging gently away at dysgu’r hên iaith.
May I ask what the poem was? I’m a gravestone nerd, as you’ll know ;)
@@TheWelshViking I do plan on that! I read a hilarious book recently called "Some Sex and a Hill: or How to Learn Welsh in 3 Easy Pints." I thought I'd died and gone to heaven - a funny book about language learning! I'm such a geek! Very happy to hear the Eisteddfod is what it purports to be...so many "festivals" in the US are just a way to sell more gadgets. I am eager to go!
@@terriwilliams4938 That sounds like a fabulous book, and I think I’m going to hunt it down. Thank you!
Best Welsh book I ever read was 'Buched Dewi'. Easier than modern Welsh, I found - being a 2nd language Welsh speaker.
Your passion is infectious! It always stirs my heart and sends me down research rabbit holes when I see someone whose curiosity matches my own.
This is fascinating. I would love to hear you recite some early poetry
Then I will do so!
Brilliant idea! Hope he does, that would be lovely.
Good stuff. I've been interested in later medieval Wales (12th and 13th century) for a long time, but had never really considered the early period. I'm happy to watch as much of this as you want to post.
Now that you've developed some embroidery skills, perhaps you should try that Llangorse Crannog design for the cuffs in your medieval Welsh tunic 😋
Then I will post a LOT.
Oh boy, I did one of the Llangorse lions. Took me three hours!
I just want to let you know that you’re not the only one! I’ve had my fair share of urinating against the winds of ignorance that blows In the face of Welsh history. Your piece here was a breath of fresh air. Great stuff! I live in Caernarfon, probably the last stronghold of the Brythonic language the Saxons called Welsh. Needless to say that like the rest of Wales most of the Cymry here in Caernarfon know hardly nothing about their country’s own rich history. The winners write the history books - but you are putting that right Welsh Viking. Diolch! :-)
i have come across some closed minded people in america when it comes to the welsh...i personally have always defended the welsh, but maybe i'm biased as my great-great grandmother hails from wales (poetry!). i also absolutely LOVE that you speak some welsh in your videos!
Welsh Ambassador to the world 👏🏼 tell us more about your mysterious country. It is true that a lot is said and talked of the other countries in the UK but less of Wales.
New subscriber here! I must say that I am so excited to see more of your content concerning Welsh historical topics. It's something I've done the tiniest bit of study on but isn't at all covered in American schools.
Thanks for your content and congratulations on being monetized!
Thank you, Angelique! I’ll keep doing some more of them in that case :)
Many thanks from a Welshman in Australia really good discussion
Now that I’m catching up somewhat and going through your older videos I realize what amazing progress you made adding your music and cute thumbnails. I get to the end of these and miss the music!
Haha! Yeah, it's fun for me to see how much I've had to try to get my head around in a year and a bit. So many elements of editing still to master!
Thank you for sharing all this interesting information! Can't wait for the early medieval Welsh dazzling look :D
Amazing video! Keep this coming!
Diolch yn fawr! Will do!
Thank you so much for doing these sorts of videos. I'm Canadian and I've been looking into my family history a lot lately. I grew up calling my dad's parents Nain and Taid, and I knew part of my family was Welsh, but my Taid was adopted, and his records are sealed So, last year, I did a DNA test to find out my ancestry. I thought I would be roughy 25% Welsh with only my Nain being traced back to that (her family came to Canada after setting up a Welsh settlement in Argentina, then they left when they would be forced to start speaking Spanish), but to my surprise, I'm only 40%. I also found out that Nain, who is currently 96 years old, grew up fluent in Welsh. She didn't teach it to my dad or his siblings though, and within a generation we lost the language. It's my goal for 2022 to learn some Welsh, so please keep dusting it into your videos! I intend to also spend a lot of time learning about the history of Wales to inform me more about my Welsh ancestors, recent and ancient. Btw, my Welsh family is from Northern Wales, so I'm learning the Northern pronuncations for everything. Thank you again!
I’ll admit that I knew Wales was a different entity for most of my life, but I definitely saw it as a subset culturally until about 2019. I definitely appreciate the new info here! Love that we still use the word bard, it really feels like a good solid word. Thank you for this, and roll those ads!!
Oh! Would you be willing to put in subtitles of the Welsh at the end? I’d love to see how it’s all spelled!
I’ll try to make that happen, Teela. I’m still learning how all the tech stuff works. Otherwise maybe I’ll do a highlight reel! 😆
You are one of me favorite channels now stay well my friend. My re-enactments are 1750’s long hunter in TN and KY. Welsh made it here too.
A while back I watched "The adventure of english" a documentary about the evolution of the English language by the BBC. On the very first episode it just refers to the word "Welsh" coming from "weelas" that is the celtic word for "slave" and is otherwise rather dismissive (the same goes for the Irish language). Being an English documentary about themselves I expected it to be biased but not to that degree. Thank you for this video!
That was refreshing. I am only about 1/64th Welsh, but live in what was once the Brythonic-speaking Erging, which gets a few mentions in the Mabiogi. I would love to know more about this period.
My local shop is within sight of where King Arthur was said to have slain his remaining son, the hill I live on was called Caer Rein after Rhiann Dremrudd, the famous descendant of Brychan Brechyniog, I work between a church dedicated to St Dyffrig and the hill where Vortigern met his end.
I loved the shocked disdain in the delivery of, "... It's not ITV..."
Congratulations on being monetised! You obviously put in a lot of work on your videos, so it's certainly well deserved.
As a bit of a history nerd, I love finding out about places and periods that were mostly glossed over in my history classes at school.
Thank you, it’s so lovely to have such appreciation and clear enjoyment shown for what I’m up to :)
The lost and forgotten stuff is always the most compelling. Weird that it’s not covered more.
@@TheWelshViking I'm probably a bit odd in enjoying the bits that my friends would find boring during history lessons at school, but I do love a really interesting, but often overlooked detail 😄
Thank you very much, very nice informative video. My Maiden name is Bell and I was born and raised in and still reside in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. South eastern Pennsylvania has many many towns and townships with Welsh names as well as English, Scottish, and Irish. My only Daughter's maiden name is Jennifer Wise and her Paternal Great Grandfather's name was Percy Wise and he was a coal miner. Her Daughters names are Fiona and Gwendolyn, their last name is Coulby. My Daughter did study for a term at the Unversity Of Cork where she did have a course in Irish.
Years ago I took my Mother to Ireland, she was a McLaughlin married to a Bell and the morning that we arrived in Dublin, we were staying at the Burlington Hotel, which at that time had a service bar in the lobby lounge and after breakfast in the hotel dining room we decided to have a drink after the long flight on a very stormy crossing, we settled into comfy chairs there and shortly after that three very handsome young men came down to the lobby bar and ordered drinks, they were very nice young men who introduced themselves as Welshmen who had been in Dublin for a Bachelor Party and we struck up a conversation and they and myself were hungover so it turned into a fun time sharing stories. These young Welchmen had a crazy wonderful sarcastic sense of humor which I share in common with them. I know that this is rather rambling, but we were all having a pleasant time. Then I related a story to them "true story" about my Paternal Great Grandfather John Bell, who was born in Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland, his family had returned to Paisley Scotland when he was a teenager, where he learned his trade as a tailor before emigrating from Paisley to Philadelphia in 1859. When John Bell arrived in Philadelphia he got a position as a tailor in Philadelphia. He met his Wife in Philadelphia, who was also a tailor, they did move to Lancaster and his Wife stayed home there to raise their children, but he took the train everyday from Lancaster to Philadelphia for work. This is where this story peaked our Welch companions attention, as I related to them the story of my Great Greatgrandfather's demise. His birthday was February 2, which over here is a minor "festival" day "Groundhog Day" which is a silly drinking day, so because it was his Birthday and he had time to celebrate with just a bit too much whisky. When he boarded the train back to Lancaster, he "fell" asleep and missed his stop, shortly thereafter he awakened and realized he needed to get off at the next stop coming up and would have to catch the next train back to Lancaster. That DID NOT end well, he was struck by the oncoming train that he needed to board. This is where our Welch companions laughed like crazy as did I, when I told them that he didn't die for three days, obviously he was pretty drunk when the train hit him. My Mother, myself and our three charming Welch companions had a great belly laugh on a Sunday morning in Dublin along with me telling a true amusingly but ironically sad story. My Great Great Grandfather's Widow to raise four small children by herself, she never remarried.
One final comment, my Husband and I have had our DNA test done by 23 and Me about five years ago and since then many more people have done so and recently I discovered that I do have some distant Cousins in Wales, along with my Irish, Scottish and English Cousins.😎😂🥃
This is very interesting!! Im glad you are doing these educational/rant videos, I learn so much!
Thanks, Vanessa! I’ll keep doing them!
Arguably the most well-known literary figure from the Early Medieval period, anywhere WORLDWIDE is King Arthur. He may or may not have been inspired by a real historical figure, but all the earliest literary incarnations of him are Welsh. The influence of Arthurian legends on later European literature is hard to overstate. The cultural impact Early Medieval Wales has had on the world is phenomenal.
Hello! I'm the first comment. :) I loved visiting Wales while I lived in the UK. It captured my imagination.
Congratulations on monetization!
Thank you for teaching. You make your ideas accessible. You give leads to sources. Thank you.
I am healing from a stroke. Accessible is important for folks like me.
I wish you wellness. I wish you every success in your studies.
Bless you for these videos.
That’s wonderful to hear, Karen, thank you so much for that lovely comment.
May your road to healing be short, smooth, and full of being waited on hand and foot by those around you.
Your vids have become one of my anticipated daily joys! Initially, it was due to the textile and period-fashion focus delivered in a delightful and knowledgeable manner. But now there is even greater interest, since Ancestry.com has indicated I have roots in Wales and Northwestern (also Germanic) Europe with a bit of Scotland, Norway, Ireland and Spain in the mix. So greetings from across the pond; and please know that your material is fascinating, and you are much appreciated!
Subscribed ,greetings from Greece
Well presented and edifying Jim, thank you.
I dont think i have ever thought of medieval Wales as ”poor,weak” or ”backwards”. Then again, i like history.
Also, i would be surprised if my friends here in Sweden where unaware of Taliesin etc ( my friends are as nerdy as me ).
WoW Now that I know where the word BARD comes from... I shall boldly proclaim it to anyone who will listen!!! Thanks for your rant. I have been going though all your videos and it is wonderful to see where your passions lie (lye?). I am always stoked to listen when folks are truly "into things". HELLS TO THE YES JIMMY! PREACH!
Your presentations are fascinating.
Congrats on reaching this milestone in your channel!
Thank you! It’s very exciting :)
I'm a Davis, which is likely to be Welsh, and have always identified with Wales. Thanks for the info -- I didn't know much about that era!
Wow, what a fascinating video! I have Irish and Welsh heritage, but I was always more interested in the Irish side. I'm definitely going to be digging deeper into Welsh history now! Can't wait for more of your videos!
Yay! I’m glad I’m sparking an interest in your heritage, Jennifer!
Those books might be too expensive to own but you can look at them in various university libraries. According to Worldcat, 104 libraries in North America and the UK own copies of the book. Even in Texas, where I live, I could drive down to Austin and read the copy at the University of Texas Library. Parking would be a big nightmare but I could still look at it without buying the book. Although, when I think of the shopping temptations in Austin, it might be cheaper to buy the book.
Glad to see a fellow Texan in the comments!
And if you go to your local library, they could probably get it for you through inter library loan. Here in Texas we have Texshare which means you'll definitely be able to find a library near you to get it shipped to and you can get a Texshare card to check things out at academic libraries!
@@nikkicafeina my library has suspended ILL due to Covid19
@@cindyrosser2471 Not all libraries have suspended interlibrary loan and it's a good thing to keep in mind when your library begins to add services back in to what they are offering.
An English reaction. I fear my countrymen have looked down on Wales, but I do know better. Didn't Gildas the Wise upbraid the princes of his time for their wealth? Didn't the excavations of Tintagel - I know it's Cornwall, but it's the same culture - reveal evidence of riches?
I'm very interested in the survival of the knowledge of the classical world in the British Isles in the Dark Ages, when it disappeared in a lot of Europe. Didn't Arnold Toynbee say that Western civilization began in Ireland, where Greek was kept up in the liturgy? (You may know whether this was true for Wales as well.) But it may have been Wales, in Glamorgan - then Glywysing - where the scholarship was preserved first, in places like Llantwit.
I know that law was extremely important in mediaeval Wales, and I know about Hywel Dda. I love the fact that he had specific laws protecting cats.
I suspect much of the English snootiness about the Welsh derives from the English inability to read Welsh!
Well said! If Wales was so poor then why did the Irish raid it so much. If Wales was so poor then why did the Vikings raid it so much and why did Edward I spend so much on mercenaries and a castle network probably unparalleled throughout much of Europe. It is an interesting point that following the battle of Hastings in 1066, England capitulated to the Normans relatively quickly. The conquest of Wales ended in 1283 ( it could be argued that it ended in 1415 with the end of the Glyndwr war), which suggests the existence of a robust and organised system in place that allowed resistance to continue. This could not have happened if all there was in Wales was impoverished peasants.
The church was well established in Wales with Bangor, Llandaf, St David’s and Llantwit Major being some of the oldest in Britain and much of the information ‘lost’ following the collapse of the Roman Empire was retained within this network. To much of Europe Wales was still ‘civilised’ being a Christian region when compared to the area later to become England which was controlled by largely pagan rulers.
Ultimately the ‘history is written by the victors’ adage is probably true here and I think that the history of the British Isles has been weighted heavily towards the Anglo-Saxons (possibly due to the eagerness of the Saxe-Coburg royals, aka Windsor’s to appear more British than German). Certainly Wessex was given greater importance at the expense of the Mercians, Vikings and Welsh (to name a few).
On the subject of the ‘bare-footed Welshman’ I have read that it was a deliberate decision taken by Welsh warriors to take off one shoe in certain conditions to aid grip when fighting (in mud for example) but unfortunately I cannot remember the reference.