The bardic arts of song, poetry and storytelling are a mighty allowance of Welsh culture and tradition. And every year in Wales, these arts are commended upon a grand scale at the National Eisteddfod, a big week-long festival where musicians, dancers, artists, poets and singers compete through the medium of the Welsh language to win prestigious prizes. In this article we look at the Welsh storytelling tradition, and portion some of our favourite Snowdonia myths and legends.
In simpler times, natural phenomena were explained away by the superstitious as illusion or miracles, warring dragons or battling giants, or the enactment of the 'Tylwyth Teg', or 'Fair Folk'. We may laugh today, but centuries ago it was considered perfectly plausible that a pile of rocks could appear on a mountainside because a giantess had taken alarm clock and dropped the contents of her apron!
In the true tradition of the ancient bards and storytellers, many old-fashioned tales survive to this day, having been passed alongside orally from one generation to the neighboring throughout history. Myth, legend, superstition or fairy parable - everything you choose to call the folklore of Snowdonia, there are profusion of surviving tales to choose from, each one as colourful as the next. Here are a few of our favourites.
St Twrog's Stone
In the village of Maentwrog, just external Blaenau Ffestiniog, an strange boulder stands neighboring to the porch in the churchyard. Legend has it that a local giant, Twrog, disgusted by the pagan rituals beast carried out in the village, threw a large rock alongside from a handy hill which destroyed the unholy altar. His buddies well ahead erected the church where the boulder had landed.
The Mermaid's Curse
Many hundreds of years ago a organization of fishermen caught a mermaid in their nets while fishing in the Conwy estuary. Ignoring her pleas for freedom, they paraded her through the town until, behind a fish, the mermaid started to suffocate on air. As she died, the mermaid cursed the men of Conwy, their wives, their children, and future generations. She cursed the buildings, future buildings, and vowed that Conwy would worry many drownings, wars, diseases and disasters until the end of time.
In 1966 Conwy Town Hall, which stood on the spot where the mermaid was said to have died, burned down. Several locals said they heard the mermaid's ghostly laughter as the building burned. The land on which it had stood was difficult developed as a library, but within two months of feat it had burned the length of again - and as soon as again, the mermaid's laughter was heard through the flames.
The Sunken Town
In the basin of the valley where Lake Bala (Llyn Tegid in Welsh) lies, there was as soon as a town. This town was inhabited by unscrupulous and greedy people, and ruled by a certainly cruel and wicked man, who one night held a huge party in his palace to celebrate the birth of his first child.
A local harpist was ordered to come up with the money for entertainment at the party. Despite hating the ruler, who ruled the town harshly, the harpist knew it would be utterly dangerous to refuse, therefore reluctantly attended and played for the guests.
As the party progressed the harpist heard a peculiar whispering at the rear him. He turned and axiom a tiny bluebird which kept repeating the similar word greater than and more than again: "Vengeance! Vengeance!" - at the similar grow old beckoning the harpist to follow it.
The harpist left the palace and followed the bird happening a hillside, where he slept every night. when he awoke the bordering morning, he looked all along at the town and wise saying that it had disappeared, and in its area was an huge lake. And there, floating upon the surface of the lake, was the pubertal man's harp.
King Arthur in Snowdonia
There are many folk tales placing Arthur, legendary King of the Britons, in Snowdonia. Perhaps the most dramatic of these claims that Arthur fought his last fight in the region, at a pass near Cwm Dyli. subsequent to Arthur was mortally pained by a cheer of enemy arrows, his men raised a cairn over his body, which yet stands today and is called Carnedd Arthur - Arthur's Cairn - while the mountain pass where the ambush happened is called Bwlch Y Saethau, or Pass of the Arrows.
After Arthur died, his steadfast knights entered a cave below the top of Lliwedd and the read was sealed astern them. This cave is known as Ogof Llanciau Eryri, or Cave of the teen Men of Snowdonia. It is said that the knights slumber there still, abundantly armoured and armed, waiting for their king to awaken and fulfil the ancient prophesy that Arthur merely sleeps until Wales is in mortal danger, whereupon he will arise and save his country.
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