ABSTRACT
The Madoc myth was rapidly losing its symbolic power, even if migration had mounted to a desperate peak. In the new Wales of the nineteenth century, Madoc survived, but largely as a minor descant, a matter of after-dinner rhetoric, eisteddfod patriotism and children’s verse. Madoc became a particular preserve of Welsh-speaking Wales and as Welsh remorselessly shrank. Statisticians are convinced that, in terms of the total Welsh population, grounded on a strong industrial base, emigration has been relatively unimportant. Nevertheless in a small, tightly knit community, its effects have been much more severe than merely quantitative evidence would lead one to expect. There is scarcely a family in Wales, certainly no extended family, which does not have its American or Canadian dimension. The tragi-comic ending of Beula can stand as their epitaph, meagre recompense for ah the labour and the hope invested in that sad square mile.
