In my experience the American consciousness of Wales doesn't go beyond the fact that it exists, there are sheep, and questionable activities may or may not occur with regards to said sheep. Also the flag's neat.

I come from a wargaming perspective and Americans do tend to believe that your Welsh/British forces should look just like Anglo Saxons only impoverished.

Now the IRISH on the other hand... (Just kidding; I'm very proud of my Irish American heritage through my grandmother!)

@@Ithirahad We're deeply suspicious of what the Scots and Kiwis do with all their sheep, too.

I swear when I listend to the Welsh National Anthem I thought it was the language JRR Tolkien based Elvish on, it is that otherworldly.

I saw an interesting statistic recently. The number of people in the United States claiming English heritage dropped massively between the 1950s and the 1990s. It seems that the social pressures changed a lot in that period, such that people with a mixture of ancestry from the UK and Ireland were incentivised to claim English identity in the 50s, but by the 90s were incentivised to claim Scottish, Irish or Welsh. Says something interesting about the changing dynamics of privileged in-group identity in the second half of the 20th century, I am sure.

Unhealthy melancholy lol well put

Same story with me. So glad I came upon your comment. 🌹

:3 I does my best!

He says them wrong. He pronounced it Taliesin instead of Taliesyn

@@macsenwyn7223 northwalien.

That would be amazing, but unfortunately it’s not true. There have been various population replacement level migrations into Europe over the last 10,000 years. Notably Neolithic Anatolian Farmers about 8 to 9,000 years ago and Bronze Age Steppe Nomads about 4 to 5,000 years ago. The Welsh have certainly been there a long time, but they would be genetically very different to the people who were on that land 10,000, or even 5,000, years ago. There are interesting lectures about it on KZfaq from Harvard geneticist Richard Reich. The one on The New Scientist channel is very good.

Not true, the Celts are believed to have originally been from central Europe and displaced many of the more indigenous populations. The Basque may in fact actually be more like what you're thinking though!

Plenty of Native Americans descend from the first people in America. Sadly the USA tries to bury this lol

​​@@willmosse3684 unequivocally incorrect. Most of the DNA in Britain descends from neolithic people. Celts were wave of culture and technology. They were not a dominant DNA force. The Celts never called themselves the Celts

​@@asdfasdf-dd9lk wrong. Genetic studies in Britain showing much older DNA than later trades people from Central Europe. Connection to Neolithic DNA does exist in Britain and Eire

I wouldn't be surprised if something like this was involved. I mean propaganda against your opponents and areas you've invaded is one of the older tricks in the book.

most likely, I mean they did outlaw our language for alittle over 300 years at one point.

Beware of modern political nationalism in action. The rewriting of history by the Marxist left goes on apace.

@@Reignlief I love that you bought this up. Entire language outlawed and so many people aren't aware of the cultural removal that happened. Even the naming culture has changed due to that, first names go to middle etc.

That’s a part of it yes, it was a two pronged attack by the Catholic Church and the Germanic Royal lineage, for many reasons over many centuries but essentially was all about rewriting history in their own image and to discredit the history of those who had claims to certain historical events they didn’t want future generations to learn about and in so carry on the true history of Britain. We have to remember, the “Welsh” are actually the British because the Welsh are the native Brits. You had a small pocket of Picts in the highlands of Scotland but other than that, the rest of Britain was what we now know as wales and the Welsh for centuries British history as we know it and are taught it is based on lies, history from the perspective of the Germanic tribes who invaded it and wrote their own version of history in order to big themselves up an inflate their own egos and also it was essentially self propagandising, they wanted history to look favourably on them when in reality, the truth is very different. The term “Celt” is an example of this, a term created in the 18th century was a successful attempt to put down and denigrate the different complex cultures and traditions and languages of Britain and Ireland into one box, to make out that they were backwards compared to the Germanic invaders. I know people use the term Celt as some kind of pride thing but I don’t, I think it’s offensive and we shouldn’t embrace the term because it doesn’t do us justice, it’s grabbing onto a lie when we should be saying, no!! That is not who we are, we are considerably better and more than that fake narrative created as a means to put us down and belittle us and our history. Our legacy is not Celtic, it’s far greater, our role in world history is far greater than the one that was concocted for us by those who wanted to put us down. The fake narrative also benefited the church too so they were complicit in pushing the lies because it hid things they didn’t want to be written in history because it contradicted the things they were preaching at the time. For example the 562AD comet disaster than wiped out millions upon millions of Brits and was what left Britain vulnerable to invasion by the likes of the Angles and Saxons and Jutes etc and ultimately led to the overpowering of the Brits which then led to the Norman Invasion. Why was this significant, well, firstly, the church at the time said that no rock could fall from the sky, this event disproved that, so they had to cover it up and destroy any written account of the event, of which they were largely for the most part successful and secondly, because the event caused the majority of Britain to be inhabitable and which left Britain basically undefended, allowing to Germanic tribes to invade pretty much untested, that wasn’t glamorous enough for the history books. The Brits had successful held all invaders at bay even the Romans for decades, Britain was notorious for being nigh on impossible to invade and settle, so for propaganda purposes, they couldn’t let the history books say they successfully invaded Britain without any resistance because that’s like bragging at beating a one armed blind man at a game of boxing, there is no honour in that, you want history to say that they were David defeating Goliath because that makes a better more heroic story, so that’s what they did and they created the dark ages version of history and the church were happy to oblige and play along with it because it meant no talk of the rock falling from the sky, it was win win for both sides and that’s just one example of a major historical event in British history that was white washed by the establishments in order to further their own agendas and resulted in the false history which is still protected to this day, despite the shed loads of evidence that verifiably contradicts what’s the history books claim, they would rather knowingly continue the lie than to accept and admit that what we are taught is a lie. I would say it’s the biggest cover up and lie in possibly the whole of history!

They were certainly not, unlike the Sausage eating Heathens from Schleswig Holstein, Wales is Bollocks Cymru is the name " Brotherhood " for all you Cornish fans, you spoke the Cymric Brythonic Celtic as did every other Celt in Britain!

I watched this amazing five part documentary series on KZfaq a few years back, it covers the history of Wales from cavemen to now. Great info on the medieval period in there. Here's the first episode, if that interests you. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nsx7jNSbytPUppc.html

Honestly my schools didn't either down south (Kent), if not for my family I'd be clueless. It's a really great deep dive on what makes up the British people that has a lot of fun culture too and I'd say not as boring as the Normans with their kings.

Indeed, and in the period Cornwall and Wales were simply Britons. Alas!

@@TheWelshViking Yeah if you think reenacting early medieval Wales can be rough try Cornwall! For some reason people really believe the region where (from 300AD or so) the majority of Europes Tin came from was some poor backwater. They ignore the proactive settlement of Brittany by SW Britons and the clear signs of trade links and settlement by Vikings and Irish too. God, Last Kingdom says we don't even know not to put holes in our shields! I know you say not looking at Facebook but we are working hard at Morvleydh to change that: Www.facebook.com/Morvleydh

@@BrotherJing1 Cornwall tends to get the shitty end of the stick when it comes to the English and British viewing them as their own national identity. I've always viewed them as incredibly individual and it's awful that even Last Kingdom didn't bring them up well. I love Bernard Cornwell but that's a giant error.

@@MH-gc2hr yeah the book is better then the series at least...those stupid wicker shields with holes in the middle haunt my dreams

English Heritage is still hanging onto Battle as the location where Harold lost his crown. We now have enough evidence to discredit this but they ignore it. So they won’t have a hope in the west.

Same, Lucy. I remember moving to England and the culture shock was real! Diolch yn fawr am rhannu’ch brofion :)

That's weird; where I live in America, I've been reminded on a near daily basis for my entire life that people who colonized the Americas were genocidal, racist, slave driving thieves and rapists, and told that because I look like those people, that I should bear a certain amount of guilt for their crimes against humanity, even though not a single one of my ancestors had a single thing to do with the settlement of the Americas.

Do you guys feel biculturally British & Welsh, then? & not English? (like those of South or East Asian descent, they are Indian/ Pakistani/ Chinese & British, but not fully "English"...?) Genuinely would love to know.

@@Jumpoable I'm British that doesn't make me Welsh. I could be Indian and South Asian. But i'm not Pakistani

Badass dragon flag, gold mines, delicious singing, King Arthur, Ioan Gryffydd, the Mabinogion, Diana Wynne Jones. We just rock, honestly.

@@TheWelshViking We do - don't we ^-^

@@hetrodoxly1203 Wessex! \m/

@@hetrodoxly1203 The Red Dragon is a symbol that predates the Normal English one. There are historical theories the white vs red was Norman vs Welsh.

St. George, the Dragonslayer.

*loads rpg with holy intent* Who?

I heard people say that sometimes and I got really annoyed 😂😂😂

*Calls upon Ddraig Goch with rebellious intent*

I know a london guy who night think Wales was a real county and more just an area of England. He even had a towel with the Welsh flag on it. Took him to Saint Fagans to sort that out lol

You should! Please do! We’d love to have you in the gang! Traditionally, I would say yes, but I have to say that many English people simply aren’t taught about Wales and its history.

What a tune, though! A great way to learn my tongue! :D

@@TheWelshViking :)

Yep, I remember those choices in school. Communism or the Tudors. Nothing on the actual kingdoms of medieval Wales, nothing on the development of our long and storied culture. But you might get one of the Mabinogion if you’re lucky! Ofnadwy, ‘de? Keep spreading it out there though, and I promise to do the same :)

You were lucky to learn about Owain Glyndwr in primary school! I'd heard the name, but I knew nothing about him until about three years ago when I decided to look into it myself - and I'm now in my 40s! We never learned anything about him in school, despite being only a few miles from where he lived. For me in school history lessons in the 1990s, Wales began as a country in the late 1800s. It didn't exist before then.

I went through English medium and didn't even realise we had our own language until secondary school, although I will say things do appear to be a lot better on that regards with my nephews & nieces going through the same school. My children are attending Welsh language medium and they are learning quite a bit more, especially about their local history etc they even mention the Celts which I only learnt about from trips to museums with my family. My main welsh history education was Rebecca, Merthyr, Chartists in Newport and some stuff on the pre-fabs after the second world war.

I agree, I did history until I finished secondary (might do it at uni) and it was not a lot of Welsh. Don't get me wrong I love learning a bit of history from other countries. But when you do ww2 and only get a little brief description of Wales in the 40s and a statistic here and there...that's not correct. When your history of medieval Wales is that there's castles and there was Owain Glyndwr....that's also not right. I know more English history than I do of Wales and Its embarrassing. Also I love the Mabinogion of Branwen because my name is Branwen 😅 had a book with illustrations that were a little scary for 5 year old me.

It depends where you go and who you meet. Ignorant people can be found everywhere sadly ... I was lucky to learn about Wales without all that nonsense. I suppose I was taught that they were all really good singers, though, which I guess might be a bit of a stereotype. I think things are improving. And Jimmy is helping one video at a time!

Saying that Tom Jones boss singer

Never too late to learn, m’lady!

The Welsh Viking Might be. Hard enough to remember NA English 😂

Jimmy is finds-driven and will not accept no bogus history! NO SIR.

Dwi mor falch! Diolch yn fawr! :)

Well, thank you back! I’ll keep up the Welsh side of things, both culturally and linguistically :)

I'm SCA with a Welsh persona, I also had a really hard time finding good resources so I'm soaking this adorable man up!

Right? Silly nonsense that becomes accepted history

Oh! Congrats on being monetised, time to bringe you work, again!

Wahey! Diolch yn fawr! Ooh, which crannog? I love the things. Such a mad idea

@@TheWelshViking The Scottish crannog Center, on Loch Tay in Perthshire. They're actually about to move to a new location as they're running out of space for repairs after ~20 years. Do check them out, They have some fab resources : D

This 👆This right here. This succinct summation of EVERYTHING about medieval Wales and her culture.

Sure thing! I’ll work towards that :) Oh, Cadfael is absolutely wonderful!

those beasts!!!

Thanks! And congrats on your Community tab!

A lot of political infighting, really. But Wales was unified in the 11th and 13th centuries. Sadly, being such a small area, it was relatively easy to march across

@@TheWelshViking Isn't it at least partly because the Welsh had an inheritance system that tended to fragment rather than consolidate power and land? The Normans were heavily into primogeniture and favoured legitimate heirs, while the Welsh shared the inheritance between all sons, legimate or not.

Rachel Boersma-Plug that was actually common to most of the “Celtic” cultures in the British isles. It was part of their tribally based society(kingship is just an extension of tribal leadership in essence)

greater linguistic, genetic, and cultural diversity where you get mountains. Hard to invade without a ton of troops. You see it in other places too to a much greater extent: Afghanistan, the Caucuses, the alps. Scotland is a little different due to the lowland expanse - Wales's lowland expanse was England which took longer to consolidate than than Strath Clyd and Dal Raita.

@@rachelboersma-plug9482 I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there, but when did the Anglo-Normans stop this practice? I know William the Conqueror split his lands between his sons but eventually this stopped, I wonder when and why?

Yay! I’m glad I’m sparking an interest in your heritage, Jennifer!

Gwell llefrith na chywilydd!!

Oh, I hope you get to come and enjoy it soon! It’s a splendid celebration of modern Welsh culture. You certainly count as Welsh in my book, and I heartily encourage you to keep plugging gently away at dysgu’r hên iaith. May I ask what the poem was? I’m a gravestone nerd, as you’ll know ;)

@@TheWelshViking I do plan on that! I read a hilarious book recently called "Some Sex and a Hill: or How to Learn Welsh in 3 Easy Pints." I thought I'd died and gone to heaven - a funny book about language learning! I'm such a geek! Very happy to hear the Eisteddfod is what it purports to be...so many "festivals" in the US are just a way to sell more gadgets. I am eager to go!

@@terriwilliams4938 That sounds like a fabulous book, and I think I’m going to hunt it down. Thank you!

Glad to see a fellow Texan in the comments!

And if you go to your local library, they could probably get it for you through inter library loan. Here in Texas we have Texshare which means you'll definitely be able to find a library near you to get it shipped to and you can get a Texshare card to check things out at academic libraries!

@@nikkicafeina my library has suspended ILL due to Covid19

@@cindyrosser2471 Not all libraries have suspended interlibrary loan and it's a good thing to keep in mind when your library begins to add services back in to what they are offering.

Then I will do so!

Brilliant idea! Hope he does, that would be lovely.

Haha! Yeah, it's fun for me to see how much I've had to try to get my head around in a year and a bit. So many elements of editing still to master!