Wild Wales: The People, Language, & SceneryBorrow, George
General
Wild Wales: The People, Language, & Scenery
Borrow, George
Borrow, George, 1803-1881 -- Travel -- Wales; Wales -- Description and travel
Collen replied: “The red on the one side denotes burning, and the blue on
the other side denotes freezing.” Then drawing forth his sprinkler, he
flung the holy water in the faces of the king and his people, whereupon
the whole vision disappeared, so that there was neither castle nor
attendants, nor youth nor damsel, nor musician with his music, nor
banquet, nor anything to be seen save the green bushes.
The valley of the Dee, of which the Llangollen district forms part, is
called in the British tongue Glyndyfrdwy—that is, the valley of the Dwy
or Dee. The celebrated Welsh chieftain, generally known as Owen
Glendower, was surnamed after the valley, the whole of which belonged to
him, and in which he had two or three places of strength, though his
general abode was a castle in Sycharth, a valley to the south-east of the
Berwyn, and distant about twelve miles from Llangollen.
Connected with the Dee there is a wonderful Druidical legend to the
following effect. The Dee springs from two fountains, high up in
Merionethshire, called Dwy Fawr and Dwy Fach, or the great and little
Dwy, whose waters pass through those of the lake of Bala without mingling
with them, and come out at its northern extremity. These fountains had
their names from two individuals, Dwy Fawr and Dwy Fach, who escaped from
the Deluge, when all the rest of the human race were drowned, and the
passing of the waters of the two fountains through the lake, without
being confounded with its flood, is emblematic of the salvation of the
two individuals from the Deluge, of which the lake is a type.
Dinas Bran, which crowns the top of the mighty hill on the northern side
of the valley, is a ruined stronghold of unknown antiquity. The name is
generally supposed to signify Crow Castle, bran being the British word
for crow, and flocks of crows being frequently seen hovering over it. It
may, however, mean the castle of Bran or Brennus, or the castle above the
Bran, a brook which flows at its foot.
Dinas Bran was a place quite impregnable in the old time, and served as a
retreat to Gruffydd, son of Madawg, from the rage of his countrymen, who
were incensed against him because, having married Emma, the daughter of
James Lord Audley, he had, at the instigation of his wife and
father-in-law, sided with Edward the First against his own native
sovereign. But though it could shield him from his foes, it could not
preserve him from remorse and the stings of conscience, of which he
speedily died.
At present the place consists only of a few ruined walls, and probably
consisted of little more two or three hundred years ago: Roger Cyffyn, a
Welsh bard who flourished at the beginning of the seventeenth century,
wrote an englyn upon it, of which the following is a translation:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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