Folklore of Wales

by Anne Ross

  Its presence in the water would not by any means be unparalleled. Severed heads or representations of such seem always to have had a close association with water. It would seem that the head was believed to increase the powers of the water and that the water had a similar effect upon the head. I believe that the head is now in the possession of the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. It is not necessary for me to wander far afield in search of heads. Rhydypennau (some two miles from where I live) means ‘the Ford of the Heads’. The name itself is evocative considering this Celtic motif of severed heads and sacred waters, but the story does not end here. Some years ago, when work was being carried out on the Nant Ceiro (which runs through our grounds), three heads were allegedly found in the old ford. I have not been able as yet to ascertain whether these were stone heads or actual human skulls. However, the association of severed heads with fords is widely known in the Celtic world.

  20 Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire. Features in low relief on a waterworn pebble found in the River Twymyn at Bont, Llanbrynmair, in 1971

  A most important Celtic head, fashioned from coarse-grained sandstone, and having a remarkably disturbing aspect, was apparently found in a, to date, unconfirmed site near Llandysul, Ceredigion. The head was dug up in farmland close to Llandysul (21) before the Second World War and was later auctioned in London. Although the exact provenance is not known, an important point to bear in mind is the fact that the coarse-grained sandstone from which it is carved is common in the Llandysul/Pencader area. Moreover the weathering of the stone would be consistent with a lengthy period of burial. It is basically a rectangular block, somewhat rounded with a well-defined chin, full-lipped mouth, slightly drooping. The eyes, which have a sunken appearance, are encircled by heavily-defined, ‘fleshy’ ridges. Many Celtic heads are depicted as having one eye either lacking altogether or smaller than the other and having baleful powers of evil, and this would appear to be the case here. The most impressive textual description of such a phenomenon occurs in the early Irish story of the god, Balor, Beumshuileach, Balor of the evil eye, grandfather of the pan-Celtic god Lugh. What is to be the ultimate fate of this splendid artefact which sadly has left Wales but is in safe keeping elsewhere, we do not know. It would, however, be appropriate if, one day, it were to return to its place of apparent origin.

  21 Llandysul, Ceredigion. Head of coarse-grained sandstone

  There is a very graphic description of heads taken in battle during the reign of James II when there was great unrest in the country, especially in Flintshire. Near here, at Balderton Bridge, the thorough defeat of the Welsh by the Earl of Chester was followed by acts of great cruelty. The Earl publicised his triumph by creating a rampart of the severed heads of the enemy. This distasteful sequel to the battle and brutal treatment of the defeated is fully in keeping with the ethos of the time. The severed heads so treated are typical of Celtic practice down the ages when victory was proclaimed by the display and even veneration of the severed heads of those who fell in battle (vide Ross, Druids).

  Heads on Anglesey (Ynys Môn); the Hendy head

  Anglesey is a significant island in terms of Celtic religion and mythology, traces of both of which are still very much in evidence. Situated as it is a short distance from the north-west coast of Wales and joined to the mainland now by an efficient road bridge, Anglesey nevertheless has managed to preserve to a surprising extent some very ancient traditions and artefacts — especially carved stone heads — some of which may well go back to an early period in legend and perhaps also in material origin.

  22 Head of red sandstone from Hendy, Môn

  One of the most remarkable stone heads is not only important as a cult object, but, unusually, has a great deal of archaic and remarkably interesting tradition attached to it, which until very recently was kept a close secret. When I first saw the head I was visiting Anglesey for other reasons — Llyn Cerrig Bach, the Druids, and holy wells. I had been informed that there was a very interesting head at Hendy and, on being given directions from a local man, thought it as well to try to locate it whilst I was there. The directions were good, and I soon found myself looking at this impressive stone head set upon a stone wall (22). The encounter gave me quite a shock. I had been prepared for a substantial object but not for the tremendous power which seemed to emanate from it, which I did not anticipate. The mouth, slightly upturned at the corners, is not a smiling mouth; it has a sinister quality which is emphasised by the extraordinary lentoid eyes with their protruding irises and well-defined pupils, cut deep under the severe brows which serve to increase the strong impact of the stone on the viewer. The nose is long and narrow, broadening towards the nostrils, the remains of which are just visible; some areas of the red sandstone, which seemingly comes from the region of Lligwy, are better preserved than others and there is quite a lot of flaking of the stone. There is one well-preserved ear which resembles a crescent in shape. The second ear is less well-formed and the stone appears to have been damaged at some time in the past. The lipped and enigmatic mouth with its non-smile bears a striking feature which is seen on some of the earliest Celtic stone heads in Europe, and is known as a ‘cigarette hole’.

  The most well-known is that found at Mvecké-Žehrovice, near Prague (23). Made of ragstone and exhibiting, in a more elaborate form, features which bear a sophisticated similarity to those of the Hendy example, each head has a detail which seems to occur over a wide area of Europe and to have some definite religious or cultic significance. This is the deep hole drilled into the middle of the upper lip in the case of the Bohemian head, and into the corner of the mouth in the case of the Hendy head. This lends an even more sinister quality to the whole and in general such features are thought to have been fashioned in order that the voice of the deity might be heard through them. Be that as it may, and whatever interpretation we may accept, there is no doubt that they did have a purpose. We are fortunate to actually know what that purpose is in the case of the Hendy head, which even today is used in an ancient cult ritual in Anglesey. The meetings which are held in connection with what we can only call the veneration of this head are quite complex, and full details, in so far as we have access to them, can be found in chapter 11.

  The rite which explains the presence of the deep hole (‘cigarette hole’) in the corner of the head’s mouth occurred in the ceremony after the stone, which is some 2ft in height, had been placed on a table and covered with a white cloth. The cloth was removed from the head and one of the ‘worshippers’ placed cheese and bayleaves on the flat summit of the head. Next an object like a tube, called the stwffwl cist uffern (‘staple for hell’s chest’) was placed in the hole. This enabled the head to ‘breathe its blessings’ upon the group. Each person in succession put the tube in the head’s mouth. I believe that the tube concealed a piece of paper on which some words were written and this was believed to be of very ancient origin.

  23 Stone head, Mšecké - Žehrovice, Bohemia

  The Brynsiencin head

  One May day on a morning of sublime beauty I went to a house in this village in order to try to locate another stone head which I had been informed was kept in a garden there. I managed to locate the property and found the owners most hospitable and anxious to help me in my quest. I was taken out to the back yard of the house and there in a corner at the end of the yard I saw a most striking sight; a large stone head with well-depicted features, known to the family as yr Hen r (‘the Old Man’; 24). The tradition of scrubbing and cleaning the moss from such heads, but not, in this case, painting them, had already been carried out and this fine carving looked impressive and impassive, despite having a slightly sinister aspect.

  24 A stone at Brynsiencyn, Môn, with a face carved on either side in the janiform manner. Attention was drawn to the stone by the owner, Mrs M. Brownson, in 1971

  The family was very hospitable and welcoming and we had a long talk over tea and cake. I was told an interesting story about this head. Seemingly a member of the family ha
d enquired why the front of this substantial stone was so carefully cleaned and ‘made smart’ for May Day, while the back of the stone received no such attention. The owners had therefore decided to give it the same treatment and, with help from others, the large carved stone was slowly turned round and the reverse side cleaned. Great was the astonishment of the owners when they found a second, smaller face carved on the reverse side; the stone was in fact janiform. It had been present in that position for many years without any one suspecting or questioning the presence of a second head. Anglesey is certainly not lacking in stone sculptures of this kind and there are others which are probably likewise of an early date, although dating by style alone can be problematic.

  Other Anglesey heads

  Although somewhat later in date, the tradition of using carved stone heads of a markedly pagan aspect but built into Christian structures seems to have survived until at least the fourteenth century. We cannot treat this subject with the fullness it deserves here but the following examples will give an indication of the tradition.

  25 Llanddyfnan church, Môn. Head over north doorway

  One of the most interesting of these is set into the wall above the door of Llanddyfnan Church (25). It is a head having a flat top which may have been due to the necessity of lowering its height to fit into its position above the doorway. The double-rimmed lentoid eyes, flattish nose, severe straight-lipped mouth and full, rounded chin combined with the sturdy neck suggest a commanding and somewhat sinister power. The arms, raised in an orans attitude, suffer from a considerable degree of weathering: it is not impossible that this head is much older than the church structure, and was possibly dug up on the site when the building was being constructed and incorporated into it as so often happened. Perhaps a latent belief in the all-powerful Celtic head cult allowed pagan carvings to use their evil-averting qualities for the good of the church itself.

  There are several other fine heads of this genre. In the case of abandoned, ruined churches I came across some carved boulders or building blocks which had obviously been placed in the wall with the face looking into the church, perhaps in the belief that this would strengthen their evil-averting powers. Other splendid heads, the date of which is difficult to ascertain, are built into churches such as the pair at Llanidan (see 4), which appear to have cleft beards, long narrow noses and lips which are half-opened as if in speech. Legends of talking heads are by no means unknown in the Celtic tradition. A head at Llanbedrgoch (26) is set on the right of the doorway and likewise has a commanding presence. The eyebrows are deeply cut away and the protruding eyes have extremely well-defined pupils in the form of two large hollows. The nose is long and thin. The head gives the impression of being pointed but this may well be due to the fact that the cement with which it was presumably set into the church wall has had the effect of conveying the illusion of an unnaturally high forehead with markings above which might indicate hair. Be this as it may, and whatever the dates of these Anglesey church heads, they do convey a strong impression of the superstitious regard in which the head was held in Anglesey.

  26a Llanbedrgoch church, Môn. Head embedded in plaster to the right of the doorway

  Going back to a pagan context, it is worth mentioning the Blessed Head, the severed head of Bendigeidfran, ‘Bran the Blessed’ (See I. Williams 1930, pp.44ff), which was first taken by his distraught sister, Branwen, and the remaining Welshmen who had survived the terrible battle, to Anglesey, where they landed at Aberalaw. The knowledge that two fine countries, Wales and Ireland, had been virtually destroyed because of her so distressed Branwen that her heart broke in her breast and she died. She was, according to the tradition, buried on the banks of the River Alaw. Some years ago an excavation was carried out at the site which tradition associated with Branwen’s interment. There was disappointment when a Bronze Age coffin was recovered and it was rejected as having been the burial place of Bran’s sister. However, if these legends have drawn upon immensely archaic traditions there would seem to be no reason for rejecting this apparent verification of the medieval Welsh text. We follow the progress of the Blessed Head in another context and turn again to remaining sites on Anglesey which may be of interest to our investigation.

  26b Llanbedrgoch church, Môn. Head embedded in plaster to the left of the doorway

  A site which was of great importance for the free Celtic world is located at Llyn Cerrig Bach (the Lake of the Little Stones, near Holyhead, Anglesey). Here the free (i.e. before being conquered by the Romans) Celtic tribes, fleeing from the advancing Roman troops, made one last desperate attempt to gain the favourable intervention of the gods on their behalf. Many objects which can only be regarded as offerings and coming from different parts of Britain and Ireland were recovered here at the time of the building of the airfield for the Second World War. Those articles which were of Irish origin are of special interest and I have suggested elsewhere (Druids) that this may have been a chief pagan sanctuary in Britain. Moving eastwards to Penmon which today is close to where the modern bridge links the mainland to Anglesey we come to a silvan site where the ruins of a priory still stand. The place is densely wooded and the ruins of the sixth-century priory are still to be found there. The atmosphere is serene and there is a feeling of holiness. Strangely, on the wall of part of the priory still standing is carved a sheelagh-na-gig (a female fertility symbol), and such images, male and female, are by no means unusual in early church architecture. Their purpose was probably to scare away evil spirits. The priory fishpond and well are still in existence.

  Many other Celtic heads occur in Wales; see, for example 27, 28, 29, 30, 31.

  27 Stone head from CANOVIVM, Caerhun, Gwynedd. After A. Ross 1967, fig.56

  28 Ruthin, Denbighshire. This head was found in 1973 near a waterfall a little over 1km ESE of Ruthin castle; Landranger 116, SJ 112574. It is in the Merseyside County Museum, William Brown Street, Liverpool

  29 Two stone heads, one janiform, from Bron y Garth, a mile south of Chirk castle but half a mile east of Offa’s Dyke and thus in Shropshire rather than Clwyd

  30 Faces carved in relief on stones. (left) Holt, Clwyd, (right) Maridvnvm, Carmarthen. After A. Ross 1967, pl.29

  31 Stone head from Venta Silvrvm, Caerwent, Gwent. After A. Ross 1967, pl.31a

  The well cult

  The association of severed human heads or skulls with wells, certain of which have distinctive properties of their own such as healing powers, is very ancient, common to the early Celtic world in general, and with a variety of associations. Heads fashioned of stone, metal or other substances would often act as a substitute for the human or animal skull; the powers of the severed head, when united with sacred water from the well, were greatly increased and enhanced. There are many tales throughout the Celtic world of this fundamental belief in the power of the severed head to continue living, moving, and sometimes singing, talking, cursing or perhaps blessing. Heads were frequently associated with holy wells patronised by some saint or another and they also were able to prophesy future events or to recall the past. Indeed their powers would seem to have been limitless. In a book such as this, space must inevitably dictate the nature of content, and I cannot give as many examples of such wells as I would wish. I have selected, however, a few that I consider to be explanatory and of prime importance. Wells were often created at the moment of the martyrdom of some important saint. Saints after this grim fate could be portrayed as carrying their severed heads, which were ultimately lodged in the well for which they had been responsible.

  Saints and wells (32)

  One of the most fascinating aspects of pagan and Christian religion is the rôle played by wells and springs. There are many stories of some god or goddess, monstrous beast or malevolent serpent having power over wells, sometimes living in them and acting as guardian for the wellbeing of those who invoked them. According to belief, every sacred well and spring must be treated with appropriate respect — and even those with no traditions attached must be accorded d
ue honour or they would be capable of drying up or moving to another site. A murdered virgin is sometimes said to have been restored to life and to have lived for many years after her murder at or near her sacred well or chapel.

  At one healing well, stones were present which were stained with red patches and these were explained as being stains from the blood of a Catholic priest who was decapitated there in Queen Elizabeth’s time. Stones carrying the bloodstains of martyred saints were also sometimes recovered, for example at St Winifred’s well (vide infra p.81) and St Michael’s well in Monmouthshire. White quartz stones or pebbles had their own sanctity and when thrown into a well as offerings at times of drought it was widely believed that there would be water in plenty. In the Scottish Highlands such stones, when cast into wells by people with supernatural powers, could cause the well to flood and overflow, or raise a storm at sea, according to the correct invocation. One of the most interesting wells is that on Caldey Island (Ynys Bŷ r), near Tenby, Pembrokeshire, where there has been a monastery since the sixth century. It was first named after St Illtud, but it later became known as Ynys Bŷr. There is a tale telling how Pyr, or Pyro, the abbot, was supposed to have died by falling into a well while under the influence of strong drink. St Samson succeeded him and found he had taken on an almost impossible task. Pyr had been a very dissolute abbot and the young monks under his tutelage were virtually uncontrollable. As a result Samson was so shocked that he gave up the abbacy shortly afterwards.