Literature in Cornish
Encyclopedia
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
. The earliest surviving texts are in verse and date from the 14th century. There are virtually none from the 18th and 19th centuries but writing in revived forms of Cornish began in the early 20th century.
Medieval verse and drama
Prophecy of Merlin
Prophecy of Merlin , sometimes called The Prophecy of Ambrosius Merlin concerning the Seven Kings, is a 12th-century poem written in Latin hexameters by John of Cornwall, which he claimed was based or revived from a lost manuscript in the Cornish language. The original manuscript is unique and...
is a 12th century poem written ca. 1144 by John of Cornwall in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, with some of the marginal notes in Cornish. John stated that the work was a translation based on an earlier document written in the Cornish language. The manuscript of the poem, on a codex
Codex
A codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with multiple quires or gatherings typically bound together and given a cover.Developed by the Romans from wooden writing tablets, its gradual replacement...
currently held at the Vatican Library
Vatican Library
The Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from...
, is unique. It attracted little attention from the scholarly world until 1876, when Whitley Stokes undertook a brief analysis of the Cornish and Welsh vocabulary found in John's marginal commentary
Marginalia
Marginalia are scribbles, comments, and illuminations in the margins of a book.- Biblical manuscripts :Biblical manuscripts have liturgical notes at the margin, for liturgical use. Numbers of texts' divisions are given at the margin...
. These notes are among the earliest known writings in the Cornish language. In 2001 this important work was translated back into Cornish by Julyan Holmes
Julyan Holmes
Julyan Holmes is a Cornish scholar and poet. Born in 1948, Holmes has worked on such topics as Cornish placenames, the Prophecy of Merlin of John of Cornwall, and the writings of the Penwith School....
.
Pascon agan Arluth ('The Passion of our Lord'), a poem of 259 eight-line verses probably composed around 1375, is one of the earliest surviving works of Cornish literature. The most important work of literature surviving from the Middle Cornish period is the Cornish Ordinalia
Ordinalia
The Ordinalia are three medieval mystery plays written in Cornish from the late fourteenth century. The three plays are Origo Mundi, , Passio Christi and Resurrexio Domini...
, a 9000-line religious verse drama
Verse drama and dramatic verse
Verse drama is any drama written as verse to be spoken; another possible general term is poetic drama. For a very long period, verse drama was the dominant form of drama in Europe...
which had probably reached its present form by 1400. The Ordinalia consists of three mystery play
Mystery play
Mystery plays and miracle plays are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song...
s, Origo Mundi, Passio Christi and Resurrexio Domini, meant to be performed on successive days. Such plays were performed in a Plain an Gwarry (Playing place).
The longest single surviving work of Cornish literature is Beunans Meriasek
Beunans Meriasek
Beunans Meriasek is a Cornish play completed in 1504. Its subject is the legends of the life of Saint Meriasek or Meriadoc, patron saint of Camborne, whose veneration was popular in Cornwall, Brittany, and elsewhere...
(The Life of Meriasek), a two day verse drama dated 1504, but probably copied from an earlier manuscript.
Other notable pieces of Cornish literature include the Creation of the World (with Noah's Flood) which is a miracle play similar to Origo Mundi but in a much later manuscript (1611); the Charter Fragment, a short poem about marriage, believed to be the earliest connected text in the language; and the recently-discovered Beunans Ke, another saint's play, notable for including some Arthurian material.
Prose works
The earliest surviving examples of Cornish prose are the Tregear Homilies, a series of 12 Catholic sermonSermon
A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...
s written in English and translated by John Tregear around 1555-1557, to which a thirteenth homily The Sacrament of the Alter was added by another hand. Twelve of Edmund Bonner
Edmund Bonner
Edmund Bonner , Bishop of London, was an English bishop. Initially an instrumental figure in the schism of Henry VIII from Rome, he was antagonized by the Protestant reforms introduced by Somerset and reconciled himself to Roman Catholicism...
's Homelies to be read within his diocese of London of all Parsons, vycars and curates (1555; nine of these were by John Harpsfield
John Harpsfield
-Life:Harpsfield was educated in Winchester College and New College, Oxford . He was perpetual fellow of New College from 1534 until 1551 and was appointed the first Regius Professor of Greek...
) were translated into Cornish
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
by John Tregear, and are now the largest single work of traditional Cornish prose.
Nicholas Boson
Nicholas Boson
Nicholas Boson was a writer in, and preserver of, the Cornish language. He was born in Newlyn to a landowning and merchant family involved in the pilchard fisheries....
(1624-1708) wrote three significant texts in Cornish, Nebbaz gerriau dro tho Carnoack (A Few Words about Cornish) between 1675 and 1708; Jowan Chy-an-Horth, py, An try foynt a skyans (John of Chyannor, or, The three points of wisdom), published by Edward Lhuyd
Edward Lhuyd
Edward Lhuyd was a Welsh naturalist, botanist, linguist, geographer and antiquary. He is also known by the Latinized form of his name, Eduardus Luidius....
in 1707, though written earlier; and The Dutchess of Cornwall's Progress, partly in English, now known only in fragments. The first two are the only known surviving Cornish prose texts from the 17th century. Boson's work is collected, along with that of his son John Boson
John Boson
John Boson was a cabinet maker and carver whose work is associated with that of William Kent. It is said that if he had not died at such a relatively young age then his place would have been assured in the history of furniture making in the United Kingdom...
and his cousin Thomas Boson
Thomas Boson
Thomas Boson was a writer in the Cornish language and the cousin of Nicholas and John Boson. Thomas helped William Gwavas in his Cornish language research, and wrote an inscription in Cornish for Gwavas's hurling ball. He also made translations of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the...
(1635-1719) in Oliver Padel
Oliver Padel
Oliver James Padel is an authority on the origin and meaning of place-names, currently Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic in the University of Cambridge and Visiting Professor of Celtic at the University of the West of England.He was born in 1948...
's The Cornish writings of the Boson family (1975).
18th century to 1950
Fragments of Cornish writing continued to appear as the language was becoming extinct during the 18th century. However, in the late 19th century a few works by non-native speakers were produced; these efforts were followed by a more substantial revival in the 20th and 21st centuries. Of the early pieces the most significant is the so-called "Cranken RhymeCranken Rhyme
The "Cranken Rhyme" is a Cornish-language song known by John Davey, one of the last people with some knowledge of the tongue. It was recorded by J. Hobson Matthews in his History of St. Ives, Lelant, Towednack, and Zennor, and is probably the latest known traditional Cornish verse.Matthews records...
" produced by John Davey
John Davey (Cornish speaker)
John Davey or Davy was a Cornish farmer who was one of the last people with some traditional knowledge of the Cornish language. Jenner states that he level of his ability in the language is unclear, but was probably restricted to a few words and phrases...
of Boswednack
Boswednack
Boswednack is a village in the parish of Zennor near the north coast of the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall, United Kingdom....
, one of the last people with some traditional knowledge of the language. The poem, published by John Hobson Matthews in 1892, may be the last piece of traditional Cornish literature. In 1865 German language enthusiast Georg Sauerwein
Georg Sauerwein
Georg Julius Justus Sauerwein Georg Julius Justus Sauerwein Georg Julius Justus Sauerwein (15 January 1831 in Hanover – 16 December 1904 in Christiania (now Oslo) was a German publisher, polyglot, poet, and linguist. He is buried at Gronau....
composed two poems in the language. Later Hobson Matthews wrote several poems, such as the patriotic "Can Wlascar Agam Mamvro" ("Patriotic Song of our Motherland"), and Robert Morton Nance
Robert Morton Nance
Robert Morton Nance was a leading authority on the Cornish language, nautical archaeologist, and joint founder of the Old Cornwall Society....
, a disciple of Henry Jenner
Henry Jenner
Henry Jenner FSA was a British scholar of the Celtic languages, a Cornish cultural activist, and the chief originator of the Cornish language revival....
, created a body of verse, for example "Nyns yu Marow Myghtern Arthur" ("King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
is not Dead"), which concerns the popular Cornish subject of King Arthur's legendary immortality
King Arthur's messianic return
King Arthur's messianic return is an aspect of the legend of King Arthur, the mythical 6th-century British king. Few historical records of Arthur remain, and there are doubts that he ever existed, but he achieved a mythological stature that gave rise to a growing literature about his life and deeds...
. Both of these writers' works are characterised by a specifically revivalist mode.
These efforts were followed in the early 20th century by further works of revivalist literature by Cornish language enthusiasts. Works of this period were generally printed in limited publications by authors far removed from Cornwall and each other; their importance to the later revival movement was not fully recognized for decades. The literary output of the Cornish revival has largely been poetry. Notable writers of the time include Edward Chirgwin and A. S. D. Smith, whose epic poem Trystan hag Isolt, a reworking of the Tristan and Iseult
Tristan and Iseult
The legend of Tristan and Iseult is an influential romance and tragedy, retold in numerous sources with as many variations. The tragic story is of the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult...
legend, is one of the most celebrated pieces of Cornish revival writing. Another significant early text is Peggy Pollard's 1941 play Beunans Alysaryn, modelled on the 16th-century saints' plays.
Later 20th century and after
The later 20th century saw increasing interest in the Cornish language and its literature, and an expansion into other media. The dearth of Cornish readers has made the production of novels difficult, though three have been published. The earliest was Melville Bennetto's An Gurun Wosek a Geltya (The Bloody Crown of the Celtic Countries) in 1984; subsequently Michael Palmer published Jory (1989) and Dyroans (1998). Tim SaundersTim Saunders
Tim Saunders is a Cornish language poet who also writes poetry and journalism in the Welsh, Irish, Breton and Cornish languages. He is resident in Cardiff but is of Cornish descent. He is a bard of the Gorseth Kernow, a literary historian and editor of 'The Wheel' – an anthology of modern poetry in...
and Nicholas Williams
Nicholas Williams
Nicholas Jonathan Anselm Williams , writing as Nicholas Williams or sometimes N.J.A...
are among the contemporary poets writing in Cornish. Additionally, writers such as Nick Darke
Nick Darke
Nick Darke born Nicholas Temperley Watson Darke was best known as playwright but was also a writer, poet, lobster fisherman, environmentalist, beachcomber, politician, broadcaster, film-maker and chairman of St Eval Parish Council.-Life and writings:Nick Darke was born at St Eval, near Padstow in...
and Alan M. Kent
Alan M. Kent
Alan M. Kent is a Cornish poet, novelist, dramatist, author and editor of a number of works on Cornish and Anglo-Cornish literature.-Creative writing:* Proper Job, Charlie Curnow!* Electric Pastyland...
have incorporated a Cornish background into English writing. Others have translated foreign works into Cornish. Jowann Richards (1926-2005) produced a Cornish translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám , a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer...
(ISBN 0-907064-29-9) in 1990. Beginning in the 2000s, translators set about translating the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
in order to redress the handicap unique to Cornish, in that of all the modern Celtic languages, only Cornish had no Bible translation. The first complete edition of the New Testament in Cornish, Nicholas Williams
Nicholas Williams
Nicholas Jonathan Anselm Williams , writing as Nicholas Williams or sometimes N.J.A...
's translation Testament Noweth agan Arluth ha Savyour Jesu Cryst, was published at Easter 2002 by Spyrys a Gernow (ISBN 0-9535975-4-7); it uses Unified Cornish Revised orthography. The translation was made from the Greek text, and incorporated John Tregear's existing translations with slight revisions. In August 2004, Kesva an Taves Kernewek
Kesva an Taves Kernewek
Kesva an Taves Kernewek is an organisation that promotes the Cornish language. It was founded in 1967 by Gorseth Kernow and the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies. It is represented on the official language body, the Cornish Language Partnership.It currently has 18 members, 13 elected and 5...
published its edition of the New Testament in Cornish (ISBN 1-902917-33-2), translated by Keith Syed and Ray Edwards; it uses Kernewek Kemmyn orthography. It was launched in a ceremony in Truro Cathedral
Truro Cathedral
The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Truro is an Anglican cathedral located in the city of Truro, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. It was built in the Gothic Revival architectural style fashionable during much of the nineteenth century, and is one of only three cathedrals in the United Kingdom...
attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
. A translation of the Old Testament is currently in preparation.
2009 saw the publication of a number of novels in Cornish. Nicholas Williams
Nicholas Williams
Nicholas Jonathan Anselm Williams , writing as Nicholas Williams or sometimes N.J.A...
's translation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
appeared as Alys in Pow an Anethow (ISBN 978-1-904808-19-0), as did his translation of Craig Weatherhill
Craig Weatherhill
Craig Weatherhill is a Cornish author both of fiction and non-fiction works about Cornwall.-Biography:Raised in St Just in Penwith and then in Falmouth, after serving in the forces he developed a career in conservation and architecture. In his younger days, the 6' 3" Weatherhill was a goalkeeper,...
's novel The Lyonesse Stone, titled in Cornish Jowal Lethesow (ISBN 978-1-904808-30-5). Kaspar Hocking
Vanessa Beeman
Vanessa Beeman was born Vanessa Hocking in Nairobi and at a younger age lived in Tanzania. Her father Kaspar Hocking was employed as a Government entomologist in East Africa.-Early life:...
's abridgement of Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
's Around the World in Eighty Days
Around the World in Eighty Days
Around the World in Eighty Days is a classic adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in 1873. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager set by his friends at the...
was published as Adro dhe'n Bÿs in Peswar Ugans Dëdh (ISBN 978-1-904808-21-3), and Eddie Foirbeis Climo's Kensa Lyver Redya (ISBN 978-1-904808-24-4) 'First Reading Book', a translation of Harriette Taylor Treadwell and Margaret Free's Primer, was published as well.
See also
- Bible translations into CornishBible translations into CornishTranslations of the Bible into Cornish have existed since the 17th century. The early works involved the translation of individual passages, chapters or books of the Bible...
- British literatureBritish literatureBritish Literature refers to literature associated with the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. By far the largest part of British literature is written in the English language, but there are bodies of written works in Latin, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Cornish, Manx, Jèrriais,...
- List of Cornish writers
External links
- Pascon Agan Arluth
- Middle Cornish Literature.
- Recordings of traditional and contemporary literature in Cornish - often read by the authors - feature in the podcast Radyo an Norvys