So the Eagle went to see the Blackbird’s friend, the Toad of Cors Fochno, and asked, ‘Do you know if the Owl of Cwm Cowlyd is old?’
‘Hmmm,’ said the Toad. ‘I am old. I never eat any food except dust, and I only take tiny mouthfuls in case I use it all up. When I came here this flat place was a hill, like the high hills all around; but I have eaten it all up, and now it is a bog, though I only have a small appetite. When I first came here the Owl was already old, and she used to frighten me with her “to-whit-to-whoo”, because I was only young. The Owl of Cwm Cowlyd is really, really old.’
Then the Eagle knew that the Owl of Cwm Cowlyd was older than him. In fact, she was the oldest animal in the world. And he knew he could ask her to marry him without being afraid that she would make him feel old and tired. The two of them would be able to sit together quietly and keep each other company.
So the Eagle went to see the Owl of Cwm Cowlyd.
‘Dear Owl,’ he said. ‘Please will you marry me?’
‘Oh!’ said the Owl of Cwm Cowlyd. She was very surprised. But then she said, ‘Yes.’
So they were married.
The Stag, the Salmon, the Blackbird and the Toad all came to the wedding. But nobody danced. They were all too old. They just sat together quietly and kept each other company.
After the wedding, the Eagle and the Owl lived together for a long time, and neither of them was lonely any more.
The Eagle asked the Owl to marry him.
6
HEN WEN THE PIG
Coll had a pig. He had lots of pigs, actually. Looking after them was his job. He lived in Cornwall with his pigs. He liked all his pigs and they liked him. But he definitely had a favourite pig.
Her name was Hen Wen. It means the Old White One. She was old. And white. And big – very big. Coll looked at her big belly, and he could see that soon she was going to give birth. He was looking forward to seeing Hen Wen’s piglets.
The trouble was that a wizard had been to visit King Arthur.
The wizard could see the future. He said, ‘An island of Britain will have terrible trouble, because of one of Hen Wen’s babies.’
Arthur brought his knights to hunt Hen Wen, to kill her before her piglets were born.
Coll was horrified when he heard that King Arthur wanted to kill his favourite pig.
‘Why?’ he asked. ‘She isn’t causing any trouble. She’s just a pig! Why doesn’t the king like her? She’s lovely …’
Hen Wen didn’t wait for Arthur and his knights.
She ran down to the seashore. Coll ran down after her.
Hen Wen began to swim.
Hen Wen jumped into the sea. Coll jumped in after her.
Hen Wen began to swim. Coll held on tight to her tail, so that as she swam, she pulled him along.
Hen Wen swam right across the Severn Sea, from Cornwall to Wales. She escaped from King Arthur and his knights.
She came ashore in Gwent. She shook her head to get the water out of her ears, and a grain of wheat and a bee fell out of her right ear. Because of Hen Wen, Gwent become famous for wheat and honey.
Then she went back into the sea. She took Coll with her. She swam right along the south coast of Wales until she came to Pembroke.
She came ashore in Pembroke. She shook her head to get the water out of her ears, and a grain of barley and a bee fell out of her left ear. Because of Hen Wen, Pembroke became famous for its honeyed barley beer.
She went back into the sea again. She took Coll with her. She swam all along the west coast of Wales until she came to Snowdonia. She came ashore and gave birth to a wolf cub and an eagle chick.
Coll was worried about these unusual babies. He remembered what the wizard had said. They didn’t seem like the right sort of babies for a pig. He gave the eagle chick to The Man of the North. He gave the wolf cub to The Man of the West. He hoped they would be able to stop the strange babies from causing trouble.
Hen Wen went back into the sea with Coll. She swam along the Menai Straits and came ashore in Arfon, at the Black Stone. There she gave birth to a kitten!
Now Coll was really worried.
He said to himself, ‘A pig isn’t the right sort of mother for a wolf, or an eagle, or a cat!’
He looked at the kitten. It was the biggest kitten he had ever seen. It had been born with its eyes open and a mouthful of sharp teeth. It didn’t look friendly. It looked like trouble. Terrible trouble.
Coll made up his mind. He didn’t want to do it, but he knew he must. He picked up the kitten, turned round, and threw it into the sea. Hen Wen stared at him. There were tears in her eyes.
‘I’m sorry, old friend,’ said Coll. ‘I feel like crying too. But I think that kitten would have made big trouble for us. Come on, let’s go home. You should have little pink piglets to look after, not wild animals.’
Coll and Hen Wen swam back to Cornwall. What they didn’t know was that the kitten was a good swimmer too. It swam right across the Menai Straits to the island of Anglesey.
The great big kitten came ashore in Anglesey. A man called Palug was walking along the beach. He saw it lying on the rocks, with its fur all dripping wet.
‘You poor thing,’ he said. ‘You nearly drowned. I’ll take you home and look after you.’
Palug took the cat home and his sons took care of the cat. They fed it well. It grew and grew and grew. Soon it was as big as a tiger, and just as fierce. People started to feel afraid of it. They called it Palug’s Cat.
Silverweed, or Palf y Gath Palug.
It got really dangerous and started to attack people. Warriors tried to stop it, but it killed them one by one.
Palug sent a messenger to King Arthur.
‘We need help!’ said the messenger. ‘Palug’s Cat has killed ninety warriors. Please send a knight to save us.’
Arthur sent Sir Cai to save the people of Anglesey from Palug’s Cat. The knight and the cat fought for a long time. The cat smashed Cai’s shield to splinters. But Cai did not give up. At last he defeated Palug’s Cat. Anglesey was safe.
The wizard had been right. One of Hen Wen’s babies did cause terrible trouble to an island.
Palug’s Cat is still remembered today. There is a plant with silvery green leaves and bright yellow flowers. It is called ‘Silverweed’ in English, and ‘Palf y Gath Palug’ in Welsh. This means ‘Palug’s Cat’s Paw.’
I wonder why such a terrible animal had such a beautiful flower named after it. Maybe Palug’s Cat wasn’t quite as terrible as the wizard thought. Maybe it had a good side too. I like to think so.
7
THE AFANC
Seren lived near the river Llugwy. Her mother loved to sing, and Seren had a sweet voice too. Her father was a blacksmith, and Seren grew up to the sound of her mother’s songs, the ringing of her father’s hammer on the anvil and the crackle of the fire in the forge.
In those days, Betws-y-Coed was just a small village, and everyone relied on the river Llugwy for water and for food. There were plenty of fish in the river when Seren was a baby, but as she grew up, things changed. There were less and less fish in the river for the village people to eat. Something else was eating them. Nobody knew what this new creature in the river was, until it had finished all the fish, and started looking for something else to eat.
When it crawled out of the river, everyone was amazed by its huge size.
Then they were horrified, because it struck out with huge claws at the people who were standing near.
And then they were terrified, because it dragged two people back into the water to drown them and eat them.
This monster was an afanc, with sharp teeth and long claws, thick fur and a broad flat tail. Now, afanc is the Welsh word for ‘beaver’, and these days, beavers are small busy animals which build dams and only eat plants. But this afanc was a monster: as high as a house and as long as a ladder. And once it had decided it liked the taste of humans, life became a nightmare for the people living near the river.
> Everyone was afraid of being taken by the afanc, and soon everyone knew someone who had been taken by the afanc, and never seen again.
Seren’s parents stopped letting her go to the riverbank, even with friends, because, they said, no one would be able to save her if the afanc got near enough to take her.
A cold feeling of fear was everywhere.
One day, Seren’s mother said, ‘We can’t go on like this! We don’t feel safe in our own place. We need help.’
Seren’s father agreed. ‘You’re right, my love,’ he said. ‘But who would be brave enough and clever enough and strong enough to get rid of this monster?’
Seren’s mother had been thinking about this for a while.
‘We need Hu Gadarn,’ she said. ‘He will know what to do.’
‘Hu Gadarn! Of course! If anyone can help us, it will be Hu,’ said Seren’s father excitedly. ‘That’s the first good idea anyone has had since this trouble started.’
Soon Seren’s mother’s idea was being talked about all around the village.
And soon after that, a messenger was sent to find Hu and ask for his help.
Hu Gadarn had come over the sea to bring the first people to Wales, and he was wise and brave and strong. In fact, his name means ‘Hu the Mighty’. When he heard about the troubles in Betws-y-Coed, he came at once to help.
He brought his two horned oxen with him. They were so big that their horns stretched right across the valley from one side to the other.
Everyone looked at the oxen in surprise. They already had one giant creature … why had Hu brought two more?
Then Hu explained, ‘My plan is to drag the afanc away from here. Only my oxen are big enough to do that. And only the strongest iron chains will hold the monster. I need all you blacksmiths to make strong chains from your very best iron. Then they must all be joined together to make one long chain. We’ll have to wrap it round the afanc as many times as we can to keep it from escaping. Then the oxen will pull it far away, so it can’t cause any more harm.’
When they heard this, the blacksmiths looked at each other.
Seren’s father spoke for them all, ‘We can do it! We’ll start today!’
Soon all the fires in all the forges of all the blacksmiths were blazing brightly. The whole valley rang to the sound of their hammers beating out hot iron. They shaped rings and linked the rings together.
When the blacksmiths had used up all their iron, they came clanking and clinking, carrying their chains, down the steep paths to the village. Seren’s father was waiting, ready to forge the chains together into one mighty length.
But while the men were busy, Seren’s mother was sitting quietly, watching the river in the distance, and thinking. At last, she went to find Hu.
‘I understand your plan and it seems like a good one. But how will you get the afanc to come out of the water, and how can you make it wait while you chain it up?’
Hu Gadarn looked at her.
‘That is the most difficult and dangerous part of this whole plan,’ he said. ‘We need to trick the afanc to come out of the water and settle down peacefully. I believe that if someone sits by the river and sings, the afanc will come out to listen. I think the music will calm it, so it will not attack the singer, but I don’t know for sure. It’s a very dangerous thing to ask someone to do.’
‘It certainly is!’ said Seren’s mother, and she walked away with her forehead creased in a worried frown.
Hu Gadarn turned round in surprise when Seren suddenly appeared beside him. ‘I heard what you told my mother,’ she said. ‘I’m a good singer. I will sing to the afanc on the beach.’
Hu looked at her. She was very young. He opened his mouth to tell her it was much too dangerous, but Seren spoke first, with a determined look on her face and her head held up high.
‘I’m not scared,’ she said. ‘Well, yes, I am scared, but I know it has to be done and I think I would be a good person to do it!’
Hu stared at her. He changed his mind about what he was going to say.
‘Do you know,’ he said slowly, ‘I think you might be right. But I don’t think your mother will agree …’
Seren’s mother said ‘No’. She said, ‘No, no, no!’ She told Seren’s father to say ‘No’ too.
But Seren argued with her. ‘I want to do it. I want to help the village. Everyone says my singing is beautiful. Now here’s a chance to make it useful as well!’
Of course, Seren’s mother didn’t want her to do it. Every mother wants to protect her children. But while they argued, the monster caught and killed three more people. One of them was a little boy who was only four years old.
His mother ran along the riverbank crying. ‘Can’t someone stop this beast before it kills all our children?’ she wailed.
Seren looked at her mother. Seren’s mother looked at the ground.
‘If anything happens to you I will never forgive myself,’ she whispered, and now it was her turn to cry.
Seren went to find Hu. ‘What do I need to do?’ she asked.
Hu’s plan was simple, but he did not know if it would work. He would wait just out of sight, with the horned oxen, the end of the chain looped over their massive shoulders. All the blacksmiths would hide along the riverbank, holding the rest of the long chain ready in their arms, while Seren sat on the beach and sang.
If the afanc heard her, and if it liked her song, and if it came quietly out of the water, and if Seren could persuade it to lie down with its head in her lap, and if it went to sleep, the men would rush out and chain it up. Then Hu would get his oxen to pull it far, far away, to somewhere it would not cause any more trouble.
Everyone could see that there were a lot of ‘ifs’ in Hu’s plan …
But they trusted him, so they were ready to try it.
Seren sat on the beach and looked at the river. She had known it all her life. But now it was no longer safe for her and her friends. She wanted to change that. She was afraid, but she was firm. She looked around. Her father, holding the long chain, was hiding in the trees. He was the nearest person to her. He had insisted on that. He nodded to her. She nodded back. Everyone was ready; they were all in place.
Seren took a deep breath, and began to sing. At first her voice was wobbly, but soon she relaxed and she began to sing more clearly and strongly. Her voice drifted over the water. It must have penetrated the water, too, because, after a while, she saw bubbles rising in the middle of the river. Then she saw the huge sleek head of the afanc break the surface. It floated there, looking at her, and listening to her song.
Seren gulped with fear when she saw the afanc, but her song only stopped for a moment. She began again, singing about the deep blue water, the soft riverbed. The afanc listened, and swam closer to the shore.
Seren changed to a song about looking at the sky, lying in the sun. She didn’t think the afanc could understand the words, but she wanted to do everything she could to make it come out of the water, near enough for her father to catch it.
The afanc swam closer to the shore.
The monster was crawling up the beach.
She kept singing.
It was close enough for her to smell its wet, slimy coat.
She kept singing.
It was close enough for her to hear it puffing and panting.
She kept singing.
It was close enough for her to feel its breath on her face.
She kept singing.
Very, very slowly, as though it was hard work to move its giant body, it lay down next to her, and put its head in her lap.
Still singing, Seren began to stroke its head.
She changed the song to a lullaby.
She watched as the afanc’s eyes began to close. She realised that her soft song was working: her lullaby was lulling the afanc to sleep.
She kept singing and stroking its head. But she lifted her other hand to signal to her father.
There was a long moment when nothing happened.
&n
bsp; Then suddenly, the men were all around her. The chains were clashing together as they threw them over the monster, which was roaring and thrashing around. Her father grabbed Seren from behind and pulled her out from under the afanc. As he did so, it lashed out with its long sharp claws. Seren felt a horrible pain in her chest. She looked down and saw blood running down her dress. It was her own.
Her father carried her to the trees. Her mother ran to them, tore off her scarf and pressed it over the wound, to stop the bleeding.
They didn’t take any notice of what was happening on the beach, where the men stood back from the afanc, wrapped in chains, and Hu Gadarn’s oxen began to pull. Slowly, slowly the afanc was dragged up the beach, and the oxen drew it away.
The stories say that this was such hard work, even for the mighty horned oxen of Hu Gadarn, that they cried as they went over the top of the hills, and that the lake made from their tears is still there today.
The stories say that the oxen pulled the afanc all the way to Llyn Glaslyn in the shadow of Mount Snowdon, and that when they reached the edge of the lake the afanc jumped in, still with the chains around it, and Hu had to work fast to free the horned oxen before they were pulled in too.
The stories say that, even today, birds will not fly over the lake, in case the afanc leaps up and pulls them down.
But the stories do not say what happened to Seren after that day. I hope she was not badly wounded, and that the people of Betws-y-Coed still remember how brave she was.
8
ANOTHER DRAGON
Sir John was the Sheriff of Denbigh, and the great Castle of Denbigh was his home. It stands on a high rock above the town, with fabulous views in all directions.
But Sir John didn’t spend much time at the castle – he didn’t like puffing up the hill. It was hard work for him. He was very big, you see. In fact, he was as big as a giant.
North Wales Folk Tales for Children Page 3