960: THE "ANNALES OF CAMBRIAE"

Around 960 a collection of documents, pedigrees and annals that deal with the early history of the Welsh kingdoms over the past 500 years was drawn up. Other stories bound up with these "chronicles" and which include mention of Vortigern and Arthur, were later called "Historia Brittonum" and ascribed to Nennius.

1039-1063: THE REIGN OF GRUFFUDD AP LLEWELYN

Gruffudd ap Llywelyn deserves praise as the only Welsh ruler to unite the ancient kingdoms of the whole of Wales under his authority. He started off a brilliant reign by utterly defeating an army of Mercians to secure the borders of his nation, recovering many areas in present-day Flintshire and Maelor that would remain part of Wales. His alliances with English rulers brought peace to Wales for a quarter of a century.

According to Gwynfor Evans, that Wales did not suffer the fate of Strathclyde, where the Welsh language disappeared under the weight of the Anglo-Saxons incursions, was entirely due to the inspiration that Gruffudd ap Llywelyn brought to the people of Wales, inspiring them with his vigor and vision. Finding his country weak and divided, he left it strong and united.

1066-77: THE NORMANS COME TO WALES

Following the defeat of the English King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, it wasn't too long before the victorious William of Normandy set about establishing the Marcher Lordships on the borders of Wales, a country with which he did not seem particularly anxious to get involved. He had enough on his plate without getting involved west of Offa's Dyke; in any case it was in Norman interests to develop close ties with the Welsh rulers in order to secure their own frontiers.

The semi-independent Marcher Lords were responsible for many of the magnificent castles that today dominate the Welsh landscape. Beginning with Chepstow, erected by the Earl of Hereford, the castles commanded territories that became known as "Englishries." In them, English settlers practiced a way of life and law totally unknown to the inhabitants of the "Welshries" the less fertile, upland and mountain areas. The divisions are apparent even today, as one travels from Clwyd to Gwynedd, or from Glamorgan into Carmarthen, or better yet, from southern Pembroke into Northern Pembroke across the linguistic dividing line known as "landsker." The results of the 1997 Referendum also show the results of the original Norman divisions.

On the positive side, it is to the Norman-Welsh writers, such as Geoffrey of Monmouth and Gerald of Wales that the glories of Welsh literature became known to the world.

1090: "THE LIFE OF ST. DAVID"

"The Life of St David" is the first of the lives of the Welsh saints. It was written by Rhygyfarch of Llanbadarn (near Aberystwyth) around 1190.

1120-1129: "HISTORIA REGUM BRITANNIAE"

Geoffrey of Monmouth's major work became the basis for a whole new and impressive European literature of Arthurian romance. Giving his source for his history as Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, Geoffrey gives us the tradition of Arthur as a wise, noble and benevolent king presiding over a chivalric court in a kind of Golden Age of the British Isles, the tradition that is still one of the dominant themes of world literature today. It was Geoffrey's writings that provided the people of Wales with a claim to the sovereignty of the whole island of Britain, a claim of which the Tudors were later anxious to take advantage. To Geoffrey also we owe the story of "The Dream of Macsen Wledig", interpreted today by such visionaries as folk singer and nationalist Dafydd Iwan.

1137-1170: THE REIGN OF OWAIN GWYNEDD

Under Owain Gwynedd and Madog ap Maredudd, the kingdoms of Gwynedd and Powys were gradually freed from Norman influence and became re-established as major political units under Welsh rulers, enjoying Welsh law, and where the Welsh language flourished. Owain defeated an army led by Henry II at Coleshill on the Dee Estuary in 1157. Though eventually Owain was forced to recognize Henry's control over lands to the east of the River Clwyd (Tegeingl, part of the old Earldom of Chester), he refused to acknowledge the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Wales, holding the consecration service for the new Bishop of Bangor, not in that northern Welsh city, but across the Celtic sea in Ireland. After inflicting another humiliating defeat on the English forces in the steep-sided Ceiriog Valley and now in full control of the whole of native Wales, Owain took as his title "the Prince of Wales" (Princeps Wallensium).

1169: PRINCE MADOG REACHES AMERICA

According to a popular Welsh legend (see my Facts about Wales), Prince Madog of Gwynedd, accompanied by a group of followers, made landfall on what is now Mobile Bay, Alabama some time in 1169. The explorers then traveled up the Missouri, where a remnant inter-married with the Mandans and left behind some of their customs and their language.

1146-1243: GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS

Gerald of Wales was born at Manorbier, in Pembrokeshire around 1146 into a Norman-Welsh family. His prolific writings include "Itinerarium Kambriae" and "Description Kambriae", both of which contain the only sources for much early Welsh history and folk tales.

1176: THE EISTEDDFOD AT ABERTEIFI, CARDIGAN

The "Brut y Tywysigyon" records the following anonymous entry for the year 1176:

"At Christmas in that year the Lord Rhys ap Gruffudd held court in splendour at Cardigan (Aberteifi) . . . And he set two kinds of contests there: one between bards and poets, another between harpists and crowders and pipers and various classes of music-craft. And he had two chairs set for the victors."

The above entry is the first known mention of the Eisteddfod, the much beloved festival that has become so much a part of Welsh culture and tradition. The word itself (one of the very, very few words of Welsh origin that are found in an English dictionary), can be translated as "a chairing" and chairs are still awarded for the winners of poetry contests. Modern eisteddfodau [pl.] include the National Eisteddfod of Wales, held in a different venue in Wales each year during the first week in August; and the Llangollen International Eisteddfod, held on the banks of the River Dee in Clwyd each July. Other well-attended Esteddfodau take place at various times in towns and villages all over Wales as well as at such far-flung places of Welsh influence as Edwardsville, Pennsylvania; Queensland, Australia; and Trelew, Patagonia.

Late 12th Century: THE COURT POETS

The general growth of European court culture in the late 12th century also found its counterpart in Wales where a new flourishing of the court poets accompanied military successes against the Anglo-Normans. The main poetic form was the "awdl", the short monor-hymed piece involving use of one or more intricate meters. Dominant poets were Cyndelw Brydydd Mawr (Cyndelw the Great Poet); Llywarch ap Llywelyn; Gwalchmai; Hywel ap Owain Gwynedd; and Gruffudd ap yr Ynad Coch, whose elegy on the death of Prince Llywelyn must be one of the most moving and powerful laments ever written in the Welsh language.