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The ruin of Castell Dinas Bran (Crow City Castle), which stands above the town of Llangollen, is the site of this tragic love story.

Myfanwy, daughter of the Norman Earl of Arundel, is the most beautiful woman in Powys, but she's vain and likes nothing better than to be told how beautiful she is.

Many men come to Dinas Bran to court her, but she'll have nothing to do with them, even if they are rich and handsome because they are not able to compose and sing poems that reflect the depth of her beauty.

Only one man, Hywel ap Einion, a penniless young bard who lives in the valley below the castle, has the talent to satisfy Myfanwy.

Luckily, Hywel is in love with Myfanwy, and one day he plucks up the courage to climb up the hill to the castle with his harp, to sing and play to her.

He's allowed in to play for her, and while he's playing and complimenting her on her beauty she can neither listen nor look at any other man. Because of this Hywel believes that she has fallen in love with him.

But his hopes are dashed when a richer, more handsome and more eloquent lover comes along. Hywel, discarded and quickly forgotten by Myfanwy wanders through the Dyfrdwy forests composing a poem to his lost love:

Far from Myfanwy's marble towers
I pass my solitary hours
O thou shinest like the sky,
Behold thy faithful Hywel die!