> Men of Harlech! In the Hollow,
> Do ye hear like rushing billow
> Wave on wave that surging follow
> Battle's distant sound?
> Tis the tramp of Saxon foemen,
> Saxon spearmen, Saxon bowmen,
Time for one of my periodic interjections.
This hymn is said to have originated, as the name suggests,
in Harlech, Merionydd, having first been sung as a
battle hymn and morale boosting song by the soldiers of
Owain Glyndwr in c1400, as they endured an English siege in
Harlech castle having first captured this redoubtable
fortress from its tiny English garrison, hence the
references to the loathed Saesoneg.
I wonder if the tune is the same. I suspect not, as
Glyndwr's soldiers would have sang it, of course in
medieval Welsh, and it does sound very much like many other
Victorian hymn tunes, and not much like a war-cry. That, of
course is but an opinion.
Yes, I can confirm that this song was the battle hymn of
the Welsh soldiers in Zulu, as many of the soldiers in that
regiment came from the North Wales area, from where the
song originated, and was said to have been sung at Rorke's
Drift. The Welshmen beseiged by the Zulu were very much
like those of Glyndwr invested by the English, which is
perhaps one of the points of the film (???), one people who
had endured conquest and opression were here attempting to
inflict it on others: and facing the consequences. It is
ironic that they sung Glyndwr's song of freedom and
struggle, while fighting to uphold English colonialism.
That, of course is just vague postmodern conjecture!
Graham WM.
----------------------
Graham Williamson-Mallaghan
School of Classics and Theology
Queens Building
Queens Drive
University of Exeter
EX4 4QG
0044 (01)392-676239
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