By Luke Blaidd
(NB: This article contains sources with outdated and/or offensive language towards queer people in both English and Welsh)
When researching for my queer Welsh dictionary Llyfr Enfys, I often find myself lost in a Labyrinth of tangents, so many unexplored angles and avenues for queer Welsh terminology to be discovered in. When I indulge the Theseus in me, I tie a ball of string to my starting point and plunge into the unknown, unravelling that yarn as I go, searching for useful sources deep in the centre of the Labyrinth. Preparing to meet that Minotaur which guards the most obscure and naturally, the most relevant of sources. Academic sword in hand. And before I know it, I’ve been staring at the OCR (optical character recognition) on my screen for over three hours.
It is rarely a fruitless endeavour. Normally something of use or relevance is found and added swiftly to my ever-growing personal notes folder. This amassing of sources comes with an almost unintentional discovering of news stories, viewpoints and articles in Welsh about queer lives. Most stories refer to popular cases concerning queer people in both the United Kingdom and in the United States of America. As well as this, there are plenty of historical, Welsh language journal articles about queer topics, which this blog will also be covering.
In June 2022 I used the following terms to search newspapers in the digital archives at the National Library of Wales and the British Newspaper Archive: Gwrywgydwyr (Eng. ‘Sodomites’), Sodomiaeth (Eng. ‘Sodomy’), Deurywiog (Eng. ‘Hermaphrodite’), Drosedd annaturiol (Eng. ‘Unnatural Offence’) and Gwisgo fel bachgen/dyn (Eng. ‘dressed as a boy/man’). Many other known words for queer people from this period did not get returns when searched for in the digital newspaper archives.
The oldest article that I could find was from 1825, but the events discussed apparently took place 62 years earlier in 1763. The publication, Eurgrawn Mon (The Anglesey Chronicle), was a periodical founded in 1777 and printed in Holyhead, covering topics ranging from history, geography, antiquarianism and astronomy to poetry, foreign news and domestic news (1). In this edition from April 1825, Eurgrawn Mon recollects the year 1763 – ‘Cofion y Flwyddyn 1763’. The entries are set out chronologically, with the entry of interest happening on the 4th of April. The entry reads: “Ebrill 4, Dyn am sodomiaeth yn y pillory yn cael ei ladd gan y werin”(2). In English this reads “April 4, Man in the pillory for sodomy is killed by townsfolk”. Sodomy at this time was used a little more broadly than it is today- for example, alongside the queer meaning it could also mean heterosexual anal sex, paedophilia and bestiality- it would be a fascinating research project if anyone were to confirm which meaning it was. There is no location given for the event and other entries on the page are from as far away as Paris, though the likelihood is that this event took place in Britain as most of the entries are focused on Wales and England.
Twenty years later, Y Diwygiwr (The Reformer) printed an April 1845 edition of its publication. Y Diwygiwr was known for its radical reformist views, mainly printing stories on religion, politics, foreign and domestic news, reviews and poetry (3). In this edition, a Welsh language update is given on a murder with some unusual circumstances. On the 21st of February 1845, a music teacher by the name of James de la Rue was brutally murdered by Thomas Hocker in a field near Hempstead, London (4). Hocker and de la Rue had been good friends for over two years before the latter met his fate at the hands of the former. Allegedly this was because de la Rue dated a girl which Hocker himself had taken a shine to and so he took to revenge one night by hiding in a field armed with a stiletto knife (5). Despite the conclusion of the Old Bailey proceedings happening on the 7th of April, after which details of the case had become known, this edition of Y Diwygiwr rather strangely remarks that de la Rue and Hocker were ‘possibly guilty of sodomy’ – “a phob tebygolrwydd eu bod yn euog o sodomiaeth eill dau”. While this article’s theme doesn’t concern Wales or queer topics, the choices in the writing of this article are quite revealing about the author at the very least, as well as possible readers’ viewpoints about this whole affair.
Sometimes, references to Welsh queer topics manage to turn up in the strangest of places. In an article in an edition of Yr Ymofynnydd (The Enquirer) from December 1868, the etymology of the surname Jones is being discussed. The surname is the most common in Wales and is derived from Hebrew. Offhandedly, the author writes “Beth arall sy’n ymddangos yn rhyfedd yw fod yn enw yn ymddangos weithiau’n wryw, weithiau’n fenyw, tebyg i’r hyn a elwir gan y Sais yn hermaphrodite, deurwiog” (6). In English this reads ‘What also seems strange is that this name appears sometimes as male, sometimes as female, similar to what the English call hermaphrodite, deurywiog”. The modern and appropriate terms for ‘hermaphrodite’ are rhyngryw in Welsh, and intersex in English. I often find that Welsh queer language can turn up anywhere- which makes it harder to consistently find terms- but that does mean that the chances of finding a preserved historical Welsh queer term are higher than if they were sequestered away in inaccessible works and publications.
The last three articles were not the most uplifting or queer friendly of articles- however– miraculously I was able to find an article from 1870 that not only has a relevance to queerness written in the Welsh language, but also to slave abolitionism in the 19th Century. Y Goleuad (The Illumination) published an article in January 1870 about the incredible escape of Ellen and William Croft, two people born enslaved in Macon, Georgia, USA by the use of cross-dressing to ensure safe passage. Ellen Croft was born to a mixed-race woman who was made pregnant by her owner- so Ellen was often able to pass as white. William, her husband, was a black fellow slave. She cross-dressed and cross-lived as a white male slave owner to get herself and her husband out of Georgia and into Pennsylvania, a free state. From there, they moved to England, where they raised a family. Y Goleuad reported on this in Welsh, meaning that a valuable part of Welsh LGBTQ+ language is revealed- the wording of articles about infrequent topics like cross-dressing. The article reads “”ddiangodd ELLEN CROFT i goedwigoedd Georgia, wedi ei gwisgo fel dyn“, in English ‘ELLEN CROFT escaped the woodlands of Georgia, dressed as a man’ (7). Establishing the frequency of the wording “gwisgo fel dyn” is crucial for uncovering more stories about cis women who cross-dressed in history and for uncovering stories about trans men who lived as men but were referred to by their birth sex in the press. This led me to the next story, which is an amusing tale about a daring female cross-dresser and cross-worker moonlighting as a burglar.
In May of 1900, Baner ac Amserau Cymru (The Flag and Times of Wales) published a short article about a woman from Wolverhampton which read “Dygwyd morwyn ger bron yr ynadon yn Wolverhampton, ar y cyhuddiad o wisgo fel dyn, twyllo masnachwyr a cheidwaid gweattai, a thori i dy. Gohiriwyd ei hachos.” In English, ‘A maid was brought before the magistrates in Wolverhampton, on the charge of dressing as a man, cheating merchants and shopkeepers, and breaking into houses. Her case was adjourned’ (8). I believe I can identify this individual as Ella Elizabeth Benton (also known as Ella Elizabeth Wellings) who was a servant charged with housebreaking in Wolverhampton on the 22nd June 1900 and sentenced to 3 months in Stafford Jail (9). From such a small phrase such as ‘gwisgo fel dyn’ many colourful and hidden histories of historical queer people can be discovered.
After the 20th century dawned, queer topics and subjects begin to make their way into the realms of fiction. One example is the short story Nadolig (Christmas), a 1929 subtextual queer love story between two female teachers by Kate Roberts (10). But it wouldn’t be until 1941 that Welsh publishing got its first canonically queer character, known simply as the Man. A journal from the following year, in 1942, published a review of a different novel, but included a short comparison to Y Dyn a’r Llygoden Fawr – the short story by Pennar Davies which has the aforementioned queer character. The title of the story in English is ‘The Man and the Rat’. It is a science fiction story about the titular Man and his experiments on rat intelligence. But while these experiments are taking place, the Man updates his friend Mikhail with letters- mostly concerning the rats, but they are also filled with unambiguous declarations of romantic love and affection from the Man to Mikhail. “Ar wahân i ti, fy nghyfaill, sydd yn fy nghalon bob amser, ddydd a nos” – ‘Apart from you, my friend, who is always in my heart, day and night’(11). If there was any doubt as to whether this story was considered queer in the time period in which it was published, a remark from the review in Heddiw (Today) -which published the story a year earlier- reads “…ar stori fer feistrïaidd Davies Aber- Pennar, Y Dyn a’r Llygoden Fawr, IIe ceir Sodomiaeth fel thêm eilradd” (12) – ‘… on Davies Aber- Pennar’s masterful short story, The Man and the Rat, Sodomy is used as a secondary theme”. Y Dyn a Llygoden Fawr can be read in Welsh in the original journal Heddiw hosted by the National Library of Wales. Or can be read in English in Queer Square Mile (2021).
While on that last tangent of discovery, I may have cheekily borrowed some paper to print a copy of Y Dyn a’r Llygoden Fawr for myself- while doing so I noticed an interesting coincidence; It would appear that the Man’s love interest, Mikhail, is Ukrainian- the third sentence into the story mentions “nosweithiau hynny yn Odesa” – ‘those nights in Odesa’. Which makes the story interesting from the angle of international love as well.
By the 1960s, queer terminology becomes much more frequent- not only in Welsh publications, but in English ones as well. Though one publication I came across was rather puzzling and appears to craft a complete fabrication out of the Annales Cambriae– it wouldn’t be the first time. The Annales Cambriae is a set of Latin chronicles about Wales and Britain written in around 950. It is known to be very ahistorical in some parts- though I didn’t imagine a journal from 1968 would strive to contribute to that! The Journal of the Welsh Bibliographical Society noted in its July 1968 edition that the burning of Deganwy Castle in 812 by lightning was attributed to the fact that men in the castle were guilty of sodomy: “Priodolir llosgi Castell Deganwy gan dan o’r Nef i’r ffaith fod y castellwyr yn euog o sodomiaeth, a rhoddir Annales Cambriae yn ffynhonnell i’r wybodaeth” (13). The journal explains that the Annales Cambriae is the source for this information.
However,
Upon searching several editions of the Annales Cambriae, I found no such reference to queerness causing the castle to burn down. Only that the castle did burn down. Historia Regnis Brittaniae, a pseudohistorical history of the Britons by Geoffrey of Monmouth has one reference that is slightly younger in age to Annales Cambriae, albeit a reference couched in ahistorical myth. Monmouth claims that Maelgwn Gwynedd (d. 547) was partial to sodomy (14) – but this is a complete fabrication. It is also impossible to determine if the sodomy being referred to was in a queer sense, or one of its many other meanings at that time.
Returning to the 19th Century from that briefest of detours into the 10th and 12th, the decade of the 1970s marks a period in which queer Welsh terminology was not solely used in reference to criminality or used exclusively in disparaging remarks, but was beginning to be used in reference to specific individuals. One of these such individuals was George Emlyn Williams (1905-1987) – a prolific bisexual Welsh writer and playwright from Mostyn, Flintshire. A review of William’s second autobiography Emlyn, which appeared in the North Wales Weekly News in October 1973, dedicated half a paragraph to William’s relationships:
“Ceir yma gofnodi manwl, gorfanwl weithiau efallai o berthynas Emlyn a’i gariadon gwrywaidd, fel Bill a Ffes llanc a gafodd ei enw o Ffestiniog!) ac yna y frwydr giaidd rhwng ei briod hawddgar Molly a’r gwrywgydwyr am serch dwfn a pharhaol Emlyn”
– North Wales Weekly News, 11th October 1973 (15).
‘There is a detailed, sometimes exhaustive, account of Emlyn’s relationship with his male lovers, such as Bill and Ffes a young man who got his name from Ffestiniog!) And then there’s the grisly battle between his pleasant spouse Molly and the homosexuals for Emlyn’s deep and enduring love’
It is unfortunate that the slur ‘gwrywgydwyr’ was used to describe William’s male lovers, but this article does something previous publications did not; it humanises people being described by that word to an extent. Not a word anyone would desire to be called by another person- but nonetheless, there is an effort to put William’s relationships with men and women on equal footing. I wish the same could be said for the articles appearing in the 1980s in Welsh.
The Herald Cymraeg reports in 1987 on the charges of sodomy against a Roger Dafydd from Waunfawr, Gwynedd- “Cafodd gwr lleol ei ryddhau ar fechniaeth gan ynadon Caernarfon ddydd Iau wedi iddo ymddangos o’u blaen ar gyhuddiadau o sodomiaeth ac o gyflawni anweddustra difrifol gyda dynion” (16). The story (which made it onto page three) alleges that the sex between Dafydd and his unnamed sexual partner(s) took place between November and December of 1986. There are several similar newspaper reports in Welsh spanning the eighties which don’t bear mentioning here as they are largely charges and convictions of the same nature as the Herald Cymraeg story. Given the rising homophobia of 1980s Britain during the Section 28 era (post 1988) and the AIDS crisis, the amount of homophobic Welsh language reporting I have found so far is unsurprising to say the least. But there is hope –
One segment in a 1990 edition of Herald Cymraeg caught my eye. A letter from a Mr T Ellis Davies published on page six on the 13th January challenges the homophobia of the paper’s report from the 6th of January on page four, concerning a Mr Mercer arrested for videos that were in his possession. The man possessed a large amount of gay and lesbian pornography- though worryingly alongside videos of bestiality (17). Davies, in his letter in the 13th of January edition argues that while Mr Mercer’s possession of videos of animal abuse is unforgivable and criminal, the language used in the report needlessly stigmatises lesbians and gay men. As well as that, he believes that Pwllheli Police and Magistrates were homophobic in their discovery and handling of the gay and lesbian pornography. Davies also adds that Welsh chapels have also contributed to a lot of homophobia following the advent of Section 28. The fascinating and insightful significance of this letter to me lies in the fact that it uses no less than four different queer Welsh words (gwrywgydiaeth, lesbianaeth, sodomiaeth and gyfunrhywiol) as well as the Welsh for homophobia (homoffobia).
“…Hoffwn gwyno hefyd am homoffobia’r Heddlu ac Ynadon Pwllheli am ddirwyo Mr Mercer am fod a phethau mor ddiniwed yn ei feddiant a fideos yn dangos lesbianaeth gwrwgydiaeth a sodomiaeth. Mae’r Wladwriaeth yn rhannol gyfrifol am homoffobia a rheolau fel cymal 28 ac amodau’r Wasanaeth Trallwyso Gwaed sy’n gofyn i “Ddynion sydd wedi cael cyfathrach rywiol a dyn arall ar unrhyw adeg ers 1977” i beidio a rhoi gwaed.
Ond y capeli Cymraeg sydd yn gyfrifol mwy nag unrhyw sefydliad arall am gynnal y rhagfarn yn erbyn pobl gyfunrywiol…”
- Herald Cymraeg, Saturday 13 January 1990 (18).
This letter did and does give me hope that at all points in history, when there is callous homophobia rife in the press, someone will challenge it. Mr T Ellis Davies is that someone in this case. And although his queer Welsh language is an eclectic mix, it is invaluable for the preservation and observation of all kinds of descriptions of queer folk through time (as a small side-note, the current word for lesbianism in Welsh is lesbiaieth, but the 6th January edition uses lesbianiaeth. Mr T Ellis Davie’s letter uses lesbianaeth. This change in language over a few short years is so tangible and visible- it isn’t something I ever thought I’d be able to see so clearly when doing research for Llyfr Enfys. And yet here it is- with a challenge to homophobia to boot!
With the close of the nineties and the dawn of the 21st Century, things, however slowly, are looking much better for queer Welsh reporting on queer folk. Hell, some of us are doing it ourselves and speaking on our queerness in Welsh on our own terms. With this, I hope future queer Welsh reporting is kinder to us than the reporting of the past. But I also hope more queer Welsh speakers- be they first or second language Welsh speakers- find the courage to pick up the pen and write about their own truths in their tongue.
Sources:
- Roberts, R., 1825. Eurgrawn Mon : neu drysorfa haneysddawl, https://discover.library.wales/permalink/f/1eskrbt/44NLW_ALMA21822416100002419 Accessed 12th June 2022
- Eurgrawn Mon neu drysorfa haneysddawl- Rhif. 4 – Ebrill 1825, p. 80, https://journals.library.wales/view/2018655/2018731/7#?xywh=-12%2C45%2C2152%2C,1936 , Accessed: 12th June 2022
- Rees, D. et al., 1835. Y Diwygiwr, https://discover.library.wales/permalink/f/1eskrbt/44NLW_ALMA21854010700002419, Accessed: 12th June 2022
- Y Diwygiwr- Ebrill 1845, p. 131, https://journals.library.wales/view/2192687/2196200/30#?cv=30&m=128&h=sodomiaeth&c=&s=&manifest=https%3A%2F%2Fdamsssl.llgc.org.uk%2Fiiif%2F2.0%2F2192687%2Fmanifest.json&xywh=306%2C-240%2C2195%2C1975, Accessed 12th June 2022
- “Thomas Henry Hocker”, Old Bailey Proceedings Online, 7th April 1845, https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?div=t18450407-821, Accessed, 13th June 2022
- Yr ymofynydd neu gyfrwng gwybodaeth a rhyddymorfyniad i’r Cymry- Cyf. I Rhif. 12 – Rhagfyr 1868 https://journals.library.wales/view/2555083/2558381/11#?xywh=-5%2C34%2C2327%2C2094, Accessed, 13th June 2022
- Y Goleuad – Saturday 15 January 1870
- Baner ac Amserau Cymru – Wednesday 23 May 1900
- UK, Registers of Habitual Criminals and Police Gazettes, 1834-1934: 1900, Ella Elizabeth Benton, Wolverhampton, 22 June.
- Roberts, Kate, Nadolig, Gwasg Gee, 1929
- Heddiw cylchgrawn misol- Cyf. 6, rh. 9, Mai 1941, https://journals.library.wales/view/1048090/1050285/19#?cv=19&m=49&c=&s=&manifest=https%3A%2F%2Fdamsssl.llgc.org.uk%2Fiiif%2F2.0%2F1048090%2Fmanifest.json&xywh=-838%2C-166%2C3686%2C3316 Accessed, 15th June 2022
- Heddiw cylchgrawn misol- Cyf. 7, rh. 2, Chwefror/Mai 1942, https://journals.library.wales/view/1048090/1050446/7#?cv=7&m=54&h=sodomiaeth&c=&s=&manifest=https%3A%2F%2Fdamsssl.llgc.org.uk%2Fiiif%2F2.0%2F1048090%2Fmanifest.json&xywh=38%2C532%2C2544%2C1678 Accessed, 15th June 2022
- Journal of the Welsh Bibliographical Society, Vol. 10, No. 2, July 1968, https://journals.library.wales/view/1226390/1229391/23#?cv=23&m=56&h=sodomiaeth&c=&s=&manifest=https%3A%2F%2Fdamsssl.llgc.org.uk%2Fiiif%2F2.0%2F1226390%2Fmanifest.json&xywh=-203%2C865%2C2899%2C2608, Accessed: 15th June 2022
- Evans, Sebastian, Histories of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth, tr. Evans 1904, Global Grey, 2019, p.204
- North Wales Weekly News – Thursday 11 October 1973, p.16
- Herald Cymraeg – Saturday 24 October 1987, p.3
- Herald Cymraeg – 6th January 1990, p.4
- Herald Cymraeg – Saturday 13 January 1990 p.6