The bardic arts of song, poetry and storytelling are a strong share of Welsh culture and tradition. And all year in Wales, these arts are commended on 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 see at the Welsh storytelling tradition, and share 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 take effect of the 'Tylwyth Teg', or 'Fair Folk'. We may giggle today, but centuries ago it was considered perfectly plausible that a pile of rocks could appear upon a mountainside because a giantess had taken agitation and dropped the contents of her apron!
In the authenticated tradition of the ancient bards and storytellers, many outmoded tales survive to this day, having been passed by the side of orally from one generation to the next-door throughout history. Myth, legend, superstition or fairy metaphor - all you pick to call the folklore of Snowdonia, there are loads of unshakable tales to pick 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 outdoor Blaenau Ffestiniog, an unfamiliar boulder stands adjacent to the porch in the churchyard. Legend has it that a local giant, Twrog, disgusted by the pagan rituals brute carried out in the village, threw a large rock next to from a understandable hill which destroyed the unholy altar. His associates superior erected the church where the boulder had landed.
The Mermaid's Curse
Many hundreds of years ago a help of fishermen caught a mermaid in their nets even though fishing in the Conwy estuary. Ignoring her pleas for freedom, they paraded her through the town until, when a fish, the mermaid started to suffocate upon air. As she died, the mermaid cursed the men of Conwy, their wives, their children, and complex generations. She cursed the buildings, higher buildings, and vowed that Conwy would worry 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 estate on which it had stood was far along developed as a library, but within two months of talent it had burned next to once more - 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 gone a town. This town was inhabited by unscrupulous and selfish people, and ruled by a totally 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 give entertainment at the party. Despite hating the ruler, who ruled the town harshly, the harpist knew it would be extremely risky to refuse, appropriately reluctantly attended and played for the guests.
As the party progressed the harpist heard a peculiar whispering behind him. He turned and maxim a tiny bluebird which kept repeating the same word beyond and beyond again: "Vengeance! Vengeance!" - at the same epoch beckoning the harpist to follow it.
The harpist left the palace and followed the bird in the works a hillside, where he slept every night. afterward he awoke the bordering morning, he looked beside at the town and saying that it had disappeared, and in its place was an immense lake. And there, loose upon the surface of the lake, was the youthful 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. gone Arthur was mortally maltreated by a approval of foe arrows, his men raised a cairn beyond his body, which yet stands today and is called Carnedd Arthur - Arthur's Cairn - though the mountain pass where the ambush happened is called Bwlch Y Saethau, or Pass of the Arrows.
After Arthur died, his remaining knights entered a cave under the summit of Lliwedd and the retrieve was hermetically sealed in back them. This cave is known as Ogof Llanciau Eryri, or Cave of the pubescent 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 keep his country.
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