The dragon under the hill by Paul R Price

It is said that Wales has one hundred and thirty-seven mountains and hundreds upon hundreds of majestic rolling hills, which is a lot for such a small country. From the staggering Snowdonia range in the north to Pen Y Fan and the Brecon Beacons in the south. Mighty rises claim and command the landscape from Mynydd Moel, Tryfan and Cadair Idris to The Black Mountain, Bera Mawr and Great Rhos; Cadair Bronwen, Cyfrwy and The Drum to Fan Nedd, Yr Aran and so many more. These dramatic peaks have shaped a nation, a people and a culture. Bold and proud in a way it’s people are not. They are the source of life giving rivers, characters in every story in a country’s long history and the cradle of so many legends. Legends of giants, wizards, bards and knights; kings, princes, fairy-folk and druids; lake maidens, shape-shifters, giant birds and water horses; wolves, heroic dogs, witches and monsters.

Some legends live there still.

It’s one of those long held traditions, dogs chase cats, cats chase mice, mice like cheese and husbands make fun of their mother-in-law. In certain areas of Wales there is heard a tongue-in-cheek, playfully naughty but affectionate nickname for mother-in-laws, the ‘Grawen’. Which in the Welsh language can mean ‘crust’ or ‘rind’ but in this tradition, is taken to mean ‘Dragon’ (although ‘ddraig’ is the actual Welsh word for dragon).

This provides plentiful amusement for the husband, as the word can be pronounced in a tasty deep growl, rolling the ‘r’, for extra effect and he can double his fun if he can get his kids to call her it too.

But once, the odd mother-in-law wasn’t the only dragon terrifying the locals in the mountains and hills of Wales.

Before there were cities or towns, tarmac roads and concrete buildings, cars, trains, planes and bicycles, electric lights, gas cookers, radio and television; pylons, windfarms and communication masts; before there were cathedrals and churches, governments, hospitals or supermarkets, police, soldiers or doctors; before there were schools and teachers and exams; before the Romans, Anglo Saxons and Normans; before viaducts and canals, sewers and industry; before stainless steel, rubber or plastic; before there was medicine, science and even English; there was the greatest legend of them all, dragons.

Once, Wales was the land of Dragons.