The landscape of Eryri carries more mythology per square mile than almost anywhere in Britain. Specific mountains, lakes, rocks, and passes are named in and by the stories: the myths are geographically precise in a way that rootless legends rarely are. This is not fairy tale; it’s a form of knowledge about the landscape, accumulated over centuries and attached to the places that generated it. Our shorter guide to legends you can visit is a handy companion when planning a day out.
Dinas Emrys, The Two Dragons
The rocky hill of Dinas Emrys, above Beddgelert in Nantgwynant (SH 606 492, reached by footpath from the valley), is one of the most mythologically charged sites in Wales. According to the Historia Brittonum (9th century CE), the British king Vortigern attempted to build a fortress on this hill, but each morning, the work of the previous day had collapsed into the ground. His wise men told him to find a boy with no father and use his blood to stabilise the foundations.
The boy found was Myrddin Emrys (Merlin), who revealed that beneath the hill lay a pool, and in the pool two sleeping dragons, one red, one white: the very same dragons buried there in the tale of Lludd and Llefelys, one of the eleven tales of Y Mabinogion. When the pool was drained, the dragons awoke and fought: the white dragon (representing the Anglo-Saxon invaders) initially prevailed, but then the red dragon (representing the native Britons) turned the battle. Merlin interpreted this as a prophecy of ultimate British victory. The red dragon on the Welsh national flag is tied to this story. Archaeological excavations at Dinas Emrys in the 1950s confirmed occupation of the site in the 5th and 6th centuries CE, the period in which the Vortigern legend is set, and a pool was found on the summit platform.
Gelert, The Fabricated Legend
Beddgelert means “grave of Gelert.” The village maintains a gravestone south of the village marking the burial place of Gelert, the faithful hound of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth. The story: Llywelyn returns from hunting to find his infant son’s cradle overturned and the hound Gelert covered in blood. Concluding that the dog has killed the child, he drives his sword through it. Too late, he discovers the infant unharmed beneath the cradle, and beside it the body of a wolf that Gelert had killed to protect the child.
This is one of the most moving stories in Welsh tradition. It is almost certainly a fabrication, popularised around 1800 by David Prichard, the landlord of the Royal Goat Hotel in Beddgelert, to attract visitors to the village. The grave was set up in Prichard’s time; the story was circulated in print and became an instant success. The tale itself is a version of an ancient international folk story (the faithful animal unjustly slain) found in many cultures from India to Iceland. What makes the Beddgelert case remarkable is not the fabrication but the self-awareness it’s possible to bring to it: the village maintains the “grave” with full knowledge of its recent origin.
The Afanc
The Afanc is a Welsh water monster of uncertain form (sometimes described as beaver-like, sometimes crocodilian) that lurked in the depths and caused catastrophic floods. Several waters claim it, including Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake) in some versions of the tale. The Afanc was eventually dragged from its lair by Hu Gadarn using two enormous oxen and carried to the mountains, usually identified as Glaslyn beneath Yr Wyddfa, where it was confined. The story connects some of the most significant bodies of water in Eryri in a mythological narrative that also explains why the lowland waters flood and why the small mountain lake beneath the summit looks so different from a normal moorland tarn.
Arthur and Yr Wyddfa
Arthur is said to have fought the giant Rhita Gawr, who collected kings’ beards for his cloak, on the summit of Yr Wyddfa, and to have buried Rhita there, giving the mountain its Welsh name (Yr Wyddfa = the tomb or burial mound). Arthur’s own sleeping place is said to be a cave beneath the mountain, where he and his warriors await the hour of Wales’s greatest need. Bwlch y Saethau, “pass of the arrows,” between Yr Wyddfa and Y Lliwedd, is identified as the site of Arthur’s final battle, where he was mortally wounded. The knights who carried him away are said to have thrown Excalibur into Glaslyn below. We look at these stories alongside the mountain’s recorded history in myths and legends of Yr Wyddfa.
The Tylwyth Teg, The Welsh Fairies
The Tylwyth Teg (the Fair Family) are the Welsh equivalent of the fairy folk: neither the benevolent storybook variety nor wholly malevolent spirits, but something in between. They are beautiful, capricious, given to stealing children (replacing them with changelings), and accessible under specific conditions. High mountain lakes are particularly associated with the Tylwyth Teg; the lakes above the treeline in Eryri were understood as gateways to their realm. The story of the Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach and the physicians of Myddfai, from south Wales, is one of the most fully developed of these lake-fairy tales. Old beliefs also survive in the calendar: see Halloween in Eryri and the Welsh festival of Calan Gaeaf.