Wales Culture3

Early collectors in the field of folk-life were Edward Lhuyd (1660? - 1709) and Edward Williams, also known as Iolo Morganwg (1747 - 1826) and the two important folklore scholars Sir John Rhys (1840 - 1915), author of Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx (1901) and T. Gwynn Jones (1871 - 1949), author of Welsh Folklore and Folk-Custom (1930) have to be referred to. Between 1956 and 1962 the journal Gwerin was published by Dr. Peate. It was intended primarily for folk-life scholars in Britain and Ireland. It has been succeeded by Folk Life: Journal of Ethnological Studies, journal of the Society for Folk-Life Studies, founded 1961. The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion has been co-operating with the MWL. In 1881 they had a project for collecting folklore. It is quoted in the magazine of the society: (...) we wish, by way of initiative to take this opportunity of urging our readers, who are resident in Wales, to do all their power to collect and secure what still remains of the popular literature of the country (...) tales and legend (...) songs, verses and ballads (...) as well as all those observances, beliefs, and ideas which are more strictly included in the term Folk-lore (Powell, 1881, pp. 155 - 159). Another source of inspiration for the WFM and folk-life studies in Wales was the Irish Folklore Commission founded by Professor Séamus Ó Duilearga, a very close friend of Dr. Peate. He was a regular visitor to the WFM. The WFM based its classification on the oral material of Seán Ó Suilleabhán's Handbook of Irish Folklore (1942, 1963). This work on the other hand based on the classification used at the Folklore Archives at Uppsala. Trefor M. Owen was at Uppsala for one year (personal correspondence with Robin Gwyndaf on 26.9.1997, who had also visited Ireland and Professor Delargy in 1965). Many other studies regarding folk-life such as community studies, aspectual studies like studies about food, changes in regional culture and regional comparisons have been done in Wales (WFM, 1983, p. 27). In 1942, Dr. Peate's book Diwylliant Gwerin Cymru (Welsh Folk Culture) was published. He had described folk-life studies as "a study of the way of life of the community, of man's mental, spiritual and material struggle towards civilisation" (Peate, 1959, p. 102). Dr. Peate knew that Åke Campbell, Wilhelm von Sydow and Sigurd Erixon influenced the study of Welsh cultural studies. In Britain, geographs, historians and literates have taught or researched folk-life studies (Sanderson, 1967, p. 304) whereas European Ethnology and Folklore has been an academic subject at Swedish Universities.