The way these modern practices often get misconstrued as ancient reminds me of how Wicca is often described as "ancient paganism" despite being created in the 1900's

spilling 200 year old tea over here, I'm absolutely invested in the controversy now

Hero of art, villian of history.

The mixed legacy reminds me of an important figure in my area of study, Jacob Egharevba. He was the first historian of the Kingdom of Benin, and played a very important role in recording Bini oral traditions and establishing the study of Benin... but he also freely editorialized and inserted things he believed without clearly distinguishing where he was getting the different details. His importance to Bini historiography has become a double-edged sword, because a lot of the Oral Historians started checking his work to "refresh their memories", meaning that now we can't know how much of these narratives actually date back to before Egharevba.

When I was in my late teens (18/19) I found a Wiccan group that claimed to be Welsh traditionalist. It was full of Iolo's works. The worst part though is that it was also full of rituals written partly in bad (grammatically, I mean) Cymraeg Byw. So there I am at 19 in the early 90s doing all this research and learning Welsh and I find out who Iolo Morganwg is and what he did and how the grammatical forms of Cymraeg Byw were created in the 70s... And then we find the sources for Wiccan rituals in books that the person who supposedly brought the religion to the US was known to own. And the group just falls apart. It lead me to understand history, archaeology, and historical linguistics as sciences all of which changed me for the better as a person. But at the time, oof! Damn it hurt. I share your feeling about Iolo.

The worst thing IMO is when the fabrications corrupt whatever traditions are genuinely retained from earlier times (much like when Native American traditions are rewritten to be full of New Age nonsense)

Some heavy Joseph Smith Vibes™ are afoot, except the mixed feelings. Also, I reread Wyrd Sisters yesterday and apparently I say things like "afoot" now.

I am of Welsh background. Both of my grandparents, my nana is 100% Welsh and my grandad is 50% Welsh and 50% Scottish, were native Gaelic (grandad) and Welsh (nana) speakers as were my mother and my aunt. After WW2 my grandad helped to remove the sod and dirt that had been placed on the Uffington White Horse and continued to help maintain this chalk figure for the rest of his life. He knew about it because it is mentioned in the Red Book of Hergest. It was because of their interest in Welsh and Scottish history, they thought that Iolo Morgannwg was pretty evil. I have a degree in Forensic Anthropology. I am a trained field Archeologist. I understand why my mum and her parents despised this guy. You have people who have spent so much time studying made-up runes, bardic tradition, and druidic nonsense; that the real Welsh bardic history, language, and traditions are being pushed aside and forgotten. The reality of what it is to be Welsh is largely obliterated by all this fantasy playacting. The troubling part is people are being told that their fantasy is real and people spend their lives studying and reenacting this stuff. It's almost as if someone were to insist that Ren Fairs are real and for people to go to them instead of going to historic sites. They ignore important Welsh historic sites to dress up like Druids in London. My family always thought these people were delusional. So I know that he has done some very important work as a writer, but unfortunately, it has caused people to lose sight of reality.

I think that you can appreciate all the good things that he did while still pointing out his flaws. We as humans often fall into the thinking that someone is either a complete hero or the incarnation of evil. It would be a lot healthier if we could accept that people can do good things AND bad things. We should appreciate the good while pointing out the bad (and saying why it was bad). So short answer: he is both

When I was studying Middle Welsh Language and Literature over 40 years ago at Sydney University, Iolo Morgannwg was much discussed as a sort of cautionary tale, warning about over-romanticizing your subject. I don't know how well the lesson stuck, because I've always been rather fond of him. I think your characterization of him as a Trickster deity is on the button!

I think we hold him in high esteem, but we change his name either to Eddie from the block or YOLO Morgannwg, to properly roast him for his shenanigans.

The more I learn about history, the more I'm thankful to my old middleschool teacher that told us time and time again to always be critical about what we read, even in the schoolbooks. Because there will always be new facts coming to light and you never know what the person writing the book might misunderstand or even make up. One of his examples was the Irish potato famine and how no farmers ever were stupid enough to only grew one crop, and a lot of Ireland is grazing land not fields so there should've been meat but the English took it. Still, the schoolbook said all they grew was potatoes. (This is a rural Swe school so most of us had connection to farming and understood what he was talking about). I think I have to go visit him and thank him next time I'm at home.

This is exactly how I feel about Washington Irving. He was maybe a decade or two later than this guy, most famous for writing The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and collecting local folklore in the lower Hudson Valley region, just north of NYC. I grew up in the area and went to daycamp at his house (now a historic site). One of his lesser-known works is a completely fictional biography of Christopher Columbus that depicts him as a forward-thinking humanist who discovered America while bravely and heroically showing up the mean old Catholic Church by proving that the earth was round. The best explanation I can give is that Washington Irving couldn't read Spanish so he figured nobody else would, and the young nation needed to create a mythology separate from that of England.

This is weirdly synchronistic because as a practicing Druid on Beltaine a few days ago, I was like "I don't know how to feel about Iolo Morganwg." In front of me, I had two books on Druidic ritual: Celtic Magic by Kristoffer Hughes who is pro-Iolo Morganwg, and The Sacred Cauldron by Tadhg MacCrossan, who is part of a movement which is trying to adhere to historical fact as much as possible and seems to be of the same opinion as Sir John Morris-Jones regarding Iolo Morganwg. His confabulations remain a big part of Neo-Druid culture to this day. Most of the modern Druidic leaders and writers seem to have gone "all in" on Iolo Morganwg and the Barddas, including ones I respect. I can respect the impact his writings and inspiration had on Welsh culture, but I really feel uncomfortable with the idea that he made a bunch of stuff up and passed it off as authentic.

Looking at that horn all I can think of is “that looks suspiciously like the Victorian dinner horn in the museum I work for”

I've never heard of Iolo "Citations Invented" Morgannwg, but he sounds like an incredibly imaginative fellow. I just made up that nickname, it's not real, please don't come for me Jimmy. I continually find it fascinating that so many people need a spiritual/religious framework in their lives. And that while it takes so many different forms around the world, there are often commonalities. We are a weird, wacky, inventive species.

A fascinating video. My PhD thesis touches on Iolo’s work (and other instances of eighteenth century bardic forgeries such as Chatterton and Macpherson) and I always think it’s so interesting to consider why these writers created imagined literary pasts, as well as to consider the impact that had upon public perception of their respective literary and cultural heritages.

One of my favorite things about this channel is how the vibes. Like it feels like you're listening to your friend that was invited to do an archeology lecture at the nice university.

I don't think I'd cast him as a hero or a villain but a "problematic fave," if you will. Or just simply human.

I am fascinated by everything Celtic - and have been since I was twelve, when in history class we heard all sorts of nonsense about the Celts in one hour and then spent a bunch of hours learning lots about the Romans. Thanks to modern archaeology, we know a lot more about the Celts now than we did when I was in school 30 years ago, but it's still frustrating to study an oral culture when its oral tradition has been thoroughly wiped out by a conquering empire. It's funny how in the 18th century there was a genuine trend of inventing ancient texts and passing them off as genuine - Macpherson's Ossian had international appeal and influenced people like Goethe. The thing is - it's so tempting. What person with an interest in the Celts does not wish ardently that a text would show up with Really Ancient Knowledge in it, or Really Ancient Poetry transcribed by a lonely monk who'd run into a Keeper of Ancient Traditions - you know, the Last of his Kind, who gives up his knowledge before it disappears? 😉 Alas, there is no such thing. There were no Wise Women who guarded Celtic religion and secretly carried it on into modern times (...as a teen, I was so disappointed when I found out that Wicca and co are modern inventions). So many stories, poems and songs are just lost forever. It's so sad. I'm really not sure that we *should* label someone like Iolo Morgannwg as 'good' or 'bad'. I'm happy to like him and his work, fake or no. It's important to know what's real and what's not, to be sure, but - I guess I sympathise with him 😅.

a lot of nuance here, i appreciate you just flat up admitting you can't quite say where you fall, it's complicated feels to me like a mix of wanting to impress his peers and also legitimately wanting there to be more of what he imagined...

I come here for the history, the reenactment stuff....and I stay just to hear Welsh spoken. So beautiful.

Isn’t there a despair in realizing that some things are lost forever, never to be recovered? Perhaps it reminds us of our own mortality… Maybe that’s why people were so quick to grab onto this fabricated history- because it’s more fulfilling to have a wrong answer than to accept that you’ll never have an answer. Anyway, that’s what I got from this interesting video. As always, thanks for sharing your research (and it’s moral ambiguity) in such an engaging manner!

I think it’s ok to feel both ways about him. Rarely is any one person all hero or all problematic ❤

I used to live and teach in a small community that had a tradition that in the weeks after exams senior students produced scrapbooks of their personal histories. One of my students was a young woman who had had a recent, contentious, messy breakup with the boyfriend with whom she had been going 'steady' since 3rd grade. She had a lifetime of photos of them together. He was interwoven with every aspect of her history. She cut his face out of every one of those photos and replaced his head with that of a popular actor of the day. I gave her full marks and a 6 pack of Coke!

As a druid, I think the story of how druidism got its lore is lore in itself, and an important part. I think it is a prerequisite of our religion/philosophy to know its history, and this part reminds us that artistic inspiration and factual facts are not the same, and that although both have their value, both lose it if confused. No current Druid says that the Awen symbol that Iolo invented is ancient, but we all appreciate it for what it represents.

Thanks for the history lesson, & the reminder to keep one's skepticism well intact!

Great video as ever! I'll always have a soft spot for Iolo Morgannwg for his work collecting an preserving Welsh folk music and song. As a folk musician, I've always felt Welsh music is underappreciated in the world of British folk music, with Scottish and English music being much more prevalent in the scene. The more Welsh folk music out there the better in my opinion and we wouldn't have a lot of the repertoire without Iolo!

Some parts really remind me of the great video "Book of Mormon as Literature" by the channel UsefulCharts. Talking about religious texts he said "Religious writings often tell us more about the time during which they were written than they do about the time during which they were set." I think that may be part of why Iolo Morgannwg's fiction (calling it what it is) may still have so much contemporary adherence. Actual ancient writings would have a hard time connecting with contemporary readers, because it assumes a completely different set of culture values and practices. Meanwhile, it is far easier to invent plausibly-ancient-sounding practices that would connect with the 18th century reader. And given the 21st century reader has more in common with the 18th century reader than an *actually* ancient person, we in the modern day can still resonate with the things Iolo Morgannwg invented.

In Sandy Bell's tonight I was drinking Jarl but if I'd known this was about to appear I might well have switched a couple of pumps to the right and had Ossian instead just to get me in the mood. I've seen 'popular' books demonstrate how easy it is to go from looking at genuine sources into being a little more imaginitive about what might of happened. Slipping into complete fabrication must be such a temptation (especially if there's a multi-book contract or TV series to come). I'm sure that doses of opiates help with coming up with the ideas. Thanks for bringing us back to reality. As a Scot who knows virtually nothing about Welsh history and culture I'd have no problem at all if there more of that explained here. Let's hear more from the the Welsh side of the Welsh Viking. PS. I hope that you're not in pain any more and not needing any opiates. 😁

Ah, Jimmy, you're touching on my work now. I've spent 40 years reconstructing a better version of Celtic paganism. You find this in many renditions of mythology that were "rescued" by Victorians and Regency secret societies. I love all the fluff about Ragnarok when it's obviously just a stellar myth, for instance. But we do have tantalizing tidbits like the Irish Tree Alphabet, and interesting reconstructions of Proto-Celtic from Ogham stones. But, wow, Welsh is alive and well thanks to these poets. Could have been Cornish. But, however you feel about this, we CAN take this and detangle it because it's there. If they had not gotten creative with it and made it popular, nothing would be there to untangle. Even the Christian records can be seen through to the real myth beyond. At some point, is Tolkien's version of Sigurd and the Dragon any less True than the Ring Cycle? My favorite is Taliesin, but how many tales do we have across Europe of a witch's apprentice tasting of the brew and suddenly understanding the language of the birds? Looks like many a Welshman dipped their thumb into that brew as well....

The fact that his name is basically 'yolo' is amazing.

As a Scot living in Aberdeenshire where our culture is dying, heck no-one under the age of forty speaks Doric (our local Scots dialect) I wish that we had someone to help us celebrate our culture. I know that we are home to the Bothy Ballad, which are really fun songs created by the young farmhands whilst staying on the farms, but the vast majority of us probably don't know the original use of a bothy. I can't speak Scots because there was no-one around me to speak it with. Even people I know are fluent speak in English as soon as you don't open up with 'fit like', and it's a real shame. So I know first hand really what can happen without celebration of our culture. And I think for that, he has done amazing things for the Welsh people. But I do see the problems of the lies. I think the main problem is people actually believing that they are real. I don't care if you choose to carry out the ceremonies that he made up, but I think that we do need a more in the public gaze about not-correct sources. these lies aren't hurting anyone, but when the lies are bigger and more dangerous, then that is where the problem really lies, but we can't treat it differently. To conclude, I'd say that the work he did for Welsh culture is invaluable, but he unfortunately is placed under the fake history category because he didn't label his work as fiction, which has had consequences on our view of the ancient Celts, and as you've said, has been quoted as fact. Although, I must point out that I had never heard of him beforehand and my knowledge of the subject is not complete, so I cannot offer a complete conclusion

It's cool hearing about people like Iolo Morganwg (or as the auto-captions called him, YOLO Morgan xD) because it reminds you that there's so many grey areas in history. And a good reminder to always double check your sources!

I absolutely had no idea where you were going and I'm so glad I held on for the ride! p.s. high fives for calling out Coleridge and his flippin albatross 💊

I guess another way of looking at it is that he probably did not anticipate his works to become so historically influential and significant. It was a product of its time and - dare I say it - potentially necessary thing at the time in shaping Welsh identity during the Enlightenment period? As was said, others were digging into their pasts to find new old ideas in order to reject the status quo. However, at least for the ancient Druids, there was nothing to readily dig into since they didn't write anything down. While he and others could have potentially drawn inspiration for the movement from other sources in Welsh history, it's plausible that it might have been less alluring and thus less effective at drawing the people together. Which is to say that it might have wound up being what was (a) necessary (evil) in order for Welsh identity to survive and to prosper the way it has today.

Seeing the debunking of the Primrose Hill "ritual", can you do something similar for the Beltane piss-up on Arthur's Seat?

I am an archaeology student (with focus on pre- and protohistory, which includes Hallstatt and Latène, aka "Celts") who is doing a year abroad in the UK and took electives in the Celtic Department here. That's how I first learned about him. I am so down for this video now. First, I want to here your unique perspective as a Welshmen with knowledge about archaeology, and second, I hope that I just can redeirect people to your video in the future, instead of ranting on about the topic XD Is there any chance you will make a video about MacPherson and the Ossianic debate, and how and why people in the 18th and 19th century felt the need to "reinvent" history and "celticness"? It is shocking how much the ideas and fabrications of this time are still alive. In one of my tutorials, everyone else in the room, including the tutor, was convinced that Stonehenge was tied to "Celtic" rituals in antiquity. But if you look at the facts and finds, Stone henge is as "Celtic" as it is Roman, maybe even less so. And it is older, too. "Celts" emmerge in the pre-Roman Iron Age, more or less, whereass Stonehenge - though built, used, and changed in phases - is mainly Stone Age. But still, people see the damn thing and go all "Stonehenge! Druids! Celts!" on it. Niw, talking about it, a Stonehenge video would be cool, too, and there are so many interesting things one could put the focus on.

This was so interesting! Love learning some more Welsh history from you!

I used to know someone who took part in the Primrose Hill shenanigans - he had also taken a lot of suspicious substances and often didn't know what decade it was... We weren't sure if he was a hero or villain either!

Iolo was also a massive abolitionist and his Welsh and English poetry on the matter is just absolutely fantastic. The guy also refused to sell slave-cultivated sugar in his shop in protest. Guy was a big, woke nerd and he deserves love

Not being Welsh, or even English - despite my convict ancestry - i think a discourse needs be opened about what is/isn't based on facts. The danger then becomes that all other documents then become judged. Our modern eyes and thoughts could start to discount other 'real evidence' as being 'fake' - and then when all those who lived during WW2 have passed, those events will be deemed fake. If that makes sense. I mean, we already have people questioning the holocaust, man landing on the moon.....heck, there are still some who believe the earth is flat.....

Still don't understand why he didn't use ogham script as the basis for his alphabet. Might be Goidelic, but they're closer to anything the British druids might have developed if they got over their alleged issues about writing stuff down than Germanic runes are. Like, Iolo, babe, as a modern pagan, your shadow looms over us enough. You could have at least tried to hit closer to home on this matter.

Thanks for another entertaining and informative video! I’d never heard of Iolo Morganwg before though I’ve certainly seen that 3-stave symbol around. The fake manuscripts thing strikes me as more sad than trickster, like he felt insecure about the lack of documented Welsh ancient history, and rather than going the Willam Blake personal-revelation route, he needed to best the antiquarians at their own game in order to prove Wales had a Real Culture. Not something that needs further proof in my opinion, but I can imagine being a cultural worker in the middle of the scientific revolution and wanting to do more than stammer and look embarrassed when people asked “well, where’s your evidence for this Great and Ancient Welsh Tradition, then?” Being unable to “prove” the validity of your culture according to the standards of the time must have been painful. Much like laudanum, authenticity’s a hell of a drug.

I never heard about that guy, but I am very familiar with having to accept that historical figures are often both good and bad. (As are contemporary people we know.) Karl Marx, Martin Luther, Mahatma Ghandi and plenty of others: They did good things for human progress and freedom, but also said/wrote or did bad things. That's why I have no personal "hero" or anybody I uncritically admire. The likelyhood that a public figure has dark aspects too is just very high. One can still respect the positive things they did while keeping in mind the negative ones.

My honest first response when I saw Iolo Morgannwg in the title, "Oh, THIS M****F****!" I've been researching early British history, especially in regards to the possible historicity of the Arthur Figure, and I can't tell you how much damage this guy has done to this particular niche field. There's a lot of crazy theories floating out there, but the craziest, loudest and most toxic come from those who draw from Iolo Morgannwg as if it's gospel truth. It's like a gateway to wonderful slogans like "all modern history is a lie!" and "Modern academics are conspiring with the Church and the English Monarchy to keep the truth buried!" It hadn't occurred to me that Morgannwg was responsible for a heightened sense of Cymric identity both in Wales and abroad, so it's a (very small) bit comforting to know he had some positive impact. That said, anyone who tries to push their personal nonsense as historical fact have a special place in hell.

I'd really love to see you and Kristoffer Hughes sit down and chat about Iolo, modern druidry and Welsh culture.

Absolutely fantastic that you covered this! It's such a fascinating story, and his contributions/fabrications were truly marvellous and villainous in equal measure.

Thank you for sharing your kind, honest, perspective. What a bummer that Iolo Morganwg engaged in fraud about something so profound that affects so many people! I hope his soul got the enlightenment and healing he needed after he died and went to the next world. May all the people who bought into his lies, including me, find the wisdom and healing we need.

I think Jimmy should invent a ratings system for historical reliability based on Iola. The higher the Iolo score, the less reliable. He deserves a place in history for his legitimate work, though. Lovely video, Jimmy!

What an excellent video - thank you! The whole theme of how mavericks and tricksters have played their part in the development of cultural and spiritual movements is fascinating. Paradox and ambiguity are alive and well! And as some say here, much of the modern druid movement is aware of his failings while also appreciating the stimulus and inspiration he has provided.

Gotta say, not that I would make stuff up, but the threat of farting on one's pillowcase is a compelling one.

No other content creator posts get me quite as excited as when I see a new video of yours out!

So excited to see more videos about Cymru! :D I enjoy learning more about it. Diolch yn fawr!

I can't think of a single person who is or was 100% good or bad. Part of what makes humans such a fascinating creature is the ability to morph and switch directions almost instantly. Man is the ultimate shape shifter.

Thank you for this, and all your informative video's!!!! You are a fount of information and so generous to share it.

Perhaps Iolo's laudanum imbibation allowed him to lock into the Celtic collective unconscious?! And together with elements he had gleaned from surviving folklore of the oral tradition,etc, that in fact his writings/rituals ended up being pretty close to the mark? Always go with the myth....Great vid by the way.

Great video as always!!

Iolo Morgannwg was an academic living in London, and felt the need to make friends and influence people. What better way than to revive the long dead Welsh Druids. The Druids, or Bards have had somewhat of a revival since the Renaissance. He fuelled that revival even more, with his stories of ancient manuscripts, describing their rituals. I think he knew full well what he was doing. I’m of the same opinion. Hero or villain? He did so much to put Cymru on the map. As you say, not least the Gorsedd. I tend to lean towards the Hero. But his chickens have come home to roost. He was originally from a little village in the Vale of Glamorgan, called Llancarfan. I believe he rests in Y Bont Faen, (Cowbridge) as you say, Awen. The inspiration of the poets and musicians. Great video. Thanks for the upload. 👍

Love your timing Jimmy 😂. Just perfect Well done again with your research & presentation. Love your work.

That rototating wooden rows thingy with runes on it reminds me of Eastern prayer wheels.

So many great points made and interesting discussions here that I've run out of ideas, lol. I'll say Hello All, have a great day! ☕️

I think that is the hallmark of the great fakes and cheats - such wasted talent and opportunity. What a different legacy it could have been.

First! So excited for this video. I love all things runes.

this is very interesting. I guess that from time to time we just long for something that just "needed to have happened". Thank you for the content and the charming presentation, as always. Thank you also for not polluting it with unnecessary background "music".

Lets GOOO! Looking forward to this Post vid: seems like so long as you are aware of the issues they caused, you can praise the dude. Kinda like being a fan of a musician that is problematic.

Another fascinating and very thought provoking video😊 Buiochas mór!

Reminds that this is the same age when James Macpherson published his "collected and discovered" Poems of Ossian for the Scottish Gaelic side.

Iolo Morganwg makes me think of Geoffrey of Monmouth's bullshittery and my bad welsh take is that I think it was kind of funny of both of them. I admit to being way overly sure that the people's they claimed to source would have done exactly the same thing, on the basis of bardy people being just like that and a lot of them having wallets to keep full. I like to think Devils Bridge and Beddgelert are their own extensions of that tradition and I think we should start come up with the next one and this time have robots in it. Robot dragons.

You can't beat a good yarn! Celts, gales, saxons, picts we all love a great tale , haha and why not!

Hi Jimmy, glad to see you're looking and sounding a little happier! Another great video I always wondered how the 'Modern' druids knew how ancient druids carried out their ceremonies as they wrote nothing down!! On a side note the runes (although fake) I think look quite cool, so are they only for writing in Welsh or could they be used for English? Again, brilliant video, thanks Jimmy, Cheers!

I have Welsh heritage and am enjoying exploring it more. If I ever come across something I'm not sure about, I'll always check to see if you have a video de-bunking it 😊

Very interesting. I'm a gaulish polytheist so I'm always super interested in this muddled history of the celtic nations and their various remnants of actual history mixed with complete fabrication. I'm French so we learned a lot about the Gauls growing up and then it was a lot of figuring out as an adult if what they taught us was actually factual or just a way to make France look kinda cool to kids. Anyway. I couldn't help but notice the symbol you show at 14:48 looks an awful lot like the "awenn" symbol you see on quite a lot of Druidic/Gaulish/Celtic modern material (though the symbol I know how three dots over the lines). Do you know if that symbol came from Iolo Morgannwg's? Or does it predate it? Were they contemporaries? I think I read somewhere that a version of that symbol was found on a carving dated to somewhere around the gallo-roman period but it's very possible I'm confusing it with something else. Could you tell me if it has any link to Iolo's work or if it's from somewhere else?

"I don't know if he's a villain or a hero." He's human. For all the good and bad it did him and does us. Lol Very interesting video. Thank you!

I’m glad to see you that you’re doing well

Iolo Morgannwg wasn't a villain or a hero- he was a truly glorious, laudanum-drenched Enlightenment era mystical kook, and he needs to be unashamedly celebrated as such. I am 100% down with 18th and 19th century romantic eccentrics, even the ones that made up history out of whole cloth (which was probably most of them). The Enlightenment saw an explosion in literacy and a huge democratisation of culture. More people were reading and writing than ever before, and more people were engaging with ideas. It was the wild west of knowledge and culture, and it was a frontier populated with cowboys and outlaws. Rules got broken. Boundaries were crossed. And occasionally, brilliant poets got smashed out of their gourds on booze and narcotics and dreamed up nonsensical runic alphabets and tried to pass them off as long-forgotten Druidic Lore. At the same time we got staggering developments in science, politics, philosophy and culture and some of the greatest literature in history. It was all worth it. Iolo Morgannwg is a legend of his own making.

I think in the end there's no shame and much good in having national/cultural heros who on the one hand did some very important and great thing(s) and then on the other hand did some horrible stuff as well ... as long as we learn about both parts of the story. It's good for all of us to be reminded that doing good things doesn't cancel out the harm that we do, but also that the reverse is true as well: doing bad things doesn't erase the good that we do.

A useful reminder that people and history are complicated. Bonus kudos for repeated use of the Getafix picture!

To quote The Good Place- "There is something so human about taking something good and ruining it so you can have a little bit more." The way he so clearly wanted more from history, and when he couldn't find it made up his own instead is just so human. We want to find these links so badly, we want all of the information so we can build tidy webs and boxes connecting it all.

Thank you Jimmy, for standing for both the truth and creativity :)

He got it all from Laudanum 😮 😂 Fake History is not a recent trend as we have seen in contemporary times. So this Dude made 💩up. He’s not the first nor the last and he did deceive unknown numbers of people into going down the rabbit hole following a fake culture. What a weird dude. Drug abuse isn’t something that began with jazz musicians in the 1920s or the Beatniks of the 50s or the Rock dudes in the 1960s. Excellent story and fantastic information even if it’s fake 😳 Hail History Jimmy.

Maybe the problem lies more with the people knowingly perpetuating the falsehoods than with the original 'prankster'? This reminds me a bit of how the story of tijl uylenspiegel evolved.

I love the threat at the end of the video. I was not expecting that :D

fascinating. What an interesting conundrum! The creation of a myth which translates into identity. it raises the question of other such. the Finnish Kalevala poems, collected from around parts of FinnoRuss Carelia, or further back Greek and Roman gods. Perhaps we need to give him his space, but note that his sources are his own rich imagination

How fascinating!

To quote the mighty Icelandic bard Björk Guðmundsdóttir, "You shouldn't let poets lie to you"

I am warm to a possible argument that nobody would've taken him seriously at the time if he had made it up, but tbh it would've been better. Imo he's a good dude who helped shape not only Welsh culture but also Druidism (Something I'm partial to) and just wish he could've been honest.

Most enjoyable! I`m similalry conflicted. Could you perhaps do a video on Macpherson`s poems of Ossian - another highly influential Celtic fake?

At the end of the day he sounds like a great storyteller. Not an empiricist by any means, but he sure wove some powerful tall tales

You know I've been told I bare a striking resemblance to ol' Image Not Found. I think it's because of how pale I am.

Thank you Jimmy.

There's something facinating to me about how easy it can be to make up history/cultural practises and have them taken as genuine. And it's not like that has changed over the past two centuries (Mesperyian, my beloved). And in large part it hinges on presentation, not even actual content

nice Bartimaeus trilogy on your bookshelf

thank you, very interesting!

I spent my teenage years in Cowbridge and used to walk past that plaque without thinking about it. Can't say I ever heard anybody speak Welsh there though! For my money, if somebody's been doing something for 200 years and it's part of their identity then it's as real as anything else. I remember a friend of mine once commenting to me that all the traditions and rituals observed in the democratic institutions of the United States were created out of thin air after the revolution. Somebody recognised that there was a need for them, a vacuum that needed to be filled, so they went and invented what people needed.

You can view him as a rascal, just like Loki and take it from there! 😉 I just binge watched three of your videos, because I missed them (will you be popping around now and fart on my pillows), no idea how that happened! As for getting stressed out about your videos, how often you make them, try not to worry and stress about it, I find your videos good enough to watch several times, so....pour yourself a nice mjöd, kick back and chill....you make your videos when you're good and ready, feel inspired to do them as they're always worth the wait! I'm a Patron and I'd say that my money are well spent! 🤜🏻🤛🏻🍻 Waves in younger futhark from Glasgow! 😉

Reminds me of Charlie Grey Owl. A fantasist, a dreamer. But lived the part.But yeah did loads for environmental awareness in the 30's. Also Alfred Watkins , The Old Straight Track. In many respects a remarkable man who encouraged tourism of the Welsh borderlands. But ley lines? An excellent example of paredolia. I love his name for the the people who laid the lines out. Dodmen! His book is really interesting. Then we have that great work of pseudo history. Morris's The Age of Arthur.

Scots have a rascal with parallels, a person called James Macpherson who famously published in the 1760s his cycle of poetry generally known today as the Ossian Cycle. He claimed he had discovered ancient texts written in Gaelic which originated in the late Iron Age, but never produced proof of these sources. The poems are simply made up of course, though Macpherson denied this all his life. It's beautiful stuff and was immensely popular in the late 18th century, with fans including Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon Bonaparte, and both Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott drew inspiration from them. So I sympathise with your ambiguity on Iolo Morgannwg.

I think at the end of the day Iolo was like so many of us messy and complicated. And you're right, without him, there would be no Eisteddfod where I am in the States. My university is actually a Welsh language preservation center (might be the only one in North America). We have a Gymanfa Ganu coming up in the fall and that's probably all down to his influence. But yes, I'm equally torn with the whole making up history and rituals out of whole cloth. It is hard to undo the damage that causes. I spend all day trying to undo the over simplifications of primary school so I know how hard that is to change. The best you can do is what you did, acknowledge both sides of the coin.

I totally tried to get into modern druidry. While it wasn't the thing for me, at the very least all of the books and such I read and the official groups I looked into were super clear that the movement goes back to the 1700s, they try to take as much historical info as they can but it's not much left from the real ancient druids, and that anyone claiming "true ancient knowledge" is full of it. As always, I love your content and look forward to your next video!!