Celtic Lore & Legend by Bob Curran Page B

century. They are describes as the Physicians of Rhys Gryg, a prince of South Wales, who lived in the early part of the thirteenth century. Their supposed supernatural origin dates therefore from the thirteenth or at the latest, the fourteenth century.
    I have mentioned Y Gwylliaid Cochion , or as they are generally styled, Gwylliaid Cochion Mawddwy , the Red Fairies of Mawddwy as being of Fairy origin. The Llanfrothen Legend [ Editor’s Note : There is an ancient story from Llanfrothen in Merionethshire in which a shepherd marries a maiden who emerges from a hill. She lives with him for a number of years and they have several children. When touched with iron, she tells him that she must now depart and return to her former life. He asks what will become of the children without a mother, to which she replies, “Let them be red-headed and big-nosed.”] seems to account for a race of men in Wales differing from their neighbours in certain features. The offspring of the Fairyunion were, according to the Fairy mother’s prediction in that legend, to have red hair and prominent noses. That a race of men having these characteristics did exist in Wales is undoubted. They were a strong tribe, the men were tall and athletic, and lived by plunder. They had their head quarters at Dinas Mawddwy, Merionethshire and taxed their neighbours in open day, driving away sheep and cattle to their dens. So unbearable did their depredations become that John Wynn ap Meredydd of Gwydir and Lewis Owen, or as he is called Baron Owen, raised a body of stout men and overcame them on Christmas Eve, 1554, succeeded in capturing a large number of the offenders and, then and there, some hundred or so of the robbers were hung. Tradition says that a mother begged hard for the life of a young son, who was to be destroyed, but Baron Owen would not relent. On perceiving that her request was unheeded, baring her breast, she said:
    “ Y bronan melynion hyn a fagasant y rhai a didialant waed fy mab, ac a olchant en dwylaw yu ugwaed calon Ilolrudd en brawd ”
    “These yellow breasts have nursed those who will revenge my son’s blood and will wash their hands in the heart’s blood of this murderer of their brother”
    According to Pennant this threat was carried out by the murder of Baron Owen in 1555 when he was passing through the thick woods of Mawddwy on his way to Montgomeryshire Assizes at a place called to this day Llidiart y Barwn , the Baron’s Gate, from the deed. Tradition further tells us that the murderers had gone a distance off before they remembered their mother’s threat and returning thrust their swords into the Baron’s heart and washed their hands in his heart’s blood. This act was followed by vigorous action, and the banditti were extirpated, the females only remaining, and the descendants of these women are occasionally still to be met with in Montgomeryshire and Merionethshire.
    For the preceding information, the writer is indebted to YrHynafion Cmyru rig pp. 91-94 , Archaeologia Cambrensis for 1854 p p. 119-20 : Pennant vol ii, p p. 225-27 . ed. Carnarvon , and the tradition that was told him by the Rev. D. James, Vicar of Garthbeibio, who likewise pointed out to him the very spot where the Baron was murdered.
    But now, who were these Gwylliaid ? According to the hint conveyed by their name, they were of Fairy parentage, an idea which the writer in the Archaeologia Cambrensis , vol v 1854 p.119, intended to throw out. But, according to Brut y Tywysogion, Myf. Arch. , p. 706 A.D. 1114, Denbigh edition, the Gwylliaid Cochion Mawddwy began in the time of Cadwgan ab Bleddyn ab Cynwyn.
    From William’s Eminent Welshmen , we gather that Prince Cadwgan died in 1110 A.D. and, according to the abovementioned Brut , it was in his days that the Gwylliaid commenced their career if not their existence.
    Unfortunately, for this beginning of the red-headed banditti of Mawddwy, Tacitus states in his Life of Agricola ch. xi that there were in