In my opinion, the excerpt from Gogoddin is from the perspective of Aneirin as a prisoner of war (bards would often observe warfare to write poetry about what happened) and the experience of being imprisoned compels him to write about himself this once. He might have been captured by the Angles at the Battle of Catraeth c. 600 CE, composing poetry for the king of Gododdin.
Im a Mexican student of history, and the Celtic world has always called to me, I find sublime moments of beauty and spirituality through it, and your channel has been really meaningful these last weeks for me, I hope you are ok and feeling loved and safe wherever you are.
I've just found your channel, and I really appreciate the work you have put into it and I resonate with your storytelling/perspective! Thank you so much!
Our culture is so different in many ways. Nevertheless it's possible to make choices that allow us to find, if not sensory deprivation, enough alone time to begin hearing our own minds. I retired, divorced, and left a problematic friendship, not with any conscious desire to gain alone time, except for retirement, to some degree. Gradually I realized that the kind of writing I want to do wouldn't come automatically. I still didn't know what to do to help it come. The death of my beloved cat, besides the end of a long and deep relationship, became the catalyst for a change. I immediately knew I no longer wanted to fritter away my consciousness on frivolous talking and shallow relationships, and spent several months almost always alone. I've learned that thoughts I never had before come to me. I write them down, expand on them. Many years ago, I tried the exercise you spoke of, lying on the floor in a dark room. At the time I was still working and in a relationship. I see now that my awareness that I'd soon need to attend to those things made it hard to go deep into the place of words. And I'd had no long apprenticeship of memorizing. I had been writng for thirty years by then, "in my spare time", and that was my apprenticeship. Other times, other possibilities!
Enough alone time to begin hearing our own minds is a great place to start! I find I'm a bit too much alone and too often give in to the temptation to fill it with screen time. I'm a work in progress, like we all are.
Re: the end bit about the bards being able to memorize everything: Our brains are so neuroplastic (typically) that I wonder if even just the repetition itself could increase the brain's capacity for memory, based on models of neuroplasticity and tools like "mind palaces"
Oh - I'm sure it does. I worked in traditional music for years, where learning by memory is an everyday act. People get to where they hear a complex melody once or twice and they have it. That's partly because the music works within well-known patterns and parameters, but so does bardic poetry.
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Such an important character.
In my opinion, the excerpt from Gogoddin is from the perspective of Aneirin as a prisoner of war (bards would often observe warfare to write poetry about what happened) and the experience of being imprisoned compels him to write about himself this once. He might have been captured by the Angles at the Battle of Catraeth c. 600 CE, composing poetry for the king of Gododdin.
This is one of my favorite videos. Thank you for making this.
Aw, thanks. It's just a clip from a class I taught, but I did think it had some merit.
Im a Mexican student of history, and the Celtic world has always called to me, I find sublime moments of beauty and spirituality through it, and your channel has been really meaningful these last weeks for me, I hope you are ok and feeling loved and safe wherever you are.
Thanks for your good wishes, my friend. I'm glad my channel is helpful. I do put a lot into it.
I've just found your channel, and I really appreciate the work you have put into it and I resonate with your storytelling/perspective! Thank you so much!
Thank you so much. I feel very encouraged and happy when these videos are useful to people.
Our culture is so different in many ways. Nevertheless it's possible to make choices that allow us to find, if not sensory deprivation, enough alone time to begin hearing our own minds. I retired, divorced, and left a problematic friendship, not with any conscious desire to gain alone time, except for retirement, to some degree.
Gradually I realized that the kind of writing I want to do wouldn't come automatically. I still didn't know what to do to help it come. The death of my beloved cat, besides the end of a long and deep relationship, became the catalyst for a change.
I immediately knew I no longer wanted to fritter away my consciousness on frivolous talking and shallow relationships, and spent several months almost always alone. I've learned that thoughts I never had before come to me. I write them down, expand on them.
Many years ago, I tried the exercise you spoke of, lying on the floor in a dark room. At the time I was still working and in a relationship. I see now that my awareness that I'd soon need to attend to those things made it hard to go deep into the place of words. And I'd had no long apprenticeship of memorizing.
I had been writng for thirty years by then, "in my spare time", and that was my apprenticeship.
Other times, other possibilities!
Enough alone time to begin hearing our own minds is a great place to start! I find I'm a bit too much alone and too often give in to the temptation to fill it with screen time. I'm a work in progress, like we all are.
So beautiful and helpful! Thank you for educating me! 🙏🤍
You're very welcome! Thanks for commenting!
@@KrisHughes 🙂🤗
Re: the end bit about the bards being able to memorize everything:
Our brains are so neuroplastic (typically) that I wonder if even just the repetition itself could increase the brain's capacity for memory, based on models of neuroplasticity and tools like "mind palaces"
Oh - I'm sure it does. I worked in traditional music for years, where learning by memory is an everyday act. People get to where they hear a complex melody once or twice and they have it. That's partly because the music works within well-known patterns and parameters, but so does bardic poetry.
Diolch Kris.