By Erin Grace Thomson // Dec. 24, 2019
The beast had sprung from Dinas Emrys as his body broke free of soil and rock
and the sky had erupted into a storm of poetry and war;
not even the cauldron Amen had been able to stir the people of Wales, as their faces turned to shock.
The red dragon had summoned his power and potioned a reality more pleasing than lore.
Even in their darkest hour, he summoned power from Ceridwyn!
His fire moved like the streams of blood seeping into the ground.
she beckoned for him to fight for Wales and win!
The dragon had already proved
how he could accomplish what humanity can not.
Mightier than any warrior or king or priest for that matter!
His scales glowed crimson as steam erupted from his nostrils—
and his wings enveloped the entirety of Snowdonia!—the people were silent—not even a mutter.
The only sound that could be heard was the cry of swords and the screams of the red one.
The dragon had awoken and defended his people like a loaded gun.
Arawn’s sword grew solemn in Annwn—watching the red one from afar.
Innocent souls had been traveling to him for days, through sun and moonlight.
The dullen place seemed less like a paradise...until he looked to the stars—
yet the stars had only been more souls arriving to the eternal night.
Ceridwyn sang a hymn to soothe the dead, as she watched the king send his hounds into the sky,
where they saw the ash, coal, and fire of Snowdonia.
They watched as the dragon mourned his fallen fellows, and condemned those who lie.
For the first time in centuries, they had seen Arawn shed a tear, for those who claimed paradise—
The land had been a place where he would maybe see one or two souls a week.
But this had been a tragedy.
The people had been stripped of their honor and were weak
until the mighty dragon appeared and fought with them for family and poetry.
And at the end of the war the dragon began to rest on the hill where it once laid—
Its breathe became poetry in the eyes of children and Nature became anew in the land of song.
HISTORY
AMEN: cauldron of inspiration in welsh mythology
ANNWN: welsh underworld in mythology, filled with food and has no disease, similar to the Christian paradise
ARAWN: god of the dead, war, and terror and ruler of the welsh underworld
CERIDWYN: enchantress from medieval Wales
CYMRU: the welsh word for Wales
THE RED DRAGON: It is widely believed in welsh lore that when Wales faces their darkest hour, the red dragon, which rests underneath Dinas Emrys in Snowdonia, will awaken and defend its nation (this is similar to the idea that if the crow leaves the Tower of London, England will fall soon after). It is said that the red dragon was attacked by a white dragon/wyvern called gwiper (viper) and that is the beginning of the story as to how the dragons ended up inside of the hill. When people discovered them, the red dragon looked like he had no fight left in him and yet he still defeated the white dragon. The red dragon is specific to Wales and gives Wales its energy and is fierce and benevolent. Most dragons were seen to be violent and known to attack but the welsh dragon is the exception.
*these are rough translations of the lore*
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