Continued from Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Anglo-Saxon
Digging deeper into my ancestral lines brings me to the Celts. The Celts are a
diverse lot with a diversity of territories, languages, and cultures.
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The Celts were the inhabitants of the British Isles at the time of the Roman
Invasion in 43. They are often referred to as Britons. Many of them fought the
invaders, all the invaders actually: Romans, Saxons, and Danes. In the first
century, missionaries introduced Christianity to them, so I can include the
Celts in my Christmas song offerings.
I've traced ancient ancestors from every country on the above map except the
Isle of Man. Of these, the predominant group seems to be Welsh. So for the
Christmas song, I chose a traditional Welsh carol. It's sung in Welsh, so the
words won't be familiar, but the melody will be.
6 comments:
Thanks Leigh!
The history of the Celts in the British Isles is its own fascinating history.
For an amazing musical instrument, look up the Welsh Triple Harp.
Thanks for sharing the songs of your ancestors with us. I too do a lot of genealogy work and have many English ancestors. I suspect that we might be distant cousins !! Merry Christmas and thanks for sharing your day to day life.
TB, I was completely unfamiliar with the Welsh Triple Harp. Quite fascinating, and with lots of YouTube videos to explore. :)
Grandma Zee, hello and welcome! And thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. We might very well be distant cousins! I think everyone with British heritage has ancestors from all these different people groups tucked away somewhere in their family tree. :)
Once upon a time, while on a bus in Wales, a lady spoke to me and I just smiled and ignored it since I couldn't understand a word she said. My girlfriend (now my wife) at the time nudged me and asked if I was going to respond. I whispered back and said I couldn't understand whatever language she was speaking. My wife told me she was speaking English... Welsh English.
Ed, how funny. Did your future wife understand her? I have to admit that in some British movies and TV programs, the accents are so thick I have a hard time understanding. And that's English English!
I've dabbled a bit with lessons for Welsh on YouTube. It's an amazing language, which I would love to learn.
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