Editing Henry Jenner (section)

==Work with the Cornish language==
His earliest interest in the [[Cornish language]] is mentioned in an article by [[Robert Morton Nance]] entitled "Cornish Beginnings",<ref>page 368, ''Old Cornwall'', Volume V, Number 9 published in 1958.</ref>

{{Quote|When Jenner was a small boy at [[St. Columb Major|St. Columb]], his birthplace, he heard at the table some talk between his father and a guest that made him prick up his ears, and no doubt brought sparkles to his eyes which anyone who told him something will remember. They were speaking of a Cornish language. At the first pause in their talk he put his query... 'But is there really a Cornish Language?' and on being assured that at least there had been one, he said 'Then I'm Cornish—that's mine!' }}{{Dubious|Jenners In Cornwall Thru 1851|date=December 2024}}

[[File:Jennerplaque.jpg|thumb|200px|Plaque at St Columb Major, on the site of the old vestry where his father worked (now called Bond House, in Market Square)]]
In 1873, Jenner presented a paper entitled The Cornish Language to the [[Philological Society]] in London, concluding that:

{{Quote|This, then, is all that can be found at present on the subject of the Cornish language. I have done much more in the way of compiling than of originating anything, for the subject has been pretty well exhausted by other writers; and unless some new book should turn up, very little of any importance remains to be done.<ref name="Berresford">{{cite book |last1=Berresford Ellis |first1=Peter |title=The Cornish Language and Its Literature |date=1974 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-7100792-8-2}}</ref>}}

Jenner was to prove himself wrong. In 1875, he was contacted by [[W. S. Lach-Szyrma]], Vicar of Newlyn and Celtic scholar. They visited the elderly, making notes on the remnants of Cornish.<ref name="CornishHistoryNotebook"/> The following year he read another paper on the subject of the [[Cornish language]] at [[Mount's Bay]].

In 1876, hosted by the [[British Archaeological Association]], a [[Cornwall Congress]] was held at [[Bodmin]], at which Jenner presented a paper on "The history and literature of the ancient Cornish language" based on his findings from the previous year. The vote of thanks was delivered by Lach-Szyrma, concluding there were "still old people who could count up to twenty in Cornish. The old man who [Jenner] had found to know most of the old tongue had just died." The congress mooted the development of a society to collect together the remnants of Cornish.<ref name="CornishHistoryNotebook">{{cite book |last1=Harris |first1=Dee |title=The Cornish History Notebook |date=2016 |publisher=Ors Sempel |isbn=978-0-9930764-2-8}}</ref>

In 1877, he discovered, whilst working in the [[British Museum]], forty two lines of a [[medieval]] play written in Cornish around the year 1450, known as the [[Early Cornish texts#The Charter Fragment, ca. 1400|Charter Fragment]]. He decided to promote an interest in Cornish outside academia, among the people of Cornwall themselves and also organised a special commemoration service of Dolly Pentreath and the centenary of her death.<ref name="CornishHistoryNotebook" />

In 1901, the UK was undergoing a Celtic revival and Jenner formed part of a group (led by [[L. C. R. Duncombe-Jewell]]) to establish the Cowethas Kelto-Kernuak (CKK) following the model of the Welsh [[Gorsedd]]. Its aim was to celebrate the culture and language of Cornwall and aim towards a full revival of the Cornish language.<ref name="CornishHistoryNotebook" /> Jenner became one of three vice-presidents to the society.

He was made a bard of Goursez Vreiz, the Breton Gorsedh, in September 1903 under the name Gwaz Mikael. During this visit to Brittany, he was invited to address the Union Regionaliste Bretonne in Finistere at Lesneven. Jenner gave a speech in Cornish on why Cornwall should be duly recognised as a Celtic nation, with a majority of delegates voting to support its admission. He recalled of the event later "I tried the experiment of a Cornish speech on an audience of educated Bretons. They understood almost all of it."<ref name="Berresford" />

In 1904, he published ''A Handbook of the Cornish language'' "...principally intended for those persons of Cornish Nationality who wish to acquire some knowledge of their ancient tongue and perhaps even speak it". The [[Cornish language revival]] began in earnest. His version of Cornish was based upon the form of the language used in West Cornwall in the 18th century. It contained grammar as well as a history of the language and was prefaced by his poem ''Dho'm Gwreg Gernuak'' (To My Cornish Wife). Jenner claimed:

{{Quote|There has never been a time when there has been no person in Cornwall without a knowledge of the Cornish language.}}

Later that same year, Jenner made an appearance before the [[Pan-Celtic Congress]] in Caernarfon to apply on behalf of Cornwall for its membership into the organisation.<ref name="CornishHistoryNotebook" /> That same year, [[Robert Morton Nance]] began studying the Cornish language from Jenner's ''Handbook'', although his pupil would later steer the language revival towards mediaeval Cornish.

Jenner wrote a Cornish version of the ceremonies used in the Welsh Gorsedd in 1907, but unfortunately there were not enough Cornish speakers at the time to establish a Cornish Gorsedh that could use them.<ref name="CornishHistoryNotebook" />

In 1909, Jenner and Nance met in Falmouth. They became friends and spent the next decade researching Cornish and collecting tidbits of traditional Cornish. These were published in a series of papers which were read both to the Royal Institution of Cornwall and the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. In making a proposition to the Royal Institution on 9 December to undertake a systematic study of Cornish in order to translate place names, Jenner said:

{{Quote|The spoken language may be dead, but its ghost still haunts its old dwelling, the speech of West Cornish country folk is full of it, and no one can talk about the country and its inhabitants in any sort of topographical detail without using a wealth of Cornish words.<ref name="Berresford" />}}

1916 saw the publication of Jenner's Cornish translation of "[[It's a Long Way to Tipperary]]" by the ''[[Daily Mirror]]''. He also translated John 5:1-14 in 1917, which appears in the Cornish language on the entrance walls of [[Jerusalem]]'s [[Pool of Bethesda]] and is headed: ''Awell san Jowan, an pempes cabydul, gwersy un dhe beswarthek treylys yn Kernewek gans Henry Jenner''. Many songs and poems were translated by Jenner from English into the Cornish language and he also wrote sonnets in the language, such as ''Gwaynten yn Kernow'' (Spring in Cornwall) and ''An Pempthack Pell'' (The Fifteen Balls).

Jenner and Nance formed the first [[Old Cornwall Society]] in [[St Ives, Cornwall|St Ives]] in 1920, with Jenner as its president. Its motto was "Cuntelleugh an Brewyon us Gesys na vo Kellys Travyth". By 1924, there were sufficient Old Cornwall Societies to for a Federation, with Jenner as its president and Nance as its recorder.

1928 saw Jenner made a bard of the Welsh Gorsedd under the Cornish translation, Gwas Myghal, of his Breton bardic name. The same year, on the 21st of September, the first [[Gorsedh Kernow]] was held at [[Boscawen-Un]]. Twelve bards were made.

[[File:Truro 1930 photo 1 Arthurian Society photographer unknown.jpg|thumb|Henry and [[Kitty Jenner]] at front, Truro, Cornwall in August 1930 Arthurian Society meeting]]
In 1930 Jenner and his wife Kitty attended the first International Arthurian Congress in Truro, Cornwall, where they [[Dominica Legge]], [[Eugène Vinaver]] and other scholars investigated Arthurian legends.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.internationalarthuriansociety.com/british-branch/view/society-archives|title=Society Archives – International Arthurian Society|website=www.internationalarthuriansociety.com|access-date=2019-07-07|archive-date=7 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707102611/http://www.internationalarthuriansociety.com/british-branch/view/society-archives|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1932, the Celtic Congress met in Cornwall for the first time, at Truro, with Jenner as its president. Delegates heard speeches in Cornish from eight Cornish bards and Nance's play An Balores was performed. At this time, Jenner called for Cornish to become an optional subject in schools across Cornwall, to little reaction from the authorities of education.

That year, on 31 December, the Western Morning News published a speech by Jenner on the subject of Cornish patriotism in which he wrote "Bedheugh Bynytha Kernewek" (Be Forever Cornish). A group of young Cornish folk who were politically active joined together to form Cornwall's first national political movement, Tyr ha Tavas (Land and Language), taking Jenner's phrase as their motto to lobby parliament.

At a time when many people thought the Cornish language had died Jenner observed,<ref>''Rebuilding the Celtic languages'' By Diarmuid O'Néill (Page 222)</ref> {{Quote|The reason why a Cornishman should learn Cornish, the outward and audible sign of his separate nationality, is sentimental, and not in the least practical, and if everything sentimental were banished from it, the world would not be as pleasant a place as it is.}}