Marged ferch Ifan

Marged ferch Ifan
Born 1696
Beddgelert
Died January 1793
Pen-llyn
Nationality British
Other names Margaret Evans[1]

Marged ferch Ifan ("Marged daughter of Ifan") or Marged uch Ifan; Marged vch Ifan or Margaret Evans (1696 – January 1793) was a Welsh harpist and wrestler, who was the subject of songs and tales that describe her claimed abilities.

Life

Marged ferch Ifan was baptised and married at St Mary's church in Beddgelert

Marged is thought to have been born in Beddgelert in mountainous Snowdonia as she was baptised at St Mary's Church in that village.[2] She was the subject of tales about her. It is known that she married a man called Richard Morris whom she was said to beat. She was said to have been violent twice towards Richard. On the first occasion his response was to marry her on 8 May 1717 at St Mary's Church in Beddgelert. The second time he was mistreated he responded by becoming a Methodist.[2] In fact she was said to have been feared until she was in her seventies and even then she could wrestle any man.[3] Her celebrity was created by the Flintshire writer Thomas Pennant who included her in his one of his travelogues, "Tours in Wales".[4]

Marged and her husband who was also a harpist ran a drinking establishment for copper miners in the parish of Llandwrog.[2] She was reputed to be able to shoe a horse and make a boat, her own shoes, a harp or a violin.[1] In the evenings she would entertain her customers on the harp. She was said to row large loads across the Snowdonian waters of Llyn Padarn and Llyn Peris and Thomas Pennant and others described her as "Queen of the Lakes".[5]

Some sources say that she died aged 102[5] or 105,[1] but the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is clear that Ifan died in her nineties in 1793. She was buried in Llanddeiniolen on 24 January.[2]

Legacy

Some tales about Marged ferch Ifan are extant as well as several versions of songs and tunes in Welsh, known as hen benillion ('old stanzas').[6] Traditionally the verses start with the first line "Mae gan Marged fwyn ach Ifan" which translates as "Fair Margaret daughter of Evan has".[6]

Mae gan Marged fwyn ach Ifan
Grafanc fawr a chrafanc fechan,
Un i dynnu’r cŵn o’r gongol,
A’r llall i dorri esgyrn pobol.

(Fair Margaret daughter of Evan has
A large claw and a small claw,
One to drag the dogs from the corner,
And the other to break people’s bones.)[1]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference romania was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

References

  1. 1 2 3 Marged ych Ifan, Welsh Biography. Retrieved 10 October 2015
  2. 1 2 3 4 Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan, 'Marged ferch Ifan (bap. 1696, d. 1793)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 10 Oct 2015
  3. ↑ "Wrestler Harpist speaks Volumes". Wales Online. 23 September 2004.
  4. ↑ Tours in Wales, Thomas Pennant, (1778–81)
  5. 1 2 Marged fetch Ifan, Snowdonia National Parks. Retrieved 10 October 2015
  6. 1 2 Ballad Implosions and Welsh Folk Stanzas, Dr E. Wyn James, published in Nicolae Constantinescu (ed.), Ballad and Ballad Studies at the Turn of the Century (Bucharest, Romania: Editura Deliana, 2001), pp. 101–17. ISBN 973-99595-9-8
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