Caerdydd, Caerffili, Cwyd and other unpronouncables
June 14, 2004
We spent today in Cardiff (Caerdydd), Wales. Our primary motivation for this side trip into the West of Britain is the extreme number of very large Norman castles. It seems shortly after 1066, William I of England found himself with a large number of Lords and Barons under him. Fearing a coup attempt, he granted them all lands in Wales (Cymru) and sent them off to conquer. The Welsh (Cymroag) people turned out to be a lot tougher than the Anglo-Saxons, so the Normans spent the next 200 years building massive castles and other fortifications.
The nearest large castle to Cardiff is in a town just over a hill called Caerphilly (Caerffili). It was never successfully taken by force, and thus it is still largely intact. It is exactly what you would think an ideal castle to be. Massive moat, drawbridge, multiple encircling walls, arrow slits, enbankments, portcullis, central well, and huge banquet hall.
Before seeing it, I always imagined that this ideal castle was only a fiction or amalgamation of a set of castles. Apparently not.
On the ride to Cardiff, we met a lovely Welsh woman with a beautiful Welsh accent. It seems Welsh has more vowels (e.g. y and w are both vowels in Welsh, as are ae and oa) than English and even more diphthongs. Thus, Welsh English speakers tend to have a sort of songish sound to their voices. Later, when we visited the open-air Museum of Welsh Life, we heard Welsh spoken by the museum staff.
We posted the first set of pictures from our trip into my gallery. Just click on the gallery link on the side to see them. They are still a bit unorganized, but Kim is working on organizing them a bit as we go.