News from Rob Mimpriss

31st October 2017: Hallowe’en in the Cwm

An appropriately-timed celebration of my translation from the folk tales and stories of Owen Wynne Jones (also known as Glasynys), Hallowe’en in the Cwm. Friends, relatives and other guests gathered for food and wine, and stories of ghosts and evil spirits, winged serpent monsters, fairy rings and the tylwyth teg, and eccentrics both rich and poor. One of the highlights of the event was a reading from ‘A Wedding in Nant Gwrtheyrn,’ a story of romance, adventure, madness, and mystery centred around a disappearing bride.

The same event featured my translation of A Book of Three Birds by Morgan Llwyd, first published in 1653. First intended as an allegory of the English Commonwealth, in which a raven represents the defeated Royalists and a dove the triumphant Puritans, it maintains its relevance as a portrait of the conflict between traditionalism and reason, privilege and republicanism, which continue to be felt in our day. Despite being widely considered the greatest Welsh-language book of its age, pungent in its imagery and beguiling in its prose, it has never been completely translated into English. Both translations have been subsequently praised by the novelist and critic Angharad Price, and by the memoirist and nature-writer, Jim Perrin.