Castles in Wales: Dolwyddelan Castle

Castles in Wales: Dolwyddelan Castle
Dolwyddelan Castle (Welsh: Castell Dolwyddelan) is a Welsh castle located near Dolwyddelan in Conwy County in North Wales. It was built in the 13th century by Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Gwynedd and North Wales.
Construction...
     The castle was built between roughly 1210 and 1240 as one of the Snowdonian strongholds of the princes of Gwynedd. It consisted of two rectangular towers linked by an irregular curtain wall.
History
     The Welsh castle functioned as a guard post along a main route through North Wales. On 18 January 1283 it was captured by Edward I of England's forces during the final stages of his conquest of Wales. The castle was then modified and strengthened for occupation by an English garrison.
Edwardian troops maintained a military presence here until 1290. As the long-term strategy of control in Wales began to rely on military and administrative centres accessible by sea, the inland castles became obsolete.
     In the 15th century, an upper storey was added to the keep by local lord Maredudd ap Ieuan. It was restored and partly re-modelled in the 19th Century by Lord Willoughby de Eresby, who added the distinctive battlements.
Present day
     The castle is now under the protection of CADW, which is part of the Welsh Assembly's historic environment division.
Media appearances
In 1980 the location was used for all the outdoor shots of Ulrich's castle during the making of the film Dragonslayer.

                    

The Welsh (or Welsh-Americans) have a way of popping up in the strange!

The Welsh (or Welsh-Americans) have a way of popping up in the strange!: The other Jefferson Davis. Union General Jefferson Davis shared a name with the Confederate president, a circumstance that didn’t cause as much confusion as might be expected—with one notable exception. During the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863, as darkness fell on Horseshoe Ridge, members of the 21st Ohio saw a swarm of men approaching but couldn’t tell if they were friend or foe. Most assumed they were Union reinforcements, but a few feared they were Confederates. As the troops grew closer, one Union soldier called out, “What troops are you?” The collective reply was “Jeff Davis’s troops.” The Ohio soldiers relaxed, believing they meant the Union general. A few moments later, they were staring down the muzzles and bayonets of the 7th Florida. The Ohioans surrendered. The Confederates won the battle.

 Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2011/11/the-civil-war-8-strange-and-obscure-facts-you-didnt-know/#ixzz2cWVnsMj6

Welsh Traditions: Cerdd Dant

Wales ~ Land Of My Fathers. <3

 Welsh Traditions: Cerdd Dant
Cerdd Dant (string music) is the art of vocal improvisation over a given melody in Welsh musical tradition. It is an important competition in eisteddfodau. The singer or (small) choir sings a counter melody over a harp melody.
History...
Cerdd Dant is a unique tradition of singing lyrics over a harp accompaniment. Traditional singers who sang in stately homes tended to sing in a Welsh language that had strict rules about metre, rhyme, and acceleration. Cerdd Dant is usually a soloist singer with a harp accompaniment; however, you can also have choirs with several harps. A common form is have a harp melody written down or a well known tune, while the vocalist improvises their own harmony while singing a poem.
When sung in a competition, there are strict rules about rhythm and cadences. When finishing a piece, the final verse has to end on a perfect cadence that is close to the home key so that the ending of the song is clear. In Wales, during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, two arts flourished side by side: cerdd dafod (the craft of the tongue, poetical craft) and cerdd dant (the craft of string music). The poets and musicians were part of an all-embracing bardic system. The poets wrote verse of an occasional nature, praising the exploits and virtues of their patrons: the Welsh nobility and high-ranking clergy. They also provided elegies, devotional poetry, commemorated the generous acts of their patrons and satirised certain people in verses which might have the intensity of curses. The art of poetry was learnt orally, i.e. examples were learnt by heart and exercises given as spoken instruction. Part of the poet or musician's craft was the ability to remember the important work of previous generations. One of the spurs to the active and generous patronage of poets must have been the prospect that one's name and deeds would live forever.
In descending social order came: poet, harper, crwth player and the specialised singer of bardic verse, datgeiniad. The crafts of poetry and instrumental music were interdependent and the performance of a new poem, at its most splendid, probably required the services of the datgeiniad, harpist and/or crwth player; no doubt superintended by the poet. Between the beginning of the 14th century and the end of the 16th century Welsh poetical forms were brought to an extreme pitch of elaborationSee mo

Valle Crucis Abbey, Cymru/Wales

 

Valle Crucis Abbey was founded in 1201 by Madog ap Gruffydd Maelor, on the site of a temporary wooden church and was the last Cistercian monastery to be built in Wales. Originally founded in the principality of Powys Fadog, Valle Crucis was the spiritual centre of the region, while Dinas Bran was the political stronghold. The abbey took its name from the nearby Pillar of Eliseg, which was erected four centuries earlier by Cyngen ap Cadell, King of Powys in memory of his great-grandfather, Elisedd ap Gwylog.
Madog was buried in the then-completed abbey upon his death in 1236. His heraldic slab was excavated from the site in 1956. Not long after Madog's death, it is believed that a serious fire badly damaged the abbey, with archaeological evidence that the church and south range were affected.
The location on which Valle Crucis was raised was originally established as a colony of twelve monks from Strata Marcella, an earlier abbey located on the western bank of the River Severn near Welshpool. The original wooden structure was replaced with stone structures of roughly faced rubble. The completed abbey is believed to have housed about sixty brethren, 20 choir monks and 40 lay-members who would have carried out the day-to-day duties including agricultural work. The numbers within the church fluctuated throughout its history and the monks and the abbey itself came under threat from various political and religious events. The abbey is believed to been involved in the Welsh Wars of Edward I of England during the 13th century, and was supposedly damaged in the uprising led by Owain Glyndŵr. Numbers also fell after the Black Death ravaged Britain.
The fortunes of Valle Crucis improved during the 15th century, and the abbey gained a reputation as a place of hospitality. Several important Welsh poets of the period spent time at the abbey including Gutun Owain, Tudur Aled and Guto'r Glyn. Guto'r Glyn spent the last few years of his life at the abbey, and was buried at the site in 1493.
In 1537, Valle Crucis was dissolved, as it was deemed not prosperous compared to the more wealthy English abbeys. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the site fell into disrepair, and the building was given to Sir William Puckering on a 21 year lease by Henry VIII. The lease was renewed under the reign of Henry's son Edward VI in 1551, but after Sir William's death in 1574, the property was passed to his daughter, Hestor. In 1575 Hestor married Edward Wotton, 1st Baron Wotton, and the lease was extended to Baron Wotton in 1583 by Elizabeth I. By the late 16th century the eastern range was converted into a manor house. Valle Crucis remained with the Wotton family, and was inherited by the 2nd Baron Wotton, but upon his death it was passed to Hestor Wotton, his third daughter. Hestor married Baptist Noel, 3rd Viscount Campden and the abbey entered the family's ownership, before being sold shortly afterwards when the estate was sequestered by Parliament in 1651. By the late 18th century the building that remained were re-roofed and the site was used as a farm, before excavations were undertaken in the later half of the 19th century. The site is now cared for by Cadw, and is an open visitor attraction.
Architectural layout
Valle Crucis Abbey consisted of the church plus several adjoining out buildings which enclosed a square courtyard. The church itself ran West to East in the traditional cruciform style, today much of the original church is ruined, though the west end front wall survives, including the masonry of the rose window. The outbuildings including the adjoining east range, which survives mainly intact and the west range, which housed the lay brethren’s frater, but is now demolished. Completing the four sides of the inner courtyard was the southern frater and kitchen, which faced the church; these two building are also now ruins, with only foundation stones remaining. The east and west ranges housed the cloisters, with the east range also leading to the final structure, the abbot's lodgings which settled between the range and the church but outside the courtyard. The site is also home to the only remaining monastic fishpond in Wales, but suffered from being remodelled as a reflecting pool in the 18th century.
As well as the west end front wall, extensive parts of the east end of the structures survive to the present day. The chancel walls, the southern part of the transept, the east range of the cloister together with the chapter house and sacristy and the lower part of the reredorter all survive mainly intact. In 1870 the west end wall was restored by George Gilbert Scott.

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EMBLEMS OF WALES-The leek and the daffodil

EMBLEMS OF WALES
The leek and the daffodil
According to legend, St David ordered Welsh soldiers to wear leeks in their helmets in battle that took place in a ...field full of leeks against the Saxons to avoided striking their own countrymen and it helped to secure a great victory. What is known is that in the 14th century, possibly at the Battle of Crecy, Welsh archers used green and white uniforms to identify themselves and in the 16th century there is a reference to the leek in the account book of Princess Mary Tudor. Shakespeare then refers to the custom of wearing a leek as an "ancient tradition" and whose character Henry V tells Fluellen that he is wearing a leek "for I am Welsh, you know, good countryman."
Throughout the years, leeks have been associated with the practice of medicine. The famous Myfddfai Physicians of Carmarthenshire used the vegetable to cure a variety of illnesses. It was highly regarded as a cure for the common cold, a protection against wounds in battle or being struck by lightning, a means of foretelling the future, of keeping away evil spirits and a tasty, healthy ingredient in cawl, the traditional Welsh broth. If placed under a pillow, leeks could help young maidens see an apparition of their future husbands as well as assist in alleviating the pains of childbirth.
The leek is worn in the caps of today's Welsh soldiers every year on St. David's Day. On the same day, in the prestigious Welsh Guards Regiment, a large raw leek has to be eaten by the youngest recruit to the cheers of his comrades. The green and white plume worn in the "Bearskin" hats of the Guards also identifies them as belonging to the Welsh Regiment.
The leek is often substituted with the daffodil, probably as a result of the similarity of their names in Welsh, as the Welsh for leek is Cenhinen, while the Welsh for daffodil is Cenhinen Bedr. Over the years it has become adopted as a second emblem of Wales.

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Welsh Recipes: Glamorgan cheese sausage rolls

                                       

Welsh Recipes: Glamorgan cheese sausage rolls
Ingredients
For the pastry
...
175g gluten-free flour (we used Doves Farm, widely available)
85g butter
pinch cayenne pepper
1 egg yolk mixed with 3 tbsp cold water
For the filling
100g gluten-free breadcrumbs
100g Caerphilly cheese, grated
1 small leek, finely chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds, crushed
3 egg yolks
handful tarragon or thyme leaves (optional)
Method
To make the pastry, put the flour, butter and cayenne pepper into a food processor, then whiz into fine breadcrumbs. sprinkle the egg and water mixture onto the flour and pulse again until the mixture begins to come together. Tip the mixture onto a board, then gently squeeze the pastry until it begins to come together in a ball, adding more water if it feels dry. Divide the mixture in half, roll each piece into a 12 x 30cm rectangle and slip onto a baking sheet. Do not chill.
Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Mix the filling ingredients together, except one egg yolk, which you need for glazing, in a food processor. Divide in two and roll each into a 30cm-long sausage shape. Lay a cheese sausage on one side of the pastry. Brush the sausage and pastry with egg yolk and fold the pastry over the top to encase the sausage. Seal the two edges, trim the ends, then cut into 2cm pieces. Arrange on a baking sheet and chill for 30 mins.
Brush the rolls with a little more egg yolk, place herbs on top, if you like, then bake for 12-15 mins until golden brown.See more