I'm so happy to be part of this Blog Hop. Who doesn't enjoy being a little bit frightened by ghostly tales of ghosts, vampires and things of the night? A huge thanks to Nancy Gideon for organising this blog tour.
Leave a comment and follow this blog (if you're already following that's fine, just leave a comment) and I will draw one winner at the end of the 'hop' to win a $6 Amazon Gift Card(Or £5 if in the UK)
I thought I'd share with you some of the myths and legends of home homeland, Wales. Wales is a land legends and folklore, and has its fair share of ghosts. Here are just a few tales of
hauntings from various pars of the Principality.
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
shall 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 glen 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 bounds.
Here people who have travelled by night affirm that they have seen
ghosts—the ghosts of those who have been murdered in this secluded
glen. 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 female 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 which she filled,
so great were her increased dimensions. Other Spirits are said to have
made their homes in the hills not far from Pont-y-Glyn.
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 tenant 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.
BLACK DOGS AND ARTHUR'S SEAT
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 King Arthur made his kingdom there, hence the name Cadair Idris: or the Seat of Idris.(Arthur)
Pwll-y-Wrach, the Witches Pool.
There
is a pool hidden from the road among a copse on the top of Flint
Mountain, in Flint North Wales. The pool is so small that travellers
from Flint to Northop would not give it a second glance. 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 John Roberts a farm
labourer paid an unexpected visit to Pwll-y-Wrach. It was a cold
winter's morning and John 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 for what
seemed a lifetime, but in fact was just a few short minutes, 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.
And since I am looking forward to the release of 'Beloved Enemy', the third in the Destiny Trilogy, I thought I'd be indulgent and share an excerpt from my the first book in the trilogy, 'Starquest', which I think has a really 'spooky' feel to it, although it's SF romance rather than witches or vampires! My
heroine is stranded on an uninhabited planet with her companion who has
been badly wounded. She keeps guard during the night, watching over him
and trying to tend to his wounds, but has a feeling they are not alone.
Then tiny, dancing pinpoints of light appear...
EXCERPT FROM STARQUEST
After a while I decided it was just marsh gas, but as I
watched I became aware that the 'flames' were orderly. They moved in
groups of threes and fours, gliding in straight lines and then circling
to retrace their steps in what seemed to be a methodical fashion, as no
Will o' the Wisp ever did. I began to feel I was in the presence of
something malevolent...evil.
Then I heard the voices. Strange, unearthly voices, which had nothing to do with flesh and blood.
"Take the male," they hissed, "while he yet lives. Before the life-force within him dies and is of no use to us."
"Wait.
The female is stronger," came another voice. "Stay until she sleeps.
Then will be our chance, and we can take them both."
I reached for my blaster, by now fully charged, and fired a steady beam
in the direction of the 'flames.' When I laid down the gun there
was nothing, only the darkness. Had the
voices been in my imagination,
or was it a dream? But I knew I had not
slept. Trying to recall the experience, as I record this, I realise they
did not speak in words at all. Yet I had understood...
I've always loved the night, the beauty of the darkened, star-filled
skies. Here, however, on this forsaken and perilous planet, it is
menacing, with the sense of something lurking, lying in wait.
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