Bedd­ge­lert, a vil­la­ge in the Snow­do­nia Na­ti­o­nal Park, is the set­ting for a fa­mous

le­gend - the story of Dinas Emrys, the moun­tain home of the dra­gon you see on

Welsh flags.

Way, way back in the fifth cen­tu­ry the Celtic King Vor­ti­gern wan­ted to built a

cas­t­le on the moun­tain Dinas Emrys. From here he hoped to es­cape the Sa­xons,

who in­va­ded Bri­tain and Wales. Every night his people laid down their tools to

get some sleep and every night the ca­re­ful­ly built walls got kno­cked down. It

hap­pen­ed day after day until Vor­ti­gern asked ma­gi­ci­ans for help. They said that

he had to sprink­le the bloed of a ma­gi­ci­an’s child on the hill. Vor­ti­gern se­ar­ched

for a child and found it in a small vil­la­ge.

But the child, Myrd­din Emrys (or Mer­lin}, was no or­di­na­ry child. In fact, he was

Mer­lin, the wi­zard. Mer­lin told Vor­ti­gern that two dra­gons were slee­ping under

the cas­t­le at a lake in­si­de the moun­tain, which de­s­troy his cas­t­le every night.

Vor­ti­gern told his workers to dig deep into the moun­tain.

His workers dis­co­ver­ed an un­der­ground lake with two slee­ping dra­gons (one red

and one white). The red and white dra­gon woke up and

began to fight.

The red dra­gon, which re­pre­sen­ted Vor­ti­gern’s people

(Bri­tish people}, fought the white dra­gon, which

re­pre­sen­ted the Sa­xons. In the end the red dra­gon won.

That is why the red dra­gon flies over many buil­dings in

Wales - as a sym­bol of the Welsh people. So, be ca­re­ful

where you roam in Wales ...re­mem­ber: let slee­ping

dra­gons lie.