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
At a distance of about three miles from Tregaron there is a ridge
running east and west separating Upper and Lower Tregaron. It is called
"Cwys yr Ychain Bannog," the Furrow of the large-horned Oxen. Tradition
has it that the "Furrow" was made by two Bannog Oxen dragging along
the ground the carcass of a huge reptile which had been killed by the
people of the neighbourhood in ancient time. (For more about Tregaron
see Lakes.)
CRUG MAWR.
The Rev. Peter Roberts, in his "Cambrian Popular Antiquities," says
that Crug Mawr, or Pentychryd Mawr, is a lofty hill in Cardiganshire,
situated in the Vale of Aeron, mentioned in Giraldus, where he says,
"there is an open grave, which fits the length of any man lying in it,
short or long." Hence arose the ancient tradition, that a powerful
giant, kept his post on this hill, and was endowed with the genius of
the Aeron Vale. He had a lofty palace erected on the hill, and used
occasionally to invite the neighbouring giants to a trial of strength
on the top of it. At one of these meetings coits were proposed and
introduced, and, after great efforts, the inhabitant of the spot won
the day, by throwing his coit clear into the Irish shore, which ever
after gave him the superiority over all other giants in Ceredigion,
or the land of Ceredig.
Gwynionydd in the First Volume of the "Brython," 1859, mentions two
places known as "Crug Mawr," one near Cardigan, and the other in the
Vale of Aeron.
Near the road leading from Newcastle Emlyn to Lampeter, is "Crug
Balog," where a warrior or giant of the name of Balog was buried.
CANTREF Y GWAELOD; OR THE LOST LOWLAND.
"Ochenaid Gwyddno Garanhir,
Pan droes y don dros ei dir."
(The sigh of Gwyddno Garanhir,
When the waives swept over his land.)
There is a well-known tradition in Cardiganshire, and indeed all over
Wales, that what is known to-day as Cardigan Bay was once dry land. The
country was known as Cantref y Gwaelod, or The Lowland Hundred. It
had sixteen cities, and in the beginning of the sixth century the
district was governed by a king named Gwyddno Garanhir. As the land
was below sea-level, dykes had been built to check the encroachments
of the sea. One day, however, Saethennyn Feddw, that is, Saethennyn
the Drunkard, son of the King of South Wales, opened the sluices,
and the sea flowed in, but the people fled to the uplands.
One of the ancient Welsh Triads commemorates the inundation as
follows:--
"The three abandoned drunkards of the Isle of Britain were, first,
drunken Geraint, King of Siluria, who in the paroxysm of a fit of
intoxication set fire to the standing corn; the conflagration in
consequence of which rash act spread so violently, that all the corn
of the country, to an immense distance, was totally consumed, and a
destructive famine ensued."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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