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and recorded by historians and bards down the ages." Wilson said that his research had brought him
into contact with very similar alphabet inscriptions in Britain, Europe and the Middle East. "The
components of the alphabet derive from the earliest days of the Khumric (Welsh) people," he added, "and
were used along their migration routes to Wales in antiquity." Wilson's research partner, X

Wales, the western, mountainous peninsula of the island of Great Britain, occupies an area just
slightly larger than the state of New Jersey. Wales is shaped roughly like a rectangle with a section taken
out of the west side Cardigan Bay, facing Ireland across the Irish Channel. North of Cardigan Bay the
island of Anglesey and the Lleyn peninsula jut westward; to the south, also stretching to the west,lies the
larger Pembroke peninsula. Bounded by water on three sides, Wales itself constitutes a peninsula with ts
it”s eastern border formed by England. Much of the terrain is mountainous. In the northwest is the rugged
Snowdonia range, named for Mount Snowdon, at 3,560 feet the highest in Britain south of Scotland.
Lesser mountains and hills run south through central Wales into Pembroke and the famous coalfields of
South Wales.

The Roman empire took Wales along with Britain in the first century A.D.: "Wales, however, was
always a frontier area of the Empire, and remained scarcely changed throughout the Roman period of
occupation," except by the introduction of Christianity (George Edward Hartman, Americans from Wales) In
the fifth century A.D., early Welsh Christianity blossomed with the monasteries of St. David. Historically, in
literature and legend, Germanicinvaders took what is now England solating the Celts in the mountainous
area of Wales.

With the collapse of Roman power in the 400s, Germanic tribes from Northern Europe began
settling in southeastern Britain. Most numerous were the Anglos and the Saxons, related peoples who
became the English. The Celts resisted this long influx of alien settlers but were gradually pushed west.
By about 800, they occupied only Britain's remotest reaches where their descendants live today:
the Highland Scots, the Cornish of the southwest coast, and the Welsh. The Lrish are also Celtic.

In 1066, William the Conqueror defeated the English and, with his French-born Norman nobles and
knights, took power in England and determined to subdue the unruly Welsh. Over the next century, the
Normans built a series of wooden forts throughout Wales from which Norman lords held control over
surrounding lands. In the late 1100s, they replaced the wooden strongholds with massive, turreted stone
castles. From about 1140-1240, Welsh princes such as Rhys ap Gruffydd and Llewellyn the Great rose up
against the Normans, capturing some castles and briefly regaining power in the land. After Llewellyn death
in 1240, Welsh unity weakened. The English King Edward I conquered Wales in the late 1200s, building
another series of massive castles to reinforce his rule. The Welsh successfully resisted the invaders for
hundreds of years, until in 1282, they were brought under the political jurisdiction of England under
Edward I. Under Edward and his successors, Welsh revolts continued against the English. Most important
was the rebellion of Owain Glyndwr in the 1400s. Despite his failure, Glyndwr strikes a heroic chord in
Welsh memory as the last great leader to envision and fight for an independent Wales.

Over the coming centuries, the Welsh, isolated from other Celts, developed their own distinctive
culture. However, their identity would always be shaped by the presence of their powerful English
neighbors. Wales became a western refuge from the invasion and conquest by hostile tribes from Europe,
as well as for puritanical dissenters against English culture. Not only did this refuge lie farther west than
most conquerors could effectively extend, its geography made it inaccessible. Later, Wales became a site
from which England extracted In the late eighth century, Anglo-Saxon invaders-who were not yet
Christians—built Offa's Dike (named after Offa, the Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia [See map below]), a
physical, earthen barrier to keep Welsh people from raiding eastward

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