Nine hundred years ago, the Lord Rhys, ruler of the ancient Deheubarth kingdom, established a great seat of religious learning in the heart of mid-Wales. The abbey was called Ystrad Fflur (Strata Florida in the Latin spoken by the Cistercian monks who ran it). It means Vale of the Flowers in English. Today, much of Ystrad Fflur is just a memory save for a grand stone Romanesque arch nearly 25 feet tall, the foundation outline of the abbey and the graves of 11 Welsh princes laid to rest next to one another. It was here, sometime around 1350, that the monks received a commission from a wealthy local man to create a written record of the Welsh legends and folklore that had been passed down by poets, going back perhaps as far as the sixth century.

---

Persons: Lord Rhys Locations: Deheubarth, Wales, Florida