Oldways

Welsh Dragons Legend

The legend of Y Ddraig Goch, the Red Dragon of Wales, from the dragons of Dinas Emrys in the Mabinogion to the boy-prophet Myrddin and the prophecy of the mab darogan.

The Red Dragon of Wales — Y Ddraig Goch in the Welsh language — is one of the oldest and most resonant national symbols in Europe. It now flies on the flag of Wales and on the badges of its sporting teams, but its story is far older than the flag, and it carries with it a tangled skein of prophecy, kingship, and the long memory of a defeated people. The dragon of Wales is at once a creature of fire and worm, a sign of national survival, and a figure in a story about prophecy, childhood, and the violence of history.

This article is part of the Celtic Folklore section, which itself sits within the wider survey of European Folklore. It traces the legend of the Welsh dragon from its earliest appearances in the medieval Welsh tales known as the Mabinogion to its place on the modern flag.

The Two Dragons of Dinas Emrys

The best-known dragon story in Welsh tradition is found in the Mabinogion, in the tale of Lludd and Llefelys. The brothers Lludd and Llefelys are kings of Britain, and at the time of the story Britain is in the grip of a great terror: a scream heard every May Eve that is so terrible that it leaves the land barren, the warriors speechless, and the king’s own court emptied of its senses.

Lludd turns to his brother Llefelys, king of France, for help. Llefelys advises him to find the centre of the island and to dig a pit at that point. There Lludd finds two dragons — a red dragon and a white dragon — fighting in a pool of water. Lludd captures them both and buries them in the strongest part of the citadel of Dinas Emrys in Gwynedd. So long as the dragons lie bound within the hill, the land knows peace.

The two dragons are not mere beasts. They are, in the older mythic reading, the dragons of the Britons and the dragons of the Saxons — the red dragon of the native Welsh and the white dragon of the invader, locked in endless struggle. The binding of the dragons in the hill is a magical act that keeps the conflict underground and allows the surface of the land to be lived in.

The Boy Without a Father

The story does not end with Lludd. Some generations later a new king, Vortigern, attempts to build a castle on the hill of Dinas Emrys, but every night the walls collapse and the work is undone. His magi tell him that the foundations will never hold until they are sprinkled with the blood of a child who has no father. The king’s men search the kingdom for such a boy, and they find one in the care of his mother in the city of Caer Myrddin. His name is Myrddin Emrys — Merlin, in the later English form.

The boy is brought to Vortigern and, when the king explains the problem, the child laughs. He tells the king that there is a pool beneath the hill, and that in the pool are two dragons fighting. Drain the pool, he says, and the cause of the collapse will be revealed. Vortigern has the pool drained, and there, just as the boy has said, are the two dragons, red and white, locked in combat. The red dragon is winning.

The boy explains that the red dragon is the dragon of the Britons and the white dragon is the dragon of the Saxons. The Britons will lose for a time, he says, but at the end they will prevail. The child Myrddin is not merely a child; he is a prophet whose laughter is the laughter of one who can see the end of things.

The Prophecy of the Mab Darogan

The story of the boy Myrddin on Dinas Emrys is also the source of one of the most important prophecies in Welsh tradition: the prophecy of the mab darogan, the “son of prophecy”. Myrddin foretells a great future leader of the Welsh, who will come from the line of the princes of Wales and who will drive the English out of Britain and restore the island to its rightful rulers.

The line of the mab darogan is traditionally counted from Cadwaladr Fendigaid (Cadwaladr the Blessed), a king of Gwynedd of the late seventh century. The prophecy goes through many figures: Owain Glyndŵr in the fifteenth century, and even, in some readings, Henry Tudor when he landed at Milford Haven in 1485. The point of the prophecy is the idea of a coming restoration: the red dragon sleeps in the hill, and one day he will wake.

The Red Dragon on the Field

The most famous appearance of the dragon of Wales in history is at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Henry Tudor, claiming the throne of England, marched from his landing in Wales to meet the army of King Richard III. As he did so, he is said to have displayed, as his standard, a red dragon on a white field — the dragon of Cadwaladr, the dragon of the destined son. After Henry’s victory it became one of the recognised emblems of the Tudor monarchy, and from there, eventually, into the modern flag of Wales.

Other Dragon Stories of Wales

The two dragons of Dinas Emrys are the most famous, but Welsh tradition is rich in local dragon legends, attached to specific hills, stones, and pools. Near Aberystwyth in Ceredigion, the hill of Pen Dinas is the site of a dragon story: a serpent-like beast once lived in a cave on the hill, and it is said to have been slain by a soldier of the legendary king Vortigern. The hill, in prehistory, was the site of an Iron Age fort, and the dragon legend is part of the older cycle of stories that grew up around such strong places.

The church and village of Llanddewi Brefi in Ceredigion are the site of a dragon story tied to the early Welsh saint Dewi Sant (Saint David). A great worm once lived beneath the ground near the present church, and Saint David’s prayers caused the earth to open and the beast to be swallowed up.

Across the Welsh countryside, smaller dragon stories are attached to lakes, caves, and pools. A common form is the afanc, a lake-monster of Welsh lakes that resembles a crocodile. The afanc of Llyn Barfog, of Llyn Cwrstabl, and of Llyn y Dywarchen are all remembered in local tale, and they belong to a wider family of lake-monsters that includes the Scottish Kelpie.

The Dragon and the Saint

The Welsh dragon has another, more Christian identity. The dragon of legend is sometimes set in opposition to a saint: Saint Iltyd, Saint Cadoc, Saint David, and others are all credited with the destruction or taming of dragons. The pattern is familiar from the wider European tradition, in which St George, the patron saint of England, is the great dragon-slayer, but the Welsh pattern is older, and it shows how the older creature could be absorbed into the saint’s legend without losing its strangeness.

The Modern Flag

The modern Welsh flag, with the red dragon passant on a green and white field, has been a focus of national feeling for centuries. The flag was, in a sense, given back to the Welsh people by the Tudor monarchy after Bosworth, and it has come to symbolise a Welshness that is at once ancient and modern. The dragon of the flag is recognisably the same creature that sleeps in the hill of Dinas Emrys, but the meaning has been reworked: it is no longer a sign of restoration against an invader, but a sign of identity in a multi-national state.

Sources and Further Reading

  • Gruffydd, W. J. Rhiannon: An Inquiry into the First and Third Branches of the Mabinogi. University of Wales Press, 1953.
  • Loomis, Roger Sherman. The Grail: From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol. Princeton University Press, 1991.
  • Ford, Patrick K. The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales. University of California Press, 1977.
  • Davies, Sioned. The Mabinogion. Oxford World’s Classics, 2007.

See Also