myguideBritain Blog

The Prince of Wales in Welsh

December 14th, 2007

I heard an interesting thing on the radio this morning. It was the Prince of Wales speaking Welsh. Now my first language is Welsh and it’s the language spoken by about half a million of us in Wales, but it was still a surprise to hear Charles speaking it. He was obviously reading it from a script but nonetheless his pronunciation was passable. Apparently, he’s purchased the Llwynywermwd estate located in Myddfai in Camarthenshire and in the short clip I heard, he talked of his love of the area and how much he’s looking forward to coming there to stay. As it happens Myddfai has a prominent place in Welsh folk lore, being associated with the tales of the “Physicians of Myddfai” (”Meddygon Myddfai” in Welsh) and “The Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach” ( Morwyn Llyn y Fan Fach) dating back to the 13^th century that are worth recounting.

Here’s a synopsis: Handsome farmer falls in love with a beautiful lady that appears to him sitting on a stone in the lake as he’s grazing his cattle around Llyn y Fan Fach. She keeps disappearing back into the cold waters of the lake but after a few days he finally gets his girl … on one condition. If he strikes her three times for any reason she’ll return to the lake (The “three strikes and out” rule goes back a long way baseball fans). They marry, have three boys and live happily but over the years and with no malice intended he strikes her a total of three times. She disappears back to the lake and he’s left to bring up the three sons who grow up big, strong and multi talented and could have been the richest men in Wales if they so wanted. That’s what having some fairy blood does to you I guess. They however turn their hand to being Physicians and their medicines were known throughout Wales for their healing powers. I do the story no justice so it’s worth doing a bit of further reading to get the full romantic angle. Try and get hold of “Welsh Legends and Folk Tales” by T. Gwynn Jones or “Myths and Legends of Wales” by Tony Roberts both of which I’m sure you’ll find on Amazon

Back to Prince Charles. The reason he was speaking Welsh was that he’s just recorded a Christmas message in Welsh and English for the local Camarthenshire talking newspaper for the blind that has 150 subscribers in the area. There’s a lot we can say about our monarchy - some good and some not so good - but I’m sure the 150 people who’ll be receiving their talking newspaper this week will have a very positive view of their soon to be new neighbour Prince Charles.

Entry Filed under: All of Britain, Literature, Wales