Додатковий матеріал "DRAGONS OF WALES"

DRAGONS OF WALES

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. Welsh national identity emerged among the Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, and Wales is regarded as one of the modern Celtic nations. Although Wales closely shares its political and social history with the rest of Great Britain, and a majority of the population in most areas speaks English as a first language, the country has retained a distinct cultural identity and is officially bilingual. Over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west.

The Wales flag features a red Welsh dragon that has already become a national treasure.

But we will tell about the flag later.

For starters, we tell you about the Welsh dragons in general. 

The modern, western image of a dragon developed in western Europe during the Middle Ages through the combination of the snakelike dragons of classical Graeco-Roman literature, references to Near Eastern European dragons preserved in the Bible, and western European folk traditions. The period between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries represents the height of European interest in dragons as living creatures.

The oldest recognizable image of a fully modern, western dragon appears in a hand-painted illustration from the bestiary MS Harley 3244, which was produced in around 1260 AD.

Dragons are generally depicted as living in rivers or having an underground lair or cave. They are envisioned as greedy and gluttonous, with voracious appetites. They are often identified with Satan, due to the references to Satan as a "dragon" in the Book of Revelation.

Dragons are prominent in medieval heraldry. Uther Pendragon was famously said to have had two gold dragons crowned with red standing back-to-back on his royal coat of arms. Originally, heraldic dragons could have any number of legs, but, by the late Middle Ages, due to the widespread proliferation of bestiaries, heraldry began to distinguish between a "dragon" (which could only have exactly four legs) and a "wyvern" (which could only have exactly two). In myths, wyverns are associated with viciousness, envy, and pestilence, but, in heraldry, they are used as symbols for overthrowing the tyranny of Satan and his demonic forces. Late medieval heraldry also distinguished a dragon-like creature known as a "cockatrice". A cockatrice is supposedly born when a serpent hatches an egg that has been laid on a dunghill by a rooster and it is so venomous that its breath and its gaze are both lethal to any living creature, except for a weasel, which is the cockatrice's mortal enemy. A basilisk is a serpent with the head of a dragon at the end of its tail that is born when a toad hatches an egg that has been laid in a midden by a nine-year-old cockatrice. Like the cockatrice, its glare is said to be deadly.

The most common legend is that all dragons burn down villages, kill livestock and eat people. Dragons live for a very long time, unless some hero wants to kill him and save his princess from a terrible beast.

Now you have met dragons and we can tell you about the legend of the Welsh dragon.

Although an integral part of the United Kingdom, Wales is not represented on the national flag, or Union Flag, more popularly known as the Union Jack. The proud and ancient battle standard of the Welsh is The Red Dragon and consists of a red dragon, passant (standing with one foot raised), on a green and white background.

The current flag was officially adopted in 1959, and is based on an old royal badge used by British kings and queens since Tudor times. The red dragon itself has been associated with Wales for centuries, and as such, the flag is claimed to be the oldest national flag still in use. But why a dragon? The answer to that particular question is lost in history and myth.

The legend of Vortigern tells of the King attempting to escape from Anglo Saxon invaders by fleeing to Wales. He found the mysterious hill of Dinas Emrys and decided to build a castle there. His men set to work building the towers of the stronghold, only to find them collapsed the next day. This went on for weeks, until Vortigern was told the answer to the mystery would be found by a young boy who had no father.

Vortigern sent his men out far and wide to find such a child, and they eventually returned with a boy called Myrddin Emrys – or Merlin. Vortigern believed that he was meant to kill the child to stop the towers falling, but Merlin stopped him by explaining that the reason that the towers would not stay upright was that there was a battle raging beneath them between two dragons in a pool. One was White, the dragon of the Saxons, and it was currently winning the battle. The other was Red, the British Red Dragon. The boy pipes told Vortigern that the red dragon represented the people over which Vortigern ruled, whereas the white dragon represented the Saxons. There is one native dragon who inhabited the hill firstand a different, foreign breed of dragon who was fighting it for supremacy.

Not convinced? In 1945 the site was excavated by archaeologists who discovered a lake and the ruins of the fortress dating to Vortigern’s time. The walls all showed signs of having been rebuilt several times…

Later, the red dragon was even said to have been used as the British standard at the Battle of Crecy in 1346, when the Welsh archers, dressed in their beloved green and white, played such a crucial role in defeating the French.

During Henry VIII’s reign the red dragon on a green and white background became a favourite emblem on Royal Navy ships.

As the national flag of Wales, the red dragon appears to have regained popularity in the early part of the twentieth century, when it was used for the 1911 Caernarfon Investiture of Edward, Prince of Wales. It wasn’t until 1959 however, that it became officially recognised as the national flag of the country.

Вut not all people imagine dragons alike.

According to illustrator Todd Lockwood, dragons have much in common with cats, which is expressed in their structure and character, but snakes or lizards cannot be reminded. Dragons must have developed muscles to fly. The artist also considers them intelligent creatures.

Andy Frazer, artist and illustrator living in Wales, thinks that dragons still live in our world. In his opinion, modern dragons do not breathe fire and have evolved to small sizes.

His Welsh dragons look quite different to those found in fantasy literature and films. Their wings are slender, fragile membranes on each hand. And, whilst many legendary dragons, including the one on the Welsh flag, have six limbs (four legs and two wings) the Dragons of Wales have just four, in common with almost every other vertebrate creature on Earth today.