Moon Mausoleum
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In the shadows between ghost, creature and witch, the Welsh Gwarch y Rhibyn has been given many names. Like a Banshee she has been said to be a deadly omen, often called The Hag of the Mist because of her presence in wet areas, or the Hag of the Dribble because of the versions where her mouth is dripping with blood.
In the shadows between ghost, creature and witch, the Welsh Gwarch y Rhibyn has been given many names. Like a Banshee she has been said to be a deadly omen, often called The Hag of the Mist because of her presence in wet areas, or the Hag of the Dribble because of the versions where her mouth is dripping with blood.
In the old valleys of Wales, where the mists cling low to the rivers and the stones whisper beneath ancient oaks and deserted crossroads, there drifts a figure called The Gwrach y Rhibyn or the Hag of the Mist. She is a monstrous spirit of death and sorrow, an omen said to visit the doomed in the hours before their final breath.
She is not merely a ghost, but something far older and more primal, a remnant of forgotten gods or cursed fae, whose wails echo through the Welsh night like the cries of the damned. Sometimes mentioned as a witch, vampire or a Welsh Banshee.
The Gwrach y Rhibyn appears as a withered crone, her skin corpse-pale and drawn tight over sharp bones. Her tangled hair hangs like seaweed over her sunken eyes, and her blackened teeth glint when she opens her mouth to scream. She sometimes is said to have leathery, bat-like wings that stretch from her arms, and her fingers end in claws long enough to rake through the soul. The sight of her alone is enough to drive men to madness.
So ugly is she that there is a Welsh saying that goes: Y mae mor salw Gwrach y Rhibyn, meaning: She is as ugly as the Gwrach y Rhibyn.
She is often heard but seldom seen, for the Gwrach y Rhibyn moves through the mists unseen, brushing past her victims as she follows them along lonely roads or beside dark waters and rivers she is said to linger around. She is often mixed with the legend of the Canwyll Corph, or corpse candles, like will-o-the-wisps orbs of bluish white light seen around graveyards or places where people died.
Her arrival is always heralded by the rising of mist—dense, choking vapors that seep across crossroads and riverbanks. It is said she calls out to the living by name, her voice a shrill cry that freezes the blood. She is a death omen and the one seeing her, will either die soon, or someone close to them will.
“Fy ngŵr! Fy ngŵr!” She wails for a husband soon to die. “Fy mhlentyn bach!” she shrieks for the innocent whose time has come. Sometimes, her cry is that of a man, “Fy ngwraig!” echoing through the blackened air. No matter the form her voice takes, it is always followed by death.
Those who claim to have seen her say she hovers at windows, her wings brushing against the glass as she calls to the doomed inside. Others tell of meeting her at the crossing of streams, where she kneels to wash her hands, not in water but in the memory of blood.
Read Also: The Banshee: Ireland’s Wailing Spirit of Death
Like the Irish Banshee, the Gwrach y Rhibyn is said to only warn about the death of only those with pure Welsh blood or bloodline.
Although she is mostly known for just warning people about a near death, she’s not particularly known for taking their lives.
There is a lore about her enjoying hunting down children though and takes a fair bit of blood from them. Terrified, they come home, pale and sickly. She is even said that she is sometimes feeding on babies blood straight from their crib.
For a long time, it was said that when a healthy baby grew to be a sickly child, it was the Gwrach y Rhibyn who had been taking their blood. This part of the lore is also why she sometimes is said to have stained black teeth and that her mouth is dripping with blood. Sometimes she is even said to have hollow and long vampiric fangs she drinks the children’s blood with.
Another lore linking her with the European vampiric myths is that she is said to come back to feed on the same victim again again, causing them to wither away in the end and die.
There seems to be not too many specific encounters with Gwrach Y Rhibyn that have been written down and preserved, but one of them comes from Wirt Sikes in his book British Goblins from 1880, and perhaps one of the most retold in collections of folktales about the Hag of the Mist:
The book tells the tale of a respectable farmer that Mr. Sikes met while on a walk close to Cardiff in 1878, who told the author of his encounter on the night of November 14th, 1877 with the terrible Hag of the Dribble. While visiting an old friend in Llandaff, the farmer was sleeping soundly in his bed when he was abruptly awakened “by a terrible screeching and shaking of my window. It was a loud and clear screech, and the shaking of my window was very plain, but it seemed to go by like the wind.” Excited more than frightened, the farmer jumped out of bed, ran over to the window, and flung the thing open.
“Then I saw the Gwrach Y Rhibyn,” the farmer said, “a horrible old woman with long red hair and a face like chalk, and great teeth like tusks, looking back over her shoulder at me as she went through the air with a long black gown trailing along the ground below her arms, for body I could make out none.” The hag gave out another ungodly shriek while the farmer stared at her, completely dumbfounded by what he was seeing. Then he heard the creature buffeting her wings against another window on a house just below the one he was staying in. And then, she finally vanished from his sight. The farmer stared into the night, and swore that “as I am a living man, sir, I saw her go in at the door of the Cow and Snuffers Inn, and return no more.” He watched the inn’s door for a long time after the incident, but he never saw her come back out before he drifted off into sleep once again.
The next day, the farmer was told that the innkeeper of the Cow and Snuffers, who went by the name of Llewellyn, had passed away during the night. The man had kept the inn for seventy years, and his family for three hundred years before him, at the exact same inn. The farmer, having sworn that all of this was true, left Mr. Sikes with one final thought: “It’s not these new families that the Gwrach Y Rhibyn ever troubles, sir, it’s the old stock”
One of the stories that makes the Gwrach Y Rhibyn more vampiric though is from Bob Curran’s vampire books. Although the research of his books has been under much scrutiny, here it is. It is also worth noting this story doesn’t seem to appear anywhere else except in his book, although it is quite a detailed one.
In the small hamlet of Llyn-y-Guelan-Goch near Llanfor, villagers lived in fear of an ancient burial ground known for ghost lights and terrible noises after dark. A retired minister, Reverend Elias Pugh, was known locally for his knowledge of witchcraft and spirits, which brought some comfort to the community. One night, an elderly woman named Ann Hughes passed the cemetery and saw a strange stooped figure among the graves. Soon after, she sensed something following her. At a crossroads, the presence revealed itself as a bluish flame that transformed into a hideous hag in a green cloak stained with blood. Ann collapsed and later awoke with a bleeding wound on her wrist, certain the creature had fed on her blood.
In the small hamlet of Llyn-y-Guelan-Goch near Llanfor, villagers lived in fear of an ancient burial ground known for ghost lights and terrible noises after dark. A retired minister, Reverend Elias Pugh, was known locally for his knowledge of witchcraft and spirits, which brought some comfort to the community. One night, an elderly woman named Ann Hughes passed the cemetery and saw a strange stooped figure among the graves. Soon after, she sensed something following her. At a crossroads, the presence revealed itself as a bluish flame that transformed into a hideous hag in a green cloak stained with blood. Ann collapsed and later awoke with a bleeding wound on her wrist, certain the creature had fed on her blood.
This ghost heralds a death in the family very much like a banshee – wailing pierces the night air, and scratching is heard at windows. The entity was named as Lady Stradling, murdered by another member of her family. The apparition is also seen, some writing at it resembles an old, haggled woman, while others claim the figure wears high heels and a gown made of fine silk. If this was not enough, the castle is also reported to be home to a large floating eye that glows, a semi-transparent large black cat, and a piano that has a habit of playing itself.
Read the whole story: The Ghosts of St Donat’s Castle – The Wailing Lady and the Watchful Eye
This old hag is said to still haunt the ruins here from around the 1850s. Some say that she was conjured up by the fairy folk residing in the area, when the master of the castle cast them out because of their feasts. Or was she the work of the sorcerer who conjured up the castle from thin air? In any case, it was said to be dangerous to sleep in the castle, as those who spent the night woke up mad after seeing her appear in front of them.
Read the whole story: The Haunted Legends of Pennard Castle
Once owners of the building, the de Clares family were haunted by a Gwrach-y-rhibyn, warning them about an imminent death in the family. Now they have moved away, the ghost is still seen – drifting towards the castle only to disappear once she enters the ruins. A figure dressed in green also haunts the building.
Read the whole story: The Haunting of Caerphilly Castle – The Lady in Green and the Hag of Death
Although not so many sources written down about this legend, it is said that the Gwrach-y-rhibyn has been haunting the old castle as well as the surrounding area with local tales dating back to the Victorian times at least.
Read the whole story: The Wailing Spirit of Old Beaupre Castle
The little information about her comes from the Ceredigion area, connected to Cors Bochno near Borth. According to T. Gwynn Jones, “Gwrach y Rhibyn” is associated with the Glamorgan area and believed to be a death omen.
Folklorists believe that the Gwrach y Rhibyn may once have been divine once. The word gwrach may have been ancient Celtic, and was perhaps more of a wise and elderly woman, not just the witch or hag the word has become today, mostly with negative connotations.
Interesting though, Bob Curran, writer of vampire books claims that the vampiric element to the witch has been dropped in recent times rather than been added on, as many of the old folkloric had a revamp of in the 19th and 20th century. There is however, a controversy regarding his claims as well as his books.
Witches are intimately connected with the eve of the Celtic festival of winter (Noson Calan Gaeaf), during which the gwrachod were said to wander the landscape, strong in the dark. Bonfires were lit, ghoulish faces carved into turnips to scare off evil, including witches.
Read More: Noson Calan Gaeaf and when the spirits roam in Wales
The Gwrach y rhibyn is often fused together with the Cyhyraeth. They have a lot of similarities, but it was the nineteenth-century folklore collectors who fused the two figures.
Some whisper that she is a forgotten water spirit, or perhaps a shadow of Dôn, the ancient Welsh goddess of creation and the sky. Dôn has different etymological origins than the Irish Danu; while the latter is perhaps a water goddess (cf. the Danube river and the Vedic Danu), Dôn more likely comes from ghdhonos, meaning “the earth.” In this sense, she can be seen as the Welsh version of “dheghom” from Proto-Indo-European mythology, the primordial Earth Goddess from which all other gods originate.
Others say she is the cursed wife of Afagddu, the misshapen son of Ceridwen, doomed to wander forever as the harbinger of death. But whatever her origin, her purpose remains unchanged. She is the messenger who brings the final warning, the cold breath that precedes the grave.
Vampires A Field Guide To The Creatures That Stalk The Night [PDF] [6pe6eq38o090]
folklore and folk stories of wales ───────────────────── marie trevelyan
