Welsh Journals

'MYTH AND LEGEND' by Peter Morgan Jones When the preserved body of 'Pete Marsh', otherwise Lindow Man, was discovered in a Cheshire bog there seemed little doubt this was yet another sacrificial victim of a type already well-known in Denmark; skull damage, rope around neck and body crouched into the mire seemed evidence enough. But a friend of mine, a leading archaeologist incidentally, suggested other interpretations might be possible: was it not conceivable some, at least, might be murder or accident victims, the ropes around necks evidence of failed attempts to recover the bodies? But this did not fit accepted theories, minds had been made up and, in any case, 'Sacrificial Victim' gets better headlines than 'Man Fell in Bog'. 'Sacrifice', like 'Saint' or 'Martyr' is guaranteed to focus attention. At least, Lindow Man conclusions were based upon facts, but there are other cases revealing clear selectivity and bias. Consider, for example, the amazing number of 'Celtic Saints' and 'Celtic church sites' in Wales many church guides and local histories claim them in spite of the fact that archaeology reveals that Wales experienced gradual evolution, not sudden invasion. Indeed, the Principality possesses only three proven pre-conquest religious sites, even though the twelfth century Book of Llandaff, following its own religious/political agenda, listed many more. All evidence points to the fact that we Welsh are not Celts, nor were our ancestors 'driven onto the hills' by invaders, but lived there by choice from the Bronze Age. 'Saints', and 'Martyrs' are words that exercise imaginations, indeed Welsh industrial history seems afflicted by what might be termed 'The Cordell Syndrome', an interpretation of the past expressed as 'Grasping, Evil Master Noble but Oppressed Working Man!' At Merthyr, for example, public outcry meant a new public house was not named Lady Charlotte Guest as desired, but Dic Penderyn. Now, by any objective standards Lady Charlotte did more for her town and Wales than Richard Lewis who was, rightly or wrongly, hanged for stabbing a soldier during the 1831 riots. But her very name aroused knee-jerk ire was she not one of the English 'boss class' while Dic, a 'Welsh working class martyr' had to be beyond reproach? Any evidence to the contrary was irrelevant, such established beliefs, imbibed with mother's milk, are open neither to rational discussion nor question. Author George Macdonald Fraser expressed his concern over such attitudes stating, 'You cannot, you must not, judge the past by the present; you must try to see it in its own terms and values if you are to have any inkling of it. You may not like what you see but do not on that account fall into the error of trying to adjust it to suit