{"title":"Crysau’n llawn brychau gerbron / shirts full of stains presented: Welsh rag-wells","authors":"Howard Huws","doi":"10.1080/04308778.2022.2113712","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Visits to wells to obtain cures for illnesses represent an ancient and widespread practice in Britain and Ireland. The practice of leaving rags, or even whole garments, as tokens of belief or gratitude, or both, is also extensively documented. This paper provides a short summary of the antiquity and distribution of well cults. The distribution in Britain and Ireland is then briefly referenced, after which comes the paper’s main focus, a discussion of the historical evidence for the extent and distribution of practices using fabric in various ways at healing wells in Wales. This is accompanied by a description of the variations in ritual at different locations, and how these change over time, especially in the Post-Reformation period. Finally, the paper gives a list of Welsh wells with which rags are associated, highlighting those linked to particular saints.","PeriodicalId":51989,"journal":{"name":"Folk Life-Journal of Ethnological Studies","volume":"60 1","pages":"99 - 114"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Folk Life-Journal of Ethnological Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/04308778.2022.2113712","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"FOLKLORE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT Visits to wells to obtain cures for illnesses represent an ancient and widespread practice in Britain and Ireland. The practice of leaving rags, or even whole garments, as tokens of belief or gratitude, or both, is also extensively documented. This paper provides a short summary of the antiquity and distribution of well cults. The distribution in Britain and Ireland is then briefly referenced, after which comes the paper’s main focus, a discussion of the historical evidence for the extent and distribution of practices using fabric in various ways at healing wells in Wales. This is accompanied by a description of the variations in ritual at different locations, and how these change over time, especially in the Post-Reformation period. Finally, the paper gives a list of Welsh wells with which rags are associated, highlighting those linked to particular saints.
期刊介绍:
Folk Life: Journal of Ethnological Studies is a journal devoted to the study of all aspects of traditional ways of life in Great Britain and Ireland. The journal publishes original, high quality, peer-reviewed research in the form of unsolicited articles, solicited papers (which are usually selected from those read at the Society"s annual conference) and of members" papers (which are usually short reports of work in progress). Work published in Folk Life may include, for example, papers dealing with the traditional ways of life of other countries and regions, which may be compared to or contrasted with those of Great Britain and Ireland.