SOURCE: “A Changing Myth: The Projection of the Welsh in the Short Stories of Caradoc Evans,” in The Anglo-Welsh Review, Vol. 81, 1985, pp. 90–6.

In the following essay, Jones traces Evans's use of myth in his short fiction.

When reviewers of Caradoc Evans' first volume of short stories claimed it revealed “primeval beings who still live within a six hour railway journey of London,”¹ and “ferocious primitives”² whose “sacrifices are made to that which is older than Paganism and as old as human sin,” they were reacting in a way that must have delighted Caradoc Evans. For he responded to the storm of protest that followed the publication of his book, by stressing, in defence of his portrayal of the Welsh, their primitive nature and their mythical origin. But where the reviewers tended to look to the African continent for parallels of folk-custom, seeing little difference “between the candidly savage...