Folk Rite & Fertility · St Fagans, Cardiff (museum); custom pan-North-Wales, Denbighshire/Gwynedd (custom); Cardiff (collection)
Caru yn y Gwely — Bundling & the Love Spoon
Courting couples were sent to bed together — clothed, a bolster between them — while the suitor whittled a spoon to prove he was husband material.
Evidence note. 'Caru yn y gwely' (courting in bed / bundling) is documented folk custom persisting in North Wales into the late 19th century; the love spoon (llwy garu) is a material-culture tradition.
The story
courting couples sent to bed together (clothed, a bolster between) while the suitor whittled a spoon to prove his worth. The story: bundling documented into the late 19th century in North Wales; the llwy garu tradition; symbolism (hearts, keys, chains, balls-in-cage). What survives: the oldest dated Welsh love spoon (1667) and ~200 examples at St Fagans. Visiting: St Fagans is free entry; check the museum's image-reuse terms.
Sources
- Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales
- Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales
- Early Tourists in Wales (academic project)
- Wikipedia
Nearby on the map
Cardiff's legendary dockland — one of Britain's first truly multicultural quarters, notorious in its coal-boom heyday for sailors' taverns, dance halls and commercial affection, and beloved by those who lived there as a warm, tight community the papers never bothered to understand. Shirley Bassey is its most famous daughter.
Documented historyHot spotFolk Rite & FertilityKilpeck Church sheela-na-gigKilpeck, Herefordshire · EnglandEngland's most famous sheela-na-gig — a grinning female figure frankly displaying her vulva — carved on the corbel of a perfect Norman church. Warning against lust, fertility charm, or apotropaic guardian? Scholars still argue; the carving outlasts every theory.
Documented + folkloreLiterary Passion5 Cwmdonkin Drive (Dylan Thomas's birthplace)Swansea, Swansea · WalesThe steep Uplands semi where Dylan Thomas wrote two-thirds of his poems in a bedroom the size of a confession box — the sensuous, rolling voice of 'the force that through the green fuse drives the flower' formed here before London, Caitlin and the Boathouse. Pair with Laugharne for the marriage.
Documented historySpotted an error, or hold a better source? Write to marquis@marquisdemayfair.com — corrections are made, never defended. Our methodology.