Llewelyn? Owain Glyndwr? Some chap called Arthwr!!! 
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Iāve always thought that the life of Owain Glyndwr (at least the received version) would make a good Hollywood epic. The problem is that in order to sell it to the big American studios, youād probably have to make him Irish.
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Ouch!!! 
To be honest, Iāve never understood why people look to the distant past (even mythology) for inspiration. We even name universities, health boards and arson gangs after these historical āherosā. As a Welshman, I find this frankly cringe-making. My concern is exclusively for the present and the future of Wales in the world. History is interesting but I canāt get myself wound up about how beastly the Romans were to the Ordovici and Silures or how our druids were cruel to the populace at large or the Saxons or Normans oppressed the Brythonic races or the Welsh and English mine-owners allegedly suppressed the Welsh language. This is the 21st Century for goodness sake!
(Heaven preserve us from Mel Gibson playing Glyndwr or Llewelyn - wonder what colour heād choose to daub on his face)
As always, I am just declaring my personal view.
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Good man!!!
Or perhaps Disney could turn something from the Mabinogion into their next film. Thereās got to be a character who would make an excellent Disney princess. Although after seeing what they did with the Snow Queen (now Frozen) they would probably totally mangle the stories to make them āfamily friendlyā. It would bring Wales into mainstream consciousness and maybe they could be persuaded to make a Welsh language versionā¦
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Iām following a Ffilm show on one radio station and itās actually interesting and good one but whenever I hear one āWelshā movie comes out I ask the presenter (which happens to be my twitter friend) if itās in Cymraeg. The answer is always the same: āNo, itās in English but with Welsh actors.ā Then he ads that there can be some welsh speach heard in teh movie but not much. This kind of things always make me sad really. If I hear film is in Welsh I want to hear/see it in Welsh ā¦
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Or what language heād speak and in what accent.
Iāve never been able to take Mel Gibson seriously (if I ever did) ever since seeing the demolition job done on his āBraveheartā by Stewart Lee, which is on Youtube. Iād better not post the link again, as itās mildly pornographic, but achingly funny.
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I was going to use an ancient quote to explain why, but that would be looking back to the past
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And, as always, a very reasonable point of view!
In my view, Iād love it if Wales didnāt have to struggle to present itās view of history through various media. If it didnāt have to work against the triumphant, drum-beating nationalistic view of history presented to it, always devoid of any reasonable mention of Wales and Welsh history.
Whilst that continues, Iām not sure the best way to do it is to not counter it and hope that our reasonableness has the required effect.
Welsh people have never been as ādrum-beatingā about their nation (including their nations history) as some others. This is possibly a good reason for not being so now!
But the deafening drums of ābe proud of your British History!ā will continue from all quarters,mane will have an effect on how people feel on many matters.
I have a feeling it is best countered by at least trying to present an opposite, different view- a less martial and strident one, hopefully, but still a matter of interest. And yes, which can I still pride in a country (as we can be proud of a rugby team!), as the other, alternative history does nothing but leach pride from the inhabitants of this country.
Instill pride to get back to square one, I say. When that happens, then we can stop.
Personal view over, and hobby horse dismounted
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They sort of did that with āThe Black Cauldronā didnāt they?
Well, sort of based the film on Lloyd Alexanderās Chronicles of Prydain books, which were sort of based on the Mabinogion.
Not much of Welsh myth left in it by the end, though!
Pretty much my position exactly, Owain although Iām glad to note that national pride appears to be evaporating in most countries. Few French look back to their Napoleonic or Royalist past; few Germans look to their Teutonic forebears, my Scottish schooling and upbringing taught that William Wallace (whose statue loomed large near my Aberdeen school) or Robert the Bruce had little current relevance and we Brits are becoming more embarrassed than proud (some might say justifiably) of our colonial past.
I share your pride in everything thatās good about contemporary Wales and dy gobaith am y difodol 
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Perhaps the key is knowing how to learn from the past without living in the past.
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Neatly put but Iām still not with you. My point made here and elsewhere is that the past offers us almost no relevant lessons however interesting it may be.
Iām not going to ask what examples of valuable lessons you have in mind because this would certainly divert us from the interesting original topic (and I apologise for my own contribution to this diversion.
Isnāt part of studying the past about studying human nature? I find it hard to imagine that could ever be entirely fruitlessā¦ 
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Ah no, I have never said or thought the study of history was āfruitlessā (especially since my wife worked in Hanes & Hanes Cymru for many years albeit administrator). I got to know, like and respect her academic colleagues and spent many enjoyable lunches hearing about their approach and paradigms. (I actually canāt recall one of them saying they entered history to learn lessons from the past). I have just finished and been totally immersed in John Daviesā wonderful History of Wales. It was so readable and rich in new (to me) insights.
Let me repeat what I said in another thread - I have looked hard but have never been able to identify any lessons from the past (even the recent past) would be helpful to Wales or the world today.
History, Archeology are noble, rigorous, frutiful and essential studies as are Astronomy, Cosmology which also offer little guidance as to how we should live our contemporary lives.
I think Iāll stick with palm, taro and tea leaf reading, Huwā¦Well its worked for meā¦
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We may be straying into semantics while agreeing on the main point - but surely if understanding human nature (and the social and economic constructs that reflect it and are built on it) teaches us valuable things, then understanding examples of it (in other places or in other times) will shed light on who and how we are today?
For example - in a town in Austria in the 1930s, a local currency with a system of demurrage was so successful in creating employment that the central bank, apparently fearing the loss of political control, criminalised it. Can we really learn no interesting and valuable lessons from that?
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You make a good point, young Aran and, if it didnāt go against the grain so, Iād have to admit your argument is sound 
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Surely how people react to different situations is something that some lessons can be learned from?
Personally I think that all knowledge is worthy for its own sake, and an Egyptology department shouldnāt have to justify some sort of advantage to the GPD to gain funding [just speaking generally, you are saying the opposite to that if anything!].
But yes, societies and situations change- but people remain the same. How people react to different situations and events. How societies deal with various forms of government, react to various forms of oppression, react to various forms of invasions, react to various forms of conflict and difference in society- no, the situations arenāt exactly the same, but I would say lessons can be learned.
Whilst remembering the study of history is primarily for its own sake.
However, I think as Aran says that this is one of those discussions where semantics might be the thing at its heart. Wherever is Humpty Dumpty when you need himā¦
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