h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Apparently a long time ago in Wales, the local peasants witnessed a great battle between a Red Dragon and a White Dragon. As the two dragons fought they laid waste to whole forests and towns. Eventually the Red Dragon won and the White Dragon slinked back over to England. The locals were so impressed by this that they put the image of the Red Dragon on their National Flag and it has stayed there for ever more.

Does anyone know if this was true? Or did the local flag maker just have a fetish for dragons and make the whole thing up just so that he could draw loads of dragons?

This battle also crops up in the Merlin myths. The story goes that Vortigern was trying to build a fortress, but every night the walls would fall down. Some wise men said that the walls would only stay up if a father-less boy was sacrificed. Merlin was a local lad, said to have been fathered by the devil (because his mother wouldn't say who his father was), so they wanted to sacrifice him. Merlin told Vortigern that the wall would not stay up because there was a lake beneath the foundations, and in this lake two dragons were fighting. One dragon was white and represented Vortigern, the other was red and represented his enemies. The red dragon won.

I once bought my mother a plate from Wales. On the plate was a picture of a red dragon and words 'The red dragon set forth' in Welsh. I won't try to put the words into Welsh, 'cos the only bit I can remember is something like 'Y draig goch' for 'The red dragon'. The battle between the dragons must be a central part of Welsh folklore, whatever its source.

Yes, i was told stories of that type, growing up in Wales (that's still happening, by the way), but i was led to believe that either the battle continues, or somehow both dragons were lain to rest, within a mountain (i think that one is from merlin/authurian legends). As far as i know, the red represented Wales, while the white represented England.

What many people are unaware of (as was I until a few months ago) is that English often used the White Dragon as their symbol until the Norman conquest. Its lack of use now presumably indicates England is still a conquered nation!

The dragons in Britain supposedly derive from the symbols used by the Roman legions.

The Red Dragon (Y Ddraig Goch) has been used to represent Wales for well over 1000 years. It is said that the Welsh are the only nation to use the same symbol entering this millennium as when they entered the last (can anyone confirm if this is true, if religious groups are not considered?). Although it seems that the Green and White background was added to the Welsh flag in Tudor times, Y Ddraig Goch is apparently the oldest flag in the world according to flagmakers. The oldest unchanged flag is Denmark's.

I was used to be told that the two dragons were both white and that the Welsh Dragon became red when it killed the English Dragon and was covered in its blood.
Well thats what i was told anyways

Not heard that one.