{"id":547,"date":"2019-03-14T13:56:35","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T13:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/?p=547"},"modified":"2019-03-14T13:56:40","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T13:56:40","slug":"how-the-people-of-wales-became-welsh-from-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/how-the-people-of-wales-became-welsh-from-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"How the people of Wales became Welsh from the conversation."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/189143\/original\/file-20171006-25758-jp3ubh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=926&amp;fit=clip\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption>The Norman-built keep at Cardiff Castle.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/cardiff-castle-situated-within-beautiful-parklands-151136786?src=JKffQN7UpwFeWeuMh2dc4Q-1-52\">Matthew Dixon\/Shutterstock<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitcardiff.com\">https:\/\/www.visitcardiff.com<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.visitwales.com\">http:\/\/www.visitwales.com<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Britain in the early Middle Ages was very different to the country it is now. Rather than England, Scotland and Wales, the island consisted of numerous kingdoms, the fate and fortune of which fluctuated, as some kings gained lordship over others, some smaller kingdoms were swallowed by their larger neighbours and others fell to foreign invaders \u2013 including Vikings, in the ninth and tenth centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, many of the inhabitants of Britain identify primarily as&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk\/ethnicity-identity-language-and-religion\">Scottish<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-24302914\">English<\/a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ethnicity.ac.uk\/medialibrary\/briefings\/dynamicsofdiversity\/code-census-briefing-national-identity-wales.pdf\">Welsh<\/a>. But this was not always the case. In Wales, for example, there is no single defining moment when one can say the people became \u201cWelsh\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the early middle ages, Wales was divided&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.walesonline.co.uk\/news\/wales-news\/the-lost-kingdoms-of-wales-13721585\">into different kingdoms<\/a>&nbsp;\u2013 Gwynedd, Dyfed and Ceredigion, for example \u2013 whose relations with each other formed a central plank of native politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/188978\/original\/file-20171005-9781-8xwxt9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption>The kingdoms of early medieval Wales.<a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Wales.post-Roman.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In the ninth and tenth centuries the Merfynion, a dynasty\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.co.uk\/books?id=AK_yn7Q3_x0C&amp;pg=PA554&amp;lpg=PA554&amp;dq=Merfynion&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=17TQ9JiRM_&amp;sig=cwNZA8FISlhEyzaaCUQW6K63eqY&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiG5-OBpdLWAhXCbVAKHeYbCdAQ6AEIOzAD#v=onepage&amp;q=Merfynion&amp;f=false\">named after its founder Merfyn Frych<\/a>, gained power in many of these areas, their authority spreading over both north and south Wales.<a href=\"http:\/\/ www.visitpembrokeshire.com\">http:\/\/ www.visitpembrokeshire.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though we now label the medieval country as Wales, back then it didn\u2019t exist as a politically united entity. This raises the question \u2013 did the inhabitants of Wales view themselves as \u201cWelsh\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s in a name?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The words \u201cWales\u201d and \u201cWelsh\u201d come from the Anglo-Saxon use of the term \u201cwealas\u201d to describe (among other things) the people of Britain who spoke Brittonic \u2013 a Celtic language used throughout Britain which later developed into Welsh, Cornish, Breton and other languages. English writers viewed the inhabitants of Wales as different to themselves, but at the same time \u201cwealas\u201d wasn\u2019t exclusively used to refer to the people of Wales. The same terminology was sometimes applied to the Cornish, for example, with \u201cwealas\u201d reflected in the last part of Cornwall, as \u201cwall\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We see a similar situation when we look at Welsh language words. In the tenth century, \u201cKymry\u201d was used for the first time in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.co.uk\/books?id=LN9DSKZfItcC&amp;pg=PA161&amp;lpg=PA161&amp;dq=armes+prydein+vawr&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=CWC0VmxtCH&amp;sig=c7qDDLQNzZPn7UoEBzKVEhWQY3g&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiW1u3q99bWAhVBKFAKHW9NDpMQ6AEIVzAJ#v=onepage&amp;q=armes%20prydein%20vawr&amp;f=false\">Armes Prydein Vawr<\/a>(The Great Prophecy of Britain), a Welsh poem calling upon the Kymry to rise up against the English and evict them from Britain once and for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In modern Welsh, Kymry has become Cymru and Cymry, the former referring to the territory of Wales, the latter to its inhabitants. In Armes Prydein Vawr, however, Kymry doesn\u2019t just refer to the inhabitants of Wales, but to multiple Brittonic-speaking peoples. So when Armes Prydein Vawr refers to the Kymry, as well as the inhabitants of Wales, the poet is also calling upon the Cornish, the Bretons, and the inhabitants of the Brittonic-speaking kingdoms of northern England and southern Scotland, commonly referred to then as the \u201cOld North\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Layers of identity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To explain the connection between the Brittonic-speaking peoples at the time, early medieval writers turned to history. The&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/1972\/1972-h\/1972-h.htm\">Historia Brittonum<\/a>, a history of the Britons composed in north Wales in 829\u201330, claims that the Britons were originally Trojans who travelled to Britain and became the first people to settle the island. The text also asserts that during the Roman period a group of Britons left the island and settled on the continent, becoming the Armorican Britons or&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.everyculture.com\/wc\/Costa-Rica-to-Georgia\/Bretons.html\">Bretons<\/a>&nbsp;of Brittany, northern France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The inhabitants of Wales, like those of Cornwall and the Old North, are depicted as the descendants of the original Britons who remained in Britain. But successive attacks by the&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/science\/the-truth-about-the-picts-886098.html\">Picts<\/a>, Irish and \u2013 especially \u2013 the Saxons had encroached upon their territory. They no longer ruled the entirety of Britain, just small corners of it. The identity based on this narrative presents the inhabitants of Wales as Britons, closely connected to the inhabitants of Cornwall, the Old North, and Brittany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ideas of identity were \u2013 and still are \u2013 complex and layered. The poet who wrote Armes Prydein Vawr may have viewed all the Brittonic-speaking peoples as Kymry, but the Cornishmen are also referred to as \u201cCornyw\u201d and the inhabitants of Strathclyde as \u201cCludwys\u201d. There was a disti<a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitcarmarthenshire.co.uk\">h<\/a>nction between the inhabitants of Cornwall and of Strathclyde, even though they were grouped as Kymry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/189144\/original\/file-20171006-25749-1565qen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption>Offa\u2019s Dyke near Clun, Shropshire.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Offa%27s_Dyke_near_Clun.jpg\">Chris Heaton<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a similar sentiment in the&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/omacl.org\/KingAlfred\/\">Life of King Alfred<\/a>, a biography of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/new-research-indicates-that-alfred-the-great-probably-wasnt-that-great-74464\">Alfred the Great<\/a>&nbsp;composed in 893. The writer, Asser, refers to Offa of Mercia&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/article\/feature\/brief-history-offas-dyke\">building a dyke<\/a>&nbsp;\u2013 an earthwork denoting the border \u2013 between his kingdom and Britannia. Here Britannia clearly refers to Wales and presents it as distinct from other Brittonic-speaking areas. Likewise, Cornwall is called \u201cCornubia\u201d rather than as part of one unified Britannia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nowhere is the complex nature of identity more evident than in early medieval Wales. Sources both from and outside what we would now view as Wales see the Welsh as Britons, who once ruled the entirety of Britain, and \u2013 according to Armes Prydein Vawr \u2013 would do so again in the future. But there are hints of an alternative identity being constructed. When Asser looks to Britannia, his gaze is turned to the west, across Offa\u2019s Dyke. It is possible that the geographical unit of Wales, is beginning to play a role in ideas of identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can\u2019t point to exactly when the inhabitants of Wales became Welsh, but the works of writers and historians of the time provide tantalising glimpses of shifting and developing identities in the early medieval period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>http:\/\/www.visitwales.com Britain in the early Middle Ages was very different to the country it is now. Rather than England, Scotland and Wales, the island consisted of numerous kingdoms, the fate and fortune of which fluctuated, as some kings gained lordship over others, some smaller kingdoms were swallowed by their larger neighbours and others fell to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":548,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions\/548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}