Had it not been for the oxen pulling,
The afanc had never left the pool.
‘You must understand that some take the afanc to be a corporeal demon; but I am sufficiently satisfied that there is an animal of the same name, which is called in English a bever, seeing that the term ceiỻie’r afanc signifies bever stones. I know not what kind of oxen those in question were, but it is related that they were twins; nor do I know why they were called Ychain Mannog or Ychain Bannog. But peradventure they were called Ychain Bannog in reference to their having had many a fattening, or fattening on fattening (having been for many a year fattened). Yet the word bannog is not a good, suitable word to signify fattened, as bannog is nought else than what has been made exceeding thick by beating [or fulling], as one says of a thick blanket made of coarse yarn (y gwrthban tew-bannog), the thick bannog[13] blanket. Whilst I was dawdling behind talking about this, the oxen had proceeded very far, and I did not find their footmarks as they came through portions of the parish of Dolyđ-Elan (Lueđog) until I reached a pass called ever since Bwlch Rhiw’r Ychen, “the Pass of the Slope of the Oxen,” between the upper parts of Dolyđelan and the upper part of Nanhwynen. In coming over this pass one of the oxen dropped one of its eyes on an open spot, which for that reason is called Gwaun Lygad Ych, “the Moor of the Ox’s Eye.” The place where the eye fell has become a pool, which is by this time known as Pwỻ Ỻygad Ych, “the Pool of the Ox’s Eye,” which is at no time dry, though no water rises in it or flows into it except when rain falls; nor is there any flowing out of it during dry weather. It is always of the same depth; that is, it reaches about one’s knee-joint, according to those who have paid attention to that for a considerable number of years. There is a harp melody, which not all musicians know: it is known as the Ychain Mannog air, and it has a piteous effect on the ear, being as plaintive as were the groanings of these Ychain under the weight of the afanc, especially when one of the pair lost an eye. They pulled him up to Ỻyn Cwm Ffynnon Las, “the Lake of the Dingle of the Green Well,” to which he was consigned, for the reason, peradventure, that some believed that there were in that lake uncanny things already in store. In fact, it was but fitting that he should be permitted to go to his kind. But whether there were uncanny things in it before or not, many think that there is nothing good in it now, as you will understand from what follows. There is much talk of Ỻyn Cwm Ffynnon Las besides the fact that it is always free from ice, except in one corner where the peat water of clear pools comes into it, and that it has also a variety of dismal hues. The cause of this is, as I suppose, to be sought in the various hues of the rocks surrounding it; and the fact that a whirlwind makes its water mixed, which is enough to give any lake a disagreeable colour. Nothing swims on it without danger, and I am not sure that it would be very safe for a bird to fly across it or not. Throw a rag into its water and it will go to the bottom, and I have with my own ears heard a man saying that he saw a goat taking to this lake in order to avoid being caught, and that as soon as the animal went into the water, it turned round and round, as if it had been a top, until it was drowned …. Some mention that, as some great man was hunting in the Snowdon district (Eryri), a stag, to avoid the hounds when they were pressing on him, and as is the habit of stags to defend themselves, made his escape into this lake: the hunters had hardly time to turn round before they saw the stag’s antlers (mwnglws) coming to the surface, but nothing more have they ever seen …. A young woman has been seen to come out of this lake to wash clothes, and when she had done she folded the clothes, and taking them under her arm went back into the lake. One man, whose brother is still alive and well, beheld in a canoe, on this same lake still, an angler with a red cap on his head; but the man died within a few days, having not been in his right mind during that time. Most people regard this as the real truth, and, as for myself, I cannot refuse to believe that such a vision might not cause a man to become so bewildered as to force on a disease ending with his death ….’
The name Ỻyn Cwm Ffynnon Las would have led one to suppose that the pool meant is the one given in the ordnance maps as Ỻyn y Cwm Ffynnon, and situated in the mountains between Pen y Gwryd and the upper valley of Ỻanberis; but from the writer on the parish of Beđgelert in the Brython for 1861, pp. 371–2, it appears that this is not so, and that the tarn meant was in the upper reach of Cwm Dyli, and was known as Ỻyn y Ffynnon Las, ‘Lake of the Green Well,’ about which he has a good deal to say in the same strain as that of Ỻwyd in the letter already cited. Among other things he remarks that it is a very deep tarn, and that its bottom has been ascertained to be lower than the surface of Ỻyn Ỻydaw, which lies 300 feet lower. And as to the afanc, he remarks that the inhabitants of Nant Conwy and the lower portions of the parish of Dolwyđelan, having frequent troubles and losses inflicted on them by a huge monster in the river Conwy, near Bettws y Coed, tried to kill it but in vain, as no harpoon, no arrow or spear made any impression whatsoever on the brute’s hide; so it was resolved to drag it away as in the Ỻwyd story. I learn from Mr. Pierce (Elis o’r Nant), of Dolwyđelan, that the lake is variously known as Ỻyn (Cwm) Ffynnon Las, and Ỻyn Glas or Glaslyn: this last is the form which I find in the maps. It is to be noticed that the Nant Conwy people, by dragging the afanc there, got him beyond their own watershed, so that he could no more cause floods in the Conwy.
Here, as promised at p. 74, I append Lewis Glyn Cothi’s words as to the afanc in Ỻyn Syfađon. The bard is dilating in the poem, where they occur, on his affection for his friend Ỻywelyn ab Gwilym ab Thomas Vaughan, of Bryn Hafod in the Vale of Towy, and averring that it would be as hard to induce him to quit his friend’s hospitable home, as it was to get the afanc away from the Lake of Syfađon, as follows:—
Yr avanc er ei ovyn
Wyv yn ỻech ar vin y ỻyn;
Ni thynwyd ban aeth yno:
Ni’m tỳn mèn nag ychain gwaith,