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2 History of

Prehistoric Wales

The earliest evidence of human beings in Wales dates from about 225,000 BC (human teeth found in a cave). Continuous settlement of Wales by human beings began with the end of the latest Ice Age in about 9,000 BC. The melting of the ice cap caused sea levels to rise. As the temperature rose, the country became covered by a thick canopy of trees. The communities lived by hunting and gathering, but from about 4000 BC there is increasing evidence of the existence in Wales of communities sustained by agriculture, using stone tools. By about 2400 BC, metal tools were becoming increasingly available. The earliest iron object discovered in Wales is a sword made in about 600 BC.

The evidence suggests that by the first century AD, the language spoken in Wales - and throughout southern Britain - was Brythonic, a Celtic language. The inhabitants of Wales in the last centuries of prehistory were members of a Celtic nation. Brythonic evolved into Welsh, and the existence of the would be, for fifteen hundred years and more, one of the defining features of the experience of the people of Wales. Of all the aspects of the culture of the Iron- Age Celts, the one that has attracted the greatest attention is the role of the . Human sacrifice was practiced.

Wales and the Romans

Roman forces reached the borders of Wales in AD 48, five years after they had begun. Wales had at least five tribal groupings : the Deceangli in the north east ; the in the north west ; the Demetae in the south west ; the in the south east ; and the in the central borderlands. They conquered Britain. By 80 AD, the whole of what would be England and Wales, had come under Roman control. In Wales, part of the military zone, there were at least thirty auxiliary forts linked by straight roads and situated a day's march from each other. Most of the inhabitants of Wales came to accept Roman rule.

Wales was part of the Roman Empire for over 300 years. During that era Roman habits and culture won widespread acceptance in much of the country. Unlike in most of , the Latin of the Romans did not replace the native language of the people. It did, however, have an impact upon it, for Brythonic absorbed Latin words for things like forts, windows, rooms and books, words which were passed on to Welsh. Roman art had an impact too, for it replaced the Celtic art of the Britons’.

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To the Britons, the entire natural world was sacred and they, like the Romans, had a wide array of gods. As the centuries passed, there was a tendency to identify the gods of the Britons with those of the Romans. By about 300 AD, however, a new religious movement, Christianity, was making itself felt. From 313 it could be freely practiced throughout the Empire.

Welsh Kingdoms

One of the reasons for the Roman withdrawal was the pressure put upon the empire's military resources by the incursion of barbarian tribes from the east. What happened after the fall of the Roman Empire ? In Britain, something of the organisation of the Empire survived its collapse. The Romano-British of the cities and the tribal capitals sought to maintain the political structures they had inherited from Rome. By about AD 490, the Saxons were establishing their own kingdoms on the island. The great figure in the struggle between the British and the Saxons is Arthur. By AD 550 the Saxon advance resumed. A century later, most of what would become England was under Saxon control. Then Wales was divided into a number of separate kingdoms.

The coming of the Normans

The duchy of Normandy came into existence in AD 911. With its energetic inhabitants and its well-structured system of government, Normandy became perhaps the most dynamic region of Europe. Following the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, became William I, King of England, and rapidly won control over his entire kingdom. The Normans became masters of England, a centralised kingdom, in a matter of a few years. Wales, where power was far more decentralized, proved resistant to their power. During the reign of William II, the Welsh rose in revolt, and by 1100 the Normans had been driven out.

Important dates 1283 Edward 1 ordered the building of castles in Wales. Between 1276 and 1295 he built or repaired 17 castles. Today there are over 600 castles in Wales. 1400 National hero Owain Glyndwr began his rebellion against King HenyVI to establish an independent Wales. 1536 The first Act of Union was passed between England and Wales. Wales became united politically with England and was governed by English law. 1768 The industry was then using Welsh ore mined at Parys Mountain on the isle of . It was the beginning of an industry that would control half the world’s production by the end of the century. 1839 Bute Dock was built at Cardiff, supplying vast amounts of coal to the world’s new navies, and causing Cardiff’s rapid expansion into the largest and most important city in Wales. 1885 Dan Isaac Davies founded the first Welsh language society to protect one of the oldest languages in Europe and to promote the use of Welsh in education. 1955 Cardiff was officially declared capital of Wales. Cardiff was Europe’s youngest capital city.

4 Welsh castles

Wales has more castles than anywhere else in the world.

Motte and bailey castles Concentric castles

Motte and bailey castles were a form of As the name suggests, concentric castle structure that enabled the new castles were based on a ring-within-a- Norman conquerors of England and ring structure. The height of the walls Wales to secure areas of land quickly would increase towards the middle, and cheaply. enabling inner defenders - such as archers - to shoot over the defenders of the outer walls.

Linear castles Pembroke Castle

A linear castle concentrated its Pembroke Castle most likely sits on defences on one side or point of the early fortifications (Roman habitation is castle, and used its structure to focus known in the area), which is no the enemy's attention on to its best- surprise given its strategic location. defended area. The name comes from The castle as a Norman fort was their structure of a series of linear established in 1093. By 1189 was barriers in front of the enemy. created a huge stone castle in a classic Norman concentric design.

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6 Welsh language

The language of Wales belongs to a branch of Celtic, an Indo-European language. Welsh is still used by about half a million people within Wales and possibly another few hundred thousand in England and other areas overseas. In most heavily populated areas of Wales, such as the South-east (the normal language of everyday life is English, but there are other areas, notably in the Western and Northern regions, where the Welsh language remains strong and highly visible). Welsh is spoken widely throughout the country and is the first language in many parts of the north and west. National TV and radio stations broadcast in Welsh, road signs are written in Welsh and English, there are Welsh medium schools, books, magazines newspapers and websites. Once you know the rules, you can learn to read it and pronounce it without too much difficulty.

The Welsh alphabet : (28 letters) A, B ,C ,Ch, D, Dd, E, F, Ff, G, Ng, H, I, L Ll, M, N, O, P, Ph, R, Rh, S, T, Th, U, W, Y

Note that Welsh does not possess the letters J, K, Q, V, X or Z. The vowels : A, E, I, U, O, W, Y A as in man.

E as in bet or echo. Welsh word : gest (guest)

I as in pin or queen. Welsh word : mi (me)

U as in pita: Welsh word : cu (key)

O as in lot. Welsh word : o'r (0re)

W as in zoo or bus. Welsh words: bws (bus); yw (you);

Y has two distinct sounds: the final sound in happy or the vowel sound in myrrh The diphtongs Ae, Ai and Au are pronounced as English "eye": mae (my); main (mine).

Eu and Ei are pronounced the same way as the English ay in pray.

Ew is more difficult to describe. It can be approximated as eh-oo or perhaps as in the word mount. The nearest English sound is found in English midland dialect words such as the Birmingham pronunciation of "you" (yew).

I'w and Y'w sound almost identical to the English "Ee-you." or "Yew" or "You".

Oe is similar to the English Oy or Oi.

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Ow is pronounced as in the English tow, or low: Wy as in English wi in win or oo-ee.

Ywy is pronounced as in English Howie.

Aw as in the English cow. The consonants For the most part b, d, h, l, m, n, p, r, s, and t are pronounced the same as their English equivalents (h is always pronounced, never silent). Those that differ are as follows:

C always as in cat. Welsh word: cwm (come).

Ch as in the Scottish loch.

Dd is pronounced like the English th in the words seethe or them.

Th is like the English th in words such as think, forth, thank.

F as in the English v.

Ff as in the English f.

G always as in English goat, gore.

Ng as in English finger or Long Island.

Ll is an aspirated L. That means you form your lips and tongue to pronounce L, but then you blow air gently around the sides of the tongue instead of saying anything. Got it? The nearest you can get to this sound in English is to pronounce it as an l with a th in front of it.

Rh sounds as if the h come before the r. There is a slight blowing out of air before the r is pronounced. Here are some simple words and phrases to get you started

Bore da (Pronounced: Boh-reh dah): Good morning Prynhawn da (Prin-houn dah): Good afternoon Nos da (nohs dah): Good night Croeso i Gymru (Croesoh ee Gum-reeh): Welcome to Wales Iechyd da! (Yeh-chid dah): Cheers! Tafarn (Tav-arn): Pub Diolch (Dee-olch): Thanks Da iawn (Dah ee-aw-n): Very good 8

Practice Read the following, written using the Welsh alphabet :

Gwd lwc. Ai hop ddat yw can ryd ddys and ddat yt meiks sens tw yw. Iff yw can ryd ddys, dden yw ar dwing ffaen and wil haf no problems at ol yn lyrnyng awr ffaen Welsh alffabet.

Myths and legends

Everywhere you go in Wales someone will point out a hill, church or a standing stone that has a story of its own.

King Arthur The great figure in the struggle between the British and the Saxons is Arthur. He gathered Knights around him and fought back against the Saxons who, since the Romans left Britain, were slowly but surely taking the country over. Arthur's base was at a place called Camelot. Here he built a strong castle. His knights met at a Round Table. They also searched for a lost treasure, which they believed would cure all ills - this was the 'Quest for the Holy Grail'. Under the guidance of Merlin, Arthur had obtained a magical sword from The Lady Of The Lake. This sword was called 'Excalibur". .His name appeared in numerous texts but there’s no proof who he actually was. In Wales, Arthur’s fame lives on in our everyday place names. Caerfyrddin (Carmarthen) is believed to be Merlin’s birthplace, and is named after him. He is also supposed to have fought his last battle at Bwlch y Saethau - the Pass of Arrows - which is below Snowdon’s summit and Llyn Llydaw is the lake where Arthur’s sword Excalibur was thrown.

The Mabinogion is a collection of our medieval tales dating back a Mabinogion thousand years. They are regarded by many as a masterpiece of medieval literature and Wales' greatest contribution to European literature. The tales are set in a magical landscape which corresponds geographically to the western coast of Wales and are full of white horses, giants, beautiful, intelligent women and heroic men.

Lady of the Lake A young farmer fell in love with a beautiful water fairy and she agreed to marry him but warned him she would leave him for ever if he struck her three times. They lived happily for many years and had three sons but when Gwyn struck her playfully for the third time she disappeared into the lake and he never saw her again. She would sometimes reappear to her sons and teach them the powers of healing with herbs and plants and they became skilful physicians as did their children after them. Some of their ancient remedies have survived and are in the Red Book of Hergest, one of Welsh most important medieval manuscripts.

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From the village of Beddgelert, in the National Park of Snowdonia, Beddgelert comes the tale of Prince Llewelyn. The Prince was very fond of hunting. Although he had many dogs, his favourite was Gelert, as he was fearless in the hunt and also a loyal friend and companion. One day Llewelyn and his wife went out hunting, leaving their baby son with a nurse and a servant to look after him. The nurse and the servant went for a walk in the mountains leaving the baby alone and unprotected. Llewelyn was absorbed in his hunting, but after a while he noticed that Gelert wasn’t with the pack. The Prince knew something was wrong as Gelert was always at the front of the pack. He reasoned that the only place Gelert would go was back to the lodge, so he called off the hunt and headed back home. Once home, he saw Gelert running out of the lodge towards his master, covered in blood and wagging his tail. The Princess, calling her child’s name, fainted. Llewelyn rushed into the baby’s room to find the cradle overturned, the bloodstained bedclothes thrown all over the floor … and no sign of his son. Filled with anger he drew his sword and killed Gelert. As the died, his whimpers and his cries were answered by the sound of a baby crying from behind the overturned cradle. When Llewelyn pulled aside the cradle he found his son unharmed and the body of a huge wolf next to him. Gelert had in fact killed the wolf as it tried to attack Llewelyn’s son. With huge remorse, Llewelyn buried Gelert in a meadow nearby and marked his grave with stones. The village of Beddgelert (Gelert’s grave) owes its name to this site.

Welsh flag

The red dragon has enjoyed an association with Wales for hundreds of years.

The later Roman cavalry was the primary defending force against the Saxons towards the end of the occupation.

They are believed to have used a dragon emblem during their occupation of Britain.

Although the dragon has been used in Wales for many years, it wasn't until the 20th century that it became an official symbol.

10 Questions

Prehistoric Wales How do we know that human beings lived in Wales from 225,000 BC ?

What happened when the temperatures rose ?

Where did “Brythonic” come from ?

The culture of the Iron-Age Celts saw …………………….. sacrifice people.

Wales and the Romans Who were the five tribal groupings in Wales ?

How many forts were there in Wales ?

Give an example of Roman great organisation.

How long did the Romans rule over Wales ?

What impact did Latin have on local languages ?

What’s the difference between religion during that period and ours ?

Welsh Kingdoms Why did the Romans withdraw ?

The Roman Empire had an impact on British way of life. Which one ?

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What happened after the Romans had withdrawn ?

The coming of the Normans What’s the reason why Wales proved resistant to Norman power ?

Important dates Why was copper extraction so important in Wales economy ?

When did Wales become independent ?

Who was the first King to order the building of castles in Wales ?

Welsh is … What was coal mainly used for ?

Cardiff became the capital of Wales in …

Welsh castles What kind of castle, if you had a castle, would you build and why ?

Wels