Gunwalloe - Church Cove
View across Church Cove in Gunwalloe at the base of the Lizard Peninsula.
The church is St Winwalloe with it's distinctively seperate bell tower and surrounding Tamarisk hedge....
newlyn house
Wonderfully painted frontage....
rogers tower
A folly built 18th C, for Mr Rogers, a local landowner....
It's good to see that most people think that the Gorseth has a rôle to play, but the Gorseth does not get involved with hostile discussions in public fora. Any suggestions for change should be passed through the proper channels.
If the Gorseth refused to link to eggshell's website, fair enough, why not give your reasons in public and show honesty and transparency?
According to Nigel's website figures there are about 5000 people now waiting to hear the answer. I'm sure it makes little sense to many why the link was refused but would have their suspicion raised if you didn't answer. That is how rumour can turn to belief, which is no good for anyone.
moonshine, your post is worded in a way designed to foster suspicion. If you want to ask the Gorseth about the link to the Kernewegva website you should contact the Secretary directly.
The only design is to be direct and to the point, with truth as the objective.
My anticipation of how others may perceive your reluctance to answer is not fostering suspicion at all, it is a guess based on common sense and human experience.
If I contact the secretary I would post the response here quite naturally. That does raise suspicion, at least in my mind, that there is a reason why it can not come straight from the horses mouth, here and now. What is to be gained by insisting I use an extended and unnecessary route of communication when the answer is only one post away, here and now.
The Gorseth doesn't discuss its decisions in open fora, plain and simple. Disagree with that approach if you like but don't tarnish the decision to work that way with your conspiracy theories.
Not sure who this "Archdruid" character is, Gorsedh Kernow don't have druids, never mind archdruids, (anyone know why not?)
On the general question, I'm sure the Gorsedh was vitally important in the early 20th century as part of the process of getting Cornwall accepted as a Celtic nation, remember the other five were distinctly unimpressed by our credentials at one time. Also in the early decades of the language revival, before there were any separate language organisations. But more recently I, like Egloshayle, am rather unsure what they're for. They put on a public display, but it lacks the style and polish of the Welsh equivalent, so they walk a very fine line between gravitas and farce. I get the impression that I'm watching a 1930's costume drama. And given that nothing ever changes in the Gorsedh, why do they have to read their lines, you'd think they'd know them by heart by now. I'm unsure of their position on the language these days. They're supposed to promote the language and they hold all their public ceremonial in Cornish, but I doubt that even half the bards are fluent and many have no Cornish at all, although (another paradox) many of our most fluent speakers are bards and indeed Gorsedh officers etc.
They've always seemed to want to position themselves as a sort of quasi-public institution, and yet they're no more answerable to anyone outside their organisation than The Ancient Order of Buffalo's of whatever. They may even be offensive to real druids, just supposing there are any.
Aside from their amature theatricals, they seem to be little more than a self-congratulation society, and rather irrevelent to anyone outside the charmed circle of "The Arts", "Culture", local politics, and the FOCS.
Tradition is a fine thing, but traditions need to be constantly invented and reinvented to suit the times, 'real' traditions always were.
I wonder what's the average age of a Cornish bard?
I find the way 'language bards' and 'honorary bards' are not distinguished very confusing too. While both might be worthy, they are worthy in entirely different ways, like chalk and cheese, although of course a few people would fit into both categories.
Traditionally, as far as we know, you became a bard by reaching a fairly well defined level of knowledge, a bit like getting a degree. If the Gorsedh is supposed to promote the language, why has it been packed with honourary bards who know nothing about the language? (Just like the Partnership). Perhaps understandable when the revival was just getting underway, but after 100 years what excuse is there for barding people who can't even speak basic Cornish, let alone being able to recite large parts of the traditional literature on demand the way traditional bards had to.
Without any reasonably objective membership standard, what's to stop people voting in their mates? For all we know this is exactly what happens. Fair enough I suppose, so long as the Gorsedh is seen to be no more than a private club. If it wishes to remain a national institution then a serious rethink of its aims, its organisation and its image is surely long overdue.
The Gorsedh's contact with Cornish Associations overseas and indeed electing bards from overseas should be considered something positive. Just a thought.
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