Folk-Lore of West and Mid-WalesDavies, Jonathan Ceredig
History
Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales
Davies, Jonathan Ceredig
Folklore -- Wales; Wales -- Social life and customs
In the Churchyard of Llanarth, near Aberaeron, on the South side
of the Church, there is an inscribed stone (not hitherto published)
of the twelfth century. It bears a cross covering the stone with four
circular holes at the junction of the arms. The inscription is on the
lower limb of the cross; but as it is made of a micaceous sandstone,
part has been split off, and the inscription is much mutilated.... The
current tradition of the place concerning it is, that one stormy night,
some centuries ago, there was such a tremendous shindy going on up
in the belfry that the whole village was put in commotion. It was
conjectured that nobody but a certain ancient personage could be the
cause of this, and, therefore, they fetched up his reverence from the
vicarage to go and request the intruder to be off. Up went the vicar
with bell, book and candle, along the narrow winding staircase, and,
sure enough, right up aloft among the bells there was his majesty
in person! No sooner, however, had the worthy priest began the usual
'conjurate in nomine, etc.' than away went the enemy up the remaining
part of the staircase on to the leads of the tower. The Vicar, nothing
daunted, followed, and pressed the intruder so briskly that the latter
had nothing else to do than to leap over the battlements. He came down
plump among the gravestones below; and, falling upon one, made with his
hands and knees the four holes now visible on the stone in question.
Another writer in "Y Brython" for 1859, says, that the Devil's
purpose in troubling Llanarth Church was to rob it of one of its
bells and carry it to Llanbadarn Fawr Church, near Aberystwyth, twenty
miles distant, as the latter, though once a cathedral, had only two
bells, whilst the former, only a parish church, had four. And an old
story still lingers in the neighbourhood of Llanarth that the Devil
whilst thus engaged in carrying the bell, put it down and rested and
re-arranged his heavy load at the very commencement of his journey,
and a particular spot between the church and the river on a road
known as "Rhiw Cyrff," is pointed out as the place where the D----l
put down the bell. Moreover, it is added that from that day forth,
the sound of Llanarth bells cannot be heard from that spot, though
it is only a few yards from the church tower.
The Llanarth legend is the only story in Wales that I know of in which
the Spirit of darkness carries a church bell, as it was believed in
old times that the Evil One was afraid of bells, and fled away at
the sound of them.
There are, however, traditions of churches troubled by the Devil in
other parts of Wales besides Llanarth, and in the old superstitious
times the north door of a church was called "Devil's Door."
It was thought that as the priest entered the church through the
south door, the Evil Spirit was obliged to make his exit through the
north door.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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