Unidentified head here…
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Sorry @henddraig, I got there just in time to see the entourage leaving the Gorsedd Circle. I got a few photos but none which would help you.
Lovely to meet you too Pippa!
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It is my pleasure. I wish I would have them more and one of us all on that one picture missing now BUT I’m glad I’ve met you all and had a little conversation with many of you.
Maybe one day I come back, meeting you all and making that alltogether big picture! I’ll surely try to work toward that goal, developing more in Welsh in that time of course.
@hewrop, I’m sorry it’s only now I’ve read your “report”. Lovely and thank you for all nice and warm words meant to me. Lovely report in deed.
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I’ve been meaning to ask if any of you who met @leiafee saw her on Dal Ati on Sunday morning, the program about Abertawe and area? She was being asked about flying from the local airfield and also about learning the language! She gave SSiW a wonderful advert!! @aran & @Iestyn should be pleased!
I was taken up in a little plane from there, by a friend with half-shares in it (the plane, not the airfield!). We buzzed various friends and relations!
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They’re getting their money’s worth out of thst clip! It was years ago they filmed it, when I was still flying the club Tomahawks. Two days before I had all my wisdom teeth taken out due to the enormous tooth abscess I’m sporting like the elephant woman!
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I think all our SSiW interviews are on a loop. They just keep popping up again and again. Must be quality TV 
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Mind, to be fair, we do know S4C are short of money! We wouldn’t need the petition otherwise!
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It was great to meet those of you that I saw at the Eisteddfod, unfortunately I ended up scheduling my long volunteer shift right during the middle of the meet-up. But shout out to @netmouse who kindly came to say hello…until we got told off! Did I stamp your hand maybe?
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Lovely to meet you, Kerstin! Pity we didn’t get more time to chat - but the Eisteddfod tends to be a bit like that! We’ll have to try and arrange a slightly longer meetup/party kind of thing next year…
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DIOLCH yn fawr!
Between your enthusiastic comments here and the ‘BEEB’ transmitting the highlights of each day I enjoyed the Eisteddfod vicariously from thousands of miles away.
Looking forward to this year’s SSiW one.
Cheers,
Marilyn
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I’m not sure whether to post this here or wake up the ‘customs’ thread! I decided on here with the notion that it can always get linked and shifted if it sparks any reaction!
BBC recently repeated a series in which Michael Palin travelled round what he called ‘new Europe’. It wasn’t of course. Parts had restored boundaries, parts had recently joined the EU, Germany was reunited, but that was nearly 20 years before the filming in 2007. Anyway, I’d missed it, so recorded it on Sky and finally got around to watching!
I nearly deleted after a bit of the first episode because @tatjana’s lovely country was represented by shots of Palin on a mountain and a mention that Slovenia had voted to leave Yugoslavia and this brought about its break-up. (I believe this is a great simplification and although I paraphrased Palin, I don’t think I did so unfairly!) We know there is a lot more of Slovenia that is worth seeing than one mountain and I was cross! But I did continue to watch. It was all very patchy and haphazard. I doubt most countries would feel well represented, but then Palin is a comedian!
Eventually, we reached Latvia and I stared at the screen and gasped, “Blodeuged!”
It was girls wearing flowers garlands round their hair and then dancing in circles round an oak tree. It was ‘Jani’ he said, which is June 24th and, basically, a solstice festival. I had been instantly struck by the resemblance to the Maiden and her floral dancers presenting the Blodeuged to the crowned or chaired Bard at the Eisteddfod.
I do not believe Iolo Morganwg ever visited Latvia!
Does anyone know if there is evidence of connections between the people of Latvia and those who arrived in Britain after the Ice Age?
Is @seren still with us? I know she knows a lot about customs and Latvia is next to Belarus. Is anyone from Latvia on the Forum?
Or am I chasing a totally spurious similarity? It wasn’t just the garlands and dancers, it was honouring the oak which, I think, the Romans mentioned that we did!
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Ah yes, I’ll have to get a move on with that 
Hen Ddraig,
It would be nice to find very historical linkages, but the 19th century was rife with aristocrats and philosophers trying to reinvent ancient customs and traditions - kilts, christmas trees, Easter eggs etc. I think Lady Llanofer got a lot of mention in the Eisteddfod, patron of Iolo Morgannwg and sister in-law to the Prussian Christian Von Bunsen, who was very interested in links to culture and language etc and how to harness this to unify teutonic peoples etc. It sounds like there should be a good book or two out there on what the aristocrats were thinking and doing at that time, but it could be that many similarities between customs and festivals across Europe originate from that time - much like the spread of Christmas trees and Easter eggs etc (Christian von Bunsen said that Easter eggs were a tradition going back to the ancient Egyptians - which is odd, but maybe true, although the revival in interest may be down to people like him?).
Just a thought.
P.S. Unrelated, but this is interesting on Cymru Fyw: (remains of part of a stone age boat near Monmouth (3200 BC, close to the site of the bronze age shipyard found a few years ago)
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I think one needs a certain amount of faith to accept that as part of a boat. I could suggest about 100+ things it could be part of! (Things that might end up in water, that is!) But even if it is, it doesn’t tell us much about boat design in that era!
I think they found a lot more last year, but this is the oldest bit that’s been dated. They found parts of a crannog there, which are between 2600 to 2800 BC - which is before the earliest pyramids. (not as old as the Sweet Track in the Somerset levels yet or another trackway found in London a few years back, but within a few hundred years of those. Plenty of interesting things going on back then.
edit: didn’t mention Bryn Gelli ddu in Anglesey 4000 BC (henge built about 3000BC), which possibly predates Newgrange in Ireland 3200BC - both well before Stonehenge - 2400BC (possibly back to 3000BC, without the bluestones or the henge).
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MTalking about Stonehenge, Bryn Celli Ddu and Newgrange, here are some “before” and “after” pictures of them regarding their restorations. Shows how much we can sometimes be seeing the past through the eyes of other individuals and assuming it is the truth!
Newgrange
Stonehenge
Bryn Celli Ddu
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The photo with the two men and the hoist/crane is brilliant