Stories, Myths & Legends
Wales is a land of stories, myths and legends.
Exploring the stories, myths and legends that have drawn from and shaped the landscape of Wales, will take you to some fascinating parts of this ancient land. And Cadw's historic sites can play their part. From King Arthur to Celtic rituals, the Mabinogion to dragons, famous plays to quiet prose, it’s all to be uncovered.
Much of the early mythology was not written down, but shared orally by Celtic Druids. Have you shared stories with your friends, can they retell them as you did? Later, the stories are captured — original texts such as the Book of Taliesin, the Book of Aneirin and the Red Book of Hergest are some of the earliest pros and stories in Welsh that give glimpses on a bygone age.
The last notably contains the Mabinogion, with its eleven great stories including the hero quest of "Culhwch and Olwen" to name but one – can you name the others? Much is unclear and there are many gaps which you may want to fill with your own stories. You could even turn them into Cartoons.
Later, great writers and poets have been inspired by our heritage and we hope you will be too! Shakespeare drew from Welsh stories and historic sites – can you make the links? Wordsworth wrote about Tintern Abbey, what historic place will you write about?
As well as the boathouse, Dylan Thomas used the summerhouse in Laugharne Castle to write. He wrote Portrait of The Artist as A Young Dog there. And there are many modern writers, maybe you can discover their stories.
