#bleddynwatdlore

LIVING IN THE PAST | Childhood Q&A with Bleddyn (yes, you will have to open the images in a new tab and/or zoom in to see literally Any of the text because I couldn't make it fit any other way and making a text post would have taken fucking forever - also yes, it's crap I couldn't figure out what to do w it properly soz)

This is a poem Bleddyn wrote about Nina after they'd first met in a bar in London in late January 1981. To try and impress her on their first actual date (roughly a week later), he typed both the Welsh and the English versions out on his typewriter and put them in a Valentine's-themed card -- in which, he'd written: 'Would you be the orange to my apple? Blaidd (Awooo!) x' She adored the poems and kept them in a little decorative box full of other poems he'd written for her (on birthdays, Santes Dwynwens'/Valentines', anniversaries, etc.), alongside the cards he'd put them in. When she left Bleddyn, she'd also left the box behind and he hasn't had the heart to get rid of them.

Bleddyn wrote this poem after he saw a fox in his back garden one evening and he was a bit disappointed that he didn't feel a similar way that R. Williams Parry did about seeing one - but Bleddyn is also aware of very, very old stories/superstitions regarding foxes being considered lucky creatures, so he fed the little starving fox and then he started wondering why it was a superstition in the first place. The English translation isn't great because I did it almost literally and on the fly (also Google Translate is not great). Also, fun fact: "bechod" can mean both 'bless them/him/her' and 'sin' (which is the literal definition).

I think we'll start this little series with my Welshest character: Bleddyn Ellis. He was born and raised in Gwalchmai, which is village that's smack in the middle of nowhere on Ynys Môn, having been born in a farmhouse just outside the village itself. The island, like most of North Western Wales, is a very very low-income, Working-class area - his specific area is very agriculture-heavy because of its very rural location... His mother was a homemaker and part-time laundress, while his father was a quarryman who worked at Dinorwig quarry and would often leave the home for weeks at a time, sending a good portion of his pittance of a wage back to the family on the island via the post. Both his parents were Welsh and spoke very little English, which means he grew up mostly speaking his native language of Welsh at home and with most people he came across while growing up. He didn't learn English until he was in his third year at primary school (around 7/8 years old) and didn't fully gain the ability to code-switch his heavy North Western Welsh accent until he was about 22 and he'd been living in London for four years. He is a very proud Welshman, making a point of saying so whenever he gets the chance -- especially when he's in discussion about his writing work. Though his most popular/famous writing is in English, he does have work published in his native Welsh including a book of poems entitled: Beth Am Yr Ysbryd? (What Of The Spirit?) which is full of poems he wrote about his time living in London and feeling like a fish out of water, and a three separate novels entitled: Hunllef (Nightmare) which is a horror novel, Fasiwn Stâd (lit.: Estate Fashion, contextually: What A State) which is a 'slice of life' novel, and Malu'n Racs (Broken (Into Pieces)) which is a dramedy-romance novel -- he will bring them up whenever an interviewer asks about his first English book and refers to it as his first ever book because it isn't, his first ever published book is BAYY?. Blaidd is a regular competitor at the Eisteddfod, usually submitting his poems and prose by post, and has won a total of 2 chairs. He has mixed feelings about the festival, given that it tends to favour Southern Welsh people and/or people of higher class than Bleddyn is/was growing up (ie: people with a lot of money). He has also recited his Welsh poems at various writing events across the UK (not that they got much praise outside of his homeland). His all-time favourite (Welsh) bands are (Yr) Anrhefn and Datblygu, and he often listens to them for inspiration. He has successfully gotten his non-Welsh friends into both... Mostly by accident. He has made a point of speaking Welsh to his daughter, Begw, in a bid to keep the language alive and to teach her about her heritage. He believes that it's important for her to learn the 'mamiaith' so that she can have easier access to her history, culture, and be able to communicate with family on the Ellis side of her family tree. In doing that, though, he's gotten ire from English parents and he's found his (reluctant) respect for English people slip more in recent years because of how he's been treated for the great sin of speaking to his child in a language that's more natural to him. Bleddyn was alive for a lot of the more recent-memory Welsh history, such as the drowning of Tryweryn, Cymdeithas Yr Iaith protests, the arson attacks on English-owned summer homes in tourist-heavy areas/areas of dire housing crisis due to tourism, and is pro-devolution (or pro-a Welsh Assembly, which is now known as the Senedd/Welsh Government -- something that operates separately from the UK Government in a majority of areas, including (minor) law-making, international relations, health, education, etc. and came to be in September of 1997, Blaidd's story is set between January 1997 and September 1997) & pro-independence. He wants to see a free Wales at some point in the future, but currently settles for openly talking about his culture and using his language so as to be sure it won't be lost to time.

Meanwhile, in recital, he came second for a reading of Y Llwynog (The Fox) by R. Williams Parry when he was 13 - he would usually either win or come second in school Eisteddfods for recital.

This is a poem Bleddyn featured in his first poetry book Beth Am Yr Ysbryd? (What Of The Spirit?), which he recited on a TV feature for (the in-world version of) S4C that was filmed in Bangor Cathedral in the summer of 1993. It's written in the perspective of his father, based on stories he'd heard from other quarrymen about lunch hours in what's referred to as 'the cabin' - which is a room at Gilfach Ddu where the workers' would take their breaks/have lunch during the work day, where they'd often have debates, sing songs, recite poems, etc. to lift their spirits in the middle of a hard day's work and keep their morale up in spite of the gruelling, back-breaking work they'd have to go back to. He highlights the difference between the local village (mainland) lads and the lads who'd come over to work from Anglesey and how they had differences of opinion re: retirement dreams - while the island boys want to settle on farms or in the mountains, the mainland boys want to settle by sea, but both sides agree on songs, poems, family, beer, and chips being important for morale which Bleddyn finds funny. There is no actual English version of the poem in-world as he'd only written it in Welsh, I just translated it (however poorly that may be).

Bleddyn wrote this a year before he left Gwalchmai to go to university in London as a tribute to his father - and to explore the feelings of grief and having grown into a young man without his father being in the picture since he was six years old. It's featured in his first poetry book Beth Am Yr Ysbryd? (What Of The Spirit?) and Bleddyn performed the Welsh version for a TV segment in Bangor's Cathedral. His father is the reason for Bleddyn's obsession with seagulls and the sea as imagery in his poetry, having used the code phrase 'the seagull's in its nest and the sea is calling' whenever he'd return home from work to denote that he'd arrived safely, as a symbol of safety in general, and as a reference to the lullaby Si Hei Lw, which Bleddyn still sings to his daughter Begw.

The summer of 1993 was a busy one for Bleddyn bach. In July (Gorffennaf - which he's accidentally mispelled, oopsie doopsie!!), he released two books: one in his native language of Welsh named Malu'n Racs (Broken (Into Pieces) - dramedy romance) and one in English named Mountain's Glare (black comedy). He went home to visit his mother in Gwalchmai, talked to some local journos about his books, and filmed a recital of two poems from his poetry book Beth Am Yr Ysbryd? (What Of The Spirit?) for (in-world versions of) S4C & the BBC in Bangor's cathedral, where he read his poems Nina (in English) and Eisteddfod Y Caban (The Cabin's Eisteddfod - in Welsh). Then, in August (Awst), he was at the (in-world version of the) National Eisteddfod in Llanelwedd, where he was a member of the Gorsedd y Beirdd (Gorsedd of the Bards), and spent the week roaming around Y Maes (The Maes/Square) with Nina (who is the one who took the pictures of him in-universe). (In-universe) At the Eisteddfod, he won a chair for his poem Lle Ti Am Fynd? (Where Will You Go?) and later in August released another two poetry books named Siw Na Miw ([Without] A Sound/Doubt - All in Welsh), Lion's Tombs (Bilingual Collection). He and Nina also went on holiday to Criccieth for a week and then dropped in on Mrs. Ellis on Angelsey one last time before returning to London before their move to Sussex (which is where he now lives). These pictures are copies of the originals that Blaidd keeps in a journal where he scrawls about his thoughts and scribbles ideas for new books (the originals are in a separate photo album which is kept in the living room of his house).