Wales - TV Tropes

Cymru, the land of the Welsh Dragon, Tom Jones, the revival of Doctor Who, Torchwood and the rest of The BBC Sci-fi/fantasy TV programmes.

In Roman times, the whole of Great Britain was inhabited by various Celtic societies. During the Dark Ages, the Germanic Anglo-Saxons invaded and took over most of the island, but one of the parts they didn't initially take over was the little corner we now call Wales.^note  Wales was conquered by the English in The Middle Ages and became legally a part of the Kingdom of England — which is why there's no "Welsh Bit" of the Union Jack, which was formed from the flags of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and, later, Ireland. Being conquered and repressed has given Wales both a strong sense of identity and the mother of all chips on shoulders. Do not call Welsh people "English"; it will cause immediate and lasting discomfort (ditto for Scottish and Irish people).

Welsh History in Five Minutes

Because of the continuty of the Welsh with earlier Brittonic peoples (see Celtic Kingdoms) Wales as a distinct entity doesn't have a clear starting point. However, by the late Dark Ages there would have been a distinct sense of the Welsh being a people in their own right, speaking a different language to the English. Welsh Mythology has its origins in this period, and the conflict with the Anglo-Saxons (i.e. the English) often features prominently in Welsh legend, particularly in those concerning King Arthur - the oldest in any language and generally agreed to be the origin of that particular figure - whom in Welsh legend is a hero who successfully resists the Anglo-Saxon invasion - at least for a while.

Much like Ireland, for much of its history both before and after this point Wales was fractured into numerous minor kingdoms ruled by individual houses, whose leaders were usually identified by the Welsh word Tywysog which is usually translated into English as Prince; the terms are not really equivalent though and Welsh Princes should not be understood as being subordinate to a King in the way we would understand a Prince to be in English^note . Only occasionally were these various small kingdoms ever politically united, and rarely for long; on these occasions the successful ruler might claim the title Tywysog Cymru i.e. Prince of Wales, a title now given to the heir to the English throne (long story). By a quirk of Welsh legal tradition all sons would inherit equal portions of their father's estate, rather than the eldest and designated heir getting everything: this made it very difficult to establish lasting political dynasties because things would simply fracture again as soon as the Tywysog died.

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, also known in Wales as Llywelyn the Last, was one such ruler who had largely united the country in the 13th century. Edward I nevertheless managed to annex the realm as a principality of England, but in a rare display of benevolence, "Longshanks" agreed to let Llywelyn keep his title in exchange for recognizing English sovereignty. Llywelyn was effectively a vassal to the English throne, much as Alexander was in Scotland at the same time, and things were more or less peaceful. Edward also sanctioned the marriage of Llywelyn to Eleanor de Montfort, a granddaughter of King John, in what is believed to have been a Perfectly Arranged Marriage; Llywelyn is not recorded to have ever had a mistress or sired any illegitimate offspring, which was very unusual for the Welsh nobility.

Unfortunately, the happy marriage was the downfall of the royal house. Eleanor died shortly after giving birth to Princess Gwenllian, Llywelyn's only child, in June 1282. Llywelyn was frankly distraught by her death. In this state, the prince's conniving half-brother Dafydd was able to persuade him to once again take up arms against the English. On December 11, 1282, Llywelyn was lured into a trap and killed, possibly (nobody knows for sure) thanks to Dafydd double-crossing him. Dafydd claimed guardianship of Gwenllian, who was now the rightful Princess of Wales - the first and only woman to be born to that title - and took her and his own children into hiding in a bog in northern Wales. They were captured there in June 1283 and taken to England, where Dafydd eventually became the first man in recorded history to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. His sons were imprisoned, and his daughters and the infant Gwenllian were handed over to various convents and raised to become nuns in order to end the Welsh royal line. Llywelyn's body was never recovered, but his countrymen eventually gave him a memorial stone which calls him "our last prince/our last leader." His daughter, who died in the Sempringham Priory in Lincolnshire in 1337, is memorialized with a plaque at the summit of Snowdon (one of Llywelyn's titles was "Lord of Snowdonia"), and they both have mountains named after them in the region.

The nobles of Wales insisted that Edward I give them a prince who spoke no English and was born on Welsh soil. He invoked some clever Loophole Abuse by presenting his own infant son, the future Edward II, who had recently been born in Caernarfon Castle; he thus spoke no English (nor any other language) and had indeed been born on Welsh soil. Ever since, with only a handful of exceptions, the male heir apparent to the British crown has been called the Prince of Wales.^note 

Although sovereign rule by the native Welsh thus came to an end in 1283, for most normal people things carried on as before, with the local Feudal Overlord having far more significance than the remote king of England; and some parts of Wales had already been ruled by local Anglo-Norman man lords for centuries; in fact the period between Llywelyn's defeat and 1536 was in some senses a golden age for Welsh culture, with a flowering of poetry in particular. The period was also punctuated by frequent Welsh rebellions, leading the English to construct a series of formidable castles throughout the country; and Wales is noted for the sheer number and size of its castles relative to the size of the country (with some 300 known castles of which at least 100 have some kind of visual remains, which are often quite impressive) - a testimony to how fiercely the Welsh resisted conquest. The most famous rebellion was that of Owain Glyndŵr^note . Glyndŵr was briefly able to liberate the whole nation, naturally proclaiming himself Tywysog Cymru in the process; although his rebellion was ultimately defeated, he then disappeared without a trace. He understandably remains a popular hero to many Welsh people (and therefore a villain to the English).

Military resistance to English rule effectively came to an end with the ascendancy of The House of Tudor to the English throne in 1485. The Tudors numbered both Welsh and English royal families amongst their ancestors, and Henry Tudor (Henry VII of England) had in fact been born in Wales and may have spoken Welsh, though it's far from clear to what extent he would have actually thought of himself as a Welshman, and to what extent his Welshness was instead emphasised as cunning propaganda. Regardless, the Tudors were strongly supported in Wales, and some Welshmen at the time welcomed his victory in the Wars of the Roses as the final victory of the Welsh over the English. He did incorporate the red dragon of Wales into his personal coat of arms, and there were a number of people who accepted his rule based on an ancient prophecy (attributed to Merlin, no less) that a son of Wales would one day rule in London as king. Perversely, Henry's son, Henry VIII, legally incorporated Wales into England, and banned the use of the Welsh language in public office.

Although Wales would remain part of England for legal purposes until 1967^note  thanks in a large part to its language (see below) and a continuing sense of national difference Wales continued to be considered a nation in its own right even though it had no political autonomy in practice. Cardiff (Caerdydd) had been proclaimed the capital of Wales in 1955. This was mostly because it was Wales' largest city; there was no government based there at the time, and pre-conquest Wales never really had a fixed capital. Since 1999 Wales now has a devolved parliament based there, albeit one with less power than the Scottish Parliament. Initially known as the Welsh Assembly, it was renamed the Welsh Parliament in 2020, although even in English many refer to it by its Welsh name, the Senedd. Although Welsh is by far the healthiest modern Celtic language^note  and Welsh identity is widespread and firm, the majority of Welsh are comfortable with being called British (not English, of course—British), and are less interested in independence than the Scots, although there is an active independence movement.

The Welsh Language

The Welsh language is a Celtic tongue that derives ultimately from languages spoken prior to the Roman conquest. It is closely related to Breton and Cornish (spoken in the northwestern French province of Brittany and Cornwall, respectively, with all three making up the Brittonic or Brythonic subfamily), and more distantly related to the Goidelic Celtic languages - Scottish Gaelic, a surviving native language of Scotland; Irish, the native language of Ireland; and Manx, spoken on the Isle of Man.

Welsh is generally regarded by English-speakers as a formidably difficult language, and a glance at the map shows such jaw-crackers as Machynlleth, Pwllheli, and the truly majestic Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. As a result, Welsh speakers tend to find it absolutely hilarious when non-Welsh speakers try to pronounce Welsh words and names. That said, the pronunciation rules are consistent (unlike English) and once you know that a "u" is pronounced "ee"; "dd" is a soft "th" (as in 'there' rather than 'think') ; and a "ll" is a sort-of cross between 'l' and 'th', then it will always be so, although the actual spelling (and hence pronunciation) of a word may change depending on the word preceding it. "Cwm", that perennial favourite of Crossword Puzzle enthusiasts, is pronounced "coom" (and means "a hollow in the side of a mountain"). Welsh vowels ('a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u', 'w', and 'y') have two distinct pronunciations: one long, one short. For example, 'mẁg' (with a vowel sound like the one in 'book') and mwg (vowel sound like in 'pool'). In addition there are two variations of "y", which can be heard in "yn" (like 'un-' as in 'unhealthy') and "byd" (like 'bead') (obscure and clear sounds, respectively). Welsh English often uses "like" as an interjection, but contrary to stereotypes the word 'boyo' is practically nonexistent.

The Welsh language was suppressed with varying degrees of viciousness by the English from the Middle Ages right up until the 1960s, but survived better than its Celtic cousins, perhaps because of the relative peace and stability of Wales and the lack of crises equivalent to the Irish Potato Famine or the Highland Clearances. Welsh began to decline relatively during the nineteenth century, falling under 50% of the population by 1911. Although this decline continued during the 20th century, revival efforts and political nationalism beginning in the 1960s have stabilised the proportion at around 20% of the population, with hundreds of thousands using the language every day.

Northern and Southern versions differ in details, and 'gogs' (as North Walians are referred to in the South^note ) are sometimes said to sound like Russian porn stars. Welsh is accorded equal status with English within Wales, so all road signs and official notices have to be in both. (East of Conwy, English is given precedence. West of Conwy, Welsh comes first. Welsh language road signage generally begins at the border: visitors are often consternated that Welsh signage begins even before you have left Chester, largely because Saltney, although part of the city of Chester, lies within Wales. (Big supermarkets in Oswestry, nominally inside England, have bilingual signage.)) The language is the butt of many jokes in England, usually along the lines of "Welsh is very difficult to speak unless you have either a lifetime's study, or a serious throat infection"^note . Welsh spellings are also the subject of English humour, often being decried for a lack of vowels^note , compared to anagrams of breakfast cereal names, some form of encrypted message used by intelligence agents, or escapees from H. P. Lovecraft's less well-known works.

There is also a community of Welsh-speakers in Argentina, dating back to the 19th century, and Welsh is spoken in Patagonia, albeit with a Spanish accent. Eastern Pennsylvania (north of Philadelphia) had a heavy influx of Welsh immigrants in the 19th century due to its booming coal industry, and accordingly had a number of small communities where Welsh was spoken extensively; this has dwindled over time, but is still present in the names of many locations such as Bala Cynwyd.

Wales Today

Wales is notable for its sheep population — c. 10.9 million of them against a human population of about 3.1 million. So, the usual jokes apply. Wales is also notable for its level of rainfall — even more so than the UK as a whole. Second city Swansea (Abertawe) officially holds the distinction of "wettest city in Britain".

The majority of the population live in the southeastern corner, in the corridor between Swansea and Newport. The mountainous middle of Wales is quite sparsely populated. This, as well as the lack of north-to-south transport links (trains from Cardiff to North Wales go through England), means there is a degree of cultural separation between the North and South of Wales. Historically, Wales' population was more dispersed, but South Wales (and to a lesser extent, Wrexham and the North East) boomed in the 19th century due to immense coal deposits. A lot of Welsh cultural identity stems from the 19th-century mining industry, when "the Valleys" saw religious revivals, the enthusiastic adoption of the game of Rugby, and a great tradition of choral singing.

The heavily industrial economy ensured that Welsh politics have always favoured the left. This has continued after the industry declined, as Margaret Thatcher is often blamed for the post-industrial misfortunes of regions like "The Valleys" (to the north of Cardiff). In 1997 and 2001, the Conservatives failed to win a single Welsh seat, although they have since made some inroads. Wales also has its own secessionist party Plaid Cymru ("Party of Wales"), which is left-leaning.

A lot of people in Wales are called Jones, Williams or Davies, due to the way the Welsh Patronymic naming system was Anglicised — people in small villages will have to use their first names or get nicknames to distinguish each other. Traditionally these were often in the form of "Surname The Occupation", such as Jones The Steam [engine driver] from Ivor the Engine. This results in SAT exams (see British Education System) having to have candidate numbers in Wales. This is also the case with soldiers in Welsh army regiments, who even in the late 20th century were still identified by their unique Army number and not by one of a limited number of family names. Although Jones is traditionally considered the Welsh surname, current surveys show that the most common surname nowadays is Williams — Owen, Jones, and Powell then tied for the next most populous name with Davies and Hughes coming up not far behind.

There are two regiments of the British Army that require their officer candidates to be fluent, and ideally bilingual, in a language other than English. One is the Gurkha Rifles and the other is the Royal Welch Fusiliers (they were founded in 1690, and still insist on the archaic spelling of the word currently rendered as "Welsh").

See also Portmeirion.

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There are a lot of famous Welsh people such as:

• Tom Jones - world famous singer, with a reputation for women throwing their knickers at him.
• Duffy - a UK famous singer, who hasn't had any pants or knickers thrown at her yet.
• Dame Shirley Bassey.
• Catherine Zeta-Jones - world famous actress. Oh, and singer (sort of) in Chicago.
• Katherine Jenkins
• Russell T Davies, renowned screenwriter, who revived Doctor Who in 2005 and has created and penned numerous other hit shows.
• Ray Milland.
• Hugh Griffith
• Anthony Hopkins. You know, A Glass of Chianti...
• Siân Phillips.
• John Rhys-Davies.
• Richard Burton.
• Stanley Baker.
• Bertrand Russell, the philosopher and mathematician, was born at Trellech in Monmouthshire and died almost one hundred years later at Penrhyndeudraeth.
• Desmond Llewelyn. Q in the James Bond films.
• Timothy Dalton. The fourth James Bond actor, and a prolific Shakespearean.
• Tom Cullen.
• Mark Lewis Jones.
• Dylan Thomas, poet whose best known works are "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" and Under Milk Wood.
• John Cale, musician and former member of The Velvet Underground.
• Milton Jones, comic.
• Christian Bale, born in Pembrokeshire but raised in Southern England from early childhood.
• King Arthur may well have come from Wales since most of the Romano-British had fled to the area; Caerleon has long been considered a likely site for Camelot. The Cornish dispute this, though.
• Author Jasper Fforde was not born in Wales, but lived there for a while, and "The Socialist Republic of Wales" features prominently in several Thursday Next books. Its background and Alternate History are All Here on the Internet.
• Alastair Reynolds.
• Comedians Rob Brydon, Ruth Jones and Rhod Gilbert.
• Aled Jones — another Welsh singer, most famous (as a boy) for his cover version of "Walking in the Air" from The Snowman. He now regularly presents the God-slot religious show on BBC Radio Two every Sunday morning and is an occasional religious presenter on BBC television.
• Gareth Bale, footballer who was formerly a winger for Tottenham Hotspur before being sold for a record-breaking transfer fee to Real Madrid. He retired in January 2023, having closed out his club career at Los Angeles FC and his overall career at the 2022 World Cup.
• Wrestler Mason Ryan, former Florida Heavyweight champion and a heel for The Nexus on WWE.
  • Impact Wrestling also has their own wrestling Welshman, Rob Terry.
• Michael Sheen, who is from Port Talbot (like Anthony Hopkins and Richard Burton). Known for having portrayed Tony Blair in three films: The Deal (2003), The Queen (2006) and The Special Relationship (2010).
• Rhys Ifans, a first language Welsh-speaker and main example of a 'Gog' accent (from North Wales). His twin brother Llyr is also an actor.
• Ioan Gruffudd, who acted in Hornblower, is also a Cymro ^note  — but a Welsh speaker from South Wales (Glamorgan).
• Charlotte Church, from Cardiff.
• Director Gareth Edwards, though born and raised in England, is fully Welsh, both parents being Cymry.
• Gavin Henson, rugby player and noted sun-bed user, sometimes referred to as 'Tango Man' for this reason.
  • Apart from Henson, the country has produced a ridiculous number of all-time rugby greats. To name just four: Gareth Edwards (no, not the director), Barry John and JPR Williams, the most renowned players of Welsh rugby's golden age in the 1970s; and Alun Wyn Jones, now (2023) in the twilight of a career that's seen him make more international appearances than any other player in the sport's history.
• Terry Jones of Monty Python.
• Arthur Machen, an author whose The Great God Pan and other stories were a major influence on H. P. Lovecraft. (Incidentally, Lovecraft himself was of partial Welsh descent. This horrified him.)
• Ruth Madoc, comic actress best known for Hi-de-Hi!.
• Iwan Rheon, singer and actor (Best known as Simon in Misfits and Ramsay Bolton from Game of Thrones), from Cardiff.
• Aneurin Barnard
• Matthew Rhys, star of The Americans and the HBO version of Perry Mason
• Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia, was born in Wales, except she was naturalised in Australia as a youngster - first-generation Australians are recognised by the law as Australians but some Australian citizens whose ancestry goes back further tend to disagree.
• Harry Secombe, The Goon Show straight man "Neddy Seagoon", comedian, singer and presenter of religious shows.
• Myfanwy Talog, Welsh-language actress, wife of English comic actor David Jason. Now deceased but a mainstay of soap opera Pobol Y Cwm for many years. Also voiced Welsh characters in English-language animations such as Count Duckula and Supermouse.
• Green Gartside, frontman of Scritti Politti.
• Bonnie Tyler.
• Singer-songwriter Marina Diamandis.
• Welshy, Channel Awesome video producer.
• Bryn Terfel, world famous operatic bass-baritone.
• Owain Yeoman, actor best known for The Mentalist and TURN: Washington's Spies.
• David Lloyd George, Prime Minister 1916-22. The only Welsh PM of the United Kingdom thus far (all the others have been English or Scottish, or in one case, Canadian). Born in Manchester to Welsh parents, and raised a Welsh-speaker in Caernarfonshire—and thus also the only PM so far not to have English as his native language. The custom of holding the investiture of the Prince of Wales in Wales (specifically at Castle Caernarfon) came about at his insistence when Prince Edward (later Edward VIII) came of age in 1911 (Lloyd George was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time), and he taught the Prince a few words of Welsh for the occasion.
• Eve Myles, actress known for playing Gwen Cooper in Torchwood.
• Nicky Grist, rally co-driver, best known for his work with Colin McRae especially on the Colin McRae Rally series of video games.
• Elfyn Evans, rally driver, currently competing for the Ford M-Sport rally team
• Taron Egerton, actor known for playing Gary "Eggsy" Unwin in the Kingsman film series.
• "Exotic" Adrian Street, professional wrestler who competed from the 1950s through the 1990s.
• Connor "CDawgVA" Colquhoun, anime YouTuber and voice actor particularly known for his Sebastian Michaelis impression, who has since moved to Japan in 2019.
• Alex Norris, LGBT webcomic artist famous for Dorris McComics and especially Webcomic Name (oh no).
• Catrin Stewart
• Sarah Waters
• Aimee-Ffion Edwards, an actress perhaps best known for playing Esme Shelby on Peaky Blinders.

• Tayce, the first Welsh Drag Queen to compete on RuPaul's Drag Race UK.
• Geraint Wyn Davies, actor best known for playing vampire cop Nick Knight in Forever Knight

• Philip Madoc, character actor known for numerous guest appearances in popular British shows like Doctor Who and Dad's Army.
• Terry Nation, screenwriter who created the Daleks for Doctor Who and the shows Survivors and Blake's 7.
• Gareth Thomas: Actor known for playing the titular protagonist in Blake's 7.
• Morfydd Clark, a screen and stage actress best known for playing Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
• JAMIEvstheVOID (Jamie Hensley-Davies), former Storytime Animator, active from 2016-2022, now a vlogger.
• Windsor Davies, actor best known for It Ain't Half Hot, Mum.
• Rachel Redford, Thespian actress (House of the Dragon, Shadow and Bone).
• Talfryn Thomas, character actor best known for Dad's Army.
• Gabrielle Creevy, actress probably best known for In My Skin.
• Elen Rhys - A Welsh actress probably best known for Panic Button or The Mallorca Files.

Welsh Films

• Hedd Wyn, an anti-war film about a Welsh poet sucked into World War I.
• Only Stwpd Cowz Txt N Drive, which takes place in Tredegar, South Wales.
• Solomon & Gaenor, about a tragic romance between a young Jewish man and a Christian woman in 1911 Wales.
• Pride (2014)
• The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, a film about a Welsh town who raise a hill so that it qualifies as a mountain, after a cartographer classes it a hill.

Welsh TV shows:

• C'mon Midffîld: north Welsh Sitcom, the most successful Welsh comedy.
• Pobol y Cwm: south Wales Soap Opera.
• Dim Byd: a sketch show.
• Y Gwyll/Hinterland: a bilingual Mid-Wales detective drama in the vein of Nordic Noir like Wallander, The Bridge (2011), or Forbrydelsen.
• Llan-ar-goll-en, a live action/animation hybrid Preschool Show that was filmed in Portmeirion
• Fireman Sam was originally broadcast in Welsh and takes place in Pontypandy, a portmanteau of Pontypridd and Tonypandy, two towns in Rhonda Cynon Taf.
• The Pact: Isn't spoken in Welsh but is set in Wales.
• Rownd a Rownd: A lively Welsh-language soap opera aimed at a younger audience.
• Torchwood, a Spin-Off of Doctor Who, is set in Cardiff for its first two series, and regular characters Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones are both Welsh.
• In My Skin: A series set in Wales with a mostly Welsh cast, although Welsh is only spoken once briefly.

Famous Welsh Bands:

• Badfinger
• Budgie
• Bullet for My Valentine
• Calan
• Catatonia
• Catfish And The Bottlemen
• Feeder
• Funeral for a Friend
• Goldie Lookin Chain
• High Contrast
• Hybrid
• Lostprophets, which would eventually be succeeded by No Devotion
• Manic Street Preachers
• Skindred
• Shakin' Stevens
• Stereophonics
• Super Furry Animals, which usually records most of their music in English, often includes at least a few Welsh language songs on their albums, culminating in 2000's Mwng, the best selling Welsh-language album in rock history
• Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
• The Automatic
• The Oppressed
• Los Campesinos!. All the members of this band are actually English, but they all met at university in Cardiff and have adopted the city as their home
• Mclusky and its Spiritual Successor, Future of the Left
• People in Planes
• The Alarm
• The Joy Formidable
• Underworld, who formed out of the ashes of a Cardiff Synth-Pop band called Freur.

Fictional Welsh People and Settings:

• Pixie from the X-Men comics.
• Will and Cecily Herondale from The Infernal Devices.
• Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones and Rhys Williams, Torchwood.
• Fluellen, Henry V.
• Wizard Howl, of Howl's Moving Castle fame.
• Brother Cadfael.
• Negi Springfield from Negima! Magister Negi Magi spent a good deal of his childhood there.
• The West clan of Gavin & Stacey, plus their friends and neighbors.
  • Also from Ruth Jones, A Child's Christmases in Wales.
• Ivor the Engine.
• Several characters from Channel 4's classic sketch show Absolutely, particularly DIY 'expert' Denzil and his equally repulsive wife, Gwyneth (played by Welsh comedy actor John Sparks and Morwenna Banks).
• Welshy from Futurama is a Red Shirt replacement for Star Trek: The Original Series's Scotty.
• Able Seaman Goldstein from The Navy Lark, apparently he joined the Navy to work his passage to Swansea.
• Madoc and all of his descendants in A Swiftly Tilting Planet.
• The Owl Service is set in Wales, based on themes from the Mabinogion.
• The Grey King is set in Wales and has a Welsh-speaking boy as its second-most-important character.
• Jeff from Coupling (the crazy one). Oddly, Richard Coyle — the actor who plays him — is English but used a Welsh accent for no discernible reason, although it was so convincing that several other cast members assumed he was Welsh.
• The setting of the The Chronicles of Prydain is based on Welsh mythology.
• The country of Llamedos on the Discworld is an extreme parody of Welsh stereotypes, best known as the original home of Imp y Celyn and noted for its rain mines.
  • Llamedos is "Sod 'em all" backwards, a joke taken from the fictional village of Llareggub ("Bugger all") in Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas.
• The King Arthur of Welsh legend was a Celtic Briton and not necessarily considered to hail from (what is today) Wales, but as the descendants of the Britons, the Welsh always considered him as one of their heroes. Likely as a direct result, Sir Ystin from Demon Knights.
  • Percival is assimilated to the Welsh hero Peredur in some versions.
  • Merlin. The original Merlin was a bard called Myrddin, the founder of Carmarthen (from Caer Myrddin, "Merlin's City").
  • The extant Roman ampitheatre in Caerleon, Newport, is thought by some to have inspired the Round Table.
• Swansea-born Edward Kenway, the protagonist of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. (The in-universe creators of Devils of the Caribbean choose to remove his Welsh accent to make him more marketable worldwide.)
• Ddraig of High School D×D is a Welsh Dragon, and of course his name means Dragon in Welsh. It's implied that he looks like a realistic version of the dragon on the Welsh flag.
• Brother Wales in Scandinavia and the World by Humon plays on all the stereotypes. He is in a meaningful relationship with New Zealand (portrayed as a sheep). The Welsh language, as it appears to this particular Great Dane, is explored here. ^note 
• American film How Green Was My Valley, like the novel on which it's based, is set in a Welsh mining town.
• InCryptid characters Enid Healy (born Carew), and Gwendolyn and Peter Brandt are all Welsh-born members of the Covenant, though Enid leaves even before the prequels.
• Wales is a prominent location in the final arc of the third installment of the Gardens Inc. series.
• The final Hidden Expedition installment, A King's Line, is based heavily around the myths of King Arthur and takes place partly in Wales.
• Panic Attack and Apollo, regular competitors on the two different incarnations of Robot Wars, were the only two champions of the series^note  to come from Wales. The former was from Cardiff, and the latter hailed from Conwy.
• Blodwen, a welsh caterpillar named after the first welsh language opera from the CBeebies Preschool Edutainment Show, The Lingo Show

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The Welsh flag

The flag's white and green halves recall the colours of the House of Tudor, itself a Welsh family; at the centre is the Welsh Dragon ("Y Ddraig Goch", or "The Red Dragon" in Welsh), said to have been the standard of King Arthur and other Celtic warlords.

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The Welsh national anthem

Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi,

Gwlad beirdd a chantorion, enwogion o fri;

Ei gwrol ryfelwyr, gwladgarwyr tra mad,

Gwlad! Gwlad! Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad.

Tra môr yn fur i'r bur hoff bau,

Hen Gymru fynyddig, paradwys y bardd,

Pob dyffryn, pob clogwyn, i'm golwg sydd hardd;

Trwy deimlad gwladgarol, mor swynol yw si

Gwlad! Gwlad! Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad.

Tra môr yn fur i'r bur hoff bau,

Os treisiodd y gelyn fy ngwlad tan ei droed,

Mae hen iaith y Cymry mor fyw ag erioed,

Ni luddiwyd yr awen gan erchyll law brad,

Gwlad! Gwlad! Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad.

Tra môr yn fur i'r bur hoff bau,

O bydded i'r hen iaith barhau.

—

The land of my fathers is dear to me,

Old land where the minstrels are honoured and free;

Its warring defenders so gallant and brave,

Home, home, true I am to home,

While seas secure the land so pure,

Old land of the mountains, the Eden of bards,

Each gorge and each valley a loveliness guards;

Through love of my country, charmed voices will be

Home, home, true I am to home,

While seas secure the land so pure,

Though foemen have trampled my land 'neath their feet,

The language of Cambria still knows no retreat;

The muse is not vanquished by traitor's fell hand,

Home, home, true I am to home,

While seas secure the land so pure,

O may the old language endure.

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Government

• Devolved parliamentary legislature within a constitutional monarchy
  • Monarch: Charles III
  • First Minister: Mark Drakeford

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"The land where history sleeps, and so does everybody else."

"I think most of all, the Welsh were doomed by English superiority to become objects of terminal quaintness. The quaint language, the quaint songs. Those amusing choirs and chants"

— Simon Schama's A History of Britain