Folkrealm Studies
  • Folkrealm Studies
    • Eskimo Folktales: The Red Skeleton
    • Paiute Mythology: The Legend of the North Star
    • Scottish legends: The each-uisge
    • Scottish legends: The Cu Sith
    • The Last Song of Thomas the Rhymer
    • Legendary places: Dozmary Pool. Bodmin Moor, Cornwall
    • Chalice Well, Glastonbury, Somerset
    • Legendary places: Wishing Wells
    • Mystery, Murder and Magic at the Rollright Stones
    • Joseph of Arimathea
    • The Glastonbury Thorn
    • Victorian mysteries: Spring-heeled Jack
    • Brutus of Troy, first King of Britain
    • Beowulf - Hero of the age
    • The Mermaid of Blake Mere Pool, Staffordshire, England
    • A legend of the white hare
    • Sunken Bells: The Legend of the Kentsham Bell
    • Dartmoor folklore: Vixiana the Witch of Vixen Tor
    • Origins of the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival
    • Japanese folktales: The stonecutter
    • Japanese folktales: The Bamboo cutter and the Moon-child
    • Russian folktales: The Fool and the flying ship
    • European Folktales: The Hunter and the Swan Maiden
    • To love a Swan Maiden
    • The Swan Maiden's challenge
    • German Fairy Tales: The Six Swans
    • The Evolution of Christmas
    • Introduction to Chilote mytholgy
    • Chilote mythology: The Royal Family of the Sea
    • El Caleuche: The ghost ship of Chilote folklore
    • Supernatural beings in Chilote mythology
    • Corineus, first Duke of Cornwall
    • Cornish folklore
    • Cornish legends: The tasks of Jan Tregeagle
    • Jack the Giant-killer fights Cormoran the Giant
    • Cornish legends: The Mermaid of Zennor
    • Cornish Folklore: The Witch of Treva
    • Lost Worlds
    • Lost Worlds: The drowning of the city of Ys
    • Lost worlds: The town beneath Kenfig Pool
    • Lost worlds: The drowned Russian city of Kitezh
    • Lost worlds: Cantre’r Gwaelod of Wales
    • Lost worlds: El Dorado
    • Lost worlds: The sunken realm of Tyno Helig
    • Lost worlds: Semerwater
    • Lost worlds: The town beneath Lake Bala
    • Lost Worlds: The Hidden Cherokees of Pilot Mountain
    • Welsh mythology
    • Welsh legends: The Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach
    • Welsh legends: King March's ears
    • Welsh legends: The Afanc of the River Conwy
    • Welsh legends: The birth of Taliesin
    • The Legend of the Church of the White Stag
    • Welsh legends: Mereid of Cantre’r Gwaelod
    • Publications by zteve t evans
    • Tales of the Lost, the Drowned and the All-Seeing Eye: Vengeance Will Come!
    • Folkrealm Tidings
    • Policies, Terms and Conditions, Disclaimers and Notices

The Welsh Legend of the Drowned Town of Lake Bala

15/1/2018

0 Comments

 
This article was first published on March 9th 2017 #FolkloreThursday as Submerged Towns and Sunken Cities: The Legend of Lake Bala, Wales written by by zteve te evans.
PictureMecrothesp at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
Lake Bala

Lake Bala is also known as Llyn Tegid, and in Welsh folklore is known for its legend of having a sunken town beneath its surface.  It is situated in Gwynedd, Wales, and the modern day town of Bala lies on its eastern shore.  There are two different legends that give different accounts of how the flooding took place.  One concerns the spring of Ffynnon Gower or Gower’s Well, and the other involves the wickedness of a prince named Tegid Foel.  This article looks at the legend of Tegid Foel. 

The Legend of Tegid Foel

According to legend, Tegid Foel had a fine palace in the town now underneath Lake Bala and lived a life of opulence and excess.  He had a reputation for cruelty and greed, and oppressed his people.  The gods had sent several warnings and provided opportunities for him to change his ways, but still he unheedingly persisted in his greed and excesses. 

When his first grandson was born, he decided he would celebrate the birth with a lavish feast.  He sent invitations to all the important princes in Wales and beyond, and invited all of his family to join him in the banquet at his palace in Bala.  Now, they say a man is known by the company he keeps, and there were many who would not attend the celebration because they refused to associate with this cruel and barbaric prince.  Sadly, like attracts like and the banquet was still attended by many powerful men of ill repute and behaviour. 

                                                                         Read More

0 Comments

Saints, Snakes and Ammonites in English Folklore

1/1/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Image By L. Shyamal (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
Petrification Myths
There are many petrification myths where people, or living things, are turned to stone for various reasons.  In legend and folklore this often occurs through the action of some powerful individual such as witches by sorcery, or by saints calling upon God, or by some other form of divine intervention when rules have been transgressed.  In the examples that follow it is divine intervention called down by St Hilda and St Keyne that turn snakes into stone to end their infestation of religious sites. The proof of these miraculous events was seen in the existence of what appears to look like petrified snakes coiled up and found naturally in certain places such as Whitby in Yorkshire that was associated with St. Hilda and Keynsham in Somerset, associated with St. Keyne.   In fact these stone snakes were not snakes at all but fossils known as ammonites.  Presented here is a brief description of ammonites followed by the legends of how Saint Hilda and Saint Keyne cleared their respective religious sites of snakes by turning them to stone.

                                                                   Read More

0 Comments

    RSS Feed

    Author

    zteve t evans

    Categories

    All
    British Folk Songs
    Celtic Mythology
    English Folklore
    European Folktales
    Festivals
    Greek Mythology
    Hungarian Mythology
    Isle Of Man Folklore
    News
    North American Legend
    Symbols And Words
    Urban Legends
    Welsh Folklore
    World Mythology

    Archives

    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from trenchdroid, ferjflores, jarnocan, johan wieland, Muffet, Gwydion M. Williams, blachswan, AlicePopkorn2, beggs, USFS Region 10