Re: Bron-y-aur, Bron-Yr-aur

[rdavies@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

>To:  Rob Davies
>cc:  zeppelin-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Re: Bron-y-aur, Bron-Yr-aur (NZC)

>On Wed, 18 Mar 1998 rdavies@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>>>>Also noted is the significance of different the spellings of
>>>>Bron-y-aur and Bron-Yr-Aur.  The former with lower case 'y' and >'a'
>>>mean breast of gold referring to the surrounding countryside.  >The
>>>latter is the name of the cottage where Page and Plant stayed >in 1970
>>>and where Plant also spent childhood holidays.
>>
>>>Are you sure about the spellings?  I thought it was:
>
>>  >Bron-yr-aur = breast of gold
> >>Bron-Y-Aur  = cottage
>
>-------------
>>-------------
>>
>> Yep I'm sure.  This is me speaking as a Welshman (though not a native
>> speaker of the language)
>
>>I'm certainly not going to dispute what Rob has said, but the credits
>on Led Zeppelin's albums seem to contradict his information.
>"Bron-yr-aur" is spelled in lowercase (not uppercase), and
>"Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" is spelled in uppercase (not lowercase).
>
>Also, I just took a look at my "No Quarter" liner notes, and here's
>what it says: "Credit must be given to Bron-Y-Aur, a small derelict
>cottage..."  I don't have a copy of "LZIII" handy to see if it's also
.capitalized there, however...
>
>Later,

>Scott
>(swandwn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)



Bore da pawb

Album credits and track-listings notwithstanding I stand by what I wrote.

I took a look at my boxed sets and Physical Graffiti vinyl, they cop out
and use upper case for all the letters!

I believe the convention is that song titles should have The First Letter
of Each Word  Capitalised (excluding prepositions etc) hence Bron-Y-Aur
Stomp.  If the type-setter read the phrase as one long hyphenated word, he
would have been correct in using Bron-yr-aur (even if he was wrong in
actuality).

[The hyphenation business is a bit of a mystery, on maps and sign posts
place names seem to contain them (although rather inconsistently), however
if I was writing golden hillside as descriptive text it would be
unhypenated]

Scott, you are correct: the NQ album refers to the cottage as Bron-Y-Aur.
I think this is a mistake.  Looking briefly at other writings on Zep, both
official and unofficial, you can see all sorts of combinations of Y's, y's,
Yr's, yr's etc etc which highlights the problem you get when you use
'foreign' words, especially when there are two forms.   This probably
highlights the woeful lack of Welsh people in the writing, printing and
cartography businesses.

Anybody else got a view on this?

I'm grateful they didn't go to
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychrwyndrobwlllantysiliogogogo.

Robertgwyndavies