Wales is a land full of myths and
legends, and has its fair share of ghosts. I thought I'd share just a few tales of
hauntings from various pars of the Principality.
THE HAUNTING OF LLANIDLOES
There
was once a lady who died but could not rest in her grave because of her
misdeeds, and she haunted the locals until they could stand it no
more. Somehow they enticed her to shrink and enter into a bottle, after
appearing in a good many hideous forms; but when she got into the
bottle, they corked it down securely, and the bottle was cast into the
pool underneath the Short bridge at Llanidloes, There the lady was
to remain until the ivy that grow up the buttresses should overgrow the
sides of the bridge, and reach the parapet. In the year 1848, the old
bridge was blown up, and a new one built instead of it. So for all anyone knows, she is still trapped in her bottle!
THE GHOST OF LLANDEGLA
A
small river runs close to the secluded village of Llandegla, and in
this mountain stream under a huge stone lies a wicked ghost. This is how
he came to be there:
It
not is not known why Ffrith farm was troubled by a ghost, but when the
servants were busily engaged in cheese making the spirit would suddenly
throw earth or sand into the milk, and thus spoil the curds. The
dairy was also visited by the ghost, and there he played havoc with the
milk and dishes. He sent the pans, one after the other, around the
room, and dashed them to pieces. The terrible doings of the ghost was a
topic of general conversation in those parts.
The
farmer offered a reward of five pounds to anyone who would lay the
Spirit. One Sunday afternoon, an aged priest visited the farm yard,
and in the presence of a crowd of spectators exorcised the ghost, but
without effect.
The farmer then sent for Griffiths, an
Independent minister at Llanarmon, who enticed the ghost to the barn.
The ghost then changed its appearance to the form of a lion, but could
not touch Griffiths, because he stood in the centre of a circle, over
which the lion could not pass. Griffiths tricked the ghost into
appearing in a less formidable shape, and it changed into a mastiff, but
Griffiths demanded that it change to something smaller. At last, the
ghost appeared as a fly, which was captured by Griffiths and secured in
his tobacco box, This box he buried under a large stone in the river,
just below the bridge, near the Llandegla Mills, and there the spirit
is forced to remain until a certain tree, which grows by the bridge,
reaches the height of the parapet. When this takes place, the spirit will have power to regain his liberty. To prevent this tree from
growing, the school children, even to this day, nip the upper branches
to limit its upward growth.
THE GHOSTLY GIANT OF PONT-Y-GLYN
There
is a picturesque valley between Corwen and Cerrig-y-Drudion, down which
rushes a mountain stream, and over this stream is a bridge, called
Pont-y-Glyn. On the left hand side, a few yards from the bridge, on
the Corwen side, is a yawning chasm, through which the river leaps and tumbles.
Here people who have travelled by night affirm that they have seen
ghosts—the ghosts of those who have been murdered in this secluded place. Among the ghosts, a man who was a servant at Garth Meilio, said that one night, when
he was returning home late from Corwen, he saw before him, seated on a
heap of stones, a woman dressed in Welsh costume. He wished her good
night, but she returned him no answer. She, got up and grew to
gigantic proportions as she continued down the road.
THE GHOST OF TY FELIN
An
exciseman, overtaken by night, went to a house called Ty Felin,
(Yellow House) in the parish of Llanynys, and asked for lodgings.
Unfortunately the house was a very small one, containing only two
bedrooms, and one of these was haunted; consequently no one dared sleep
in it. After a while, however, the stranger induced the master to
allow him to sleep in this haunted room. He had not been there long
before a ghost entered the room in the shape of a travelling Jew and
walked around the room. The exciseman tried to catch him and gave
chase, but he lost sight of the Jew in the yard. He had scarcely
entered the room, a second time, when he again saw the ghost. He
chased him once more and lost sight of him in the same place. The
third time he followed the ghost, he made a mark on the yard where the
ghost vanished and went to rest, and was not disturbed again.
The
next day, the exciseman got up early and went away, but, before long,
he returned to Ty Felin accompanied by a policeman, whom he requested
to dig in the place where his mark was. This was done and underneath a
superficial covering, a deep well was discovered, and in it a corpse.
Under
interrogation, the occupier of the house confessed that a travelling
Jew, selling jewelry and such items, once lodged with him, and that he
had murdered him and cast his body in the well.
In Welsh mythology and folklore,
Cŵn Annwn" hounds
of Annwn") were the spectral hounds of Annwn, the otherworld of Welsh
myth. They were associated with a form of the Wild Hunt, presided over
by Gwynn ap Nudd. Christians came to dub these mythical creatures as
"The Hounds of Hell" or "Dogs of Hell" and theorised they were
therefore owned by Satan. However, the Annwn of medieval Welsh
tradition is an otherworldly paradise and not a hell, or abode of dead
souls.
They were associated with migrating geese, supposedly because their honking in the night is reminiscent of barking dogs
The Cŵn Annwn also came to be regarded as the escorts of souls on their journey to the Otherworld.
The
hounds are sometimes accompanied by a fearsome hag called Mallt-y-Nos,
"Matilda of the Night". An alternative name in Welsh folklore is Cŵn
Mamau ("Hounds of the Mothers").
Hunting
grounds for the Cŵn Annwn are said to include the mountain of Cadair
Idris, where it is believed "the howling of these huge dogs foretold
death to anyone who heard them.The locals claim that the mountain is
haunted, and that anyone who spends the night on top of Cadair Idris
will wake up either a madman or a poet. Different legends surround the
mountain and one of the earliest claims that the giant Idris lived
there. Three large stones rest at the foot of the mountain, and legend
says that Idris got angry once and kicked them, sending them rolling
down the mountainside.
Other Welsh legends state, however, that Arthur made his kingdom there, hence the name Cadair Idris: or the Seat of Idris.
Pwll-y-Wrach, the Witches Pool.
There
is a pool hidden from the road on the top of Flint
Mountain, in Flint North Wales. The pool is so small that travellers these days would not barely notice it. But this was
not always so. In days gone by Flint Mountain was a bare and desolate
place and the pool was known as Pwll-y-Wrach, the Hag's Pool or the
Witches Pool, the place where the ellyllon (as the Welsh call goblins)
would congregate, and thus a place where humans would stay well clear
of, especially after dark.
In 1852, on a cold winter's morning, John Roberts a farm
labourer was setting out to work when he found a
youth blocking his path. With a harmless gesture he made to pass the
youth but all of a sudden a force propelled him through the air. He
landed face down above Pwll-y-Wrach, and the force held him there
despite John's best efforts to free himself. He struggled until at
the sound of a cock crow he was released. The ellyll, still disguised
as a youth, stood astride him and warned. " When the cuckoo sings its
first note on Flint Mountain I shall come again to fetch you". John got
to his feet and stumbled back home, shaken but otherwise unhurt.
The
following May, John Roberts died. He had been repairing a wall at
Pen-y-glyn on Flint Mountain when it collapsed and crushed him. A lady
who witnessed the accident said a cuckoo had come to land on a nearby
tree just as it happened. And as the body of John Roberts was being
returned to his home the cuckoo followed, singing from tree to tree
all the way to the front door.
