British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and TraditionsSikes, Wirt
History
British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions
Sikes, Wirt
Folklore -- Wales; Goblins -- Wales; Mythology, Celtic -- Wales; Mythology, Welsh; Wales -- Social life and customs
A frightful figure among Welsh apparitions is the Gwrach y Rhibyn,
whose crowning distinction is its prodigious ugliness. The feminine
pronoun is generally used in speaking of this goblin, which unlike the
majority of its kind, is supposed to be a female. A Welsh saying,
regarding one of her sex who is the reverse of lovely, is, 'Y mae mor
salw a Gwrach y Rhibyn,' (She is as ugly as the Gwrach y Rhibyn.) The
spectre is a hideous being with dishevelled hair, long black teeth,
long, lank, withered arms, leathern wings, and a cadaverous
appearance. In the stillness of night it comes and flaps its wings
against the window, uttering at the same time a blood-curdling howl,
and calling by name on the person who is to die, in a lengthened dying
tone, as thus: 'Da-a-a-vy!' 'De-i-i-o-o-o ba-a-a-ch!' The effect of
its shriek or howl is indescribably terrific, and its sight blasting
to the eyes of the beholder. It is always an omen of death, though its
warning cry is heard under varying circumstances; sometimes it appears
in the mist on the mountain side, or at cross-roads, or by a piece of
water which it splashes with its hands. The gender of apparitions is
no doubt as a rule the neuter, but the Gwrach y Rhibyn defies all
rules by being a female which at times sees fit to be a male. In its
female character it has a trick of crying at intervals, in a most
doleful tone, 'Oh! oh! fy ngwr, fy ngwr!' (my husband! my husband!)
But when it chooses to be a male, this cry is changed to 'Fy ngwraig!
fy ngwraig!' (my wife! my wife!) or 'Fy mlentyn, fy mlentyn bach!' (my
child, my little child!) There is a frightful story of a dissipated
peasant who met this goblin on the road one night, and thought it was
a living woman; he therefore made wicked and improper overtures to it,
with the result of having his soul nearly frightened out of his body
in the horror of discovering his mistake. As he emphatically
exclaimed, 'Och, Dduw! it was the Gwrach y Rhibyn, and not a woman at
all.'
III.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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