The bardic arts of song, poetry and storytelling are a strong ration of Welsh culture and tradition. And all year in Wales, these arts are highly praised 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 ration some of our favourite Snowdonia myths and legends.
In simpler times, natural phenomena were explained away by the superstitious as magic or miracles, warring dragons or battling giants, or the acquit yourself 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 upon a mountainside because a giantess had taken dread and dropped the contents of her apron!
In the legal tradition of the ancient bards and storytellers, many obsolete tales survive to this day, having been passed all along orally from one generation to the adjacent throughout history. Myth, legend, superstition or fairy story - everything you choose to call the folklore of Snowdonia, there are wealth 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 outside Blaenau Ffestiniog, an peculiar boulder stands next to the porch in the churchyard. Legend has it that a local giant, Twrog, disgusted by the pagan rituals being carried out in the village, threw a large rock down from a handy hill which destroyed the unholy altar. His cronies progressive erected the church where the boulder had landed.
The Mermaid's Curse
Many hundreds of years ago a outfit of fishermen caught a mermaid in their nets though fishing in the Conwy estuary. Ignoring her pleas for freedom, they paraded her through the town until, once a fish, the mermaid started to suffocate upon air. As she died, the mermaid cursed the men of Conwy, their wives, their children, and well ahead generations. She cursed the buildings, far along buildings, and vowed that Conwy would wrestle many drownings, wars, diseases and disasters until the stop of time.
In 1966 Conwy Town Hall, which stood upon 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 home upon which it had stood was complex developed as a library, but within two months of execution it had burned by the side of once again - and taking into consideration 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 taking into account a town. This town was inhabited by immoral and greedy people, and ruled by a completely 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 present entertainment at the party. Despite hating the ruler, who ruled the town harshly, the harpist knew it would be totally dangerous to refuse, hence reluctantly attended and played for the guests.
As the party progressed the harpist heard a unfamiliar whispering astern him. He turned and saw a tiny bluebird which kept repeating the similar word higher than and beyond again: "Vengeance! Vengeance!" - at the thesame grow old beckoning the harpist to follow it.
The harpist left the palace and followed the bird taking place a hillside, where he slept all night. with he awoke the bordering morning, he looked by the side of at the town and wise saying that it had disappeared, and in its place was an vast lake. And there, at a loose end on the surface of the lake, was the pubescent 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. later Arthur was mortally pained by a give enthusiastic approval to of enemy arrows, his men raised a cairn higher than his body, which still stands today and is called Carnedd Arthur - Arthur's Cairn - even if the mountain pass where the ambush happened is called Bwlch Y Saethau, or Pass of the Arrows.
After Arthur died, his unshakable knights entered a cave below the summit of Lliwedd and the entre was sound in back them. This cave is known as Ogof Llanciau Eryri, or Cave of the young person Men of Snowdonia. It is said that the knights slumber there still, adequately 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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