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This is a different angle on the
legend from the Mabinogi about the Welsh princess who married an
Irish king. Branwen was the sister of the giant Bendigeidfran. She also had two half brothers, Nisien, who was the epitome of everything good and Efnisien who was the exact opposite. One day while Efnisien was away an Irish king called Matholwch turned up and asked to marry Branwen. She quite fancied him so the wedding went ahead. Efnisien returned in the middle of the celebrations and was so incensed that they had not waited to get his permission that he mutilated the Irish horses - the ultimate insult in Celtic society. To avoid war Bendigeifran replaced the horses and gave the happy couple a wedding gift - a magic cauldron. If someone was killed he would come back to life if placed in the cauldron but he would not be able to speak. Branwen and hubby sailed off to Ireland. All went well and Branwen had a son, Gwern. After a while, though, some of Matholwch’s advisors kept reminding him of the insult given by Efnisien and eventually he was persuaded to banish Branwen to the kitchens where she was beaten each day by the cook. Her heart breaking she taught a starling to speak and sent it out to find her brother. Some while later farmers came to court to report a huge mountain and a forest moving across the Irish sea. Branwen was called to explain this - it was of course her brother the giant Bendigeifran leading the Welsh ships. To cut a long story short diplomacy failed, again largely due to Efnisien and a great battle was fought. The Irish, of course, had the cauldron. Eventually Efnisien climbed inside and forced it in two, but the effort killed him. Only seven people survived and headed back to Wales with Bendigeifran’s head. Branwen died of a broken heart on reaching the shores of Wales.
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I think we must all suffer from the feeling of not quite belonging at some time or other. Also I have certainly had the feeling of being “home” in some places even though I am visiting them for the first time. Is this due to a retained inherited memory? Is more passed from our parents than chromosomes? Who knows? This song explores the feeling of not quite belonging and sorting out where we feel we should be.
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When I first visited Dublin in summer
1997 I fell in love with the place. When I returned in December
of that year I was totally enchanted. The sign “Welcome Home” at
the airport really tore at my heart strings - it seemed to sum
the whole city up. It was two weeks before Christmas and the wind
was blowing in from the North Pole but it couldn’t chill the
welcome we got wherever we went. I love the way that city seems to have grown organically. The streets were full of Christmas shoppers, children with their noses pressed against department store windows to see the animated figures, the great variety of buskers in Grafton street and the whole place alive with the sound of music, joy and magic.
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Sometimes, people cannot seem to
say what they are really feeling. A situation can go on unresolved
with both parties avoiding the issue for fear of hurting each other.
Then someone can get really lonely, believing themselves to be
unloved and uncared for. The song is a plea for love, for recognition, for caring before the flames of love become embers which will grow cold and die.
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One of the things I brought back
from my first visit to County Wicklow was a calendar by Jim FitzPatrick.
It is full of the most inspiring pictures. One has a billowing sea with celtic longships (or something similar). At the helm of one of them is a man whose blond hair blows in the wind, while his blue eyes stay ice cold. ...And hence the song.
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It is easier to fall for someone
you have never met than someone you know because you can project
all your ideals onto your stranger. He becomes all that you are
looking for. On another level this song is about needing respect and searching for a relationship where the heart and soul can flourish.
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I once saw a man with the loveliest
of blue eyes which he would hide from view at every opportunity.
Perhaps he was afraid that they gave away his feelings. As soon as I laid eyes on him I sensed an unexpected empathy. I would have loved to have just talked to him to get to know him, but he seemed so vulnerable. He left - and we had both missed an opportunity.
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The story of Pwyll and Rhiannon
from the Mabinogi. One day Pwyll, lord of Dyfed was advised to sit in a magical place to either see a wonder or get a beating. He saw a beautiful woman on a silver-grey horse. He sent his men after her but despite riding as hard as they could they could not catch her - although her horse seemed to amble along. Eventually he rode after her himself. He could not catch up with her either, so he called for her to stop. She stopped and told him that he would have spared his horse had he asked sooner. Pwyll and Rhiannon were married (which is another story in itself) and had a son. On the night of his birth he was stolen by a strange creature. His drunken nurses smeared blood on Rhiannon’s hands and claimed that she had killed the child. She was forced to tell strangers her story and carry them to court on her back. Eventually the child was found and named Pryderi by his mother. Rhiannon is one of the most powerful figures in Welsh mythology, outlasting all of her peers. Sometimes when you are in a place you can get a very real sense of the past. Is she still there?
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A friend of my mother’s was
devastated when her husband left her after over 20 years of marriage.
It left the lady in question doubting everything - her sense
of how things should be, her self worth, her past. For the sake of her children she had to pick herself up and carry on as if nothing had happened. But at night ... she cried.
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I once knew a very handsome bass
player with the most mischievous brown eyes. All the girls would
drool in the front row when he played. He wasn’t too affected
by this as he was a really nice bloke. The trouble with really nice blokes is girls tend to fall in love with them. When you fall you can loose yourself entirely. But of course, the girls never listened.
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I was in college with two redheads.
I noticed on a day trip how the colour of their hair was almost
exactly the colour of a fading copper beech tree. I thought how cruel the autumn would be if you had lost your heart to an auburn haired romantic.
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When you first fall in love the rose coloured
spectacles are firmly in place and you just want to be with that
person all the time. You want to gaze into their eyes and hold
them close - you wake up just to watch them sleeping. It is a wonderful, heady feeling. It should last forever.
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Blodeuwedd was created out of flowers for as a wife for Lleu Llaw Gyffes. Being made of flowers she was not of his world and unable to give him love - she had no heart. She betrayed and killed her husband. He was restored to life and she was turned into an owl - meaning she could never again see the sun she loved. .......Personally I think she was probably quite glad to fly away from it all..........................
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I live in and love the South Wales Valleys. We have beautiful mountains, a lyrical language and a population that sings! We've survived everything that has been thrown at us and we will still be here in years to come - and so will our language.
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Another song about the valleys - and the preconceptions people have about the way we live here. We do live in an area with economic problems but there are so many success stories coming out of South Wales we should all hold our heads up and be proud. You can achieve anything you want to.
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It's late in the evening and you are dancing with the one you love. Nothing else matters but the closeness you feel and the warmth of their breath on your cheek Aaah.......
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Angharad came home from school one day absolutely stunned by the fact that one of her classmates was getting engaged. Life is an awfully long time to be tied to the wrong person. Better to take things slowly, enjoy your youth and settle down when you know what you really want......
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Ladies, beware of handsome fellas - hearts can get scorched in the flames of passion........
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A have two friends who fell in love after being lonely for a long time. As they looked at each other I knew they could see their future in each others eyes.
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Christmas in Dublin - the buskers in Grafton Street - the wind coming in from the North can do nothing to cool the warmth of the welcome - the children are looking at the displays in the shop windows.....fairy lights and magic!!
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I was in college with two redheads. I noticed on
a day trip how the colour of their hair was almost exactly the colour
of a fading copper beech tree. I thought how cruel the autumn would be if you had lost your heart to an auburn haired romantic.
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This is a different angle on the legend from the
Mabinogi about the Welsh princess who married an Irish king. Branwen was the sister of the giant Bendigeidfran. She also had two half brothers, Nisien, who was the epitome of everything good and Efnisien who was the exact opposite. One day while Efnisien was away an Irish king called Matholwch turned up and asked to marry Branwen. She quite fancied him so the wedding went ahead. Efnisien returned in the middle of the celebrations and was so incensed that they had not waited to get his permission that he mutilated the Irish horses - the ultimate insult in Celtic society. To avoid war Bendigeifran replaced the horses and gave the happy couple a wedding gift - a magic cauldron. If someone was killed he would come back to life if placed in the cauldron but he would not be able to speak. Branwen and hubby sailed off to Ireland. All went well and Branwen had a son, Gwern. After a while, though, some of Matholwch’s advisors kept reminding him of the insult given by Efnisien and eventually he was persuaded to banish Branwen to the kitchens where she was beaten each day by the cook. Her heart breaking she taught a starling to speak and sent it out to find her brother. Some while later farmers came to court to report a huge mountain and a forest moving across the Irish sea. Branwen was called to explain this - it was of course her brother the giant Bendigeifran leading the Welsh ships. To cut a long story short diplomacy failed, again largely due to Efnisien and a great battle was fought. The Irish, of course, had the cauldron. Eventually Efnisien climbed inside and forced it in two, but the effort killed him. Only seven people survived and headed back to Wales with Bendigeifran’s head. Branwen died of a broken heart on reaching the shores of Wales.
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Did dragons ever exist? If they did were they really terrible beasts or have they just had a bad press? Have we lost our ability to sense the magic in the world? Is it only children who can wonder and believe?
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Although I often write about mythological things I am actually a Christian and my faith is important to me. I really do believe that there is a greater power watching over us and that as one door closes he will help us find another.
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Ysgrifennwyd y gân hon ar gyfer fy ffrind annwyl, Cheryl Beer ar ôl iddi gael ei henwynebu i wobr Ivor Novello ar gyfer ei halbym “Just another Judas”. Mae’n gân am gyfeilgarwch ac am fod yn hapus dros lwyddiant ffrind.
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Cân am fod mewn cariad a rhywun sy’n mewn gwirionedd ddim mewn cymaint o gariad â chi. Mae’n bosib cerdded i ffwrdd ond mae’n rhaid i chi fod yn gryf iawn i aros i bant.
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Ysbrydolwyd y gân hon gan lun gwyddelig. Mae’r ferch yn y gân yn cael ei hudo gan ddewin gwyddelig ac mae ei chalon yn gaeth iddo fe.
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Darllenais i ei fod yn haws i syrthio mewn cariad a rhwyun rydych chi heb ei gwrdd a nhw achos mae'n bosib adlewyrchu eich holl delfrydau arnyn nhw. Ar lefel arall mae'r geiriau am angen parch a chwilio am berthynas ble mae enaid yn gallu blaguro..
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Os ydych yn gyfansoddwraig yr unig beth da am golli cariad yw’r ffaith bydd hi’n bosib ysgrifennu cân am eich teimladau!
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Mae’r gân hon yn chwarae a’r hen ddywediad “daw haul a’r fryn”. I finnau mae’r haul wedi cyrhaedd yn barod!
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Er mod i wedi dysgu mathemateg i blant , rhaid i mi gyfadde mod i ddim yn hoff iawn o rifau. Yn enwedig rhifau PIN a’r holl obsesiwn gyda hoedrannau pobl. Beth yw penblwydd ta beth? Y mwy oddyn nhw sy gyda chi yr hirach byddwch chi’n byw! . |
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Cân dradoddiadol sy wedi cael ei chanu gan blyth o blant am flynyddoedd. Ein fersiwn ni yw un pync gyda chymorth oddi wrth plant Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Ynyswen.
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Cân i’r holl plant Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Aberdâr. Diolch am y fraint i ddysgu yn yr ysgol am flwyddyn a’r bleser anferth o weld y plant yn perfformio bob amser Dolig.
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Dychmygwch fod mewn cariad â rhywun – yn gwybod ei bod e’n “y cariad mwyaf dy fywyd” ond bod problemau gyda fe sy’n golygu beth bynnag maen e’n teimlo fydd e fyth yn fodlon bod gyda chi. Rhaid gwylio fe – yn cerrdedd i ffwrdd ac yn dweud dim. Toriad calon.
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CD2
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Ysgrifennwyd y gân hon ar gyfer fy ffrind annwyl, Cheryl Beer ar ôl iddi gael ei henwynebu i wobr Ivor Novello ar gyfer ei halbym “Just another Judas”. Mae’n gân am gyfeilgarwch ac am fod yn hapus dros lwyddiant ffrind.
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After so many band changes it finally felt as though we had got the line-up that we wanted. The song is a celebration of co-operation and how good it feels to work with people you like who share the same vision. When you are recording, everyone is really depending on everyone else. You need to be able to trust everyone involved.
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This was written when the band were still called “Fragile Earth” and as such is dedicated to Pete Cowan and Simon Jones who were involved in the first recording we did of the song. I was looking at relationships and noticing how people girls what is obviously the wrong guy and then try to make him fit the image they have in mind. The song is just a bit of fun really and not meant to be taken too seriously.
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This was a combination of two different ideas. I was travelling home along the valley one evening and looked up at the sky. There really was a crescent moon and a single star. I felt a pang of loneliness for a friend I hadn’t seen in ages and wrote the verses. They sat around for a while and then we needed lyrics for something Rob was working on. As the song progressed it became heavier and needed more bite so I added the vitriolic chorus which changed the whole slant of the song from being wistful and melancholic to being angry and bitter.
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Ah. Do you believe in dragons? Rob’s idea for the band name was that this was the time of year when dragons all gathered together. I was trying to pull together lots of different ideas about the creatures. I have a soft spot for them. I think they would be sad if we stop believing in them.
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Paul and I wrote this together. PIN numbers drive me nuts. I hate society’s obsession with numbers. I think we are losing our humanity. He came up with the kinksy middle eight as it reminded him of the counting songs children play.
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When I worked at Ysgol Gymraeg Aberdâr I felt that Christmas really started when the children did the Nativity play. Watching all their innocent faces and how proud they were to be taking part really touched me. Nothing is more important when you are a child than to be up there in a costume your parents have made for you, feeling that you are someone special just for a few moments. Here’s to the magic!
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Life hands you out what it will and sometimes it is very easy to complain about it but do nothing to change things. This is a song to myself telling me to get off my butt and do something about it. I really do believe we are capable of very much more than our perceived limitations allow us to achieve. Let go – and live.
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This is tied up with my first novel “The Emperor and the Butterfly”. I was empathising with one of the characters. There comes a point in a failing relationship when you know that no matter how much you love someone that it isn’t enough. They are going. They have their reasons and there is nothing you can do to change that. There are a million things you think you should have said but even if you said them all it would make no difference. So you have to watch the great love of your life walk away from you.
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