All about the dragon
The Story
The Last Dragon in Wales was killed in Newcastle Emlyn….
Long ago, the townsfolk were gathered for the annual fair at the foot of the hill behind the castle of this small market town. Drovers with horses, cattle, pigs and sheep. Flower girls with baskets, milk maids with churns. Tailors, butchers and bakers with stalls. Children taking apples from the old women’s fruit tables. Jugglers, fiddlers and clog dancers with music and song.
They drank ale, picnicked and some cooled in the hot sun by splashing in the glistening waters of the surrounding river Teifi and its cascading white water weir.
Suddenly, a dark shadow came overhead and with it a strange noise…loud and roaring.. like a wild fire on the rampage. The people looked up above the castle. Some froze in fear, and others quaked in their leather boots and wooden clogs …for there, in the sky above them, was an enormous winged serpent…a dragon… circling down towards them.
They watched with bulging eyes and open mouths as this scaly green creature landed near the mast of the flag flying high upon one of the turrets. And there it drew in its huge wings, as if to rest, or even sleep. The people below ran around in panic. Flowers scattered, milk spilled, apples rolled all over the ground and stalls crashed in the chaos.
One amongst them, a tall young man strode to the front of the crowd, a red shawl under his arm, and a musket over his shoulder. He waded in to the river until he was waist deep and spread the shawl over his shoulders and took steady aim. A shot rang out. The hero dived beneath the water and swam to the far bank.
The fatally wounded Dragon swooped towards the remaining red floating shawl and in its dying fury, ripped at it with its black talons. Writhing in a whirlpool of blood, shawl and venom the serpent sank beneath the water as the river washed its body away, never to be seen again.
The Last Dragon of Wales had been killed.
The version above is a well known and recorded legend of Newcastle Emlyn…typically told where we see the hero is good to rid us of the scary Dragon. Though it all depends whose side you take…
Stories are passed down, over hundreds of years by many tellers. Later written down in history, often from one point of view for entertainment or political propaganda. The castle in Newcastle Emlyn is one of the few built by the Welsh, and tracing back through different versions of the story is a fascinating exploration of Welsh history, of invasions, occupations and resistance.
Research reveals that the story originated as a record of a battle in 1403 when Welsh Prince Owain Glyndwr seized the castle from its occupiers. His red/golden dragon flag was to fulfil medieval/ Merlin’s prophecy of the red dragon rising up against invaders. The falling of his flag after only two weeks and the accompanying bloodshed as the castle was reoccupied ended this resistance.
So we choose to tell our story from the…Heart of the Dragon.
All around the world, for thousands of years, the dragon was a creature representing the
power of nature, and still is beloved and revered in many cultures.
In Wales we see the magnificent creature on our flag, a symbol of national pride of our land.
Baby Dragon
Our town’s story needed a new and different chapter to move us on from the wounds of history and to fulfill a prophecy. So on Midsummer Eve 2006, over a hundred people called to the Spirit of the Last .Dragon from the castle ruins in Newcastle Emlyn.
A reply came in the form of a coracle floating in the river bearing a magical dragons egg. Tended by the children of the town, the egg was invited to travel to Poland and Ireland over the coming year, and our egg grew…and grew.
At the first Heart of the Dragon Festival in July 2007 we stepped into the story of our castle with a medieval fayre and re enactment of the battle of the Last Dragon.
The 2007 Dragon Festival
Children made dragon puppets, props and historical costumes. There were rural crafts, birds of prey, music, storytelling, puppets, making of a willow dragon, fireworks and much, much more.
An exhibition of the history of the castle and Owain Glyndwr was on display at Hanes Emlyn and Attic Players performed a play of The Last Dragon. Local schools, community groups and youth groups made processional dragons for a parade through the town alongside marching bands, stilt walkers and jugglers as our celebration at the return of the dragon.
Our giant egg hatched… and the birth of the First New Welsh Baby Dragon was celebrated.