Cymru am Byth (Wales For Ever) HAPPY ST DAVID'S DAY

As always on March the First, I'm missing my homeland. I have my Welsh flag flying madly in the the high wind, and am wearing a daffodil and the leek brooch given me years ago by my Aunt. This year the first daffodils are also bravely showing their golden faces.(Sometimes they don't manage to bloom before the 1st March at all.)
Ok, for those of you who are not Welsh (and I suspect the majority of people reading this blog fall into that category,) I'll tell you why March 1st is such a special day to those of us born in Wales.

St David's Day (Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant) is the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales.The date of 1 March was chosen in remembrance of the death of Saint David on that day (a Tuesday) in 589, and has been celebrated by followers since then.
The date was declared a national day of celebration within Wales in the 18th century.

Although the Welsh Assembly was not successful in having March 1st declared a National Bank Holiday, there are still celebrations all over the Principality, with special chapel services, lunches of Cawl (a clear lamb soup with leaks and potatoes, with cheese and bread) and Eisteddfordau,  concerts of singing and recitation, held in many schools and village halls.

The Red dragon shown over the map of Wales in green

The Flag of Wales (Welsh: Baner Cymru or Y Ddraig Goch, meaning "The Red Dragon") incorporates the Red Dragon of Cadwaladr, King of Gwynedd, from c.655 to 682, along with the Tudor colours of green and white. It was used by Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 after which it was carried in state to St Paul's Cathedral.* The red dragon was then included in the Tudor royal arms to signify their Welsh descent.

The flag was granted official status in 1959, but the red dragon itself has been associated with Wales for centuries; indeed, the flag is sometimes claimed to be the oldest national flag still in use, though the origin of the adoption of the dragon symbol is now lost in history and myth. A plausible theory is that the Romans brought the emblem to what is now Wales during their occupation of Britain in the form of the Draco standards borne by the Roman cavalry, but it could be even older. The green and white stripes of the flag were additions by the House of Tudor, the Welsh dynasty that held the English throne from 1485 to 1603. Green and white are also the colours of the leek, another national emblem of Wales.

Wales and Bhutan are at present the only countries to have a dragon on their flag, though the Chinese flag also featured a dragon during the Qing Dynasty

The oldest known use of the dragon to represent Wales is from the Historia Brittonum, written around 830; the text describes a struggle between two serpents deep underground, which prevents King Vortigern from building a stronghold. This story was later adapted into a prophecy made by the wizard Myrddin (or Merlin) of a long fight between a red dragon and a white dragon. According to the prophecy, the white dragon, representing the Saxons, would at first dominate but eventually the red dragon, symbolising the Celts, would be victorious and recapture Lloegr. This is believed to represent the conflict in the 5th and 6th centuries between the British Celts and the invading Saxons. A version of the tale also appears as part of the poem 'Cyfranc Lludd a Llefelys' in the Mabinogion. One twelfth century account of this is Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, where he states Merlin's prophecies.

The red dragon is popularly believed to have been the battle standard of Arthur and other ancient Celtic/Romano-British leaders. It is particularly associated in Welsh poetry with Cadwaladr king of Gwynedd from c.655 to 682.

In 1400 Owain Glyndwr raised the dragon standard during his revolts against the occupation of Wales by the English crown. Fifteen years later the English crown, under the rule of Henry V, used the red dragon standard itself during the Battle of Agincourt. The English forces during the battle utilised Welsh longbowmen, along with their own archers. In 1485, the most significant link between the symbol of the Red Dragon and Wales occurred when Henry Tudor flew the red dragon of Cadwallader during his invasion of England. Henry was of Welsh descent and after leaving France with an army of 2000, landed at Milford Haven on 7 August. He made capital of his Welsh ancestry in gathering support and gaining safe passage through Wales. Henry met and fought Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, and in victory took the English throne.*

The oldest recorded use of the dragon to symbolise Wales is from the Historia Brittonum, written around 830, but it is popularly supposed to have been the battle standard of Arthur and other ancient Celtic leaders.

The Welsh Flag is the only flag of the constituent countries of the UK not to be used in the Union Flag. Wales had no explicit recognition in the flag because Wales had been annexed by Edward I of England in 1282 and, since the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, was considered to be a part of the Kingdom of England. There have since been proposals to include the Dragon or the flag of Saint David (itself a cross) on the Union Flag, but these have never met with much support.

The leek and the daffodil are both emblems of Wales and they share the Welsh name Ceninenis.

The leek is known to have been displayed as a Welsh emblem in 1536 and in Henry V, Shakespeare acknowledged this as an ancient custom.

There is a nuance - no more than that - for girls to wear daffodils and boys to wear leeks on St David's Day. There is a link between the leek and the daffodil. In Welsh the daffodil is St Peter's leek Cenhinen Bedr.

According to legend, Saint David ordered his Welsh soldiers to identify themselves by wearing the leek on their helmets during an ancient battle against the Saxons, which took place in a field of leeks. The leek also appears on the back of the  pound coin in Wales.

So that's why I'm proudly wearing both my daffodil and a leek today!

Mondays word: Galanthophile - and Happy Saint David's Day

I'm a galanthophile - and have been for as long as I can remember.

Okay, that's my confession for today and I'm not ashame to admit it. What s
is a galarthophile anyway? I hear you ask. Well, it's simply a rather important sounding term for a collector or lover of snowdrops.

I think one of the things that makes me love the snowdrop so much is their simplicity. I'm not so keen on the double varieties or 'snowflakes' as they're sometimes called, although they do look very effecrive when there are masses of them spread out under the trees, like a carpet of snow. No, I have a great affection for the simple bell-like variety with three outer petals or more correctly, tepals (there is one variety which has four.) Purest of white, with a narrow, broken wavy band of green on the inner tepals they stand erect, in the coldest of winters, hanging their little heads demurely. They may all look similar, but there are many different varieties, including one which is nicknamed ''grumpy" because the green 'bridge' shaped mark has two green dots above it, which make it look like a grumpy face! It's still beautiful though.

There are many legends about the snowdrop too, one of my favourites is that Eve wept as she and Adam were turned out of the Garden of Eden, and the angels felt so sorry for her, they turned her tears to snowdrops. In some places snowdrops are known as 'Eve's tears'.

Snowdrops are not native to Britain, as many people think, and may have been brought here in the sixteenth century. There is one variety which was supposedly brought back by soldiers after the Crimean war.

*Michael Quinion says about the word 'galanthrophile':

"It comes from the formal botanical name for the genus, Galanthus,
which derives from Greek "gala", milk, and "anthos", flower. (Words from "gala" include "galactose", milk sugar, and "galaxy",
originally meaning the Milky Way.)

It's possible to trace the term to the late nineteenth century. It
appears, spelled "galanthophil", in an issue of The Garden in 1892
in reference to the Somerset gardener James Allen, a pioneer in
hybridising snowdrops. Elsewhere, credit is given to the garden
writer and plantsman E A Bowles; he is said to have created it in a
letter, whose date isn't given, but is almost certainly after 1892.

In recent years the term has become moderately common among garden writers in the UK as study and collection of snowdrop varieties has become much more widespread, even fashionable."

Before I finish for today, it's the 1st March. I'd like to wish all my fellow Welsh men and women "Dydd Dewi Sant Hapus!' - a Happy Saint David's Day. I'll be proudly wearing my yellow daffodil today and to celebrate, here's a link to an article on one of my favourite blogs, Americymru.
http://americymru.ning.com/profiles/blogs/10-ways-to-thank-the-lord

Note: Saint David (c. 500–589) (Welsh: Dewi Sant) was a church official; he was later regarded as a saint, and in particular, the patron saint of Wales. In contrast with the other national patron saints of the British Isles, Saints George, Andrew and Patrick, David is a native of the country of which he is patron saint. One of his most famous miracles is said to have taken place when he was preaching in the middle of a large crowd at the Synod of Llanddewi Brefi. When those at the back complained that they could not see or hear him, the ground on which he stood is reputed to have risen up to form a small hill so that everyone had a good view. A white dove was seen settling on his shoulder and nowadays he is often depicted with a white dove above his right shoulder, a sign of God's grace and blessing.

*World Wide Words is copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2009. All rights reserved. The Words Web site is at http://www.worldwidewords.org/

Monday's Word

I haven't had a 'Mondays word for a couple of weeks, owing to Christmas and New Years posts taking precidence, however with the festivities over, I will once more wish everyone a joyous 2010 and get back to the 'usual format'.

As a fantasy/futuristic writer, I enjoy coming up with weird animals, especially if they have something about them that Earth bound readrs can recognise, without having to stretch their credulity too far. Of course there is a rich source of fabulous and mythical animals in literature and legends and I was interested in this creature which popped up in Michael Quinion's 'World Wide Words' this week, the manticore. The name can be traced back to an Old Persian word meaning a man-eater, and first appeared in English in John Trevisa's text. This is what else he has to say about it:

"This mythical beast is a favourite villain in fantasy stories and games, so much so that it is surely more widely known today than it has ever been. As one example, Harry Potter fans will know thatHagrid bred those nasty blast-ended skrewts from manticores.

The manticore was first mentioned in classical Greek writings 2,500 years ago, which reported rumours from the east. This is the way it was described in a famous medieval work by an English writer, which he based on Greek sources:

'It is said, that in India is a beast wonderly shapen, and is like to the bear in body and in hair, and to a man in face. And hath a right red head, and a full great mouth, and an horrible, and in either jaw three rows of teeth distinguished atween. The outer limbs thereof be as it were the outer limbs of a lion, and his tail is like to a wild scorpion, with a sting, and smiteth with hard bristle pricks as a wild swine, and hath an horrible voice, as the voice of a trumpet, and he runneth full
swiftly, and eateth men.'
(De Proprietatibus Rerum (On the Order of Things), by Bartholomaeus Anglicus, written about 1240. )"

Apparantly other writers and illustratorshave described the manticore as having wings, or the body of a tiger (which led to his name occasionally being rendered through folk etymology as "mantiger") he has been said to come from Africa as well as India.

All accounts agree that the manticore preyed on human flesh and would devour its victim leaving no trace behind - not a bad cover up for a murder in a fantasy story - at least it would give the poor old dragon a rest from being blamed for every mysterious disappearance!


(Illustration from Medieval Bestiary)


*World Wide Words is copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2009. All rights reserved. The Words Web site is at http://www.worldwidewords.org

Monday's Word - Cloister-garth

Doesn't this dramatic picture just make you want to sit down and write a gothic tale of romance and mystery?

It's actually the garth of Salsbury Cathedral, or to give it it's full name, cloister-garth, meaning an open courtyard enclosed by cloisters.

According to Michael Quinion in his 'World Wide Words' "there were once many such compounds, such as "apple-garth" (an orchard), "fish-garth" (an enclosure on a river or seashore for trapping or storing fish), "church-garth" (a churchyard), "willow-garth" (a field where willows or osiers are grown), "stack-garth" (a rick-yard, an enclosed space for storing stacks of hay, straw and other produce), "vine-garth" (a vineyard), and "fold-garth" (a farmyard)...

As you will have gathered, "garth" was once a very broad term. It
could mean almost any patch of enclosed ground used for a specific purpose, such as a yard, garden, field or paddock. It appeared in the northern parts of Britain in the fourteenth century and derives from Old Norse "garðr", a yard or courtyard. Through Old Englishit's related to "yard" in similar senses, and also to "garden".

"Garth" is now rare except in British place names or historical or poetical writing. The personal name comes from the same source, as it originally referred to somebody who lived near an enclosure, especially a paddock or orchard."

I've had the good fortune to visit several 'garths', incluidng Strata Florida, near my old home in Wales, which is strictly speaking an old monastory rather than a Cathedral, and was where the Holy Grail, so legend has it, was kept by the monks before being taken to nearby Nanteos Mansion for safe keeping.


*World Wide Words is copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2009. All rights reserved. The Words Web site is at http://www.worldwidewords.org

The Song Of The Muses, Book II is now available,

Well, it's Autumn again - or 'fall' as my American friends would say. So much more descriptive really - although I suppose 'autumn' does conjure up pictures of the beautiful colours of this season. There's certainly a nip in the air, but we're having some beautiful sunny days, perhaps to make up for our miserable sumer!

Exciting news - this morning I received a parcel full of books - The Song Of The Muses, Book II is now available. This is the one with my story 'Dancing with Fate. It's available from Amazon or if you're in the UK you can buy a copy (autographed if you wish) from my website
www.hywelalyn.com

So exciting to hold it in my hands, the three volumes are going to look great on my bookshelf! Can't wait for Starquest to be available in print now!

The legend of Devils Bridge

I've been thinking a lot about my home in Wales, recently. More homesick than usual for some reason. My nieces and nephew are growing up so fast and I feel sad that I’ve missed so much of their childhood, although I see them several times a year, but it’s not the same.

I used to live near a well known beauty spot called Pontarfynach, or Devils Bridge. It is really three bridges, built over a spectacular and beautiful waterfall, which rages down into a deep pool known as the Devils Punchbowl. The first bridge was built by the Monks of Strata Florida, (where the Holy Grail is reputed to have been hidden for a while) in 1075. In the 18th Century it was deemed to be unsafe, and a second bridge was built, over the first. The third bridge being built over that in 1901.

I thought it would be nice to share the legend of how the first bridge was built. There are a few versions, but this is my favourite:

There was an old woman who had a cow of which she was very fond, and which provided her with all the milk she needed. Early one morning she was distraught to find that the cow had somehow managed to cross the river and was now grazing on the bank the other side.

The old lady looked at the swirling river and wondered how she would be able to get her cow back.

“What the Devil can I do now?” she asked aloud.

Suddenly there was a smell of sulphur and a cloud of thick smoke, out of the middle of which appeared Old Nick himself!

“You called?” he smirked.

The old lady was made of stern stuff,.and after a moment’s hesitation, she explained her predicament.

Satan grinned wickedly.

“That’s easily sorted,” he said craftily, “I can build you a bridge – but it will cost you.”
“How much?” the old lady asked uneasily.

“Oh nothing much, just the soul of the first living thing to cross the bridge,” the Devil stated cunningly, knowing full well that she would have to cross the bridge herself to get her cow.

“Done!” said the old woman.

The Devil waved his arms and there, spanning the falls, was a beautiful new stone bridge.

The Devil laughed nastily, “now for my payment he said smugly.

The old lady was not as naïve as she appeared. She put her hand into her apron pocket and drew out a crust of bread which she had put there for her breakfast, and threw it across to the other side of the bridge. Immediately her little dog ran across the bridge and gobbled it up. Satan knew he had been outwitted, the soul of a dog was of no use to him; he scowled furiously and disappeared in an even bigger cloud of foul smelling black smoke, than the first, and was never seen in those parts again.

The old woman crossed the lovely new bridge, and having retrieved both her cow and her dog, made her way home, humming softly to herself. The bridge can still be seen to this very day.