Welsh Celtic Crafts
Handmade in our own workshop using fine quality casting powder & weatherproof coatings
Wales
is an inspirational, culturally rich nation which shares the island
of Great Britain with Scotland
and England.
The border which separates Wales
from England
closely traces "Offa's Dyke", a 149 mile trench construction
established in the 8th Century. The thriving culture of Wales
follows in traditions which can be sourced to the Dark Ages - some of the
world's oldest customs were first practised here in ancient times by Welsh
druids. Caerleon, one of the Welsh towns associated with King
Arthur's court, was in earlier times a very significant Roman garrison, and
includes remains from the largest Roman amphitheatre outside Italy.
It was from south western Wales that the Bluestones of Presseli were mysteriously transported by the Welsh to Stonehenge in England!
At this time, the island of Great
Britain was a wholly Celtic country.
Wales is the accepted birthplace of Merlin (legendary
magician to King Arthur) and many scholars agree that the ancient Celtic King
held round table in Wales. He existed during the era historically
associated with Welsh folklore, which describes a lost magical kingdom when
sleeping dragons, trolls, Kings, knights and chivalry co-existed.
Many natives of Wales
speak a mother tongue acknowledged as the oldest surviving language in Europe
- the celebrated Welsh language is a thousand years older than English and can
still be heard spoken in Welsh communities to this day. The people of Wales
are by nature passionate, expressive and creative - famous for singing, acting,
storytelling, politics and poetry. Wales
is renowned as "the Land of Song"
and is particularly famous for the finest massed choirs. Wales
has also given birth to vocalists Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Charlotte Church
and rock bands Stereophonics, Manic Street Preachers and Lost Prophets. World
famous, highly acclaimed Welsh screen actors are Anthony Hopkins, Richard
Burton, Ray Milland and Catherine Zeta Jones, to name a few.
“I didn’t ask to be born Welsh …. I was just
lucky”
When Britain was covered
in a forest blanket, The Green Man was the spirit and the belief of our
ancestors. Symbolizing nature’s birth, death and regeneration he is an ancient
spirit, the "Old Man of the Woods".
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Celtic Green Man ORNAMENT - HOME & GARDEN
Please Note: Indoors the colour is darker but as you can see from the picture, sunlight enhances his features!!!!
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We take great care and pride in creating our
very special Green Man! Individually handcast in fine casting powder and is
hand finished using weatherproof masonry paints. He has a strong integral back
hook for immediate hanging and measures
9” tall
x
7” across
| Images of the Green Man
have been found all over Wales, Scotland, England, Ireland and Continental Europe. He appears on 2nd century
Roman columns in Turkey and at Jain temples in Rajasthan. India and Malaysia have their own Green Man and in his
modern role as a bringer of fortune on the walls of banks in New York and Chicago.
His face stares down at us
from the roofs, pillars and doorways of our great cathedrals and churches (some
say they were included in order to persuade the old Pagans into the new
Christian religion!) His roots go back to the shadow hunters who painted the
caves of Lascaux and Altimira and climb through history, through the
time of Robin Hood and the Morris Dances of Old England. He is chiselled in
wood and stone even to this day by men and women who no longer know his story
but sense that something old, strong and tremendously important lies behind his
leafy mask. One of the earliest English epic poems Gawain and The Green Knight,
refers to a manifestation of the Green Man as the God that dies and is reborn.
He is the Green Man, Jack in the Green, the Old Man of the Woods, Green George
and many other things to many other men but one common theme runs through all
the disparate images and myths: death, rebirth and the Green that is all life.
Nowadays, increasingly many
people are feeling an affinity with nature and the Green Man enjoys new
popularity in many gardens and homes.. |
Celtic Wales ... is a land of witchcraft and
dragons, with a legacy of colourful mythology and renowned supernatural
mystery.
Welsh culture and identity has been characterised down the centuries
by Celtic myth, legend and fantasy. | Welsh Red Dragon
ORNAMENT - HOME & GARDEN
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Our cute little dragon is made in our own workshop. He is handcast in fine casting powder and is hand finished with a
glittered rock base and weatherproof varnish measuring
6" LONG x 3" HIGH x 5" WIDE
| The Mabinogion tells the tale of the imprisonment of
two Dragons in Dinas Emrys on Snowdon and is one of the
most curious legends. Their combats five centuries later
led to the discovery of the enchanter Merlin which opens the great drama
of Arthurian Romance. This story is also found in Nennius'
Historia Brittonum in the eighth century....
Vortigern
being forced to retire from his kingdom, in consequence of his various
delinquencies, took refuge in Snowdon and, finding Dinas
Emrys an eligible spot, commenced building a tower there. But, to his great
dismay, he found that whatever he that whatever he built in the daytime always
fell down in the succeeding night. Having consulted his magicians upon the
cause of this mystery, they told him that unless he could find a child without
a father and sprinkle the tower with his blood, it would never stand. Upon this
Vortigern despatched messengers in every direction to search for the required
victim and, at length they lit upon Merlin, whom they brought to Vortigern that
he might be slain. But the boy exposed the ignorance and imposture of the
magicians and caused the ground to be dug at the foundation of the building,
where they found two sleeping dragons, one white and the other red. These
dragons, awaking from their sleep, commenced a furious conflict. The white one at
first had the advantage of the red but eventually the red dragon prevailed and
expelled his opponent. Merlin informed them that the red was the British
(the people whom the Saxons failed to subdue and who became the Welsh) dragon
and the white one that of the invading Saxons. Then it was, according to
Geoffrey and the Brut, that Merlin uttered the celebrated prophecy concerning
the fate of Britain.
Vortigern departing thence to seek some other place of refuge bestowed that
citadel upon the wonderful child, who declared his name to be Merlin Ambrosius
and, after whom the spot was called Dinas Emrys.
Whatever date or origin may be assigned to this
legend, it is well known that the red dragon has long been the national
standard of the Welsh. Henry VII (Tudor) bore it at Bosworth and afterwards
established the heraldic office of Rouge Dragon in honour of the occasion. |
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