There were, perhaps are, in Pembrokeshire, two stones, called the Devil’s Nags, which were haunted by Evil Spirits, who troubled the people that passed that way.
Ceubren yr Ellyll, the Hobgoblin’s Hollow Tree, a noble oak, once ornamented Nannau Park, Merionethshire. Tradition says that it was within the trunk of this tree that Glyndwr buried his cousin, Howel Sele, who fell a victim to the superior strength and skill of his relative. Ever after that sad occurrence the place was troubled, sounds proceeded out of the tree, and fire hovered over it, and, according to a writer in The Cambro-Briton, vol. i., p. 226:—
E’en to this day, the peasant still
With cautious fear treads o’er the ground;
In each wild bush a spectre sees,
And trembles at each rising sound.
One of the caves in Little Orme’s Head, Llandudno, is known as Ogof Cythreuliaid, the Cave of Devils.
From the preceding names of places, which do not by any means exhaust the list, it will be seen that many romantic spots in Wales are associated with Demons.
There are also sayings in Welsh connected with the Evil One. Thus, in our days may be heard, when it rains and the sun shines at the same time, the expression, “Mae’r Gwr Drwg yn waldio’i wraig”—the Devil is beating his wife.
Besides the Biblical names, by which Satan is known, in Wales, there are several others in use, not to be found in the Bible, but it would seem that these names are borrowed being either importations or translations; in fact, it is doubtful, whether we possess any exclusively Welsh terms applied solely to the Devil. Andras or Andros is common in North Wales for the Evil One. Canon Silvan Evans in his Welsh Dictionary derives this word from an, without, and gras, grace; thus, the word becomes synonymous with gracelessness, and
he remarks that, although the term is generally rendered devil, it is much softer than that term, or its Welsh equivalent diawl.
Y Fall is another term applied to Satan in Wales. Dr. Owen Pugh defines the word as what is squabby, bulky. The most common expressions for the devil, however, are Cythraul, and diawl, or diafol, but these two last named words are merely forms of Diabolos. Other expressions, such as Old Nick, Old Harry, have found a home in Wales. Y gwr drwg, the bad man, Gwas drwg, the wicked servant, Yr yspryd drwg, the wicked spirit, Yr hen fachgen, the old boy, and such like expressions, are also common. Silly women frighten small children by telling them that the Bo, the bogey, the bogey bo, or bolol, etc., will take them away if they are not quiet.