On this tongue of land stand the ruins of a church founded by S. Dwyn
or Dwynwen, daughter of Brychan, the Irish king of Brecknock. The place
is not easily reached from Newborough without a guide, as the sands are
over ankle, and in places half-way up the calf, deep, and the labour
of reaching it is great to anyone who does not know the track. Yet the
place was at one time greatly resorted to. Dwynwen was the Venus of
Wales. She and one Maelor Dafodril fell desperately in love with each
other, but when he paid her his addresses, in a spirit of caprice or
levity she flouted him, and he retired deeply offended. She constantly
expected him to return, but he did not; instead, he published libels
about her. She was miserable, partly because of these slanders, partly
because she loved him still. Then in her distress she prayed to be
relieved of her passion, and an angel appeared and administered to her
some drops of a heavenly liquid, and at once her heart was cured of
love-sickness.
Next the angel administered the same medicine to Maelor, and he was
congealed to ice. God now gave to Dwynwen three requests which He
undertook to fulfil. So she asked to have Maelor thawed, and he was
so; then she asked that all lovers who invoked her aid might obtain
the object of their desires, or become indifferent; then, lastly, she
asked that she might never again hanker after the married estate.
At Llanddwyn was a holy well that is now choked by sand, but till
it was smothered up was in much resort for its oracular answers to
questions put to it. The following is an account of the ceremony from
the pen of William Williams, of Llandegai, written about 1800:--
“There was a spring of clear water, now choked up by the sand, at
which an old woman from Newborough always attended and prognosticated
the lover’s success from the movements of some small eels, which waved
out of the sides of the well on spreading the lover’s handkerchief on
the surface of the water. I remember an old woman saying that when she
was a girl she consulted the woman at the well about her destiny with
respect to a husband. On spreading her handkerchief, out popped an eel
from the north side of the well, and soon after another crawled from
the south side, and they both met on the bottom of the well. Then the
woman told her that her husband would be a stranger from the south
part of Carnarvonshire. Soon after, it happened that three brothers
came from that part and settled in the neighbourhood where this young
woman was, one of whom made his addresses to her, and in a little time
married her. So much of the prophecy I remember. This couple was my
father and mother.”
A maxim attributed to the saint is, “There is no amiability like
cheerfulness”; _i.e._ Nothing is so attractive as a cheerful spirit. S.
Dwynwen was also regarded as patroness of the cattle in Anglesey. The
same writer adds:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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