Wales

  • Nest ferch Rhys-  The Helen of Wales

    Born the only legitimate daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, the last King of Deheubart around 1085, Nest ferch Rhys had an equally tumultuous life as her sister-in-law, Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd, whose story is told here:  http://www.historynaked.com/gwenllian-ferch-gruffydd/ Nest’s mother was a princess of Powys, another kingdom in western Wales.  When the Normans invaded in 1066, William I only pushed as far as Offa’s Dyke.  William made alliances with Welsh rulers, one of which was Nest’s father, and acknowledge the sovereignty of the Welsh princes.  This all changed when William died in 1087.  His successor, William Rufus, sent the Marcher Barons into Wales to take over.  The tentative peace was broken. At…

  • Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd

    Known as the “female Braveheart” and the “Welsh Maid Marion”, Gwenllian ferch Gryffydd is a certifiable bad ass.  She was born on Ynys Mon, the youngest child of Gruffudd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd, and his wife Angharad.  Gwenllian grew into a strikingly beautiful young woman, and was also very intelligent and highly educated.  The eleventh century was a turbulent time.  Conflict between the Welsh princes spilled over into the Welsh Marches, or border lands between Wales and England.  Also, there were incursions from the newly crowned Norman kings of England.  When Gwenllian was 16, a delegation of princes from the south came to parley with her father.  The beautiful…

  • Banshee

    A Banshee (“woman of the barrows”) is a female spirit in Irish mythology. Traditionally when a person died a woman would wail a lament at the funeral. These women are referred to as “keeners” and legend has it that for great Gaelic families the lament would be sung by a fairy woman; having foresight, she would sing it when a family member died, even if the person had died far away and news of their death had not yet come, so that the wailing of the banshee was the first warning the household had of the death. In later versions, the banshee might appear before the death and warn the…

  • Boxing Day

    It falls on the day after Christmas, when servants and tradesmen would receive gifts, known as a “Christmas box”, from their bosses or employers. It seems to have started around the 1830s. In Britain, it was a custom for tradespeople to collect “Christmas boxes” of money or presents on the first weekday after Christmas as thanks for good service throughout the year. This custom is linked to an older English tradition: since they would have to wait on their masters on Christmas Day, the servants of the wealthy were allowed the next day to visit their families. The employers would give each servant a box to take home containing gifts,…

  • The Mabinogion

    The tales in the Mabinogion were actually a series of stories that were passed down over the centuries from storytellers until someone decided to put them all together around the twelfth century. Its contents draw upon the myths, legends, and history of Celtic Britain: four branches of a storyline set largely within the confines of Wales and the otherworld. Compiled from texts found in two late-medieval manuscripts – the Red Book of Hergest and the White Book of Rhydderch – this collection was initially edited and translated by antiquarians William Pughe and Lady Charlotte Guest in the early nineteenth century. The tales comprise an ensemble of parts, the first four…