The Tour of Wales

Built by Edward I after the fall of the Welsh stronghold of Castell Y Bere. This castle commands a prominent site in beautiful Snowdonia. Harlech itself is famous in Welsh legend as the stronghold of the children of llyr (a story found in the Mabinogion). The town is also made famous by the traditional Welsh song, "Men of Harlech".

I have added some new pictures of Beaumaris Castle on the Tour of Wales site, and created a new page just for this. My intention is to create a full castle list with new photos on each. Then I can redo the "Age of Castles" page.

My thinking is that I could use a Google Maps interface (or Microsoft's local service - when it supports Safari maybe) to geolocate the castles.

This shouldn't be hard to do - but will just take a bit of coding effort (and I'll have to locate the location data for the castles). If anyone has locations for the Castles of Wales in lat/long format, please feel free to pass it along to me.

Beaumaris is the last of the castles built by Edward I, and is also the largest. It is in a good state of repair and is more then worth a visit - take a detour to see this castle if you are anywhere nearby.

The castle is concentric (it has an inner and outer ward built in a concentric pattern) a building method that greatly increased security. The offset gateway is also a model of good castle design, exposing as it did the flank of any attackers as they passed through the gate into the outer ward.

The character of Merlin, or properly in Welsh, Myrddin, has been written about more than just about any other character in fantasy literature. Some whould have us believe that Myrddin was a real 6th Century character - some even try to differentiate the characters of the stories and tell us that there were two Merlins. So what is the truth about this hero of Celtic legend?

There are six medieval poems that are significant when studying the chatacter of Myrddin. These are: Ymddidian Myrddin a Thaliesin, Yr Afallennau, Yr Oianau (all from the black book of Carmarthen) as well as Cyfoesi Myrddin a Gwenddydd ei Chwaer, Gwasgargerdd Fyrddin yn y Bedd and Peirian Faban (all of a later date than the 11th Century black book).

It's that time of year again. Kids getting ready to demand money (or something) with menaces. Kids dressing up a broom with an old sock stuffed with paper and demanding money (without menaces). Kids throwing fireworks around and loud bangs in the night. Bah humbug!

So where does this all come from? Halloween, we are told, derives from the Celtic festival of Samhain, and heralds the end of the Celtic year, the night when the world draws close to the otherworld. Only it has often struck me as odd that the pre-Romanised Celts would just happen to end their year so neatly on the last day of a Roman calendar month.

Christmas giving has become so widespread of late that it is often forgotten that the giving of gifts is as much associated with New Year as Christmas. This is a tradition that persists even in modern Wales with the giving of Calennig, or New Year's Money.

The giving of gifts on New Year's Day is an ancient custom. In Wales Children would form groups and go from house to house, bearing new year wishes of health and prosperity for the family. Skewered apples, stuck with corn and evergreen leaves or sprigs were carried and verses were recited or sung at the door of the house. In return, small gifts of food or money were given.

There are many distinctive Welsh Christmas customs, and by no means limited to those detailed in Dylan Thomas' "A Child's Christmas in Wales". One distinctive church custom is the singing of Plygain.

Tradition has it that Plygain was sung by the men in the early hours of Christmas morning, although in these days of equality amongst the sexes, women may now also sing Plygain - but the service still involves an early start.

On Christmas eve, you can make taffy - special toffee shapes, which twist and curl as they are cooked. Not to be confused with the equally delicious (but not very Welsh) maple taffy from Canadian tapping off parties.

Englyn a thelyn a thân - ac afal

ac yfwyr mewn diddan
a gwin melys a chusan
dyn fain lwys, dyna fyw'n lân

So what is an Englyn? A uniquely Welsh form of poetry, dating from as far back as the 6th Century AD. An Englyn is beautiful in its brevity, exquisite in its diction, making remarkable use of alliteration. The poems themselves are often pointed and thought provoking.

There are many forms of Englyn, but the most often used is known as Englyn unodl union. This is a form of thirty syllables arranged in lines of ten, six, seven and seven syllables. There is one end-rhyme, but in the first line one, two or three syllables layer the rhyming word, and are echoed in the first words of the second line. Cynghanedd (literally "harmony", where there is an internal alliteration - certain consonants are made to recur regularly within a line) is necessary.

There is a curious Welsh custom of giving a wooden spoon - a so called "love spoon" to one's fiance or sweetheart. The custom of giving wooden gifts was indeed widespread in many countries of Europe from the end of the 17th century (but it would be, wouldn't it? it is not as of they had plastic!). The first Welsh love spoon is attributed to a 16th Century young romantic who carved the offering for his intended, and unwittingly began the tradition.

Wooden spoons in Wales were usually intricately decorated, and given prior to the beginning of a courtship. These spoons would then be carved from a single piece of wood, and the craft of doing so became something of a hobby interest or passtime during the long and wild winters

It is just over 100 hundred years this year since the outbreak of the last of the great Welsh revivals. The 1904 Welsh revival had a huge impact on Welsh national life and national identity. As the last of a long string of revivals that spread throughout the 19th Century, it defined the national character, affected politics and national life and still resonates today.

The preaching was led principally by Evan Roberts a Theology Student of some 26 years, and a former miner from Loughor near Swansea. The Revival spread like fire in the the thatch throughout Wales between February 1904 and March 1905. There were immediate and far-reaching consequences of the revival, such as the emptying of public houses and people giving up sports and games, as well as dramtic drops in an already low crime rate.