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Addanc
The Afanc (, sometimes also called Addanc, ) is a lake monster from Welsh mythology. Its exact description varies; it is described variously as resembling a crocodile, beaver or dwarf-like creature, or a platypus and is sometimes said to be a demon. The lake in which it dwells also varies; it is variously said to live in Llyn Llion, Llyn Barfog, near Brynberian Bridge or in Llyn yr Afanc, a lake near Betws-y-coed that was named after the creature. Legends and traditions The afanc was a monstrous creature that, like most lake monsters, was said to prey upon any foolish enough to fall into or swim in its lake. One of the earliest descriptions of it is given by the 15th-century poet Lewys Glyn Cothi, who described it as living in Llyn Syfaddon, in Powys. One tale relates that it was rendered helpless by a maiden who let it sleep upon her lap; while it slept, the maiden's fellow villagers bound the creature in chains. The creature was awakened and made furious; its enraged thras ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petrosomatoglyph
A petrosomatoglyph is a supposed image of parts of a human or animal body in rock. They occur all over the world, often functioning as an important form of symbolism, used in religious and secular ceremonies, such as the crowning of kings. Some are regarded as artefacts linked to saints or culture heroes. The word comes from the Greek (, "stone"), ( "body"), and (, "to carve"). Feet are the most common; however, other features including knees, elbows, hands, heads and fingers are also found. Stylised representations of parts of the body are often open to dispute and are therefore on the fringes of acceptability as identifiable petrosomatoglyphs. Natural objects, such as rock crystals and rock formations which look like petrosomatoglyphs, whole animals, plants, etc., are collectively called "mimetoliths". Natural versus man-made petrosomatoglyphs Many examples of petrosomatoglyphs are likely to be natural in origin, such as rock-cut basins in rivers; however, they still have r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Llamrei
Llamrei was a mare owned by King Arthur, according to the Welsh tale "Culhwch and Olwen". Close to Llyn Barfog in Wales is a hoof-print etched deep into the rock "Carn March Arthur", or the "Stone of Arthur's Horse", which was supposedly made by King Arthur's mount, Llamrei, when it was hauling the terrible Addanc, or "afanc" monster, from the lake. See also *Hengroen *Petrosomatoglyph A petrosomatoglyph is a supposed image of parts of a human or animal body in rock. They occur all over the world, often functioning as an important form of symbolism, used in religious and secular ceremonies, such as the crowning of kings. Some a ... References Horses in mythology Welsh mythology Arthurian characters {{fantasy-char-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adder Stone
An adder stone is a type of stone, usually glassy, with a naturally occurring hole through it. Such stones, which usually consist of flint, have been discovered by archaeologists in both Britain and Egypt. Commonly, they are found in Northern Germany at the coasts of the North and Baltic Seas. In Britain they are also called hag stones, witch stones, serpent's eggs, snake's eggs, or ''Glain Neidr'' in Wales, ''milpreve'' in Cornwall, ''adderstanes'' in the south of Scotland and ''Gloine nan Druidh'' ("Druids' glass" in Scottish Gaelic) in the north. In Germany they are called ''Hühnergötter'' ("chicken gods"). In Egypt they are called ''aggry'' or ''aggri''. Various traditions exist as to the origins of adder stones. One holds that the stones are the hardened saliva of large numbers of serpents massing together, the perforations being caused by their tongues. There are other claims that an adder stone comes from the head of a serpent or is made by the sting of an adder. The mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Monster
A lake monster is a lake-dwelling entity in folklore. The most famous example is the Loch Ness Monster. Depictions of lake monsters are often similar to those of sea monsters. In the ''Motif-Index of Folk-Literature'', entities classified as "lake monsters", such as the Scottish Loch Ness Monster, the American Chessie, and the Swedish Storsjöodjuret fall under B11.3.1.1. ("dragon lives in lake"). Theories According to the Swedish naturalist and author Bengt Sjögren (1980), present-day lake monsters are variations of older legends of water kelpies. Sjögren claims that the accounts of lake-monsters have changed during history, as do others. Older reports often talk about horse-like appearances, but more modern reports often have more reptile and dinosaur-like appearances; he concludes that the legendary kelpies have evolved into the present day saurian lake-monsters since the discovery of dinosaurs and giant aquatic reptiles and the popularization of them in both scientific a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White Book Of Rhydderch
The White Book of Rhydderch (Welsh: ''Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch'', National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 4-5) is one of the most notable and celebrated surviving manuscripts in Welsh. Mostly written in southwest Wales in the middle of the 14th century (c. 1350) it is the earliest collection of Welsh prose texts, though it also contains some examples of early Welsh poetry. It is now part of the collection of the National Library of Wales, having been preserved in the library at Hengwrt, near Dolgellau, Gwynedd, of the 17th century antiquary Robert Vaughan, who inherited it from the calligrapher John Jones and passed it to his descendants. The collection later passed to the newly established National Library of Wales as the Peniarth or Hengwrt-Peniarth Manuscripts. What was one manuscript was divided into two in the medieval period and has been bound as two separate volumes, known as Peniarth MS 4 and Peniarth MS 5. Peniarth MS 4 contains the most important material: medieval Welsh ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Welsh
Middle Welsh ( cy, Cymraeg Canol, wlm, Kymraec) is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh ( cy, Hen Gymraeg). Literature and history Middle Welsh is the language of nearly all surviving early manuscripts of the ''Mabinogion'', although the tales themselves are certainly much older. It is also the language of most of the manuscripts of Welsh law. Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible, albeit with some work, to a modern-day Welsh speaker. Phonology The phonology of Middle Welsh is quite similar to that of modern Welsh, with only a few differences. The letter ''u'', which today represents in North Western Welsh dialects and in South Welsh and North East Welsh dialects, represented the close central rounded vowel in Middle Welsh. The diphthong ''aw'' is found in unstressed final syllables in Middle Welsh, while in Modern Welsh it has b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Welsh Language
Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it has also been known in English as "British", "Cambrian", "Cambric" and "Cymric". The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 gave the Welsh language official status in Wales. Both the Welsh and English languages are ''de jure'' official languages of the Welsh Parliament, the Senedd. According to the 2021 census, the Welsh-speaking population of Wales aged three or older was 17.8% (538,300 people) and nearly three quarters of the population in Wales said they had no Welsh language skills. Other estimates suggest that 29.7% (899,500) of people aged three or older in Wales could speak Welsh in June 2022. Almost half of all Welsh speakers consider themselves fluent Welsh speakers and 21 per cent are able to speak a fair amount of Welsh. The Wels ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxen
An ox ( : oxen, ), also known as a bullock (in BrE, AusE, and IndE), is a male bovine trained and used as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration inhibits testosterone and aggression, which makes the males docile and safer to work with. Cows (adult females) or bulls (intact males) may also be used in some areas. Oxen are used for plowing, for transport (pulling carts, hauling wagons and even riding), for threshing grain by trampling, and for powering machines that grind grain or supply irrigation among other purposes. Oxen may be also used to skid logs in forests, particularly in low-impact, select-cut logging. Oxen are usually yoked in pairs. Light work such as carting household items on good roads might require just one pair, while for heavier work, further pairs would be added as necessary. A team used for a heavy load over difficult ground might exceed nine or ten pairs. Domestication Oxen are thought to have first been ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hu Gadarn
Hu Gadarn (''Hu the Mighty'') is a supposed Welsh legendary figure who appears in several of a series of Welsh Triads produced by the Welsh antiquarian and literary forger Iolo Morganwg. These triads, which Iolo put forth as medieval works, present Hu as a culture hero of the ancient Britons who introduced ploughing. However, it is now known that the triads, like all of the so-called "Third Series" of triads, were fabricated by Iolo himself.Rejhon, A. C. (1983). "Hu Gadarn: Folklore and Fabrication". In Patrick K. Ford (Ed.), ''Celtic Folklore and Christianity'', pp. 201–12. Santa Barbara. The name "Hu Gadarn" earlier appeared in a Welsh translation of a French romance about Charlemagne. Still, Iolo's version of Hu Gadarn was taken up in the 20th century by the poet Robert Graves, who associated him with other Celtic figures; since then he has been popular among neopagans.Jones, Mary (2009)"Hu Gadarn" From www.maryjones.us. Retrieved 4 June 2010. Origins The name Hu Gadarn first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prydain
Prydain (, ; Middle Welsh: ''Prydein'') is the modern Welsh name for Great Britain. Medieval ''Prydain'' is the medieval Welsh term for the island of Britain (the name Albion was not used by the Welsh). More specifically, Prydain may refer to the Brittonic parts of the island; that is, the parts south of Caledonia. This distinction appears to derive from Roman times, when the island was divided into Roman Britain to the south and the land of the Caledonians to the North. The peoples north of the Roman borders eventually came to be known as the Picts (Welsh: ''Brithwyr''); the Welsh term for Pictland was ''Prydyn'', which caused some confusion in the texts with ''Prydain''. In Middle Welsh texts, the related term ''Ynys Prydein'' (Island of Britain), or ''Ynys Brydein'', can also refer to the island (''ynys'') itself but more often is a name for the Brittonic territories south of Caledonia. It is in this context that the name of the collection of traditional material arranged ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is dominated by a maritime climate with narrow temperature differences between seasons. The 60% smaller island of Ireland is to the west—these islands, along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands and named substantial rocks, form the British Isles archipelago. Connected to mainland Europe until 9,000 years ago by a landbridge now known as Doggerland, Great Britain has been inhabited by modern humans for around 30,000 years. In 2011, it had a population of about , making it the world's third-most-populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The term "Great Britain" is often used to refer to England, Scotland and Wales, including their component adjoining islands. Great Britain and Northern Ireland now cons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iolo Morganwg
Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg (; 10 March 1747 – 18 December 1826), was a Welsh antiquarian, poet and collector.Jones, Mary (2004)"Edward Williams/Iolo Morganwg/Iolo Morgannwg" From ''Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia''. Retrieved 11 June 2009 (only USA, see. He was seen as an expert collector of Medieval Welsh literature, but it emerged after his death that he had forged several manuscripts, notably some of the Third Series of Welsh Triads.Mary Jones (2003)"Y Myvyrian Archaiology" From ''Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia''. Retrieved 11 June 2009 (in US only. Even so, he had a lasting impact on Welsh culture, notably in founding the secret society known as the Gorsedd, through which Iolo Morganwg successfully coopted the 18th-century Eisteddfod revival. The philosophy he spread in his forgeries has had an enormous impact upon neo-Druidism. His bardic name is Welsh for "Iolo of Glamorgan". Early life Edward Williams was born at Pen Onn, near Llancarf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
