Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales

by Jonathan Ceredig Davies

One of the ancient Welsh Triads commemorates the inundation as follows:—

“The three abandoned drunkards of the Isle of Britain were, first, drunken Geraint, King of Siluria, who in the paroxysm of a fit of intoxication set fire to the standing corn; the conflagration in consequence of which rash act spread so violently, that all the corn of the country, to an immense distance, was totally consumed, and a destructive famine ensued.”

“The second was Vortigern, surnamed the wry-mouthed, who when intoxicated gave Horsa, the Saxon chief, the Isle of Thanet, for permission to have an illicit connection with his daughter Rowena; and further promised, that her son, the fruit of that amour, should succeed to the Crown of England; which proved productive of treachery, and a sanguinary massacre of a prodigious number of the chieftains of the Cambrian race.

“The third was drunken Seithinyn, the son of Seithyn Saidi, King of Dimetia; who when in a state of intoxication suffered the sea to overflow Cantref y Gwaelod, where lands and habitations the most beautiful in all Wales, excepting only Caerleon or Usk, to the number of sixteen cities and towns, were in a short period inundated and ruined. The lowland hundred was the property of Gwyddno, surnamed longshanks, King of Ceredigion (Cardiganshire). This event happened in the reign of Emrys Wledig. The inhabitants who escaped from that inundation landed in Ardudwy, and ascended the mountains of Snowdon, which had never been inhabited before that period.”

There is a poem on this inundation in the ancient Welsh book “Llyvr Du Caerfyrddin” (Black Book of Carmarthen).

Near Wallog, a few miles to the North of Aberystwyth, a causeway called Sarn Cynfelyn, extends several miles into the sea. According to local tradition this is supposed to have been a main road leading into the submerged country, and it is said that there was a royal palace in this part. Other places which traditions associate with the Lowland Hundred are Sarn Cadwgan and Sarn Ddewi, further South, near Aberayron, and Sarn Badrig, in North Wales. So much has been written on this subject, both in prose and verse, that it it not necessary to dwell further on it here. But it is of interest to add that there is a tradition, which is still extant that between Borth, in Cardiganshire, and Aberdovey, in Merionethshire, there once stood a town at a spot which is now covered by water. There is also a well-known story of the chimes of bells being heard at the bottom of the sea.

Dwellers near Ramsey Sound, in Pembrokeshire, also hear the chimes of bells in the sea, and this reminds us of the Story of Grallon, in Brittany, who reigns beneath the waves.

LLANFIHANGEL YSTRAD.

There is a tradition in the Vale of Aeron that some generations ago, a man from the neighbourhood of Ystrad, was sentenced at the Cardigan Assizes, to be hanged for sheep-stealing, or some other such offence. The sentence, however, was not carried out, as the criminal was a useful man, particularly so to the Squire who happened to be the High Sheriff that year. But before the Squire’s year of office had elapsed, urgent inquiries came down from the Government as to the execution, of which no report had ever reached them. The Squire was so frightened at the Government’s inquiries, that he had the unfortunate man, who was out in the fields at the time, seized, bound and hanged on a birch tree. One of the Squire’s servants entered a small cottage and begged an old woman for the loan of her apron, but concealing from her what he was going to do with it. When the old woman discovered that her apron was made use of to blindfold the poor man who was so unceremoniously hanged, she pronounced a curse on the Squire and his descendants. After this everything went wrong with that Squire.