Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union. Wales has a population estimated at three million and is officially bilingual, with both Welsh and English having equal status; the majority use English as their first language. In the horror genre, Wales has been represented as the home land of Larry Talbot, aka, the Wolf Man. In the 1941 film The Wolf Man, Talbot's home estate is located in a fictional village known as Llanwelly. While the film itself does not indicate that Llanwelly is located in Wales, several sources, including screenwriter Curt Siodmak have gone on record saying that the film takes place in Wales. The name Llanwelly is identified in the beginning of the 1943 film Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. The film also posits that Llanwelly is not far from the city of Cardiff, firmly establishing it as a Welsh village.

Cardiff

 * Cardiff: Cardiff, Wales.jpg Cardiff is the capital city of Wales. It is also the location of Queen's Hospital. After rising from the grave after being dead for four years, werewolf Larry Talbot stalked the streets of Cardiff and murdered a police constable. He was found unconscious early the next morning and taken to Queen's Hospital.


 * Queen's Hospital: Queen's Hospital.jpg Located in the city of Cardiff, this is where Doctor Frank Mannering worked as a surgeon. In the early 1940s, Larry Talbot was admitted to Queen's Hospital after he had been found unconscious in streets with a severe head wound. Talbot tried to warn Mannering and the rest of the hospital staff that he was a werewolf, but his warnings were largely ignored. On the night of the full moon, Talbot transformed into the Wolf Man, broke through the hospital window and escaped.

Llanwelly

 * Llanwelly Village: Llanwelly Village 001.jpg Llanwelly is a small Welsh village and the home of the aristocratic Talbot family. Sir John Talbot and his family lived inside Talbot Castle which overlooked the cloistered village streets. Llanwelly was also the location of an antiques shop owned by Charles Confliffe and his daughter Gwen. It was not uncommon for gypsy caravans to travel through Llanwelly as well. In 1941, Llanwelly was the site of a werwewolf scare which resulted in the untimely death of Wolf Man Larry Talbot. Other points of interest in the village include Chapman's and Saneman's Products.


 * Charles Conliffe's Antiques: Charles Conliffe's Antiques.jpg Owned by Charles Conliffe and his daughter Gwen, this was a small shop in Llanwelly Village. It was here that Larry Talbot purchased his silver-tipped wolf's-head cane. Following the death of Jenny Williams, Jenny's mother and several of her friends came to the shop, openly accusing Gwen of being responsible for Jenny's murder (Gwen actually had nothing to do with it). It was also in this shop that Larry Talbot first met Gwen's fiancé, Frank Andrews.


 * Gypsy camp: Gypsy camp.jpg This was where Larry Talbot, Gwen Conliffe and Jenny Williams went on their ill-fated palm reading excursion. The fortune teller Bela turned into a wolf and killed Jenny Williams just outside the camp. Larry Talbot came to her aid and killed Bela with his silver-tipped cane, but not before suffering a bite that would eventually mark him with the curse of the werewolf as well.


 * Talbot Castle: Talbot Castle.jpg Talbot Castle was the ancestral home of Sir John Talbot and his family. Following the death of his first son, John Talbot left the estate to his youngest son, Larry, who had been estranged from his family for more than eighteen years. Sir John converted the attic of the mansion into an observatory and installed a telescope. It was through this telscope that Larry learned about and became enamored with a villager named Gwen Conliffe.


 * Talbot Family Crypt: Talbot Family Crypt.jpg The eternal resting place for all of the Talbot family members. Inside the crypts are vaults for ancestors named Elizabeth and Martin Talbot, Sir John Talbot, John Talbot's first son, and a special casket for his second son, Larry Talbot. The inscription on the coffin reads, "Lawrence Stewart Talbot - who died at the age of 31". In 1943, two grave robbers broke into the crypt and tried to purloin valuables they believed had been buried with Larry Talbot. The light of the full moon shone through a window and resurrected Talbot as the Wolf Man.

Films that take place in Wales

 * Wolf Man (1941)
 * Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Characters from Wales

 * Frank Mannering Source
 * Gwen Conliffe Source
 * John Talbot Source
 * Larry Talbot Source
 * Charles Conliffe (antiques shop proprietor) Source
 * Doctor Lloyd (a physician from Llanwelly) Source
 * Frank Andrews (a gamekeeper) Source
 * Freddy Jolly (a grave robber from Llanwelly) Source
 * Jenny Williams (a villager from Llanwelly) Source
 * Kendall (Talbot family butler) Source
 * Owen (police inspector from Cardiff) Source
 * Paul Montford (chief constable of Llanwelly) Source
 * Phillips (a villager from Llanwelly) Source
 * Richardson (a grave digger from Llanwelly) Source
 * Twiddle (a villager from Llanwelly) Source

People who were born in Wales

 * Jimmy Sangster
 * Richard Burton
 * Anthony Hopkins
 * Catherine Zeta-Jones
 * Tom Jones
 * David Lloyd George
 * Dylan Thomas
 * Christian Bale
 * Owain Glyndwr
 * Geoffrey of Monmouth
 * Gareth Edwards
 * Henry 5th of Monmouth
 * Ralph Steadman
 * Edward II
 * Shirley Bassey
 * Ken Follett
 * Bertrand Russell
 * Terry Jones
 * Timothy Dalton
 * Charles Stewart Rolls
 * Laura Ashley
 * Hugh Griffith
 * Kenneth Griffith
 * Desmond Llewelyn
 * Ray Milland
 * John Rhys-Davies
 * Michael Sheen
 * Ioan Gruffudd
 * Rhys Ifans