In the early years of the nineteenth century, when bowed string instruments were assumed to have reached the apex of their development, there arose among antiquarians and scholars a widespread interest in tracing the ancestry of the violin and related members of the chordophone family. This task proved to be exceedingly formidable not only because of the enormous amount of often obscure evidence which had to be taken into consideration but also because of the manner in which many items of evidence seemed to contradict each other. The issue is still not resolved to the complete satisfaction of every party concerned. Literally scores of different and often conflicting arguments have been advanced, and it could perhaps be justly said that the only furtherance thus far realized has been that of the confusion rather than the resolution of the issue.

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This study examines the attitudes to, and commemoration of, death in Wales in the period between the end of the thirteenth century and the middle of the sixteenth century by analysis of the poetical work produced during this period. In so doing, this is placed in the wider context of death and commemoration in Europe. Although there are a number of memorial tombs and some evidence of religious visual art in Wales which has survived from the late medieval period, in comparison with that to be found in many other European countries, this is often neither so commonplace nor so imposing. However, the poetry produced during this period very much reflects the visual material that was produced in other parts of Europe. The poetry shows that the Welsh gentry at that time were familiar with many of the themes surrounding death and commemoration so obvious in European visual art such as the macabre and the fate of both the body and the soul after death. With war, famine and disease being so commonplace during the Middle Ages, and the late medieval period witnessing the effects of the Black Death, it is, perhaps, little wonder that macabre imagery and concerns about the fate of the soul were so often produced in European visual art of the time. These concerns are reflected in the Welsh poetry of the period with several poets composing quite vivid poetry describing the fate of the body as a decomposing corpse after death or allusions to the personification of Death appearing to claim its victims. The tension that many felt between the role of God on Judgement Day and God as Redeemer is also apparent in a number of the poems composed at this time. This study shows how important the role of the poet was amongst the gentry in Wales during the late medieval period, a role which ensured that the patrons of the poets were immortalised in words rather than by physical memorials. It also highlights the importance of poetical works of the period as an important primary source for historical research. Many of the poems give a contemporaneous account of important events of the period such as symptoms of plague victims which confirm that the Black Death was indeed the bubonic form of the plague.

This thesis presents an analysis of the English-language work of three Welsh writers during the eighteenth century, spanning the period of the 1750s to 1794. During this period, the British state consolidated its power following the last of the significant internal uprisings in 1745, and attempted to create a British nation with internal unity. Such a unity entailed a renegotiation of older national identities as subjects attempted to partake of multiple identities simultaneously. In Wales, the manifestation of multiple identities was especially clear, as the language of the state did not accord with the mother tongue of the majority of Welshmen. Though Welsh literati had written in English since before the Act of Union (1536), choosing to write in English becomes more interesting for the critic during such a time of change. Previously, these works have been treated as aberrations, or literary curiosities less worthy of note than the Welsh-language productions of the same authors. This thesis argues that, instead, they should be analysed as offering an insight into these authors’ conception of Britain, and their place within the state and the new nation, both in the choice of language and the topics considered. As a theoretical basis for these analyses, I consider the concept of Prydeindod from the work of philosopher J.R. Jones, as distinct from the idea of Britishness, and as a way of complicating Anglocentric or binary discussions of Britishness. This in turn informs readings of the English-language productions of Welsh writers in the eighteenth century, and shows that their negotiations of new identities are not as forthright as has previously been assumed.

The development of education through the medium of Celtic languages (here specifically Welsh and Scottish Gaelic) is often placed within a language planning framework in which Celtic-medium education is viewed as a means of sustaining a threatened language in the context of levels of intergenerational transmission which are insufficient to maintain speaker numbers. The primary to secondary school stage is a critical juncture from such a perspective, as language revitalization requires the language competencies, patterns of Celtic language use and positive attitudes towards the Celtic language fostered at the primary school stage to be maintained and developed at the secondary school stage. However, the secondary school stage has often been associated with a reduction in the uptake and availability of Celticmedium education and with a decline both in Celtic language use and in positive attitudes towards the language. Such a policy and research context raises two sets of research questions, the first relating to choice of medium of instruction of education, and the second to aspects of pupil language relevant to language planning and maintenance: (1)Research Questions: Choice What factors influence parental decisions for Celtic-medium education at the primary school level? What factors influence Celtic-medium pupil decisions regarding language of education for the first year of secondary school? Do the responses and patterns of response regarding choice differ between (i) the primary and secondary school stages and/or (ii) the Scottish and Welsh contexts? (2)Research Questions: Language Planning What are Celtic-medium pupils’ patterns of (a) language use (b) perceptions of their linguistic ability (c) identification with the Celtic language and (d) perceptions of the usefulness of the Celtic language for their future at the primary and early secondary school stages? Do the responses and patterns of response differ between the Scottish and Welsh contexts at the primary school stage? Do the responses and patterns of response shift between the primary and secondary school stages in either the Scottish or the Welsh contexts? This thesis presents the results of a longitudinal study of 28 Gaelic-medium and 57 Welsh-medium final year primary and first year secondary pupils, their parents and teachers, conducted in 2007-2008. English-medium pupils from dual stream schools were also incorporated, primarily as a control group for the experiences of their Celtic-medium counterparts (17 English-medium Scotland and 34 English-medium Wales pupils, their parents and teachers). The research questions are investigated using multiple research methods in a longitudinal design. Pupils took part in semi-structured interviews in the final year of primary school and in the first year of secondary school concerning their experience of learning a Celtic language, the reasons for their decisions regarding the medium of instruction of secondary school subjects, their identification with their Celtic language and their perceptions of its usefulness. At each of these two school stages, pupils also completed standardized questionnaires (which yielded statistical data) on their language use and their perceived language competence in their Celtic language and in English. The pupil interviews were supplemented by interviews with their teachers at primary and secondary school, and with their parents at the primary school stage; thus a total of 383 interviews were conducted. Comparison was made not only longitudinally but also between the Gaelic and Welsh groups and, where relevant, between each of them and their English-medium counterparts. The results are discussed in relation to contextual factors (for example national and local authority policies, the linguistic demographics of Scotland and Wales and the level of Celtic-language institutionalization in the two countries), in relation to previous research on choice, language use, language ability and language attitudes in the Scottish and Welsh contexts, and in relation to theories of language maintenance.

This study investigates in what respects Celtic mythology influenced J. R. R. Tolkien when writing the sagas incorporated in the mythopoeic compilation of The Silmarillion. Through narrative and comparative analysis, stories from the Irish prose collection Lebor Gabála Érenn, as well as the Welsh medieval manuscript Mabinogion, are collated to the tales of The Silmarillion in order to illuminate possible influences. The survey showed that even though Tolkien expressed a certain distaste for everything Celtic, several elements of Irish and Welsh mythology are indeed visible in his works.

No description available.

Conflicts should be analyzed in terms of a full spectrum conflict including discourse. There are more means to achieve an end goal than through the kinetic force such as military means. The invasion of Ukraine 24th of February 2022 was the culmination of many years of soft and hard power practiced by the Russian state.  With a thematic content analysis on the Russian President Putin’s address to the Nation 18th of March 2014 and 21st of February 2022 the rethoric was separated into themes and analyzed with two theories. The first was soft and hard power where the themes of attraction- and coercion-based rhetoric was applied to the analysis. The second was legitimacy theory, which entailed that rethoric is a mean to gain support towards a grand strategic policy by establishing the national interest, defining threats, course of action and mobilizing the necessary resources within the state. The results showed that in the first speech soft and hard power was more prominent since there was no official involvement from the Russian state in the conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk region of Ukraine that needed to be legitimized. There was an attempt to influence the Ukrainian government and population to change their policies in a more favorable direction with the use of soft and hard power. The second speech was more in line of legitimacy where the Russian state was about to engage military and thus needed to garner the approval of the Russian state and population to be able to mobilize the resources necessary to accomplish such grand strategic agenda.

The introduction of the Foundation Phase gave a unique opportunity to study the interpretation and delivery of a play-based early childhood curriculum. This new curriculum saw the disappearance of Physical Education for pupils under the age of seven in Wales. Physical Education is acknowledged as more than the development of physical competence, being part of a process concerned with lifelong physical, intellectual, social and emotional learning accrued through a range of physical activities, in a variety of contexts (Doherty and Brennan, 2008). As such a goal of Physical Education is physical literacy, (Hardman, 2011; Talbot, 2007). In light of this, this research set out to explore the contribution of the Foundation Phase to the development of children’s physical literacy. In order to achieve this, a three-phase complementarity mixed-methods design (Greene et al., 1989) was used to generate data over two years in selected schools in Wales. The schools were found to be enacting the Foundation Phase with fidelity to the original aims of the policy makers by demonstrating the key features of play-based active learning, focused adult-led sessions, child-initiated learning, and use of the outdoors for learning. In so doing they were deemed to be successful in achieving the aim of the Foundation Phase of developing independent, motivated active learners. The Foundation Phase was also found to be supporting the development of children’s cognitive development with good levels of achievement in literacy and numeracy assessments. The playful pedagogy observed in the schools enabled the pupils to have autonomy in their learning. Pupils were motivated, active and engaged in embodied learning both indoors and outdoors. The findings indicated that the Foundation Phase was making a positive contribution to the development of children’s physical literacy.

Der gemeinsame Wandel der inselkeltischen Sprachen wie auch des Englischen vom vorwiegend synthetischen Typus zum vorwiegend analytischen Typus läßt sich vermutlich auf einen ca. 1500 Jahre dauernden intensiven Sprachenkontakt zwischen diesen Sprachen zurückführen. Heute ist das Englische die analytischste Sprache der Britischen Inseln und Irlands, gefolgt vom Walisischen, Bretonischen und Irischen. Letzteres ist von den genannten Sprachen noch am weitesten morphologisch komplex. / I discuss the joint shift of the Insular Celtic languages and of the English language from, typologically speaking, predominantly synthetic languages c. 1500 years ago to predominantly analytical languages today. The demise of the inflectional morphology is most advanced in Present Day English. Welsh follows suit. Then come Breton and Irish. Intensive linguistic interaction across the boundaries of the Germanic and the Insular Celtic languages are proposed to have been instrumental for this type of linguistic convergence.