Marged ferch Ifan ("Margaret daughter of Ifan") or Marged uch Ifan; Marged vch Ifan or Margaret Evans (1696 – January 1793) was a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

harpist and wrestler, who was the subject of songs and tales that describe her fabled abilities.

Life

Marged is thought to have been born in

Beddgelert Beddgelert () is a village and community in the Snowdonia area of Gwynedd, Wales. The population of the community taken at the 2011 census was 455, and includes Nantmor and Nant Gwynant. It is reputed to be named after the legendary hound ...

in mountainous

Snowdonia Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951. Name and extent It was a commonly held belief that the na ...

as she was baptised at St Mary's Church in that village. She was the subject of tales. 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 Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

. In fact she was said to have been feared until she was in her seventies and even then she could wrestle any man. Her celebrity was created by the

Flintshire , settlement_type = County , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms of Flint ...

writer

Thomas Pennant Thomas Pennant (14 June OS 172616 December 1798) was a Welsh naturalist, traveller, writer and antiquarian. He was born and lived his whole life at his family estate, Downing Hall near Whitford, Flintshire, in Wales. As a naturalist he h ...

, who discussed her in one of his ''Tours in Wales''. Marged and her husband, who was also a harpist, ran a drinking establishment for

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

miners in the parish of

Llandwrog Llandwrog (; Welsh language: meaning 'The church of Saint Twrog') is a village and community in Gwynedd, north-west Wales, most notable for the presence of the headquarters of Welsh record label Sain and the site of Caernarfon Airport. It has ...

. She was reputed to be able to shoe a horse and make a boat, her own shoes, a harp or a violin.Marged ych Ifan
Welsh Biography. Retrieved 10 October 2015 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 Llyn Padarn is a glacially formed lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd, north Wales, and is an example of a moraine dammed lake. The lake is approximately long (about 240 acres) and at its deepest point is deep, and is one of the largest natural lakes ...

and Llyn Peris and Thomas Pennant and others described her as "Queen of the Lakes".Marged fetch Ifan
, Snowdonia National Parks. Retrieved 10 October 2015 Some sources say that Marged died aged 102 or 105, but the ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' is clear that she died in her nineties in 1793. She was buried in

Llanddeiniolen Llanddeiniolen (; ; ) is a hamlet and name of a community in the county of Gwynedd, Wales, and is from Cardiff and from London. It comprises the villages of Deiniolen, Bethel, Dinorwig, Rhiwlas, Brynrefail and Penisarwaun, and is the t ...

on 24 January.

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"). Traditionally the verses start with the first line ''Mae gan Marged fwyn ach Ifan'', which translates as "Fair Margaret daughter of Evan has".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.

''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.)

William Hutton, an English poet and historian who toured Wales sixteen times, wrote about Marged in his poem "The Welch Wedding" (1799). In it he discussed the robustness of rural, Welsh women, but Marged, and others like her such as Jane Lloyd, Catrin of Cwm-glâs and Grace Parry, so exceeded robustness that their very entry in the historical record was due to their perceived masculinity. For some, this raises questions as to where they sit on the grounds of gender diversity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marged ferch Ifan 1696 births 1793 deaths People from Gwynedd Welsh harpists Strongwomen 18th-century Welsh women