The Red Dragon - Y Ddraig Goch

The Red Dragon was first raised on the battle-flags of the Parthians and Dacians, though it is likely that its origin was in India. On Trajan’s Column, erected in Rome in 113AD, appears a depiction of the dragon-standard borne by Dacian soldiers.  The Romans fought one of their fiercest and longest campaigns against the Parthians. It seems most likely that out of respect for their most valiant and formidable foe, the Romans adopted the dragon standard from the Parthians after Trajan’s army finally defeated them in 114AD.  Parthia is a part of modern Iran, and Dacia corresponds roughly to modern Transylvania. 

By the 3rd century, though the legionary standard remained the traditional eagle, the dragon had become the official standard of a Roman cohort, and its bearer was known as 'draconarius’.  The dragon thus appeared all over Europe, including the British Isles.  Towards the end of the Roman occupation of Britain, most of the legions were withdrawn, and the majority of army units remaining in Britain were cohorts. Therefore, the dragon became a much more familiar symbol than the eagle.  When the Romans finally left, the dragon was adopted by the Romanised British Celts as a symbol of their resistance to the invading Saxons. From those Britons, forefathers of the Welsh people, we have inherited the ancient battle standard of the Dacians, Parthians and Romans.

The earliest Welsh poetry, from the 6th century, refers to various notable warriors as ‘dreic’ (dragon), and the earliest literary reference to the 'Red Dragon’ is provided by Nennius (800AD), who is writing (in Latin) about a campaign waged by Vortigern  (Gwrtheyrn), Prince of Powys, against Emrys Wledig (Ambrosius Aurelianus), during the 5th century.  Nennius presents this as a conflict between Vortigern, whom he erroneously identifies as a Saxon king, and the Celtic Ambrosius, when it was in fact essentially an inter-Celtic conflict between followers of the Celtic heresy, known as the Arian, or Pelagian Heresy, which was championed by Vortigern, and the forces of orthodox Christianity represented by Ambrosius; and it is interesting that the Red Dragon here appears on the side of triumphant orthodoxy.

According to that even less reliable chronicler, Geoffrey of Monmouth (writing c 1136), the Dragon was the standard of King Arthur, whose father Geoffrey calls Uther Pendragon. The first unequivocal reference to the Dragon as the symbol of Welsh independence appears in the famous Elegy on the Death of Llewelyn ap Gruffudd, composed by Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch in 1282. (*) Most famously, it appeared on the standards of Owain Glyndwr during his military campaigns against Henry IV between 1400-1404, after which he seems to have abandoned it in favour of the Eagle of Snowdonia, and of Henry Tudor at the battle of Bosworth (1485).

The well-known line ‘Y ddraig goch ddyry cychwyn’  (the Red Dragon advances), comes from a poem written by Deio ap Ieuan Ddu (c.1460-80), and refers to a campaign waged c.1456 against Edward IV by Jasper, younger son of Owain Tudur (whom Edward executed) and uncle of Henry Tudor.

The Red Dragon, one of the oldest flags in the world, and certainly, the oldest in Europe, was made the official flag of modern Wales by Royal decree in 1959.

(*)

Pen pan las, ni bu gas gymraw,

Pen pan las, oedd lesach peidiaw.

Pen milwr, pen moliant rhag llaw,

Pen dragon, pen draig oedd arnaw.

(Head that slain made for fear unhateful. / Head that slain made surrender best. / Head of a soldier, head of praise. / Head of a duke, a dragon’s head he had.)

A History of the Red Dragon by Carl Lofmark; Gwasg Carreg Gwalch 1995

Land of my Fathers by Gwynfor Evans;  Gwasg John Penry, 1976

Leeks and Daffodils

The leek became the national emblem of Wales because either Cadwallon and his men of old upon St David's Day (c. 632 AD), or Henry Tudor and his army on their way to fight the battle of Bosworth (1485), depending on which historian you believe, plucked leeks from a field and fixed them to their caps so they would be able to identify their comrades and not mistakenly kill each other in the confusion of battle. 

The Welsh word for leek is 'cennin', and the daffodil for some reason is called 'Cennin Pedr'  (St Peter's Leek).  Students at Bangor University at the end of the 19th century, who did not like walking around with smelly leeks upon St David's Day, decided they would wear Peter's Leek instead. This heresy became widely popular, as missionaries from Bangor quickly spread out on their travels to all parts of Wales. The real national flower of Wales is the foxglove (Bysedd y Cwn), which grows everywhere in Wales.

…and tall black hats

".......The tall black hats & blue or red tweed cloaks worn by Welsh women in the 1790's in remote mountainous areas were a left-over English fashion of the 1620's. They were turned into a Welsh national dress of red cloak, petticoat, bedgown and tall black beaver hat, for use on 'national' days, by the philanthropic patriot, Augusta Waddington, Lady Llanover."

Dai Smith  Wales! Wales?  George Allen & Unwin 1984

Lady Llanover (1802-96), also known as Gwenynen Gwent was a collector of folk-songs, and a founder-member  of 'Cymreigyddion y Fenni', a learned society whose members included the noted musician Brinley Richards, composer of 'God Bless the Prince of Wales',  the poet John Parry (Bardd Alaw) and the distinguished antiquarian Thomas Price (Carnhuanawc). Lady Llanover's husband, Sir Benjamin Hall, was the architect of the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, and the famous clock tower, Big Ben, is named after him.

The famous ‘Salem’, familiar to Welsh people everywhere, was painted by Cornish artist Sidney Curnow Vosper (1866 - 1942) at Salem Baptist Chapel, Cefncymerau near Harlech in 1908. It depicts an elderly woman, Siân Owen, and other members of the congregation, wearing the traditional Welsh costume. A second Welsh work, ‘Market Day in Old Wales’, which is in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, depicts the same subject, Siân Owen, in her own home, where she is wearing the same costume and tall black hat. This shows clearly that the traditional costume was indeed being worn by ordinary Welsh women only 100 years ago, albeit in a ‘remote mountainous area’ and not in the streets of Newport.