Under The Ancient Yew
Mae Under The Ancient Yew yn prospect a gyfrol say’s canolbwyntio ar archwilio ymatebion creadigol I lên gwerin, ecoloeg ac anthropoloeg drwy’r lygaid o adrodd straeon, a’n profiadau dynol a’n rhyngwithiadau â’r byd naturiol yr ydym yn gynhenid gysylltiedig. Mae cymaint o gyfraniadau gwych yn y casgliad hwn, ac rwy’n falach iawn bod fy ngwaith yn eistedd ochr yn ochr â nhw.
Under The Ancient Yew is a project and publication which focuses on exploring creative responses to folklore, ecology and anthropology through the eyes of storytelling, and our human experiences and interactions with the natural world with which we are intrinsically linked. There are so many great contributions to this collection, and I’m delighted to have my work sit alongside them.
When I think of the landscape with all the nature and wildlife it holds in its myriad of forms - from mountainous regions to wild windswept heathland, from dappled woodland and singing streams to the crashing of ocean waves against shuddering cliffs - my mind jumps first and foremost to the land as a place of perpetual storytelling. Stories can be found in every inch of the landscape; whether that’s the stories of people in times gone long before, of folklore and legend, to the stories of the creatures who inhabit these places, in the meaning of place names and the names we bequeath to living things, and the stories of the land itself, its formation and geology. Landscape tells the story of our connection and relationship as human beings to nature and the land around us. We continue to wonder, when we see great stone circles reaching for the sky, when we unearth some ancient creature from time before humans placed feet in soft mud, and we continue to weave our own stories, drawing strands from the past and the now.
