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Post by nellie on Jun 22, 2011 17:14:30 GMT -1
We look to the past for our inspiration and there are some bits that we obviously leave out. Like killing people who piss us off for example. How do people feel about the less extreme things that we do know about, such as the celtic way of boasting and flaunting of physical prowess etc? The English in particular seem to have a reputation of modesty where as the Americans seem to have an opposite reputation of self assurance and celebration that seems to me to be something akin to celtic thinking. Is this all the intervening years of Christian morals? If so is it a good thing or do we need a bit of celtic fire?
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Post by Lee on Jun 22, 2011 21:56:48 GMT -1
I am quite happy to boast about myself I feel a little arrogant about it, but when you do good i dont think it hurts to shout about it
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Post by nellie on Jun 23, 2011 5:01:18 GMT -1
LOL ^_^
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Post by potia on Jun 23, 2011 7:06:51 GMT -1
Heathens do a a fair amount of boasting too. There's nothing wrong with celebrating your achievements and letting friends and family know what you have achieved. Sometimes you can go over the top about it but a bit of boasting can be good.
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Post by Brochfael on Jun 23, 2011 10:05:50 GMT -1
I was always brought up to be modest but just occasionally I manage to find a way to promote myself in a more or less subtle way.
Personally I see boastfulness as the bombast of the warrior aristocracy. I have no aspirations to aristocracy and I've outgrown the warrior phase of my life so I don't feel it's particularly relevant to me.
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Post by Heron on Jun 23, 2011 21:33:34 GMT -1
I am Taliesin I compose songs of impeccable pedigree My praise of Elffin With last until the end of time or I know the set gradations Of inspiration when it flows, About payments to poets, About the likes of kings, How long their kingdoms will last or I know the tumult of blades Around a blood-stained warrior I know what is ranged Between Heaven and Earth; Why a hollow echoes Why death comes suddenly, Why silver gleams, Why a stream runs dark, Why breath is black, Or a liver bloody, Why a buck has horns, Why a woman is amorous, Why milk is white, Why holly is green [and so on for several pages of text!] [from 'Angar Kyfundawt' in The Book of Taliesin] Now that's what I call boasting
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Post by dumnorix on Aug 8, 2011 8:44:49 GMT -1
dydd da I know this thread is getting fairly old, but the opening of E Gododin is a little bit different... Gododin, gomynnaf oth blegyt yg gwyd cant en aryal en emwyt a guarchan mab Dwywei, da wrhyt poet gno en un tyno treissyt er pan want maws mur trin er pan aeth daear ar Aneurin nu neut ysgaras nat a Gododin It's one of the introductions to the main poem, I learned it a few months ago. Don't really know what most of it means of course. Anyhow the last two lines are relevant: "since Aneirin went under the ground (?) / now poetry is departed from the Gododdin." Is that not an example of a poet being modest?
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Post by Heron on Aug 8, 2011 22:09:47 GMT -1
dydd da I know this thread is getting fairly old, but the opening of E Gododin is a little bit different... Gododin, gomynnaf oth blegyt yg gwyd cant en aryal en emwyt a guarchan mab Dwywei, da wrhyt poet gno en un tyno treissyt er pan want maws mur trin er pan aeth daear ar Aneurin nu neut ysgaras nat a Gododin It's one of the introductions to the main poem, I learned it a few months ago. Don't really know what most of it means of course. Anyhow the last two lines are relevant: "since Aneirin went under the ground (?) / now poetry is departed from the Gododdin." Is that not an example of a poet being modest? He probably wouldn't have known the meaning of the word - not in his job description! But there is a variant reading of the last line from the alternative MSS source: "Aneirin and his poetry are not to be parted". So either it means that, with their poet dead, there is no-one to sing their praises, or it means that even in death his poetry lives on and makes him immortal - either way this sounds like the poet singing his own praises if we take it literally. But the lines come from the 'reciter's prologue' so could have been added later - in fact must have been if they record the poet's death. In spite of the rubric ' aneirin ae cant' (Aneirin sang it) it is not, however, impossible that the oral history of the poem before it was written down led to a developed sequence of elegies for the warriors of Gododdin, and for Aneirin himself, rather than a verbatim record of his verse.
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Post by dumnorix on Aug 11, 2011 9:43:37 GMT -1
I wasn't aware of that... looking back, it probably makes more sense.
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