Welsh Funeral Quotes

The dead man is on the trolley and the woman collapses across his chest. That's what the ghouls want a shufti at, like at that Princess Diana's funeral, they want to scrutinise those who really knew her, to drink the misery out of their faces.

Begbie doesnae even notice; he's in his element, particularly good at funerals in the way a lot ay psychopaths tend tae be. Ah suppose if bringing death and despair is yir life's work, then being somewhere like this must feel like a result; the job's already done and you can just kick back and relax.

- Makes nae fucking difference. Rents n Stevie came up fae London for this. If Rents n Stevie kin come up fae fucking London, Sick Boy kin come up fae fuckcing France. Spud's senses were dangerously dulled with the alcohol. Stupidly, he kept the argument going. - Yeah, but, eh... France is further away... wir talking aboot the south ay France here, likesay. Ken? Begbie looked incredulously at Spud. Obviously the message had not got across. He spoke lower, higher and with a snarl twisting his cruel mouth into a strange shape below his blazing eyes. - IF RENTS N STEVIE KIN COME UP FI FUCKING LONDON, SICK BOY KIN COME UP FAE FUCKING FRANCE! - Yeah... right enough. Should've made the effort. Mate's funeral likesay, ken. Spud thought that the Conservative Party in Scotland could do with a few Begbies. It's not what the message is, the problem is just communication. Begbie is good at getting the message across.

At Westminster Abbey, Welsh Guards in crimson uniforms raised the casket to their shoulders. They took it down the long aisle of the church and placed it at the front of the altar. After laying a bouquet of white lilies at the foot of the coffin, Prince Charles and Prince Philip led William and Harry, Queen Elizabeth II, and the Queen Mother to seats in the front of the sanctuary. About two thousand mourners were seated behind them. Her brother Charles said, “Above all, we give thanks for the life of a woman I am so proud to be able to call my sister; the unique, the complex, the extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana, whose beauty, both internal and external, will never be extinguished from our minds.” The dean of Westminster said, “Diana profoundly influenced this nation and the world.” At William’s suggestion, Elton John sang “Candle in the Wind,” in which he made specific reference to Diana: “Your footsteps will always fall here/among England’s greenest hills;/ your candle’s burned out long before/ your legend ever will.” The funeral procession made a two-hour trip to the Spencer family home. Along the way, crowds sobbed and threw flowers. Diana was buried on an island in the middle of a small lake on the family estate. The burial was private.

This musical gift from Faery comes into our world to relieve the human condition, bringing sleep after trauma, the catharsis of tears after pain, and the returning joy of laughter. Animals neither cry nor laugh, but humans do. These very abilities are often the flashpoint of friction between humans and faeries, according to many folk stories, for faeries see things through different eyes. We can perceive this best in the Welsh folk story of the Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach. A young man becomes the partner of a faery woman who emerges from a lake; the duration of their union is based on the understanding that if he strikes her three times, it will terminate. The three inevitable blows that he strikes involved two of the three strains: he slaps her thigh playfully the first time with a pair of gloves to encourage her to speed up as they ride; then he strikes her for crying at a wedding; finally, he strikes her when she laughs at a funeral.12 She returns to the lake taking away her dowry of cattle, but leaving their offspring to whom descend her healing gifts. They become the Physicians of Myddfai, folk healers for generations. These children's descendants lived on till their last scion, John Jones, died in 1739.

The Twyleth Teg are only one of the two primarily tribes of faeries in Wales, the others are called the Gwraggedd Annwn, and they emerge from the lakes to spin gold thread or brush their long hair. The Gwragedd Annwn are known for seducing human males but also for being captured while bathing and becoming the wives of human men. If they are ever touched with iron they would immediately return to their original abode forever. When Welsh faeries live with humans for any length of time they often display emotional inversions, such as laughing at funerals and crying at Christenings.