Ar Lan y Môr

Ar Lan y Môr (On the Seashore) is a very well-known traditional Welsh folk-song. It was the first one I learnt off by heart, as an aid to learning the language when I moved permanently to North Wales. The first verse was published by The Welsh Folk Song Society in 1937, from a recording of Ivor Jenkins in London using the melody below.

Lyrics

1. Ar lan y môr mae rhosys cochion,		On the seashore are red roses,
Ar lan y môr mae lilis gwynion, 		On the seashore are white lilies,
Ar lan y môr mae ’nghariad inne			On the seashore is my love
Yn cysgu’r nos a chodi’r bore.			Sleeping at night and rising in the morning.

2. Ar lan y môr mae carreg wastad 		On the seashore is a flat rock
Lle bûm yn siarad gair â’m cariad;		Where I spoke a word with my love;
O amgylch hon fe dyf y lili			About this grows the lily
Ac ambell gangen o rosmari.			And the odd branch of rosemary.

3. Ar lan y môr mae cerrig gleision,		On the seashore are blue stones,
Ar lan y môr mae blodau’r meibion,		On the seashore are the flowers of the sons,
Ar lan y môr mae pob rinwedde,			On the seashore are all virtues,
Ar lan y môr mae ’nghariad inne.		On the seashore is my love.

4. Tros y môr y mae fy nghalon,			Over the sea is my heart,
Tros y môr y mae f’ochneidion,			Over the sea are my sighs,
Tros y môr y mae f’anwylyd			Over the sea is my beloved
Sy’n fy meddwl i bob munud.			Who is my thought every minute.

5. Llawn yw’r môr o swnd a chregyn,		Full is the sea of sand and shells,
Llawn yw’r wy o wyn a melyn,			Full is the egg of white and yellow,
Llawn yw’r coed o ddail a blode,		Full are the trees of leaves and flowers,
Llawn o gariad merch wyf inne.			Full of a girl’s love am I myself.

In Verse 2, some versions use “Oddeutu” (about) rather than “O amgylch” (around), and “sbrigyn” (sprig) rather than “gangen” (branch).

Extra verses have been added over time, mostly from the ‘Hen Benillion’ (collection of old Welsh stanzas). It has been recorded by many Welsh singers as a simple love song. However, there has been speculation that it was originally a Welsh republican song. Carreg Wastad (mentioned in Verse 2) is a place in Pembrokeshire, where the last invasion of Britain took place in 1797 during the French Revolutionary Wars by the French ‘Legion Noire’. It failed very quickly with locals, including women, rounding up the soldiers. The word ‘cariad’ can mean ‘love’ in general rather than ‘lover’ or ’sweetheart’, so could refer to love of republicanism, or of the idea of freedom from the English! However, Verse 2 is an addition, so this argument may not apply to the original first verse. The word “merch” (girl or woman) is mentioned only in the fifth verse, and an alternative added verse that I don’t use mentions the name “Elin”.

Recordings

• Sian James sings Verses 1, 2, 5 (with "Llawn iawn" rather than "Llawn"), and 3 to harp accompaniment.
• Elin Fflur sings the first three verses on her album 'Dim Gair'.
• Bryn Terfel sings the first three verses on his album 'Keep a Welcome'.
• Sian Cameron of the Welsh National Opera sings the first three verses to piano accompaniment.

Notes for Welsh learners

1. “Mae” means “is” with a singular noun or “are” with a plural one: “maen” is used only with the pronoun “nhw” (“they”). Many lines of the song are ordered to put “on the seashore” first to emphasize this: the first line would otherwise just be “Mae rhosys cochion ar lan y môr” (Red roses are on the shore of the sea).
2. Several adjectives of colour still have a plural form in modern Welsh: “cochion” for “coch”, gwynion” for “gwyn” and “gleision” for “glas”. Surprisingly. ‘gwynion’ is usually pronounced with a ‘dark y’ as in ‘yn’, particularly in the North.
3. In Line 3, “’nghariad” is an abbreviation for “fy nghariad i”. The presence of the nasal mutation of “cariad” is sufficient to identify that it refers to “my love”, as no other possessive pronoun is followed by that mutation.
4. “Inne” is a colloquial version of “innau”, used for the rhyme (also “blode” for “blodau”). I think this is South Welsh, whereas in the North we often see “bloda” for “blodau”. “Innau” means the same as “Minnau”: “myself”.
5. “Bûm” has an accent to distinguish it from “bum” meaning “five”, and it means “I did” in the literary past tense of “to be” (usually only seen in the third person in phrases like “Bu marw fo”: “He died”).
6. “â’m cariad” is an alternative for “â fy nghariad i”, which can only be used after a vowel. The abbreviation “’m” for “fy” is like “’i” for “ei”, “’n” for “ein”, “’ch” for “eich”, or “’w” for “eu”, which are more often seen. (There is also “’th” for “dy”.)
7. “Hon” is the feminine form of “hwn”, meaning “this”, because “carreg” (rock) is feminine. “Hon” and “hwn” refer to something close at hand, whereas “honno” or “hwnnw” are used for something further away or imagined.
8. “Ambell” is an adjective meaning “occasional”, “some” or “the odd”, and goes before the noun like “hen” (old), and so also causes a soft mutation.
9. “Tyf” (mutated to “dyf” after “fe”) comes from “tyfu” meaning “to grow”. Some singers pronounce the "y" dark, as in "dove", others light as in "sieve". Many verbs have an alternative short form for the third person singular present tense. The usual spoken form of these words would be “O amgylch hon mae’r lili yn tyfu”. The word “fe” is used in South Welsh before some verb forms to emphasize that it is positive rather than negative or interrogative; in North Wales, we use “mi” instead.
10. “Blodau’r meibion” is a bit of a mystery. Some people think it may have been a particular flower-name, and I have seen it translated as St John’s Wort, but it is not in current use.
11. “Pob rinwedde” is another example of an adjective before the noun causing a soft mutation (“rhinwedd” means “virtue”).
12. In Verse 4, an extra word “y” appears before “mae” to help the scansion. I think this is just another (literary) form used with the verb “to be”.
13. “Swnd” means “sand”, modified from the English; “tawod” is the usual one nowadays.
14. “Yw” is the South Welsh for “is”; we mostly use “ydy” in the North.

Vocabulary

1. Glan   Shore (f, glannau)
2. Rhosyn   Rose (m, rhosynnau, rhos, rhosod or rhosys))
3. Gwastad   Flat
4. Rhinwedd   Virtue (f, rhinweddau)
5. Ochenaid   Sigh (f, ocheneidiau or ochneidion)
6. Anwylyd   Beloved, darling (m, anwyliaid)
7. Swnd   Sand (m)
8. Cragen   Shell (f, cregyn)
9. Deilen   Leaf (f, dail)

Variations

A second tune for this song was published along with the one usually used now, in the same issue of the Welsh Folk Song Society (1937, 3(3):125-6), from a singer in Troedyrhiw. A third tune was recorded by the BBC in 1953 in Pembrokeshire, and can be found in ‘Folksongs of Britain and Ireland’ (1975) edited by Peter Kennedy. It goes well with the usual tune, and I like to alternate between them, starting in the key of C (range A to A) and then switching to the key of G (range G to D). Here is the version I used when competing in the Learners’ Solo Competition in the National Eisteddfod at Meifod in 2015. (I didn’t get into the final!) My voice has aged since then, and I now prefer the keys A and E.