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
There was also at Llanbadarn Fawr, in the same county, about seven
hundred years ago, a Knight named Sir Dafydd Sion Evan, who was
supposed to be taking journeys through the air on a demon-horse. This
Sir Dafydd was at times absent for weeks; and when he returned he was
often wet with foam and covered with seaweed, or his head and shoulders
sprinkled with snow, during the heat of summer. At other times he
was blackened with smoke and smelling strong of sulphureous fire. On
one occasion when Sir Dafydd had mounted this "devil-born" horse,
and had gone up a considerable height into the air, the horse turned
his head and said, "How I have forgotten Sir Davy Sion Evan; I asked
not of the course of thy travel; art thou for steering above wind,
or below wind"? "On Devil-born!" said Sir Davy, "and stint prate."
Such tales of wizards riding through the air on demons are to be
found in Scotland as well as Wales, and Sir Walter Scott in his
Notes to the Lay of the Last Minstrel, gives the following story
concerning Sir Michael Scott, who was chosen, it is said, to go upon
an embassy to obtain from the King of France satisfaction for certain
piracies committed by his subjects upon those of Scotland. Instead
of preparing a new equipage and splendid retinue, the ambassador
retreated to his study, opened his book, and evoked a fiend in the
shape of a huge black horse, mounted upon his back, and forced him
to fly through the air towards France. As they crossed the sea, the
devil insidiously asked his rider what it was that the old women in
Scotland muttered at bedtime? A less experienced wizard might have
answered that it was the Pater Noster, which would have licensed the
devil to precipitate him from his back. But Michael sternly replied,
"What is that to thee? Mount Diabolus, and fly!" When he arrived
at Paris, he tied his horse to the gate of the palace, entered,
and boldly delivered his message. An ambassador with so little of
the pomp and circumstances of diplomacy was not received with much
respect; and the King was about to return a contemptuous refusal to
his demand, when Michael besought him to suspend his resolution till
he had seen his horse stamp three times. The first stamp shook every
steeple in Paris, and caused all the bells to ring; the second threw
down three of the towers of the palace; and the infernal steed had
lifted his hoof to give the third stamp, when the King rather chose
to dismiss Michael with the most ample concessions than to stand to
the probable consequences.
It seems that in Eastern countries also, there are traditions of
magicians riding through the air, for in the "Arabian Nights," we
have the story of the Enchanted Horse.
An old carpenter, named Benjamin Phillips, Bronwydd Arms, Carmarthen,
informed me the Wizard of Fos-y-Broga, often caused a demon to appear
at night in the form of a white bull, on the road near Llanpumpsaint.
THE HARRIESES OF CWRTYCADNO, THE POPULAR MODERN WIZARDS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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