Y Ddraig Goch

Information about Y Ddraig Goch

Welsh Dragon redirects here. For the food, see Welsh Dragon sausage

Y Ddraig Goch (IPA: [ə ğraiɡ ɡox]) (Welsh for the red dragon) appears on the national Flag of Wales (the flag itself is also called "Y Ddraig Goch"), and is the most famous dragon in Britain. There are many legends about y Ddraig Goch. According to legend, the Red Dragon resides, or resided, in Lake Bala, central Wales.

Mabinogion

Main article: Mabinogion

In the Mabinogion story Lludd and Llefelys, the red dragon fights with an invading white dragon. His pained shrieks cause women to miscarry and animals and plants to become barren. Lludd, king of Britain, goes to his wise brother Llefelys in France. Llefelys tells him to dig a pit in the centre of Britain, fill it with mead, and cover it with cloth. Lludd does this, and the dragons drink the mead and fall asleep. Lludd imprisons them, still wrapped in their cloth, in Dinas Emrys in Snowdonia (Welsh: Eryri).

Historia Britonum

Main article: Historia Britonum

The tale is taken up by Nennius in the Historia Britonum. The dragons remain at Dinas Emrys for centuries until King Vortigern tries to build a castle there. Every night the castle walls and foundations are demolished by unseen forces. Vortigern consults his advisers, who tell him to find a boy with no natural father, and sacrifice him. Vortigern finds such a boy (who is later, in some tellings, to become Merlin) who is supposed to be the wisest wizard to ever live. On hearing that he is to be put to death to solve the demolishing of the walls, the boy dismisses the knowledge of the advisors. The boy tells the king of the two dragons. Vortigern excavates the hill, freeing the dragons. They continue their fight and the red dragon finally defeats the white dragon. The boy tells Vortigern that the white dragon symbolises the Saxons and that the red dragon symbolises the people of Vortigern. If Vortigern is accepted to have lived in the fifth century, then these people are the British whom the Saxons failed to subdue and who became the Welsh.

The same story is repeated in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain, where the red dragon is also a prophecy of the coming of King Arthur. It is notable that Arthur's father was "Uther Pendragon" (head of the dragon).

Henry Tudor flew the red dragon of Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon as his banner, overlaid on a green and white field representing the Tudor House, when he marched through Wales on his way to Bosworth Field.

References

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/flag/

Smoked Welsh Dragon Sausage - Pork is a pork sausage made in Wales with the addition of leeks and hot chillis. The sausages are made by Black Mountains Smokery in Crickhowell, Powys. Until 2006 they were sold under the name Smoked Welsh Dragon Sausage.
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International Phonetic Alphabet

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Phonetic Alphabet
History
Nonstandard symbols
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IPA for English The
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Welsh}}}
Writing system: Latin alphabet (Welsh variant)
Official status
Official language of: Wales (de facto)
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: cy
ISO 639-2: wel (B)
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The Red Dragon (Welsh: Y Ddraig Goch). It consists of a red dragon, passant, on a green and white field. As with any heraldic charge, the exact representation of the dragon is not standardised and many different interpretations exist.
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Location Wales
Coordinates Coordinates:

Primary sources River Dee

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Mabinogion is a collection of prose stories from medieval Welsh manuscripts. They draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and on early medieval historical traditions.
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Dinas Emrys (Welsh for "fortress of Ambrosius") is a rocky and wooded hillock near Beddgelert in North Wales. Rising some 76m above the floor of the Glaslyn river valley, it overlooks the southern end of Llyn Dinas.
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Snowdonia (Welsh: Eryri) is a region of north Wales and a national park, of 838 square miles (2,170 km²) in area. It was the first to be designated of the three National Parks in Wales, in 1951.
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The Historia Brittonum, or The History of the Britons, is a historical work that was first written sometime shortly after AD 833, and exists in several recensions of varying difference. (A recension is a critical revision of a text, i.e.
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Nennius, or Nemnivus, is either of two shadowy personages traditionally associated with the history of Wales. The better known of the two is Nennius, the student of Elvodugus.
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Vortigern (also spelled Vortiger and Vortigen, and in Welsh Gwrtheyrn), was a 5th century warlord in Britain, a leading ruler among the Britons (Brythons). His existence is considered likely, though information about him is shrouded in legend.
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The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an Interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across Britain. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of PPARC as a National Facility.
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Geoffrey of Monmouth (Welsh: Gruffudd ap Arthur or Sieffre o Fynwy) (c. 1100 – c. 1155) was a clergyman and one of the major figures in the development of British history and the popularity of tales of King Arthur.
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Historia Regum Britanniae
Author Geoffrey of Monmouth
Translator Wace, Layamon
Country Wales
Language Latin
Genre(s) Pseudohistory
Publisher None
Publication date 1138

Geoffrey of Monmouth's
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King Arthur is a fabled Brython leader and a prominent figure in Britain's legendary history. A real individual may have been the inspiration of the legend, but later stories of Arthur are almost entirely fictional.
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Henry VII
King of England, Lord of Ireland

Reign August 22 1485 - April 21 1509
Coronation October 30 1485
Born January 28 1457
Pembroke Castle
Died
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Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon (c. 633–682, reigned from about 655) (Latin: Catuvelladurus; English: Cadwallader), also known as Cadwaladr Fendigaid ('the Blessed') was a king of Gwynedd.
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Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field was an important battle during the Wars of the Roses in 15th century England. It was fought on 22 August, 1485 (the Gregorian/current calendar date is August 31, 1485) between the Yorkist King Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet
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