A Classic of Welsh Folklore Reissued

Abstract

OVER fifty years have passed since T. Gwynn Jones wrote his Welsh Folklore and Folk-Custom at the invitation of the Methuen Company in 1930. During that period much research work has been done in the field in which Gwynn Jones, like Sir John Rhis before him, was such a pioneer. Yet his volume remains a classic. I know of no better introduction to Welsh folklore, and at least two reasons can be given to explain why the volume is so valuable. Firstly, it is a volume which is a mine of information, with that information (gathered from manuscript, printed and oral sources) presented in an interesting, orderly and concise manner. It would be easy to argue that the author should have dealt also in some measure with subjects such as games, riddles, tongue-twisters, lullabies, rhymes, proverbs and sayings--subjects which are now considered a central part of folklore-but it should be remembered at the same time that he had to restrict substantially the size of the volume to fulfil the demands of the publishers. And remember, too, that the field of folklore then had not been explicitly defined. Indeed, to this day it remains one of the most indefinable fields. It is a special subject, and yet it is more than a subject. It is an attitude of mind which is an inex tricable part of every subject. One cannot discuss subjects of a 'material' nature, such as ploughing and sowing, harvesting and thatching, without mentioning also the folklore that was an integral part of such work-all the beliefs and customs never recorded on paper, but transferred from mouth to mouth and from generation to generation, such as the belief that the proper time to sow oats was 'tridiau'r deryn du a dau lygad Ebrill' (lit. 'the blackbird's three days and April's two eyes'). I, like many another, certainly, would have liked to have seen a man as cultured as T. Gwynn Jones discussing folklore in the widest meaning of the term, but it is unfair to criticize an author for not doing what he had never intended doing at all. His intention, according to his own words in the introduction, was: