My daughter and I have just booked to go to the Celtic Folk Festival being held in March in Porthcawl and I was very interested to see that 2017 has been designated the "Year of Legend" in Wales. No doubt a carefully thought-out marketing ploy on the part of the Welsh Tourist Board, but a highly appropriate one nonetheless. I can't think of anywhere else with so many, or such fascinating, myths and legends, from many of the Arthurian tales to the magical stories in the Mabinogion. One of my favourites is about Idris, the giant warrior poet who sits on his chair - the mountain Cadair Idris - to contemplate the heavens. Any mortal spending the night on his mountain needs to be brave or foolhardy - they will wake from sleep either a lunatic or a poet too!
Last spring I began a series of poems based on Celtic legends but other work got the better of me and the poems went on hold. They've come to the top of the to-do list again though, as soon as my big project is finished, and I'm really looking forward to revisiting all the stories - and hopefully their settings too, as I want to illustrate the poems with relevant photos. Roll on the spring, when I shall hopefully have the time, and some better weather, in which to do so!
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Lake above Llandecwyn -
Excalibur's final resting place? |
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