Y Ddraig Goch

The Red Dragon of Wales (Art by Sodacan)

**Y Ddraig Goch**, also known as **Ddraig** for short, is a Dragon that ruled the lands of Wales for centuries and the patron of Camelot, most specially Arthur Pendragon.

## Appearance

Y Ddraig Goch is a dragon with the appearance of a large red Western Dragon, with a long neck and green eyes. He also has red and golden spikes throughout his body.

## Powers and Abilities

### Equipment

* **Bayonet**: While he wasn't always known for his firearm usage, during WWI he started to take on the Bayonet as his primary weapon. Despite being a quadruped, he was quite skilled in using the weapon.

## History

### Ventures with the English

In the Mabinogion story Lludd and Llefelys, the Y Ddraig Goch fought against the then invading Albion. His pained shrieks cause women to miscarry and animals and plants to become barren. Lludd, king of Britain, goes to his wise brother Llefelys in France. Llefelys tells him to dig a pit in the centre of Britain, fill it with mead, and cover it with cloth. Lludd does this, and the dragons drink the mead and fall asleep. Lludd imprisons them, still wrapped in their cloth, in Dinas Emrys in Snowdonia.

The dragons remain at Dinas Emrys for centuries until King Vortigern tries to build a castle there. Every night the castle walls and foundations are demolished by unseen forces. Vortigern consults his advisers, who tell him to find a boy with no natural father, and sacrifice him. Vortigern finds such a boy (who is later, in some tellings, to become Merlin) who is supposed to be the wisest wizard to ever live. On hearing that he is to be put to death to solve the demolishing of the walls, the boy dismisses the knowledge of the advisors. The boy tells the king of the two dragons. Vortigern excavates the hill, freeing the dragons. They continue their fight and Y Ddraig was finally able to defeat Albion. The boy tells Vortigern that the white dragon symbolises the Saxons and that the red dragon symbolises the people of Vortigern. If Vortigern is accepted to have lived in the fifth century, then these people are the British whom the Saxons failed to subdue and who became the Welsh.

The same story is repeated in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain, where the red dragon is also a prophecy of the coming of King Arthur. It is notable that Arthur's father was Uther Pendragon (head of the dragon).

### World War I

During World War I, Ddraig fought on the side of Wales and therefore fought on the side of the United Kingdom and France. He often convinced the youth to enlist and help in the war, to fight against the Central Powers. Despite his power he was incidental in the Allied Powers winning the war, and so was only recorded in a piece of propaganda artwork made by John Kelt Edwards.

## Myths and Legends

His form became the image of the Flag of Wales. One legend recalls Romano-British soldiers carrying the red dragon to Rome on their banners in the fourth-century, but it could be even older than that.

Owain Glyndŵr's banner was known as Y Ddraig Aur or 'The Golden Dragon'. It was famously raised over Caernarfon during the Battle of Tuthill in 1401 against the English. The flag has ancient origins; Glyndŵr chose to fly the standard of a golden dragon on a white background, the traditional standard that, supposedly, Owen Pendragon had flown when the first Celtic Britons had fought the Saxons to a standstill, which had been passed down to his son.

## Trivia

* Y Ddraig Goch appears on the flag of Wales as the country's national symbol.
* In Welsh orthography, the letter "dd" is pronounced /ð/ as in that, so Ddraig's name should really be read as "Thraig".