Imagined Dragons

There is no mistake that you’re in Scotland the second you enter Edinburgh. You’re greeted with blue and white Scottish flags, signs and crests featuring unicorns, shops with kilts, tartans and little Nessie figurines, and the sound of bagpipes emanating from every corner. Cardiff, on the other hand, had a much different feel. There aren’t many shops showcasing the best of Welsh culture and paraphernalia, no distinct music that immediately makes you think “Wales”. It feels rather like an extension of England, only with more red dragons. Both of these capital cities and the way they present themselves do a decent job reflecting the national identity of the rest of their country. Wales, as a whole, tends to have a weaker identity and most call themselves British before they call themselves Welsh. Scotland is the opposite, taking great pride in their Scottish heritage. This is obviously more complicated than simply having one country with lots of souvenir shops and another having none, and I have made some observations about Wales that reflect a weak identity.

When we visited St. Fagans (which is like a Welsh cultural center), a few of us got talking to some of the guides who were around fifty or so. When we asked about where the Welsh dragon came from -- which is one of the few, if not only, symbols of Welsh identity -- they brought up the story of Arthur Pendragon. As we probed this idea, they told us a lot about King Arthur and that they believed much of their culture came from this myth. After taking this into account, we visited the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff and asked Gareth, our awesome mid-to-late twenties tour guide, about his thoughts on the origin of the Welsh dragon. He shut down the idea of the dragon having stemmed from Arthur Pendragon almost immediately, claiming that it had nothing to do with the Arthurian legends. These two generations disagreeing on this supposed “shared myth” of common ancestry leads me to believe that this is one of the places where this major lack of identity lies. Having two distinct beliefs about a myth makes it harder to get people to share this idea of a national identity.

Because strong national identity doesn’t really exist in Wales, I’ve noticed that the government seems to be pushing identity on the Welsh people rather than the people themselves forwarding the cause. An example of this is elementary (or I guess here they’re called Primary) schools.  Children are being taught in Welsh more frequently to keep the language alive and to teach the new, young generation that they are Welsh, not British. The Welsh government is trying to rally the younger generation around their unique language to instill this sense of identity that will hopefully trickle down to the next generation and keep it going.  The Welsh Assembly building is another example of this as well. It’s very open and inviting, and the parliament encourages people to come watch sessions and get involved with their government. The Welsh government is doing all it can to create an identity for Wales and get the population to want to carry it on themselves. However, because the government is trying to perpetuate this sense of identity rather than the people, there’s reason to believe that the people don’t care about maintaining a national identity because they aren’t invested in it. Generally, people invest when they care, such as the Scottish and their Nationalist Party. Because the Scottish have a strong national identity, they’ve created parties and become involved in their government. It’s safe to say that if Wales was more invested in their national identity, they would do the same.

Now, perhaps if the Welsh had taken a different approach; for example, if they’d chosen to focus on their common history and rallied around the Arthurian legends and symbols of Wales (like the dragon), they might not have this divide and could have the same strong identity that Scotland has. They could combine their efforts by putting the symbols of Wales throughout their government building, teaching the tales of King Arthur in schools, and encouraging the public to believe the Arthurian legend to build up the myth of common ancestry among everyone.

In class we’ve talked about having a myth of common ancestry as part of ethnicity, which in turn creates a national identity. But if the Welsh can’t agree on their history or this Arthurian myth, these conflicting views of identity will weaken it overall. The myth itself seems to be a myth. Without a unified idea of a myth, it makes it hard to have a unified body of people, as I saw with Gareth and the older tour guides.