Wales shares with other Celtic countries an ancient mythology and traditional lore, although much of this was suppressed with the spread of Christianity from the fifth century on, and a succession of conquests by Romans, Normans, and English. Many of the enchanted stories of the King Arthur cycle are also found in Welsh tradition.
In the seventeenth century, Puritanism took a firm hold, and the spread of Methodism in the eighteenth century further worked to eradicate traditions of magic, although the religious revivals of the late nineteenth century had a wild, almost Pagan flavor about them and were accompanied by the appearance of various forms of paranormal phenomena.
Ancient Traditions
One of the great sources of Welsh legends is the Mabinogion, dating from medieval times, containing stories for oral recitation by bards in the halls of the ancient princes of Wales. Typical motifs in these tales are supernatural birth, visits to the Other World, and magic shape-changing. Rhiannon, the wife of Pwyll, possessed marvelous birds that came from the Unseen World, and their singing held warriors spellbound for 80 years. In another story, Lvevelys helps his brother Lludd to eradicate three plagues that have devastated Britain—the Coranians, a strange race whose knowledge is infinite and who hear everything uttered, even the softest whisper; a horrifying shriek that penetrates every house on a May evening, caused by the battle between two dragons; and a great giant who carries off all the food from the king's palace.
A well-known story is that of the birth of Taliesin, chief of the bards of the west. The hero, Gwion Bach, goes to the Land under Waves at the bottom of Lake Bala in North Wales. There he finds the giant Tegid the Bald and his wife Ceridwen, goddess of poetry and knowledge. Ceridwen owns an immense cauldron in which she brews a mixture of science and inspiration, with the aid of her books of magic. This great brew has to simmer for a year and a day, and she sets the blind man Morda to keep the fire going and Gwion to stir the brew. It is to yield three magical drops.
Toward the end of the year, as Ceridwen is picking herbs and making incantations, three drops of the brew spurt out of the cauldron and fall upon Gwion Bach's finger. With the sudden heat on his finger, he puts it into his mouth to cool, whereupon the three drops instantly give him knowledge and meaning of all things, and he becomes aware that he must guard against Ceridwen's cunning, so he flees to his own land. Meanwhile the cauldron bursts and the rest of the brew is a black poison that overflows into the waters, poisoning the horses of Gwyddno Garanhir.
Ceridwen seizes a billet of wood and strikes blind Morda on the head, but he declares that he is innocent and that it is the fault of Gwion Bach. She runs in pursuit of Gwion, but he sees her coming and changes himself into a hare. She changes herself into a greyhound and follows him. He runs toward a river and becomes a fish, but she, in the form of an otter, chases him under the water, so he must turn himself into a bird. She becomes a hawk and gives him no rest in the sky. Just as she is going to swoop on him, he sees a heap of winnowed wheat on the floor of a barn, so he drops among the wheat and turns himself into one of the grains. She turns herself into a black hen, scratches at the wheat and swallows him.
She carries him for nine months and is delivered of him, but cannot kill him because of his beauty, so she wraps him in a leather bag and casts him into the sea to the mercy of God. He is carried into the weir of Gwyddno Garanhir and found by Prince Elphin, who has come to catch fish in his net. Elphin renames him Taliesin, which can mean "beautiful brow" or "great value."
Druids
Wales is also considered a center for the cult of the Druids (brought by the Celts), who came into Wales as early as 200 B.C.E. They were said to practice human sacrifice, although it has also been claimed that the victims were criminals. They also employed methods of divination.
The Druids are thought to have come from ancient Gaul, where they were suppressed in the Roman Conquest as a rival source of power and prestige. The historian Pliny the Elder re-corded their association with the mistletoe plant in their sacred rites.
He also mentioned a mysterious object used by the Druids, which he named the "serpent's egg." It was roughly the size and shape of a small apple, and it was said that a mass of hissing serpents threw this egg into the air. If it could be caught in a white cloak before touching the ground, it would convey powers of magic to the possessor, such as the ability to float against a river current, and success in legal undertakings.
Witchcraft and Demonology
Sir Dafydd Llwyd, who lived in Cardiganshire in the reign of Charles II, had studied black magic at Oxford. He practiced as a physician and was famous for his wonderful cures, but his skill was owed to a familiar spirit or demon that he kept locked up in a book of spells. One day, the story is told, he accidently left this grimoire behind and sent his pageboy home to fetch it, commanding him to on no account open it. Like most lads the boy could not resist being inquisitive; he lifted the cover and turned over the leaves, with their weird inscriptions.
Suddenly there came forth a huge demon who frowned and in a hoarse grumbling voice asked to be set to work. In spite of his terror, the boy had the wit to say, "Fetch me some stones out of the River Wye." In a few moments, stones and pebbles began hurtling through the air, when Sir Dafydd, aware that something was wrong, came hurrying back and conjured the spirit back into the book before any serious harm could be done.
As early as the twelfth century, Christian priests in Wales were warned about letting the Eucharistic Host get into the hands of magicians and witches, who might secretly slip it out of their mouths and hide it in a handkerchief or glove. In 1582 the wife of Edward Jones was called upon to prove to the satisfaction of the archdeacon of Lewes "that she did eat the Communion bread and put yt not in hir glove."
As late as the opening years of the eighteenth century, two old dames were said to have attended the morning service at Llanddewi Brefi Church to partake of Holy Communion, but instead of eating it like the other communicants, they kept it in their mouths and went out. Then they walked round the church nine times, and at the ninth circuit the Devil came out of the church wall in the form of a frog, to whom they gave the Host from their mouths, and by doing this, sold themselves to Satan and became witches.
There are many stories about Dr. John Harries (1785-1839), a celebrated Welsh physician and seer of Cërt-y-Cadno, Carmarthenshire, who was said to possess a great book of magic, which was kept locked to prevent any ignorant person from letting loose its powerful influences. Harries boasted of his knowledge of future and distant events, imparted to him by familiar spirits.
Belief in witchcraft persisted into the twentieth century in Wales, but it concerned "white witches" who cast useful spells and horoscopes, or averted evil events. In 1933 there was a wise man in Llangwrig, Montgomeryshire, who was famous throughout Wales for breaking the spells of witches. He kept his book of divination and an almanac in a rosewood casket.
In November 1936 a correspondent in John O'London's Weekly stated that "even now belief in witchcraft in the upper parts of the Wye Valley is not quite extinct." In the following month, another correspondent stated: "When we lived in a small village in Montgomeryshire some years ago we found a widespread belief in witchcraft among the farmers of the district." If the cattle became sick, farmers visited the wise man to find out who had bewitched their beasts. If two farmers had a serious quarrel, one of them went to the wise man to obtain a charm to injure his neighbor.
Phenomena at Religious Revivals
Welsh preaching is celebrated for its fervor, and the traditional hwyl or peroration of a sermon is said to have magic effects. During the nineteenth century, there were reports of mysterious luminous phenomena associated with revivalism, and such accounts were given again in 1904 and 1905 during the inspired revival campaigns of Mary Jones of Egryn. Jones was a happily married peasant woman with a family, when in December 1904 she received beatific visions instructing her to undertake the work of religious revival that had earlier been the mission of the preacher Evan Roberts in Glamorgan.
The first night of Jones' mission was marked by the appearance of a mysterious star and various lights. She herself reported seeing "a circle of small stars, encompassing a cross of diamond stars, and on this cross at times the draped figure of the Saviour." The strange luminous phenomena were witnessed by other individuals. A skeptical businessman was driving her home one evening from a meeting, and prayed that he might be accorded a sign if she was indeed a divinely ordained preacher. Immediately there appeared above the road, in front of the car, a misty star. As the man gazed a luminous cross was formed inside it, sparkling with diamonds, and upon this was a draped figure with bowed head.
On another occasion, Jones herself reported seeing the Devil, who first appeared in the figure of a man, but when she started singing revival hymns, suddenly stopped, turned on her and became transformed into an enormous black dog. She prayed for strength, and the dog rushed growling into a hillock.
The star and the light were seen by many people from the first day of Jones' mission. The star seemed to rest above particular houses where converts later came to the meetings. It also followed her on her journeys. On her trip to Criccieth, for example, the lights were witnessed by the people with her. At Bryncrug, a few miles inland from Towyn, the gallery of the chapel was flooded during the service by the mysterious light. After the service, the light, in the form of a ball of fire casting its rays down to earth, was seen by a party of young quarrymen. Overtaking the light, which had stopped, they knelt down in the middle of the road and held a prayer meeting, bathed in the unearthly light.
Some of these lights and their movements are reminiscent of many modern accounts of UFO s.
The Gardnerian Revival
In the last generation, growing out of the initial work of Gerald B. Gardner (the witch of the Isle of Man), a new neopagan witchcraft or Wicca movement spread from England through the British Isles, the lands of the commonwealth, and the United States. As the movement grew and broke into numerous segments, there arose a number who attached themselves to Welsh witchcraft traditions. Among the early covens in the northeastern United States in the 1970s were the New York Coven of Welsh Traditional Witchcraft and the New England Coven of Welsh Traditional Witchcraft, which supplemented their Gardnerian rituals with material from folkloric, archeological, and anthropological texts on Wales. Several significant groups—the most notable possibly the Church and School of Wicca (Box 1502, New Bern, NC 28560) and the Cymry Wicca (Box 4196, Athens, GA 30605)—claim to draw on Welsh traditions. In addition, many modern witches, drawing on the Mabinogion, have chosen such names as Ceridwen and Taliesin as their religious names.
Sources:
Adler, Margot. Drawing Down the Moon. Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, 1987.
Charlton, I. W. The Revival in Wales. London, 1905. (Pamphlet)
Graves, Robert. The White Goddess. London: Faber & Faber, 1948.
Guest, Lady Charlotte, trans. The Mabinogion: From the Llyfr Coch o Hergest. 3 vols. London, 1948.
Jones, Edmund. A Relation of Ghosts and Apparitions Which Commonly Appear in the Principality of Wales. Bristol, England: 1767.
Jones, T. Gwynn. Welsh Folklore and Folk Customs. London: Methuen, 1930.
Morgan, J. V. The Welsh Religious Revival, 1904-05. London: Chapman & Hall, 1909.
