V.Allusion has already been made to theafancstory, and it is convenient to give it before proceeding any further. TheCambrian Journalfor 1859, pp. 142–6, gives it in a letter of Edward Ỻwyd’s dated 1693, and contributed to that periodical by the late Canon Robert Williams, of Rhyd y Croesau, who copied it from the original letter in his possession11, and here follows a translation into English of the part of it which concerns Ỻyn yr Afanc12, a pool on the river Conwy, above Bettws y Coed and opposite Capel Garmon:—‘I suppose it very probable that you have heard speak of Ỻyn yr Afanc, “the Afanc’s Pool,” and that I therefore need not trouble to inform you where it stands. I think, also, that you know, if one may trust what the country people say, that it was a girl that enticed the afanc to come out of his abode, namely the pool, so as to be bound with iron chains, whilst heslumbered with his head on her knees, and with the grip of one hand on her breast. When he woke from his nap and perceived what had been done to him, he got up suddenly and hurried to his old refuge, taking with him in his claw the breast of his sweetheart. It was then seen that it was well the chain was long enough to be fastened to oxen that pulled him out of the pool. Thereupon a considerable dispute arose among some of the people, each asserting that he had taken a great weight on himself and pulled far harder than anybody else. “No,” said another, “it was I,” &c. And whilst they were wrangling in this way, the report goes that the afanc answered them, and silenced their discontent by saying—Oni bae y dai ag a dynNi đactha’r afanc byth o’r ỻyn.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 abever, seeing that the termceiỻie’r afancsignifiesbever 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 calledYchain MannogorYchain Bannog. But peradventure they were calledYchain Bannogin reference to their having had many a fattening, or fattening on fattening (having been for many a year fattened). Yet the wordbannogis not a good, suitable word to signify fattened, asbannogis 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 thickbannog13blanket. Whilst I was dawdlingbehind 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 sinceBwlch 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 calledGwaun 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 asPwỻ 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 theYchain Mannogair, and it has a piteous effect on the ear, being as plaintive as were the groanings of theseYchainunder 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 besought 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 ofBeđgelert in theBrythonfor 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 ovynWyv yn ỻech ar vin y ỻyn;O dòn Ỻyn Syfađon voNi thynwyd ban aeth yno:Ni’m tỳn mèn nag ychain gwaith,Ođiyma heđyw ymaith.14The afanc am I, who, sought for, bidesIn hiding on the edge of the lake;Out of the waters of Syfađon MereWas he not drawn, once he got there.So with me: nor wain nor oxen wont to toilMe to-day will draw from here forth.From this passage it would seem that the Syfađon story contemplated the afanc being taken away from the lake in a cart or waggon drawn by oxen; but whether driven by Hu, or by whom, one is not told. However, the story must have represented the undertaking as a failure, and the afanc as remaining in his lake: had it been otherwise it would be hard to see the point of the comparison.
V.Allusion has already been made to theafancstory, and it is convenient to give it before proceeding any further. TheCambrian Journalfor 1859, pp. 142–6, gives it in a letter of Edward Ỻwyd’s dated 1693, and contributed to that periodical by the late Canon Robert Williams, of Rhyd y Croesau, who copied it from the original letter in his possession11, and here follows a translation into English of the part of it which concerns Ỻyn yr Afanc12, a pool on the river Conwy, above Bettws y Coed and opposite Capel Garmon:—‘I suppose it very probable that you have heard speak of Ỻyn yr Afanc, “the Afanc’s Pool,” and that I therefore need not trouble to inform you where it stands. I think, also, that you know, if one may trust what the country people say, that it was a girl that enticed the afanc to come out of his abode, namely the pool, so as to be bound with iron chains, whilst heslumbered with his head on her knees, and with the grip of one hand on her breast. When he woke from his nap and perceived what had been done to him, he got up suddenly and hurried to his old refuge, taking with him in his claw the breast of his sweetheart. It was then seen that it was well the chain was long enough to be fastened to oxen that pulled him out of the pool. Thereupon a considerable dispute arose among some of the people, each asserting that he had taken a great weight on himself and pulled far harder than anybody else. “No,” said another, “it was I,” &c. And whilst they were wrangling in this way, the report goes that the afanc answered them, and silenced their discontent by saying—Oni bae y dai ag a dynNi đactha’r afanc byth o’r ỻyn.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 abever, seeing that the termceiỻie’r afancsignifiesbever 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 calledYchain MannogorYchain Bannog. But peradventure they were calledYchain Bannogin reference to their having had many a fattening, or fattening on fattening (having been for many a year fattened). Yet the wordbannogis not a good, suitable word to signify fattened, asbannogis 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 thickbannog13blanket. Whilst I was dawdlingbehind 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 sinceBwlch 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 calledGwaun 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 asPwỻ 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 theYchain Mannogair, and it has a piteous effect on the ear, being as plaintive as were the groanings of theseYchainunder 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 besought 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 ofBeđgelert in theBrythonfor 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 ovynWyv yn ỻech ar vin y ỻyn;O dòn Ỻyn Syfađon voNi thynwyd ban aeth yno:Ni’m tỳn mèn nag ychain gwaith,Ođiyma heđyw ymaith.14The afanc am I, who, sought for, bidesIn hiding on the edge of the lake;Out of the waters of Syfađon MereWas he not drawn, once he got there.So with me: nor wain nor oxen wont to toilMe to-day will draw from here forth.From this passage it would seem that the Syfađon story contemplated the afanc being taken away from the lake in a cart or waggon drawn by oxen; but whether driven by Hu, or by whom, one is not told. However, the story must have represented the undertaking as a failure, and the afanc as remaining in his lake: had it been otherwise it would be hard to see the point of the comparison.
V.Allusion has already been made to theafancstory, and it is convenient to give it before proceeding any further. TheCambrian Journalfor 1859, pp. 142–6, gives it in a letter of Edward Ỻwyd’s dated 1693, and contributed to that periodical by the late Canon Robert Williams, of Rhyd y Croesau, who copied it from the original letter in his possession11, and here follows a translation into English of the part of it which concerns Ỻyn yr Afanc12, a pool on the river Conwy, above Bettws y Coed and opposite Capel Garmon:—‘I suppose it very probable that you have heard speak of Ỻyn yr Afanc, “the Afanc’s Pool,” and that I therefore need not trouble to inform you where it stands. I think, also, that you know, if one may trust what the country people say, that it was a girl that enticed the afanc to come out of his abode, namely the pool, so as to be bound with iron chains, whilst heslumbered with his head on her knees, and with the grip of one hand on her breast. When he woke from his nap and perceived what had been done to him, he got up suddenly and hurried to his old refuge, taking with him in his claw the breast of his sweetheart. It was then seen that it was well the chain was long enough to be fastened to oxen that pulled him out of the pool. Thereupon a considerable dispute arose among some of the people, each asserting that he had taken a great weight on himself and pulled far harder than anybody else. “No,” said another, “it was I,” &c. And whilst they were wrangling in this way, the report goes that the afanc answered them, and silenced their discontent by saying—Oni bae y dai ag a dynNi đactha’r afanc byth o’r ỻyn.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 abever, seeing that the termceiỻie’r afancsignifiesbever 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 calledYchain MannogorYchain Bannog. But peradventure they were calledYchain Bannogin reference to their having had many a fattening, or fattening on fattening (having been for many a year fattened). Yet the wordbannogis not a good, suitable word to signify fattened, asbannogis 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 thickbannog13blanket. Whilst I was dawdlingbehind 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 sinceBwlch 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 calledGwaun 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 asPwỻ 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 theYchain Mannogair, and it has a piteous effect on the ear, being as plaintive as were the groanings of theseYchainunder 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 besought 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 ofBeđgelert in theBrythonfor 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 ovynWyv yn ỻech ar vin y ỻyn;O dòn Ỻyn Syfađon voNi thynwyd ban aeth yno:Ni’m tỳn mèn nag ychain gwaith,Ođiyma heđyw ymaith.14The afanc am I, who, sought for, bidesIn hiding on the edge of the lake;Out of the waters of Syfađon MereWas he not drawn, once he got there.So with me: nor wain nor oxen wont to toilMe to-day will draw from here forth.From this passage it would seem that the Syfađon story contemplated the afanc being taken away from the lake in a cart or waggon drawn by oxen; but whether driven by Hu, or by whom, one is not told. However, the story must have represented the undertaking as a failure, and the afanc as remaining in his lake: had it been otherwise it would be hard to see the point of the comparison.
V.Allusion has already been made to theafancstory, and it is convenient to give it before proceeding any further. TheCambrian Journalfor 1859, pp. 142–6, gives it in a letter of Edward Ỻwyd’s dated 1693, and contributed to that periodical by the late Canon Robert Williams, of Rhyd y Croesau, who copied it from the original letter in his possession11, and here follows a translation into English of the part of it which concerns Ỻyn yr Afanc12, a pool on the river Conwy, above Bettws y Coed and opposite Capel Garmon:—‘I suppose it very probable that you have heard speak of Ỻyn yr Afanc, “the Afanc’s Pool,” and that I therefore need not trouble to inform you where it stands. I think, also, that you know, if one may trust what the country people say, that it was a girl that enticed the afanc to come out of his abode, namely the pool, so as to be bound with iron chains, whilst heslumbered with his head on her knees, and with the grip of one hand on her breast. When he woke from his nap and perceived what had been done to him, he got up suddenly and hurried to his old refuge, taking with him in his claw the breast of his sweetheart. It was then seen that it was well the chain was long enough to be fastened to oxen that pulled him out of the pool. Thereupon a considerable dispute arose among some of the people, each asserting that he had taken a great weight on himself and pulled far harder than anybody else. “No,” said another, “it was I,” &c. And whilst they were wrangling in this way, the report goes that the afanc answered them, and silenced their discontent by saying—Oni bae y dai ag a dynNi đactha’r afanc byth o’r ỻyn.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 abever, seeing that the termceiỻie’r afancsignifiesbever 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 calledYchain MannogorYchain Bannog. But peradventure they were calledYchain Bannogin reference to their having had many a fattening, or fattening on fattening (having been for many a year fattened). Yet the wordbannogis not a good, suitable word to signify fattened, asbannogis 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 thickbannog13blanket. Whilst I was dawdlingbehind 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 sinceBwlch 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 calledGwaun 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 asPwỻ 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 theYchain Mannogair, and it has a piteous effect on the ear, being as plaintive as were the groanings of theseYchainunder 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 besought 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 ofBeđgelert in theBrythonfor 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 ovynWyv yn ỻech ar vin y ỻyn;O dòn Ỻyn Syfađon voNi thynwyd ban aeth yno:Ni’m tỳn mèn nag ychain gwaith,Ođiyma heđyw ymaith.14The afanc am I, who, sought for, bidesIn hiding on the edge of the lake;Out of the waters of Syfađon MereWas he not drawn, once he got there.So with me: nor wain nor oxen wont to toilMe to-day will draw from here forth.From this passage it would seem that the Syfađon story contemplated the afanc being taken away from the lake in a cart or waggon drawn by oxen; but whether driven by Hu, or by whom, one is not told. However, the story must have represented the undertaking as a failure, and the afanc as remaining in his lake: had it been otherwise it would be hard to see the point of the comparison.
V.
Allusion has already been made to theafancstory, and it is convenient to give it before proceeding any further. TheCambrian Journalfor 1859, pp. 142–6, gives it in a letter of Edward Ỻwyd’s dated 1693, and contributed to that periodical by the late Canon Robert Williams, of Rhyd y Croesau, who copied it from the original letter in his possession11, and here follows a translation into English of the part of it which concerns Ỻyn yr Afanc12, a pool on the river Conwy, above Bettws y Coed and opposite Capel Garmon:—‘I suppose it very probable that you have heard speak of Ỻyn yr Afanc, “the Afanc’s Pool,” and that I therefore need not trouble to inform you where it stands. I think, also, that you know, if one may trust what the country people say, that it was a girl that enticed the afanc to come out of his abode, namely the pool, so as to be bound with iron chains, whilst heslumbered with his head on her knees, and with the grip of one hand on her breast. When he woke from his nap and perceived what had been done to him, he got up suddenly and hurried to his old refuge, taking with him in his claw the breast of his sweetheart. It was then seen that it was well the chain was long enough to be fastened to oxen that pulled him out of the pool. Thereupon a considerable dispute arose among some of the people, each asserting that he had taken a great weight on himself and pulled far harder than anybody else. “No,” said another, “it was I,” &c. And whilst they were wrangling in this way, the report goes that the afanc answered them, and silenced their discontent by saying—Oni bae y dai ag a dynNi đactha’r afanc byth o’r ỻyn.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 abever, seeing that the termceiỻie’r afancsignifiesbever 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 calledYchain MannogorYchain Bannog. But peradventure they were calledYchain Bannogin reference to their having had many a fattening, or fattening on fattening (having been for many a year fattened). Yet the wordbannogis not a good, suitable word to signify fattened, asbannogis 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 thickbannog13blanket. Whilst I was dawdlingbehind 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 sinceBwlch 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 calledGwaun 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 asPwỻ 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 theYchain Mannogair, and it has a piteous effect on the ear, being as plaintive as were the groanings of theseYchainunder 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 besought 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 ofBeđgelert in theBrythonfor 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 ovynWyv yn ỻech ar vin y ỻyn;O dòn Ỻyn Syfađon voNi thynwyd ban aeth yno:Ni’m tỳn mèn nag ychain gwaith,Ođiyma heđyw ymaith.14The afanc am I, who, sought for, bidesIn hiding on the edge of the lake;Out of the waters of Syfađon MereWas he not drawn, once he got there.So with me: nor wain nor oxen wont to toilMe to-day will draw from here forth.From this passage it would seem that the Syfađon story contemplated the afanc being taken away from the lake in a cart or waggon drawn by oxen; but whether driven by Hu, or by whom, one is not told. However, the story must have represented the undertaking as a failure, and the afanc as remaining in his lake: had it been otherwise it would be hard to see the point of the comparison.
Allusion has already been made to theafancstory, and it is convenient to give it before proceeding any further. TheCambrian Journalfor 1859, pp. 142–6, gives it in a letter of Edward Ỻwyd’s dated 1693, and contributed to that periodical by the late Canon Robert Williams, of Rhyd y Croesau, who copied it from the original letter in his possession11, and here follows a translation into English of the part of it which concerns Ỻyn yr Afanc12, a pool on the river Conwy, above Bettws y Coed and opposite Capel Garmon:—
‘I suppose it very probable that you have heard speak of Ỻyn yr Afanc, “the Afanc’s Pool,” and that I therefore need not trouble to inform you where it stands. I think, also, that you know, if one may trust what the country people say, that it was a girl that enticed the afanc to come out of his abode, namely the pool, so as to be bound with iron chains, whilst heslumbered with his head on her knees, and with the grip of one hand on her breast. When he woke from his nap and perceived what had been done to him, he got up suddenly and hurried to his old refuge, taking with him in his claw the breast of his sweetheart. It was then seen that it was well the chain was long enough to be fastened to oxen that pulled him out of the pool. Thereupon a considerable dispute arose among some of the people, each asserting that he had taken a great weight on himself and pulled far harder than anybody else. “No,” said another, “it was I,” &c. And whilst they were wrangling in this way, the report goes that the afanc answered them, and silenced their discontent by saying—
Oni bae y dai ag a dynNi đactha’r afanc byth o’r ỻyn.Had it not been for the oxen pulling,The afanc had never left the pool.
Oni bae y dai ag a dynNi đactha’r afanc byth o’r ỻyn.
Oni bae y dai ag a dyn
Ni đactha’r afanc byth o’r ỻyn.
Had it not been for the oxen pulling,The afanc had never left the pool.
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 abever, seeing that the termceiỻie’r afancsignifiesbever 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 calledYchain MannogorYchain Bannog. But peradventure they were calledYchain Bannogin reference to their having had many a fattening, or fattening on fattening (having been for many a year fattened). Yet the wordbannogis not a good, suitable word to signify fattened, asbannogis 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 thickbannog13blanket. Whilst I was dawdlingbehind 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 sinceBwlch 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 calledGwaun 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 asPwỻ 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 theYchain Mannogair, and it has a piteous effect on the ear, being as plaintive as were the groanings of theseYchainunder 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 besought 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 ofBeđgelert in theBrythonfor 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 ovynWyv yn ỻech ar vin y ỻyn;O dòn Ỻyn Syfađon voNi thynwyd ban aeth yno:Ni’m tỳn mèn nag ychain gwaith,Ođiyma heđyw ymaith.14The afanc am I, who, sought for, bidesIn hiding on the edge of the lake;Out of the waters of Syfađon MereWas he not drawn, once he got there.So with me: nor wain nor oxen wont to toilMe to-day will draw from here forth.
Yr avanc er ei ovynWyv yn ỻech ar vin y ỻyn;O dòn Ỻyn Syfađon voNi thynwyd ban aeth yno:Ni’m tỳn mèn nag ychain gwaith,Ođiyma heđyw ymaith.14
Yr avanc er ei ovyn
Wyv yn ỻech ar vin y ỻyn;
O dòn Ỻyn Syfađon vo
Ni thynwyd ban aeth yno:
Ni’m tỳn mèn nag ychain gwaith,
Ođiyma heđyw ymaith.14
The afanc am I, who, sought for, bidesIn hiding on the edge of the lake;Out of the waters of Syfađon MereWas he not drawn, once he got there.So with me: nor wain nor oxen wont to toilMe to-day will draw from here forth.
The afanc am I, who, sought for, bides
In hiding on the edge of the lake;
Out of the waters of Syfađon Mere
Was he not drawn, once he got there.
So with me: nor wain nor oxen wont to toil
Me to-day will draw from here forth.
From this passage it would seem that the Syfađon story contemplated the afanc being taken away from the lake in a cart or waggon drawn by oxen; but whether driven by Hu, or by whom, one is not told. However, the story must have represented the undertaking as a failure, and the afanc as remaining in his lake: had it been otherwise it would be hard to see the point of the comparison.