Oddly enough, I just settled down to read through my Welsh Folk Song Society Journal 2001 and came across an article by Penny Robinson on Songs of Farewel. You may not be the least bit interested in historical background but, tough. Here's some anyway...

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We see that a good tune can attract more than one set of words, but sometimes the words themselves are so good that they acquire enormous popularity and develop a life of their own. Some time in the early years of the nineteenths century a Glamorganshire poet called Siemsyn Twrbil wrote a ballad of thirteen verses, inspired by the small human dramas of the Napoleonic Wars. In it he portrayed the naive young countryman caught up in the excitement and glamour of the Army's recruiting campaign, the harsh reality of Army life, the anxiety of the girlfriend he left behind, the relief and romance of his safe return and the matronly advice given by his happy new bride to all the other girls who might find themselves in a similar position. The song, of course, is 'Ffarwel fo i Langyfelach lon', and it was enthusiastically taken up in other parts of the country, with the first line altered to suit. Thus we have 'Ffarwel i dref y Bala lon' and 'Ffarwel i dre Caernarfon lon'. The Caernarfon version was already in print by the mid-nineteenth century, published by Peter Evans, and then by Hugh Humphreys of Caernarfon in his book Cerddi Gwlad y Gan.

The original version had had the new recruit marching from Llangyfelach to Pontfaen and at some stage in the song's history, as noted by Tom Parry in his book Baledi'r Ddeunawfed Ganrif, an anonymous singer in Arfon took pity on the poor boy's feet by shortening the now impossible journey from Carnarfon to Ponfaen, subtituting 'Portinllaen' at the crucial moment. (tune inserted)

The tune that is now usually sung to the Llangyfelach version of the words is the lovely on from the Journal of 1912, but in Asaph's collection of songs, entered in the Colwyn Bay Eisteddfod of 1910, the tune is a minor key 'Lisa lan' variant, and David de Lloyd in Forty Welsh Traditional Tunes repeats a second 'Lisa lan' variant, this time in the major key collected by J.Ffos Davies during the 1920s. (tune inserted)

Turning to the Caernarfon version of the words, we find a third 'Lisa lan' tune in Hugh Humphreys' mid-nineteenth century book, again in a minor key. Finally, the 1948 issue of the Journal published yet a fourth 'Lisa lan' variant in a minor key, sung to J. Lloyd Williams many years previously by the late Robert Roberts of Cricieth, a native of Caernarfon. It may be, therefore, that the 'Lisa lan' tune family can stake a good claim to having provided the original melody for this famous ballad. (tune inserted)

A third, unrelated, cheerful little tune appears in a collection of folk-songs sent by R.E.Vaughan Roberts, ... to J. Lloyd Williams in the early 1920s. It is attached to a single verse of the ballad with the venue changed to Bala. (tune inserted, includes 4 bars of ffal di rals)

I can't help feeling that the 'ffal di ral' chorus would become more than a little tedious after thirteen verses, but it may have been danced, of course, which would make the effect more varied. It would be interesting to know whether this Bala version of the song had the reference to Pontfaen altered, in the same way that occured in the Caernarfon version and, if so, what the alteration was.

In Cerdd a Chan, edited by Wyn Thomas in 1982, there is a reference to a Monmouthshire version, 'Ffarwel fo i dref Cas'newydd lon' and who knows how many more there may have been?

c Penny Robinson ********************

Right, that's me done!

sian