Language and Llangollen

If you have seen any Welsh words written, you may think there is a shortage of vowels in this country's native tongue. This morning's lectures were designed to dispel us of that notion and give some insight into the development of the Welsh language and nation. The first lecture was an overview of the development of the Welsh language and its place in the family of Indo European, and more specifically, insular Celtic languages. I was going to say I won't bore you with the details but as the lecture was actually fascinating (and I'm not the only odd one who thought so), I will say I won't fascinate you with the details. The one fact I will share is that the word Wales comes from the Anglo Saxon word meaning "stranger" and the word Cymru (the Welsh language word for this nation) derives from a world meaning "fellow countryman." Something to think about.

The second lecture was a brief overview of Welsh history where we learned about Welsh heroes such as Taliesin, Llywelyn, Llywelyn ap Gruffod, and Owain Glyn Dwr. Good thing we had the language lesson first so we knew how to pronounce their names.

After lunch, we were fortunate to be able to attend the 2009 Llangollen International Eisteddfod Festival. An Eisteddfod is a gathering of musicians, dancers and poets and the international competition at Llangollen is actually quite a big thing. It was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and both Pavarotti and Placido Domingo competed many years ago in the choir competition before they were famous. The various competitions take place over the course of six days in a huge covered pavilion-- there are dancers from around the world, musicians, soloists, choirs of all sorts, and groups that do a little of each. Outside the pavilion there are craft and food vendors set up and side stages with performances by non-competing musicians. After walking around for a bit, we went to our seats (which were somehow right down front near the stage) and heard the small Celtic ensemble competition and the mixed choir competition in which the James Madison University Choir was competing along with choirs from Riverside (California), Houston, Cardiff, Sardinia and Latvia. Luckily my new camera takes videos so what I'm posting today are three clips-- a harp group from Wales and England, a fiddle group from Scotland (they won the Celtic ensemble competition and the harpists finished second) and the Latvian choir.

After returning from Llangollen and having dinner everyone dispersed and went their separate ways-- some to the pub, some to bed and some to class (the students taking the course through Drew have to meet as a cohort-- poor Joe). I decided to poke around in the library and ended up checking out Wilkie Collins "The Haunted Hotel." I retired to the common room, poured myself a glass of sherry, and settled into a nice leather chair in front of the fire place (no fire-- too warm) and big windows looking out onto the garden to read and pretend like the library was my home and all the other guests were just visiting for the weekend. Turns out I had the place basically to myself (Becky did come later and I had to share my lamp with her so she could read as well-- she'd also raided the library). Sherry, orange cardamom chocolate, and a great mystery/ghost story set in Venice. I could learn to live like this.