Flame in the Mountains

Rich and varied though it is, the heritage of Welsh literature is not well known, and still less appreciated, beyond Offa’s Dyke, partly because there are all too few good translations of Welsh-language works into English and other languages, and partly because few outsiders master Welsh well enough to appreciate its literature. This volume is a tribute to one such ‘outsider’ and, indirectly, to another.



Herbert Arthur Hodges (1905–76) was for most of his career Professor of Philosophy at Reading University. A gifted linguist and student of hymnology, he became interested in the Welsh hymn tradition and learnt the language in order to appreciate the work of Wales’s foremost hymnwriters, William Williams of Pantycelyn and Ann Griffiths. He also co-operated with another scholar, Anglican cleric A. M. Allchin, who likewise acquired Welsh in order to study Welsh hymns and Welsh poetry and published his own notable studies in the field. Hodges and Allchin had intended to publish a critical edition of the work of Ann Griffiths, but the project was never completed. E. Wyn James has, however, been able to incorporate some of Hodges’s notes on the hymns of Ann Griffiths in the present volume.



In terms of its content, this is a rich and rewarding collection. Following the editor’s introduction, there is a life of H. A. Hodges by his granddaughter, Anna Parsons Howard, and a bibliography of his writings. This is followed by a section devoted to William Williams, which contains not only three essays by Hodges on aspects of Pantycelyn’s work and the Welsh tradition, but also a small collection of his metrical translations of Welsh hymns, translations which leave us regretting that there aren’t more of them.



The second main section is devoted to Ann Griffiths, and includes an introduction by Hodges along with his translation of a tour de force by Saunders Lewis, his 1965 lecture on the hymnwriter, delivered at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in Newtown. There follows a collection of the texts of Ann’s hymns along with Hodges’s fine metrical translations, his translations of Ann’s letters, and notes on the hymns and letters.



Both H. A. Hodges and A. M. Allchin would concede that their perspectives on Welsh literature are those of outsiders, yet to have their critical and objective appreciation of our greatest hymnwriters is a boon to students of Welsh hymnody and Welsh literature. And for those who believe that translating Welsh literature into English is ‘selling the pass’, a volume like this should give pause for thought. ~Rhidian Griffiths @ www.gwales.com