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Llys Helig is the name of a natural rock formation off the coast at Penmaenmawr, north Wales. [1] [2] [3] There may be a fish weir to the south which tradition dates to the beginning of the 6th century. The sea level was low enough around 1600 AD to make the claims of Sir John Wynne of Gwydir feasible. [1] [2] [4] The earliest known use of the name Llys Helig for this rock formation is the Halliwell Manuscript which is believed to date to around the beginning of the 17th century, eleven centuries later. [2] Legends developed about it suggesting that it was the palace of Prince Helig ap Glanawg (also spelled Glannog) who lived in the 6th century, and whose sons established a number of churches in the area. He owned a large area of land between the Great Orme's Head near Llandudno and the Menai Strait off the north coast of Gwynedd.[ citation needed ]
This area was inundated by the sea, which gave rise to the legend of the drowned kingdom.[ citation needed ]
Llys Helig is mentioned in a number of old documents, some of which were published after expeditions to find the Palace. These include -
This last expedition reported finds of the remains of seaweed-covered walls, these walls indicating buildings some 100 yards long, and they concluded that this was indeed the palace.[ citation needed ]
Rachel Bromwich discusses what she refers to as the folk-tale of Cantre'r Gwaelod, another alleged sunken kingdom but in Cardiganshire. As with Llys Helig, there are tales of remains being seen of the sunken kingdom. Bromwich believes that the two stories influenced each other, and that "The widespread parallels to this inundation theme would suggest that the two stories are in fact one in origin, and were localized separately in Cardiganshire and in the Conwy estuary, around two traditional figures of the sixth century. She also notes that the Halliwell Manuscript gives Helig the title "Lord of Cantre'r Gwaelod". [5] In the book New Directions In Celtic Studies Antone Minard wrote that "The Welsh legends of Cantre'r Gwaelod and Llys Helig (Helig's Court) contain the same details of audible bells beneath the waves and ruins which are visible at the equinoctial tides, which are the anchors of credulity in the story". [6]
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Gwyddno Garanhir was the supposed ruler of a sunken land off the coast of Wales, known as Cantre'r Gwaelod. He was the father of Elffin ap Gwyddno, the foster-father of the famous Welsh poet Taliesin in the legendary account given in the late medieval Chwedl Taliesin.
Borth is a village and seaside resort in Ceredigion, Mid Wales; it is located 7 miles (11 km) north of Aberystwyth, on the Ceredigion Coast Path. The community includes the settlement of Ynyslas and the population was 1,399 in 2011. From being largely Welsh-speaking, the village has become anglicised; over 54 per cent of its residents were born in England. According to both the 1991 and 2001 censuses, 43 per cent of the residents of Borth were primarily Welsh-speakers.
Ardudwy is an area of Gwynedd in north-west Wales, lying between Tremadog Bay and the Rhinogydd. Administratively, under the old Kingdom of Gwynedd, it was first a division of the sub kingdom (cantref) of Dunoding and later a commote in its own right. The fertile swathe of land stretching from Barmouth to Harlech was historically used as pasture. The name exists in the modern community and village of Dyffryn Ardudwy.
Aberdyfi, also known as Aberdovey, is a village and community in Gwynedd, Wales, located on the northern side of the estuary of the River Dyfi.
The Setantii were a possible pre-Roman British people who apparently lived in the western and southern littoral of Lancashire in England. It is thought likely they were a sept or sub-tribe of the Brigantes, who, at the time of the Roman invasion, dominated much of what is now northern England.
A cantref was a medieval Welsh land division, particularly important in the administration of Welsh law.
Bedd Taliesin is the legendary grave (bedd) of the poet Taliesin, located in Ceredigion, Wales. The Bronze Age round cairn is a listed Historic Monument. It is a round-kerb cairn with a cist about 2m long. The capstone has fallen; the side stone slabs are more or less in their original positions.
Dahut, also spelled Dahud, is a princess in Breton legend and literature, associated with the legend of the drowned city of Ys.
Cantre'r Gwaelod, also known as Cantref Gwaelod or Cantref y Gwaelod, is a legendary ancient sunken kingdom said to have occupied a tract of fertile land lying between Ramsey Island and Bardsey Island in what is now Cardigan Bay to the west of Wales. It has been described as a "Welsh Atlantis" and has featured in folklore, literature, and song.
Sarn Badrig, also spelled Sarn Padrig, is one of several more or less parallel shingle reefs extending under the sea in Cardigan Bay on the west coast of Wales. The causeway is made of glacial deposits left by receding ice sheets at the end of the last ice age.
Seithenyn sometimes known as Seithenyn of the feeble mind is a figure from Welsh legend, apparently contemporary with King Gwyddno Garanhir. He is mentioned in a poem in the Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin, but becomes the protagonist of the story in a later version of the legend, in which he was responsible for the sea-defences of Cantre'r Gwaelod or Maes Gwyddno, in the kingdom of the legendary Gwyddno Garanhir, but neglected them one night because of his drunkenness. Because of this neglect, the sea overran it.
Celliwig, Kelliwic or Gelliwic is perhaps the earliest named location for the court of King Arthur. It may be translated as 'forest grove'.
Helig ap Glanawg is a legendary figure described in various accounts dating to at least as early as the 13th century as a 6th-century prince who lived in North Wales.
Tre-Taliesin is a village in Ceredigion on the A487 road, 9 miles north of Aberystwyth, Wales, and 9 miles south of Machynlleth. It is in the parish of Llangynfelyn.
Sarn Gynfelyn is a shingle spit on the coast of Cardigan Bay, in the county of Ceredigion, Mid-Wales, in the United Kingdom. It is located at Wallog, a few kilometres north of Llangorwen, close to Clarach Bay, south of Borth and north of the town of Aberystwyth. It extends, albeit with a single break, for a distance of 11km from the coast to a reef known as Patches or Caerwyddno.
Dwygyfylchi is a village in Conwy County Borough, Wales. It is part of the community of Penmaenmawr which has a population of 4,353. The electoral ward of Capelulo which includes Dwygyfylchi had a population of 1,485 in 2011. It forms part of the historic county of Caernarfonshire.
The Bells of Aberdovey is a popular song which refers to the village now usually known locally by its Welsh-language name of Aberdyfi in Gwynedd, Wales at the mouth of the River Dyfi on Cardigan Bay. The song is based on the legend of Cantre'r Gwaelod, which is also called Cantref Gwaelod or Cantref y Gwaelod. This ancient sunken kingdom is said to have occupied a tract of fertile land lying between Ramsey Island and Bardsey Island in what is now Cardigan Bay to the west of Wales. The legend supposes that the bells of the submerged lost kingdom can be heard ringing below the waves on the beach at Aberdyfi.
Poem 31 of the Black Book of Carmarthen, a mid-13th century manuscript, is known from its first line as Pa gur yv y porthaur? or Pa gur, or alternatively as Ymddiddan Arthur a Glewlwyd Gafaelfawr. It is a fragmentary, anonymous poem in Old Welsh, taking the form of a dialogue between King Arthur and the gatekeeper Glewlwyd Gafaelfawr, in which Arthur boasts of his own exploits and those of his companions, especially Cai the Fair. Pa gur is notable for being one of the earliest vernacular Arthurian works, and for alluding to several early adventures of Arthur which are now lost. Its precise age is not known and has been the subject of wide-ranging disagreement, but scholarly opinion now tends to favour a date of c. 1100.
An Dialog etre Arzur Roe d'an Bretounet ha Guynglaff is an anonymous poem in 247 lines relating the apocalyptic prophecies which King Arthur extracted from one Guynglaff, a wild man, prophet and magician closely analogous to Merlin in the earliest Welsh tradition. It dates from about the middle of the 15th century, making it the oldest surviving work of literature in the Breton language.
