4th person of a Trinity? How does that work? I use the name Marhak because I have horses and ride out on pub-crawls (as well as the best way to view the Penwith moors and cliffs). And which other persons share the name, Tim? Sorry, I know it's Friday and the end of along working week, but I just don't see what you're driving at.
I don't see much,if any, real contribution from Goky. Yes, I support KS. I'm also very interested in what I have seen from KD. I LOVE Cornish, but I don't like KK and what it has done to the language (as I see it). What's wrong with that? Am I not entitled to an opinion, like everyone else? I'll give that opinion, nonetheless, and don't need the likes of the well-named Goky to tell me otherwise. I feel that I have something to offer. What does Goky have, except snide remarks and, perhaps, some sort of syndrome.
"Crowing"? Nonsense. I reported something which I had heard from someone. I'm not going to say who it was, and I don't know where that person had heard it. Neither I nor, to my knowledge, any of my colleagues had any influence on any decisions or actions taken by the NLW. If someone in that organization reported things to people and if that message got to me and thus to the Yahoo list before word got to the Kesva, then that is the accident of how events unfolded. Keith and Pawl persistently allege or imply an attempt on our part to scupper George's "preliminary edition". No such attempt was necessary, of course, and we had better things to do.
Flamm my dear person, my whole point is that the Great Marhek uses Keith's and Tim's name , instead of their Nicknames, so it is the Great Marhek who is outing, sorry if I confused you.
IF the Great and Wonderful Marhek does not reveal his name then he should not use other users real names.
Blog Goky
pyth yw 'Agan Tavas"?, Agan Tavas yw Eddie Climo.
Agan Taves Worldwide, hunky Cornish speakers, klickeugh below Agan Taves Nowyth
The manuscript itself is remarkable. This is the only Cornish manuscript from the Traditional periods which contains Arthurian material. It's generally know in Cornish as 'Bywnans Ke', and in English as 'The Life of St. Kea'. A lot of it is very difficult, partly because it appears to be a later transcription of an earlier text. It is unique.
We are not told where it has been all these centuries. We are not told how it came into Caerwyn's possession. Was it given to him? Lent? Sold? We do not know what title he had in BK - if any. The allegation is that it was 'found' in his papers, and that his widow consented to its removal to the National Library of Wales.
We are not talking about a worn copy of 'Jamaica Inn' from Oxfam in Bodmin. This is a rare, priceless mediaeval artefact, allegedly having come into the possession of a deceased scholar of world renown - with no publicly-available corroboration. To put it at its very mildest, this account of the provenance of BK must, for the time being, be regarded as incomplete and provisional.
Another curious feature of this episode is that work on a printed edition has allegedly been in progress for several years before anybody in Cornwall became aware of the existence of BK. The scholars concerned were, apparently, one Graham Thomas (whose interest in Cornish has been known to very few), and one Nicholas Williams (know to Cornish-speakers as 'Nynja'), an important poet in Cornish who had latterly determined to eradicate Modern Cornish and replace it with a Mock-Tudor replica of its own construction. These state of affairs slipped out on a discussion list for Celtic scholars. People in Cornwall were delighted that BK had come to light, but surprised and hurt that they had been kept in the dark.
Nevertheless, there was widespread welcome to the prospect of a printed edition. Cornish-speakers sat down and waited.
By the way, I'd like to take the opportunity to squash a rather amusing rumour that has, it seems, been circulating.
It is indeed that case that BK contains a number of words that I have employed for a number of years. It is also true that I enjoy perpetrating the odd jape from time to time. However, I wish to make it known that BK is NOT one of mine.
Making a text an erroneous transcription from an earlier source would, indeed, be an excellent scenario for planting a little concoction. However, while I might at a push manage to imitate the writing of a contemporary person, reproducing an antique hand would be well beyond my highly-limited calligraphic skills. Besides, I lack the time, resources and opportunity to produce even a single folio of a pseudo-mediaeval document. In any event, a few simple tests would suffice to demonstrate that a document was a forgery.
This story is very amusing, but willsimply not stand up.
Christ, Tim, you simply can't resist. NJAW is now a "poet", instead of being a fully fledged professor of Celtic linguistics who out-qualifies any of us, including Ken.
And the reason you waited, and waited, was that the job required doing properly, not simply being hastily and shoddily thrown together in a desperate attempt to be first out of the blocks.
Ah, yes, but you miss the point - NJAW was man enough to point out what was wrong with contemporary Cornish (and was well qualified to do so). When we are all striving to get things as right as we can, surely that's a good thing. The bitching comes purely from personal dislikes and deflects the real aim.
PS to Evertype - so that's who Goky is. Went missing for several years (as did Morvran, after his bunk from Pendeen). Muer ras dhys.
Margh bryntyn yw ow howeth owth eva gans pajer ber.
Nynja was, and remains, a puzzle. His poetry is first-rate, and he has made a number of useful contributions to our vocabulary. Several of his coinages remain in use. However, two facts remain unavoidable. Firstly, he does not apply exactly the same criteria to his work on Cornish as to his work on Irish. Some of his readings of our texts are, to put it at its kindest, far-fetched. (In the edition of BK, example, he turns ordinary canine solid waste into Armorican exotic substances!)
Secondly, after he took off to Ireland in the early Seventies he gave every appearance of losing interest in us and our language. There was a bizarre letter to the first Yeth an Weryn organizers, telling them that their name was really 'Tavas an Dus'. And there were occasional rather petulant letters in Irish papers expressing a certain impatience with our political and other forms of backwardness. But that was it.
Nynja's co-editor in the projected edition was one Graham Thomas, who had rather kept his interest in Cornish to himself. The joint publishers were, apparently, the National Library of Wales and Exeter University Press. This has acertain poignancy, since the NLW's own excellent printing house had been closed in circumstances that saddened and perplexed. EUP's angle, presumably, was the a section of the University of Exeter, the Institute of Cornish Studies, is supposed to have an interest in the Cornish language.
The NLW's position is that it has possession of the MS of BK. That possession could conceivably be challenged in easily-imaginable circumstances. In any event, many people in Wales think that, just as certain Welsh MSS should be returned to Wales, so BK and certain other Cornish MSS should be returned to Cornwall.
That, however, is another issue. Since the presumed author of the text of which BK is a copy died hundreds of years ago, there is no intellectual property in that text. Whoever holds possession of MS, neither they nor anybody else holds any rights whatsoever in the text. There is no impediment, in law or in ethics, to the enjoyment of BK by the people of Cornwall. Many people in Wales have stated that the solidarity of sister-nations requires this. I would go further: ordinary common decency requires it.
Just a minor technical correction, Tim. The ms of BK is still in copyright, since under an old commonlaw provision now in the process of being abolished, unpublished mss have indefinite copyright. However that right could only be enforced by someone who could trace title back to whoever first set the play down in writing. Clearly the Library are not in that position.
Pedestrian hit in bypass accident
A man suffers serious injuries after being hit by a car on the A30 bypass near Camborne.
Ex-minister in turbine plan row
A row has broken out between a former minister and residents in a Cornish village over his wind turbine plans.
Man quizzed over pedestrian death
A man is arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving after a man was hit by a car on the A30.
Woman, 77, tagged over cocaine
A 77-year-old woman is to be fitted with an electronic tag after being caught with cocaine in her handbag.
Celibacy the key to a long life
A woman who is celebrating her 105th birthday attributes her long life to remaining celibate.
Fire crews save stuck pig's bacon
Firefighters have to wade through a slurry pit in Cornwall to rescue a sinking pig in danger of drowning.
Apology over ashes ruling
Officials apologise to a man who was refused permission to scatter his mother-in-law's ashes in the shape of a cross.
