Anna Fison known as Morfudd Eryri and Anna Walter Thomas (14 February 1839 – 12 February 1920) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

translator, poet and educator. She had an interest in fairy tales and an enthusiasm for Welsh culture.

Life

Fison was born in Suffolk in 1839 as the last of twenty children born to Thomas Fison and his second wife, Charlotte. She and her siblings were keen on fairy tales despite the disapproval of her parents. They would tell tales about fairies including ''Tom Tit Tot'' and ''Cap o'Rushes''. She was educated well both in Europe and in London, and she took a strong interest in languages whilst living with one of her brothers in Oxford. There she met Charles Williams of Jesus College who passed on to her his enthusiasm for

Eisteddfod In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, ac ...

s and the Welsh language. In 1851 she married David Walter Thomas and they brought their four children up in the Welsh culture while living at Bangor. Their children included Evan Lorimer Thomas. Fison was an enthusiast for education and she organised evening classes for the local quarryman. She taught herself Welsh and wrote poetry. She got to hear of the research being undetaken by the folklorist Charles Hindis Groome about stories of Suffolk. She wrote to him and told him of the stories from her childhood including the

Rumpelstiltskin "Rumpelstiltskin" ( ; german: Rumpelstilzchen) is a German fairy tale. It was collected by the Brothers Grimm in the 1812 edition of '' Children's and Household Tales''. The story is about a little imp who spins straw into gold in exchange for a ...

-type story ''Tom Tit Tot'' and the

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

type story ''Cap O Rushes''. These stories were later taken up by

Edward Clodd Edward Clodd (1 July 1840 – 16 March 1930) was an English banker, writer and anthropologist. He had a great variety of literary and scientific friends, who periodically met at Whitsunday (a springtime holiday) gatherings at his home at Aldeburg ...

. Fison was part of the movement who hoped to redesign the Welsh Eisteddfods during the 1870s and the 1880s. Her bardic name was Morfudd Eryri. In 1883 she attended the National Eisteddfod in Cardiff and she won a prize for her poem, written in English, about Llandaff. Her poem about the death of Prince Abert for the Eisteddfod was said to have got Queen Victoria to ask for 100 copies. She did translation work of noted works into and out of Welsh and also from German. In 1884, she was considered as a candidate for the Modern Languages chair at the University College of North Wales in Bangor, but she was not chosen. Her husband died in 1905. Fison died in

Dyffryn Ardudwy Dyffryn Ardudwy () is a village, community (Wales), community and electoral ward in the Ardudwy area of Gwynedd, Wales consisting of several small, almost conjoined, villages including Coed Ystumgwern, Llanenddwyn (), Saint Dwywe, Llanddwywe, Ta ...

in 1920.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fison, Anna 1839 births 1920 deaths Writers from Bangor, Gwynedd Welsh poets Linguists People from Suffolk