Summary 6

Wales

Wales and England have always had a close relationship since the 13th century when the English King took control of Wales. Also Welsh is a living language, 25 per cent of Welsh people know it well.

Food:

You will see a lot of sheep in the countryside, its normal to find Welsh lamb often in the menu! Black laverbread is a paste for breakfast and the Welsh rarebit and Bara Brith are the typical Welsh dishes.

Sport:

Rugby is the most popular sport in Wales; also football, cricket and snooker are also popular.

The Land of Song:

The Welsh national song is called ‘Land of my Father’. Its famous for its men’s choirs and they often sing before rugby matches.

Katherine Jenkins and Bryn Terfel are two successful opera singers from Wales. Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Duffy .. Are international singing stars and there are bands such as the Manic Street Preachers.

The Eisteddfod:

It means ‘to be sitting together’. It’s an annual meetting of poets, musicians, singers, and sometimes dancers who compete for prices. It attracts over 6.000 competitors and 15.000 visitors.

Iconic places:

Cardiff is the capital of Wales it was named the European City of Sport in 2009. The second largest city is Swansea, near there are some prize-winning beaches; Oxwich Bay; Three Cliffs Bay and Rhosssily Bay. Saint David’s is the smallest city in the Uk under 2.000 people, but it’s has a magnificent cathedral. Snowdonia is a national park in North Wales. It includes mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls.. The name comes from the highest mountains, Mount Snowdon.

There are a lot of important castles in Wales such as Caernarfon, Harlech, Beaumirs and Conwy, because the English King Edward I wanted to control Wales and he built huge castles to protect Wales. Portmeirion is an Italian-style village in the North Wales, also there are many other beautiful areas in Wales, such as Cardigan Bay, the Pembrokeshire Coast, the island of Anglesey…

Iconic people:

Llewellyn the Great and Owen Glendower are two heroes for the Welsh people. Henry Morgan was a Welsh Pirate who robbed ships and towns in the Caribbean in the 17th century. In recent times there have been many famous Welsh people: writers like Dylan Thomas, actors like Catherine Zeta Jones and Anthony Hopkings, politicians like Aneurin Bevan. Richard Burton was the first world-famous Welsh actor.

 

Welsh legend: King Arthur and Barnwen

Some people says that the story of King Arthur and the knights of the round table was in Wales, another’s says that was in England. But the first time that anyone wrote about Arthur was in Welsh literature. Also on Bardsey Island there is a cave where local stories says that Arthur and Merlin where there. Another legend is about a girl called Branwen, whose brother was a gain and a King in Wales.