Folklore of Wales

by Anne Ross

  A very strange and somewhat alarming rock is situated near Cross Inn, Ceredigion, and is known locally as Carreg y Big or Llech Bron. The top of the stone resembles a head. It is 14ft high and 9ft in diameter and having the appearance of a huge, monstrous being it would not be surprising if it were a source of terror to a person coming upon it unexpectedly, especially in moonlight. There is a local legend that the present position of the stone was due to Satan who carried it from the summit of a rocky eminence known as Truchrug Mountain with the intention of using it in his work of building the very famous bridge, Devil’s Bridge across the River Mynach (37). However the stone was too weighty even for him and he had to take a rest. After a while a cock suddenly crowed and the Devil leaped to his feet and disappeared, leaving the stone behind. It is alleged that his fingerprints may still be visible if one examines the stone closely.

  37 Pont ar Fynach, Devil’s Bridge, Ceredigion. The lowest is an earlier medieval bridge, said to have been built by the Devil. The next above is a later medieval bridge, said to have been built by the monks of Ystrad Fflur, Strata Florida. The uppermost bridge is a comparatively recent work of the County Council

  The Devil was accredited with building several bridges, perhaps the most famous of which is that in Cardiganshire where there are now three intimidating bridges one above the other, across the rocky gorge. Many legends are told of this site. The Devil was seemingly entitled to the soul of the first person or animal to cross the bridge each day. There is a current legend which tells how the he was outwitted on one occasion.

  Parc y Meirw, Llanlower, Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, has a remarkable row of eight huge stones which were erected at intervals over some 130ft. Only four of these now stand upright. It is a site which, being associated with y meirw, the dead, is even more prone to superstitious legends. One maintains that a white lady is sometimes seen in the vicinity of these monoliths. A ghostly woman in white is currently being seen some three miles from my home, standing beside the old stone archway which leads into the grounds of a mansion. I drove past recently late at night and although I did not see the ghost, there was an eerie atmosphere and I was glad to be on the road home!

  Bryn yr Ellyllon (Hill of the Elves) near Mold, Clwyd has now been destroyed but it was the focus of a remarkable piece of Welsh folklore and archaeological discovery. Strangely enough, the story of the mound was first recounted to me by my teacher of Old Norse whilst doing my degrees at the University of Edinburgh. The story as he told it has since been substantiated and is a very interesting example of how folklore and archaeology can support and thus illuminate each other. The tale went that for many, many years the children of Mold were told that a certain mound contained the body of a nobleman, clad in golden armour and equipped with his weapons. This was widely believed to be true but the older people tended to scorn it. However, before the excavation had begun, a number of local people claimed that they had seen the spectre of a horseman with his horse clad in golden armour.

  In 1833 the mound was excavated and many tons of stone were carted away and the skeleton of a very tall, well-built man was found stretched out in the grave. He had been interred wearing a superb corselet of gold which had been lined with bronze. This magnificent, elaborately ornamented object was thought to have been a gold peytral or breastplate for a pony but was subsequently identified as a ceremonial cape for a king or chieftain. Some 300 amber beads were found nearby, traces of an iron object, and an urn containing ashes had been placed some three yards from the skeleton. Before the mound was excavated the ghost of a mounted man had been seen, the horse fitted with golden armour. Oral tradition had kept this remarkable site and its legends alive until it was finally uncovered. It is clearly a site of first importance for both archaeologists and folklorists. This amazing discovery nicely testifies to the way in which legends belonging to the oral tradition which persist in one area or another down the ages can suddenly attain veracity by archaeological or other excavation processes.

  South of Cader Idris, Dolgellau, Gwynedd, some huge coffins were found, containing skeletons of very tall men: the Tall Men of Tal-y-Llyn, which were apparently discovered in 1684, near the lake. Hazel rods were beside them and this would seem to indicate that these men were possibly Druids. Hazel was a tree sacred to the Druids and the nuts were supposed to confer wisdom and knowledge of the Otherworld to those who obtained these fruits from a sacred tree. Cormac, Bishop of Cashel in Ireland in the ninth century, states that such rods used to be kept in the burial-place of the pagans, and that people regarded it as an honour to touch these things. It was also said that the pagans used to write on such sticks in the Ogam script (vide Ross, Druids). Several deposits of a votive nature and of great importance to the history of Celtic toreutic art were found at Tal-y-Llyn, including fragments of a bronze shield-mount, tankard handles and other articles.

  Din Lligwy, on the east side of Anglesey (Môn), consists of a group of circa fourth-century hut circles surrounded by a walled enclosure. Here in the immediately post-Roman period, parties of Irish invaders (Gwyddyl) settled in Anglesey and created stone-walled strongholds for defence purposes. Anglesey was probably one, if not the most, important druidic centre in Britain and it formed an invaluable point of contact linking it with both Ireland and the Welsh mainland. The great hoard of treasure found during hasty excavations carried out by Sir Cyril Fox in 1942 whilst the Valley airfield was being constructed can only be some indication of the lavish nature of what we must consider to have been votive deposits, made at a time when the Romans were pushing relentlessly northwards and both British and Irish independence was under threat. The votive nature of the site of the deposition, at Llyn Cerrig Bach near Holyhead, was emphasised by the fact that many of the weapons and other articles had been deliberately broken in a manner which archaeologists recognise to signify offerings. In other words these valuable items of weapons of various kinds would seem to have been ‘decommissioned’ as it were — thus ensuring that an offering could not thereafter be found and reused for secular purposes. Amongst the treasures were some Irish iron slave-chains and other metalwork from Ireland. Other fragments showed that similar items had been deposited from other areas of Britain, including Yorkshire. This would suggest that here we have a united British and Irish attempt to stem the ruthless northward thrust of the enemy. As we know from later history, these efforts were sadly in vain.

  There was no time to collect and analyse the bones or to extend the work over a wider area. It is miraculous that Sir Cyril was able to retrieve so much, literally from the jaws of the great bulldozers. It may be remarked that it was about this time that the bodies of two high-born men and a woman whose head alone has to date been recovered must have been deposited in the lake on Lindow Moss, Cheshire. It is not impossible that the three had been chosen from the druidic order at a time of utterly dire need when the Romans were steadily lessening the distance between themselves and these, some of the last freedom fighters. Much can be conjectured just as further supportive evidence may come to light in the future.

  38 One of the Bronze Age megaliths embedded in the churchyard wall at Ysbyty Cynfyn, Ceredigion

  It was good psychology on the part of the early Christians to seek to control the dark powers of the great Neolithic slabs of stone, scattered widely throughout the British Isles, sometimes singly and often in rows and circles. In general these are outside the scope of our enquiry. Nevertheless, much folklore has and does adhere to them. They sometimes occur as rings or groups of three or other numbers and it was often a tradition to incorporate these pagan monuments into the hallowed walls of the Christian churchyard and so control any evil powers which might still be retained by them. Perhaps one of the finest examples of these monuments is to be found close to Devil’s Bridge in Dyfed at a site called Ysbyty Cynfyn (38). It is a most impressive sight: the pagan stones standing upright at regular intervals in the churchyard wall and the old church keeping a very watchful eye on them. One is reminded very much of the
instructions of Pope Gregory I (the Great) to St Augustine c.AD 590 concerning his mission to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxons. He told him to ‘destroy the idols but to leave the structures intact; to allow the people to come to worship there but not to honour the old gods but the Lord God Almighty; at their festival seasons to allow the people to bring their animals to the church but to slaughter them under the aegis of Christianity and not of their heathen deities’. This little church of Ysbyty Cynfyn has a peculiar sense of power despite its physical insignificance in the midst of vast areas of wild countryside.

  St Gofan’s Well

  This small well contained in a simple stone structure is directly below the chapel of St Gofan, south of Pembroke (39). Situated close to the attractive little building, the well is built in a narrow gap in the cliffs which are, like the surrounding landscape, of limestone. The well has been allowed to dry up but in the past it was very important as a curative well. People suffering from leg and foot diseases would travel long distances to seek the cure. This consisted, no doubt, of the repetition of some incantation or prohibition and the bathing of the afflicted part in the sacred water. Many claimed to have been cured, and as a token of their healing, they would leave their crutches behind them.

  39 St Gofan’s chapel, Pembrokeshire

  7 Giants, water monsters and inhabitants of the Otherworld

  Taliesin

  Tradition suggests that Taliesin lived at the same time as the great poets Aneurin, Talhaearn Tad Awen, and others, all of whom flourished in or around the sixth century AD. The Book of Taliesin was copied from a manuscript probably dating to the late thirteenth century. The original manuscript was written in Old Welsh somewhere between the sixth and seventh centuries AD.

  The tradition of the birth of Taliesin (known as Hanes Taliesin) is one of the great stories of the Welsh. The earliest full version of the tale dates to the sixteenth century. There is evidence to show that different versions of it existed long before that date. The story is remarkably similar in theme to the Irish story of how the hero Fionn obtained his prophetic knowledge. When he was a young boy, Taliesin was known as Gwion Bach (Gwion equates linguistically with the Irish Fionn; Gw in Welsh being equal to F in Irish). The boy Taliesin was hired by the lake goddess Ceridwen, who lived under Bala Lake with her husband, Tegid, after whom the lake was named in Welsh — Llyn Tegid. The source of the River Dyfrdwy (Dee) is in this lake. In a well-known Celtic motif, i.e. the cauldron of inspiration, Ceridwen was brewing up poetic inspiration in it for nearly a year and the boy Taliesin was to help her by watching it closely and making sure that no one should taste one single drop of the mysterious brew. One day, some liquid was inadvertently spilt and three drops fell onto the boy’s finger. Immediately he was able to have foreknowledge of all that was about to happen. He realised that Ceridwen was his enemy and her intention was to kill him as soon as he had completed his duty of guarding the magical brew. He knew that he must escape from her with all speed. This he attempted to carry out and every time Ceridwen was catching up with him he turned himself into a variety of different forms but she always thwarted him. Eventually, seeing some wheat on the ground, he turned himself into a grain of the cereal but Ceridwen instantly changed herself into a hen and swallowed him. After the necessary lapse of time, he was reborn from her womb as a beautiful child. Such was his beauty that the goddess, his mother, could not bear to kill him. Instead she wrapped him up in the hide of an animal and cast him out to sea. The hide containing the baby was recovered at Aberdovey on the first of May, a portentous season for magic. At that time a man named Elphyn went with his men to the weir where the hide had been caught up. Thinking it might contain riches, he asked his servant to look inside it where, to his astonishment, he saw the top of a baby’s forehead (tal iessin) so Elphyn said the boy should be called Taliesin and lifted him up in his arms. The baby immediately sang a poem in order to console Elphyn who had hoped the hide contained gold. Shortly afterwards he sang two more poems which were answers to questions about his former existence and as to his amazing knowledge. This motif is known in other Celtic contexts and there are of course variations in the details of the story, which must have had a long oral tradition behind it. And so the boy lived and grew to become one of the most famous poets in all Wales. This whole story of course is suggestive of druidism with its powerful belief in metempsychosis and immortality.

  The afanc (water monster)

  The afanc is a terrifying water monster which figures in medieval and later Welsh tradition. There is hardly a lake or pool in Wales without its legend. The legendary horned oxen of Hu Gadarn were the means by which the lake afanc was dragged to dry land so that the lake did not burst afterwards. In many ways the afanc — which is thought to be some kind of supernatural beaver or other water creature — resembles the Gaelic each uisge which, although invariably appearing in horse form, comes to land in the shape of a handsome youth when in search of a young girl to drag back into its watery lair; and — unless she is very lucky — devour her. In one instance, at least, the afanc takes on this rôle.

  There is a pool on the Conwy River, known as Llyn yr Afanc. A young — and we should think foolish — girl enticed the monster to come out of the pool. She obviously accepted his amorous advances and the creature fell asleep, his head resting on her knees, and his claws grasping one of her breasts. He was bound with chains during his deep slumber. When he woke up and saw the chains he made straight for the pool, the girl’s breast still in his claws. Although bound with chains, he managed to return to the pool but part of the chain was long enough for those lying in wait to fasten to the horned oxen, who dragged the afanc back to land. A pass which the afanc and the oxen traversed is, according to T. Gwynn Jones, still known as Bwlch Rhiw’r Ychen (the pass in the hill of the oxen). Likewise, the moor where one of the oxen lost an eye is called Gweun Llygad Ych (the moor of the ox’s eye) and Pwll Llygad Ych is ‘the pool of the ox’s eye’. The poor animals dragged the afanc right up to Llyn Cwm Ffynnon Las, ‘the lake of the hollow of the blue spring’. A not dissimilar tale seems to have been known in connection with Llyn Barfog, near Aberdovey, but the afanc was dragged out by King Arthur and his war-horses.

  There is a whole world of traditions concerning waters, pools, lakes and certainly rivers, which may indicate the deep-rooted Celtic feeling for such features. This is certainly the case in Gaelic Scotland as it is in Ireland, and no doubt widely throughout Europe. Rivers are fascinating and sometimes intimidating permanent elements of the landscape, and hundreds of tales must once have been — and in some places still are — recited or read about in books. They are ever-changing and man must always have had an uneasy relationship with them.

  Giants

  Belief in people of abnormal height known as giants exists in most parts of the world. There are human beings who certainly attain to a height and girth which is markedly greater than the average human stature, but these are not usually regarded as giants nor are they thought to possess the supernatural powers which are common to the giants of folklore. Wales is extremely rich in its repertoire of giant legends, which are widespread and do not always concur with our own ideas of gigantology. They have a well-known place in the folklore of the British Isles and on the whole they would seem to be virtually harmless in non-aggressive contexts. They are by no means lacking in intelligence, if their legends are to be accepted as truth. The subject is too large for a major investigation of the phenomena here and I propose simply to consider half a dozen or so of the more impressive examples.

  I myself live some three miles from an imposing ‘giant’ to whom a legend is still attached, on land which belonged to the Gogerddan Estate. Plas Gogerddan was owned by the Prys family who possessed the stretch of flat lands (the Bow Street Flats) which lie on the left of the main road to Aberystwyth and which have in recent years been subjected to a considerable amount of examination and archaeological excavation. Here stands the great giant Cerdden, who originally formed part of a N
eolithic circle of standing stones, two of which remain, the more imposing being regarded as a representation of Cerddan Cawr, ‘Cerddan the Giant’, who is sometimes referred to as Erddan. His home was connected with a hillfort behind the Bow Street Flats. The two standing stones that represent the remains of the original circle are giants who were enemies and used to periodically fight with one another, according to tradition. There is a legend amongst the local people that the grave of a giant exists at either end of the Flats. Excavation in the past few years has revealed traces of a Neolithic burial ground on the Bow Street Flats and the imposing figure of the remaining standing stone known as Cerddan Cawr — said to have fought triumphantly against a second giant. There is another Cerddan giant in Montgomeryshire who fought against the giant Iestyn.

  Welsh toponomy is rich in giants’ and giantesses’ names, beings which seem to have held a particular fascination for the Welsh, although are by no means lacking in Irish mythology. St Patrick comments on the huge size of the resuscitated Irish warriors in comparison with their own stature. Arthur was a giant, one of many in Wales.

  Mermaids and mermen

  These strnge beings were believed to inhabit the seacoasts of Wales and could be dangerous to the local people. The Welsh mermaid does not differ fundamentally from the universal concept. Down to her waist she is described as a young woman of great beauty. Below the waist she resembles a fish, having fins and a typical fish tail. Male sea creatures were called mermen and both sexes had long hair which they constantly combed with great vanity. The mermaids could sing sweet songs with which they, siren-like, could lure people to their deaths. It was a strong belief that the great beauty of the mermaid could induce handsome young men to fall in love with them and they would often entice these eager suitors to their watery dwellings at the bottom of the sea. Elias Owen mentions a story he believes he heard in Caernarfonshire, p.142f. It is typical of many such tales. The legend notes that a man caught a mermaid and took her back to his home and the poor creature continuously begged to be allowed to return to the sea, but her captor kept her in a room and fastened the door securely. She lasted for a few days, constantly pleading for her release, which was denied her and so she died. From then on, the man who had imprisoned her seemed to have been cursed. He went from bad to worse and finally died in great poverty. It was widely held that it was very unlucky to harm these marine beings. People believed in those days that any cruelty would result in severe punishment to the perpetrator.