Dinas Emrys
| Dinas Emrys | |
| Caernarfonshire | |
|---|---|
 Dinas Emrys with the River Glaslyn | |
| Summit: | 449 feet SH606492 53°1’19"N, 4°4’44"W |
Dinas Emrys (meaning "Fortress of Ambrosius") is a rocky and wooded hillock near Beddgelert in Caernarfonshire. It is in truth no more than a pockmark on the flank of mighty Snowdon whose head rises to the north, but this hill, rising some 250 feet above the floor of the Glaslyn valley, has attracted legends.
It overlooks the southern end of Llyn Dinas in Snowdonia. Little remains of the castle structures that once stood here, save its stone ramparts and the base of a keep. Some believe the castle was erected by Llewelyn the Last to guard the road to the mountain pass of Snowdon.
Archaeological findings
There is a hill fort on Dinas Emrys, apparently containing the work of several ages. It has been hard some time to refine fro publications the genuine history from the Arthurian fantasy that is wound up I these matters, but there is some unexpected correspondence between fact and legend.
It has long been known that there is a pool inside of the fort, but when the archaeologist Dr H N Savory excavated the hill fort between 1954-6, he was surprised to find that not only were the fortifications of about the right time frame for either Vortigern or Ambrosius, but that there was a platform above the pool as described by Nennius in his semi-legendary Historia Britonum. However, though the legend relates that Ambrosius stood upon such a platform, Savory found it to date much later than his time.
Savory described the fortifications as consisting of stone walls between 2.5 and 3 metres thick, which exploited every irregularity in the rocky hill-top, enclosing an irregular area of about a 10,000 m² in size. The original means of access was by a steep path on the western side of the hill fort. The present entrance from the north-east is a later addition.[1] The walls had been "poorly built of stone two or three times", possibly inspiring the legend's reference to the building collapsing several times during construction.[2]
The most conspicuous object currently on the hill is the base of a rectangular tower. It is generally accepted that this is part of an undocumented castle built by the princes of Gwynedd in the eleventh century.
The main entrance to the fort is on the northern side of the hill and traces of a ruined mediæval tower 36 feet by 24 feet have been found on the summit. Nearby is a circle of tumbled stones about 30 feet in diameter
Legends
Arthurian associations
While it is of interest to archaeologists because it is an example of a hill fort whose fortifications entirely postdate the Roman period, this hill is also of interest to enthusiasts about the legends of King Arthur. This is the setting of the famous exchange of the warlord Vortigern (who at least is a historical personage) and the youthful Merlin (who is certainly not) as related in the Historia Britonum.[3]
According to this legend, when Vortigern fled into the west to escape the English invaders, he chose this lofty hillfort as the site for his royal retreat. Every day his men would work hard erecting the first of several proposed towers; but the next morning they would return to find the masonry collapsed in a heap. This continued for many weeks until Vortigern was advised to seek the help of a young boy born of a virgin mother. The King sent his soldiers out across the land to find such a lad. The boy they found was called Myrddin Emrys (Merlin Ambrosius). Vortigern, following the advice of his councillors, was planning to kill the boy in order to appease supernatural powers that prevented him from building a fortress here. Merlin scorned this advice, and instead explained that the hill fort could not stand due to a hidden pool containing two battling dragons ; a White Dragon representing the Saxons and a Red Dragon representing the Britons. After Vortigern's downfall, the fort was given to alias Emrys Wledig (Ambrosius Aurelianus, another genuine historical personage shoehorned into legend), hence its name.[4]
Other local legends
According to local legend Myrddin hid treasure in a cave at Dinas Emrys. The discoverer of the treasure will be 'golden-haired and blue-eyed'. When that lucky person is near to Dinas Emrys a bell will ring to invite him or her into the cave, which will open of its own accord as soon as that person's foot touches it.
A young man who lived near Beddgelert once searched for the treasure, hoping to give himself a good start in life. He took a pickaxe and climbed to the top of the hill. When he began to dig in earnest on the site of the tower, some terrible unearthly noises began to rumble under his feet. The Dinas began to rock like a cradle and the sun clouded over so it became pitch dark. Lightning flashed in the sky and thunder clapped over his head. He dropped the pickaxe and ran home. When he arrived, everything was calm again but he never returned to collect his pickaxe.
Not far from Dinas Emrys is Cell-y-Dewiniaid - "The Grove of the Magicians". There is a field here that once had a thick grove of oak trees at its northern end. Local tradition holds that Vortigern's wise men used to meet here to discuss the great events of their times. An adjacent field is where they were buried and at one time a stone actually marked the site of each grave. A white thorn tree annually decorated each resting place with falling white blossoms.[5]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Dinas Emrys) |
References
- ↑ Cylch Blodeuwedd: Druidic Grove in North-West Wales: Where the dragons slept – Dinas Emrys
- ↑ Dinas Ffareon (Dinas Emrys) | Sarah Woodbury
- ↑ Historia Britonum by Nennius (translated by J.A.Giles), The Avalon Project, ch.40
- ↑ Historia Britonum by Nennius (translated by J.A.Giles), The Avalon Project, ch.40-43
- ↑ Celtic Folklore, By John Rhys, p. 142
- H. N. Savory, Arch. Cambrensis, 109 (1960), 13-77.
- P. M. Remfry, Castell Dinas Emrys, Gwynedd (ISBN 1-899376-08-9) [1]
- Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx. http://books.google.com/books?id=ASkZUBDZBQsC.
- Castles of the Welsh Princes. http://books.google.com/books?id=bdfYNre-oDoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=castles+of+the+welsh+princes&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false.