The Story of Merlin and Y Ddraig Goch (the Red Dragon of Wales)!

At Archaeosoup Towers, we love books! In this series we review books (Old and New) from the world of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Today I am delighted to continue sharing some of my favourite ancient Welsh stories. These stories are not only old, but they are still cherished today and formed a crucial part of my childhood in North Wales!

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Note: This video is not being directly monetized and the written story copyright remains the author's.

[rob]

Thanks for sharing this! As an American it's hard to find decent content relating to y ddraig goch. Helps me reconnect to my Welsh/Irish roots. I love these stories passed down for centuries.

[joalexsg]

Oh my goodness, you have such a natural flair for reading stories that I was just taking a look at the video before going to sleep and mark it as 'watch later' stuff and had to lie down and watch it through cause your narration was truly captivating!
I've loved Celtic cultures and languages for decades, and, for my tired eyes, whenever I can get something read out loud for free (some audio books are too expensive for me:-)), I take the chance promptly, cause I already have to read about too many subjects, to catch up with the time lost when I still worked (retired now) and could dedicate to my cultural passions. Thank you so much for this delightful reading!
Cymru am byth! May all the Celtic languages and cultures thrive and never die! Greetings from Brazil.
A must share, for sure!

[raserapps]

I live in Wales and was just randomly listening to Welsh mythology and history in the background, then I came across your channel/video.

Thank you for taking the time to do this, found t really enjoyable and I think you have a talent for reading/story telling

[sianroberts-jones]

Just came across this video. I’m from Bala in north Wales and moved to the US when I was about 8. I grew up hearing so many versions of this story depending on where in Wales I was. I love the way you told this because it is so close to the first telling of it I heard. Diolch! Hir fyw Cymru! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[sieglinde]

Watched this today during my first ever visit to Wales, at our campsite, just after dinner. Wonderful!

[mothratemporalradio]

I'm half asleep and not listening properly.. but dropping in to say it occurred to me around 8:30 when you were using silly voices for dialogue that you're a great storyteller! Easier said than done where dialogue and expressivity and overall tone and rhythm are concerned. Great stuff! Diolch from Australia - my grandmother was from South Wales. i love our Welsh history dearly, so this is a treat, given I'm on the other side of the world. Cheers and hope you are going well!

[wenofzen]

WOW! You are a gifted storyteller. I could SEE the dragons fighting!

[neodragon]

I LOVE this story. This is my first time hearing it, but my parents are of Irish, Scottish, and Welsh decent, and I am a huge dragon nut so this just fills me with joy that very few other stories have

[qUinnwd]

I love learning about old stories but especially welsh stories so thank you

[sherrirodarte]

Thank you so much for this story. I just purchased the Wales flag and wanted to learn more of the history of this flag. I have been drawn to this flag since childhood and the story that you had read has it made more enchanting.

[IanM]

Diolch yn fawr iawn! I'm an immigrant cymraeg living in Poland, and I just played this to show him our culture on Dydd Gwyl Dewi.

[stargirl]

What excellent story telling! Really enjoyed listening

[myrice]

Great story telling, you should do contracted audio books

Not much of a reader myself but was curious about Y Ddraig Goch, thanks for the informative story

[kushcloud]

My nan use to tell me it flys over Wales and protects Its people and rests on carphilly castel as a child

[cardiffcityforum]

Hi, enjoyed the video, always good to hear that story being retold. I have always been of the opinion that Arthurian legend has been stolen wholesale from Cymru and if you'd ask anyone around the world where they think King Arthur and his knights are from I bet they would answer "England", which is a bit perverse really.

The many reimaginings of Arthur in TV and film haven't helped, Wales pretty much never gets mentioned in any of them and we owe it to our nation to right this wrong at every opportunity.

Also, Dinas Emrys should be a much more famous Welsh landmark and treated with greater respect so I'm happy to see you shining a light on it with your channel.

Good luck and keep 'em coming!

[Penddraig]

Pendragon is a welsh word, you are making the common mistake of translating it using half welsh half English. The word dragon in welsh isn’t related to the mythical creature. Dragon is the welsh for a leader, so pendragon means the head leader, not the head dragon or head of the dragon, if it meant head dragon or head of the dragon it would be Penddraig not pendragon.
The English word Dragon meaning the mythical creature the welsh call Ddraig came from a mistranslation, they mistakingly used the welsh word Dragon (a leader) and that’s where the confusion started

[djowlz]

Well that was nice, thank you. Like you said, I vaguely remember being told this story growing up in Wales, so a nice sense of nostalgia for me, tho I haven't heard this version :)

[ZephyrBW]

This is so cool I’m actually trying to come up with us hero for Welsh and this story just gets better and better

[jcastproductions]

Subscribed! That was great! Learning more about my Motherland. My Mom's maiden last name is Owens!

[carolbibby]

Wonderful story, perfectly read! More please, looking forward to the next one.