If you haven't guessed from the name of the town, Merthyr Tydfil finds its home in the beautiful yet vowel-challenged nation of Wales. Wales has an incredibly rich history and it is home to some of the most stunning natural locales in the world but the language is positively beastly at times. Despite this, Merthyr Tydfil commands just the same amount of respect that a city like London, New York, or Beijing would command and this is due to the fact that the city has been an integral and indispensable part of the struggling nation ever since its inception. If you're sitting near a Welshman it is advised that you don't speak unfavorably about Merthyr Tydfil lest you fall prey to a string of angry words.
At any rate, there was once a time in history when Merthyr Tydfil was the largest and most glorious town in all of Wales. These days it is far lower on the totem pole, placing thirteenth in the ranking with a population of about sixty thousand when including its outlying areas. This is still nothing to scoff at and the truth of the matter is that Merthyr Tydfil is one of the most fantastic cities in not just Wales but the entire United Kingdom. It isn't population or power that makes Merthyr Tydfil so amazing, though. It is instead the legends and myths that have permeated this fascinating city ever since its inception.
The history of Wales is shrouded in myth and legend and this is due to the fact that the nation is so old and has seen so much. It is said that areas like Merthyr Tydfil have been inhabited by the ancestral tribes of what would become Welshmen as far back as 1000 B.C. and probably even longer than that. During these days every nation that was inhabited had its own rich tapestry of myth and story and some of them got mixed together. The name of Merthyr Tydfil is said to be derived from Saint Tydfil. Saint Tydfil was a woman who was slaughtered by pagans in the late 400s and the term Merthyr is meant to evoke the word "martyr". The problem, though, is that nobody really knows if this story is true or not! Another legend surrounding Merthyr Tydfill concerns a historical figure that is much more well known but at the same time almost unknown in a factual sense: The great King Arthur.
While many people in England know that the Romans once ruled a large part of what would become the United Kingdom, most aren't aware that the last throes of the Roman Empire were what gave birth to the legend of a mysterious hero that helped to unite the fledgling villages that were struggling with Saxon invasions and Norman conquests. This Robin Hood of sorts became King Arthur and nearly every historian will gladly admit that there is almost nothing known about the real King Arthur. What is interesting about the legend, though, is that it is actually derived from Welsh stories and Merthyr Tydfil was considered to be one of the first places that King Arthur and his men banded together at and from then on it was a horse ride into history.
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