One of the Oldest Stories in the World

From Cambrian Chronicles

Many historians believe the Welsh story of Brân ap Llyr in the Mabinogion may contain an ancient folk memory from the last Ice Age. In his story, Brân (Bendigeidfrân) is able to wade across the Irish sea, not only because he is a giant, but because back then it was supposedly much narrower, and composed of only two rivers. Is this an ancient memory of the sea levels being lower, passed down over thousands of years of Welsh history to the medieval era? Is this connected to the stories of the sunken lands in Ceredigion Bay like Cantre'r Gwaelod, or to other aspects of the history of Wales? Do they share a common source, are they drawn from similar, but different memories? Or is this all merely a coincidence? And why don't we have any stories from the other end of the island, like the sinking of Doggerland? How much history has been lost to the ocean, and how much has been lost just to the passage of time? Chapters: 0:00 - The Ancient King 1:30 - Brân the Blessed, Bendigeidfrân 4:37 - The Rising of the Tide 8:03 - Cantre’r Gwaelod 14:56 - The Fall of Doggerland Sources (turn on captions): Bartrum, P.C. (1993). A Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend up to about A.D. 1000. The National Library of Wales. [1] p.393-396, [Gwyddno] [2] 412-413, [Helig] [3] 522, [Matholwch] [4] 539, [Mererid] [5] 630, [Rhedfoe] [6] 696. [Teithi Hen] Davies, J. (2007). A History of Wales. London: Penguin. [7] p.4. Davies, S. (2007). The Mabinogion. Oxford University Press. [8] p.28, [9] 22-32. Dunlop, J. (2007). Language, Faith and Communication. Language, Power and Identity Politics. [10] p.183. Eaton, S., Barlow, N.L.M., Hodgson, D.M., Mellett, C.L. and Emery, A.R. (2024). Landscape evolution during Holocene transgression of a mid-latitude low-relief coastal plain: The southern North Sea. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 49. [11] p.3139–3157. Haslett, S.K. and Willis, D. (2022). The ‘lost’ islands of Cardigan Bay, Wales, UK: insights into the post-glacial evolution of some Celtic coasts of northwest Europe.. Atlantic Geoscience, 58. [12] p.131–146. Nunn, P.D. (2025). Hidden by Mist and Waves: Surviving Stories About Land Submergence from the Isle of Man (Irish Sea) are Thousands of Years Old. Geoheritage, 17(89). [13] p.1-12. University of Oxford (1998). Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the nether world: translation. [14] https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section....