Within the shadows between ghost, creature and witch, the Welsh Gwarch y Rhibyn has been given many names. Like a Banshee she has been stated to be a lethal omen, typically known as The Hag of the Mist due to her presence in moist areas, or the Hag of the Dribble due to the variations the place her mouth is dripping with blood.
Within the outdated valleys of Wales, the place the mists cling low to the rivers and the stones whisper beneath historic oaks and abandoned crossroads, there drifts a determine known as The Gwrach y Rhibyn or the Hag of the Mist. She is a monstrous spirit of loss of life and sorrow, an omen stated to go to the doomed within the hours earlier than their remaining breath.
She isn’t merely a ghost, however one thing far older and extra primal, a remnant of forgotten gods or cursed fae, whose wails echo by the Welsh evening just like the cries of the damned. Typically talked about as a witch, vampire or a Welsh Banshee.
The Legend of the Gwrach y Rhibyn
The Gwrach y Rhibyn seems as a withered crone, her pores and skin corpse-pale and drawn tight over sharp bones. Her tangled hair hangs like seaweed over her sunken eyes, and her blackened enamel glint when she opens her mouth to scream. She generally is alleged to have leathery, bat-like wings that stretch from her arms, and her fingers finish in claws lengthy sufficient to rake by the soul. The sight of her alone is sufficient to drive males to insanity.
So ugly is she that there’s a Welsh saying that goes: Y mae mor salw Gwrach y Rhibyn, that means: She is as ugly because the Gwrach y Rhibyn.
She is usually heard however seldom seen, for the Gwrach y Rhibyn strikes by the mists unseen, brushing previous her victims as she follows them alongside lonely roads or beside darkish waters and rivers she is alleged to linger round. She is usually blended with the legend of the Canwyll Corph, or corpse candles, like will-o-the-wisps orbs of bluish white gentle seen round graveyards or locations the place individuals died.
The Harbinger of Dying
Her arrival is all the time heralded by the rising of mist—dense, choking vapors that seep throughout crossroads and riverbanks. It’s stated she calls out to the residing by title, her voice a shrill cry that freezes the blood. She is a loss of life omen and the one seeing her, will both die quickly, or somebody near them will.
“Fy ngŵr! Fy ngŵr!” She wails for a husband quickly to die. “Fy mhlentyn bach!” she shrieks for the harmless whose time has come. Typically, her cry is that of a person, “Fy ngwraig!” echoing by the blackened air. Regardless of the shape her voice takes, it’s all the time adopted by loss of life.
Those that declare to have seen her say she hovers at home windows, her wings brushing in opposition to the glass as she calls to the doomed inside. Others inform of assembly her on the crossing of streams, the place she kneels to scrub her arms, not in water however within the reminiscence of blood.
Learn Additionally: The Banshee: Eire’s Wailing Spirit of Dying
Just like the Irish Banshee, the Gwrach y Rhibyn is alleged to solely warn concerning the loss of life of solely these with pure Welsh blood or bloodline.
Haunting for Blood
Though she is generally identified for simply warning individuals a few close to loss of life, she’s not significantly identified for taking their lives.
There’s a lore about her having fun with searching down youngsters although and takes a good bit of blood from them. Terrified, they arrive dwelling, pale and sickly. She is even stated that she is typically feeding on infants blood straight from their crib.
For a very long time, it was stated that when a wholesome child grew to be a sickly baby, it was the Gwrach y Rhibyn who had been taking their blood. This a part of the lore can be why she generally is alleged to have stained black enamel and that her mouth is dripping with blood. Typically she is even stated to have hole and lengthy vampiric fangs she drinks the youngsters’s blood with.
One other lore linking her with the European vampiric myths is that she is alleged to return again to feed on the identical sufferer once more once more, inflicting them to wither away ultimately and die.
Encounter with the Witch on the Cow and Snuffers in Llandaff
There appears to be not too many particular encounters with Gwrach Y Rhibyn which were written down and preserved, however one among them comes from Wirt Sikes in his guide British Goblins from 1880, and maybe one of the vital retold in collections of folktales concerning the Hag of the Mist:
The guide tells the story of a good farmer that Mr. Sikes met whereas on a stroll near Cardiff in 1878, who instructed the creator of his encounter on the evening of November 14th, 1877 with the horrible Hag of the Dribble. Whereas visiting an outdated good friend in Llandaff, the farmer was sleeping soundly in his mattress when he was abruptly woke up “by a horrible screeching and shaking of my window. It was a loud and clear screech, and the shaking of my window was very plain, but it surely appeared to go by just like the wind.” Excited greater than frightened, the farmer jumped away from bed, ran over to the window, and flung the factor open.
“Then I noticed the Gwrach Y Rhibyn,” the farmer stated, “a horrible outdated girl with lengthy crimson hair and a face like chalk, and nice enamel like tusks, wanting again over her shoulder at me as she went by the air with an extended black robe trailing alongside the bottom under her arms, for physique I might make out none.” The hag gave out one other ungodly shriek whereas the farmer stared at her, fully dumbfounded by what he was seeing. Then he heard the creature buffeting her wings in opposition to one other window on a home just under the one he was staying in. After which, she lastly vanished from his sight. The farmer stared into the evening, and swore that “as I’m a residing man, sir, I noticed her go in on the door of the Cow and Snuffers Inn, and return no extra.” He watched the inn’s door for a very long time after the incident, however he by no means noticed her come again out earlier than he drifted off into sleep as soon as once more.
The subsequent day, the farmer was instructed that the innkeeper of the Cow and Snuffers, who glided by the title of Llewellyn, had handed away through the evening. The person had stored the inn for seventy years, and his household for 300 years earlier than him, at the very same inn. The farmer, having sworn that each one of this was true, left Mr. Sikes with one remaining thought: “It’s not these new households that the Gwrach Y Rhibyn ever troubles, sir, it’s the outdated inventory”
The Vampiric Gwrach y Rhibyn in Llyn-y-Guelan-Goch
One of many tales that makes the Gwrach Y Rhibyn extra vampiric although is from Bob Curran’s vampire books. Though the analysis of his books has been underneath a lot scrutiny, right here it’s. It’s also value noting this story doesn’t appear to seem anyplace else besides in his guide, though it’s fairly an in depth one.
Within the small hamlet of Llyn-y-Guelan-Goch close to Llanfor, villagers lived in worry of an historic burial floor identified for ghost lights and horrible noises after darkish. A retired minister, Reverend Elias Pugh, was identified regionally for his information of witchcraft and spirits, which introduced some consolation to the group. One evening, an aged girl named Ann Hughes handed the cemetery and noticed an odd stooped determine among the many graves. Quickly after, she sensed one thing following her. At a crossroads, the presence revealed itself as a bluish flame that remodeled right into a hideous hag in a inexperienced cloak stained with blood. Ann collapsed and later awoke with a bleeding wound on her wrist, sure the creature had ate up her blood.
Within the small hamlet of Llyn-y-Guelan-Goch close to Llanfor, villagers lived in worry of an historic burial floor identified for ghost lights and horrible noises after darkish. A retired minister, Reverend Elias Pugh, was identified regionally for his information of witchcraft and spirits, which introduced some consolation to the group. One evening, an aged girl named Ann Hughes handed the cemetery and noticed an odd stooped determine among the many graves. Quickly after, she sensed one thing following her. At a crossroads, the presence revealed itself as a bluish flame that remodeled right into a hideous hag in a inexperienced cloak stained with blood. Ann collapsed and later awoke with a bleeding wound on her wrist, sure the creature had ate up her blood.
Locations the place the Gwrach Y Rhibyn is alleged to have haunted in Wales:
St Donats Citadel
This ghost heralds a loss of life within the household very very like a banshee – wailing pierces the evening air, and scratching is heard at home windows. The entity was named as Girl Stradling, murdered by one other member of her household. The apparition can be seen, some writing at it resembles an outdated, haggled girl, whereas others declare the determine wears excessive heels and a robe product of wonderful silk. If this was not sufficient, the citadel can be reported to be dwelling to a big floating eye that glows, a semi-transparent massive black cat, and a piano that has a behavior of taking part in itself.
Learn the entire story: The Ghosts of St Donat’s Citadel – The Wailing Girl and the Watchful Eye
Pennard Citadel
This outdated hag is alleged to nonetheless hang-out the ruins right here from across the 1850s. Some say that she was conjured up by the fairy people residing within the space, when the grasp of the citadel solid them out due to their feasts. Or was she the work of the sorcerer who conjured up the citadel from skinny air? In any case, it was stated to be harmful to sleep within the citadel, as those that spent the evening awoke mad after seeing her seem in entrance of them.
Learn the entire story: The Haunted Legends of Pennard Citadel
Caerphilly Citadel
As soon as house owners of the constructing, the de Clares household had been haunted by a Gwrach-y-rhibyn, warning them about an imminent loss of life within the household. Now they’ve moved away, the ghost remains to be seen – drifting in the direction of the citadel solely to vanish as soon as she enters the ruins. A determine wearing inexperienced additionally haunts the constructing.
Learn the entire story: The Haunting of Caerphilly Citadel – The Girl in Inexperienced and the Hag of Dying
Beaupre Citadel close to Cowbridge
Though not so many sources written down about this legend, it’s stated that the Gwrach-y-rhibyn has been haunting the outdated citadel in addition to the encircling space with native tales relationship again to the Victorian occasions not less than.
Learn the entire story: The Wailing Spirit of Previous Beaupre Citadel
The Origin of the Witch
The little details about her comes from the Ceredigion space, linked to Cors Bochno close to Borth. In accordance with T. Gwynn Jones, “Gwrach y Rhibyn” is related to the Glamorgan space and believed to be a loss of life omen.
Folklorists imagine that the Gwrach y Rhibyn could as soon as have been divine as soon as. The phrase gwrach could have been historic Celtic, and was maybe extra of a smart and aged girl, not simply the witch or hag the phrase has turn out to be at this time, largely with unfavourable connotations.
Attention-grabbing although, Bob Curran, author of vampire books claims that the vampiric factor to the witch has been dropped in current occasions reasonably than been added on, as lots of the outdated folkloric had a revamp of within the nineteenth and twentieth century. There may be nevertheless, an argument relating to his claims in addition to his books.
The Enduring Legend of The Gwrach y rhibyn
Witches are intimately linked with the eve of the Celtic pageant of winter (Noson Calan Gaeaf), throughout which the gwrachod had been stated to wander the panorama, sturdy at the hours of darkness. Bonfires had been lit, ghoulish faces carved into turnips to scare off evil, together with witches.
Learn Extra: Noson Calan Gaeaf and when the spirits roam in Wales
The Gwrach y rhibyn is usually fused along with the Cyhyraeth. They’ve a variety of similarities, but it surely was the nineteenth-century folklore collectors who fused the 2 figures.
Some whisper that she is a forgotten water spirit, or maybe a shadow of Dôn, the traditional Welsh goddess of creation and the sky. Dôn has completely different etymological origins than the Irish Danu; whereas the latter is maybe a water goddess (cf. the Danube river and the Vedic Danu), Dôn extra possible comes from ghdhonos, that means “the earth.” On this sense, she will be seen because the Welsh model of “dheghom” from Proto-Indo-European mythology, the primordial Earth Goddess from which all different gods originate.
Others say she is the cursed spouse of Afagddu, the misshapen son of Ceridwen, doomed to wander perpetually because the harbinger of loss of life. However no matter her origin, her objective stays unchanged. She is the messenger who brings the ultimate warning, the chilly breath that precedes the grave.
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References:
Witch – Gwrach – Welsh Phrases
Vampires A Area Information To The Creatures That Stalk The Evening [PDF] [6pe6eq38o090]
folklore and people tales of wales ───────────────────── marie trevelyan
