Dragon Lore - The Gwybr
The Gwybr. Beware…
In the northeast of Wales lies an area of mountains and moorland known as The Berwyn Range (Welsh: Y Berwyn or Mynydd y Berwyn) or Berwyn Mountains National Park. A sparsely populated area close to the border with England, it is popular with hill walkers, and is covered with heather, grassland and bracken. Its tallest summit is Cadair Berwyn which is 2,730 ft above sea level.
Pistyll Rhaeadr (‘Rhaeadr Falls’) is a waterfall within The Berwyn Mountains National Park, it is formed by the Afon Disgynfa (River Disgynfa) falling in three stages over a 80 meter cliff-face - making it higher than Niagra falls - into the Afon Rhaeadr below. The tallest stage is estimated at about 40 metres. It is an enchanting place, even more so on the rare occasions that it freezes into an ice sculpture at winter. This scenic, mystical location was said to be the home of a winged serpent, called ‘The Gwybr.’ also known as The Dragon of Llanrhaeadr.
The story goes that in a lake by the falls lived a winged serpent who would fly down the valley to the village and seize children, women or animals, taking them back to the lake to devour.
Nobody knew how to defeat the Gwybr, so a number of villagers consulted a wise woman in the hills. She explained to them what they had to do. The men must gather together and forge three enormous spiked collars, whilst the womenfolk collected all the linen in the village, sewed it together and dyed it blood-red.
Then, when all was ready, the whole village was to set off to a great standing stone in the field at the foot of Rhos Brithin. Here the men were to drop the three spiked collars over the pillar whilst the women wrapped the whole lot in the red linen. Then they should set about building a circle of fire around the pillar.
This was done, and when the Gwybr sighted it, the beast thought it was another dragon illuminated by the flickering flames. It roared with anger and attacked, spearing its breast on the hidden spikes. Again and again it struck, and each time the spikes drove deeper into its body until it dripped with blood and grew weaker. Eventually it could fight no more and collapsed bleeding and dying at the foot of the pillar.
The villagers, with the help of the wise woman of the hills, had outwitted the gwybr and once more the village was safe.
There are many more stories associated with this area, incuding claims that a UFO crashed into the mountain in 1974 - after an earth tremor was felt, and strange lights sighted by locals near the summit. Some people have speculated that the UFO was retrieved by the British government and its wreckage taken to RAF Rudloe Manor.
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Until next time, stay spooky.
