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The legend is given by John Ray in his Itineraries. told a legend of one St. Byno, who lived at Clenogvaur, and was wont to foot it four Miles in the Night to Llaynhayrne, and there, on a stone in the midst of the River, to say his Prayers; whereon they show you still the Prints of his Knees. His Man, out of Curiosity, followed him once to the Place, to see and observe what he did. The Saint coming from his Prayers, and espying a Man, not knowing who it was, prayed, that if he came with a good Intent, he might receive the Good he came for, and might suffer no Damage; but if he had any ill Design, that some Example might be shown upon him; whereupon presently there came forth wild Beasts, and tore him in pieces. Afterwards, the Saint perceiving it was his own Servant, was very sorry, gathering up his Bones, and praying, he set Bone to Bone, and Limb to Limb, and the Man became whole again, only the part of the Bone under the Eyebrow was wanting; the Saint, to supply that Defect, applied the Iron of his Pike-staff to the Place, and thence, that Village was called Llanvilhayrne. But for a punishment to his Man (after he had given him Llanvilhayrne) he prayed (and obtained his Prayer) that Clenogvaur Bell might be heard as far as Llanvilhayrne Churchyard, but upon stepping into the Church it was to be heard no longer; this the People hereabout assert with much Confidence, upon their own experience, to be true. The Saint was a South Wales Man, and when he died, the South Wales Men contended with the Clenogvaur Men for his Body, and continued the Contention till Night; next Morning there were two Biers and two Coffins there, and so the South Wales Men carried one away, and the Clenogvaur Men the other." 1

The story of the restoration of Aelhaiarn out of his bones, one small bone being missing, is an adaptation of a very ancient myth. It occurs in the Prose Edda of Thor on his journey to Jötunhein.2 It is found elsewhere. The duplication of the body of Beuno has its counterpart in the triplication of that of Teilo.

Browne Willis says, under Llanaelhaiarn, "Fanum Sancti Elhayarn Acolyti ut fertur Sancti Beunonis." 3 This will account, as already pointed out, for the juxtaposition of S. Aelhaiarn's foundations to those of S. Beuno-Llanaelhaiarn to Clynnog, Carngiwch, and

1 Itineraries of John Ray, Lond., 1760, pp. 228-30. In Peniarth MS. 75 (sixteenth century) it is said that Aelhaiarn was one of seven persons whom Beuno raised to life again.

2 Thorpe, Northern Mythology, Lond., 1851, i, p. 57. Mallet, Northern Antiquities, ed. Bohn, 1847, p. 436.

3 Survey of Bangor (1721), p. 273.

Pistyll; the now extinct Llanaelhaiarn to Gwyddelwern; and Guilsfield to Berriew and Bettws Cedewain.1

S. Aelhaiarn's Well is an oblong trough of good pure water, by the road side, in which the sick were wont to bathe, and there are seats of stone ranged along the sides for the accommodation of the patients awaiting the "troubling of the waters," when they might step in, full of confidence, in expectation of a cure.

This "troubling of the waters" is a singular phenomenon. At irregular intervals, and at various points in the basin, the crystal water suddenly wells up, full of sparkling bubbles. Then ensues a lull, and again a swell of water occurs in another part of the tank.2 The Well now supplies the village with water. It was walled round and roofed by the Parish Council in 1900, after an outbreak of diphtheria in the village. The entrance is now kept locked. S. Beuno's Well at Clynnog is similar to it in many respects; this latter is in a ruinous condition.

Rees gives November 1 as the day of S. Aelhaiarn, his authority apparently being Browne Willis. 3 The Calendar in Cotton Vesp. A.

xiv, however, gives the festival of "Aelhaiarn of Cegidfa in Powys as November 2, but the entry is in a later hand than the original MS. So also the Welsh Prymer of 1633.

At Guilsfield, a mile and a half from the Church, is a Holy Well, in a lovely secluded dell, where still a concourse gathers to drink the water on Trinity Sunday.

S. AELRHIW

THIS is a name given by Rees in his list of saints of uncertain date, and to whom Rhiw church in Carnarvonshire is said to be dedicated, with September 9 as festival. No such saint, however, occurs among the genealogies of the Welsh saints. Browne Willis, in his Survey of Bangor, gives against the church" S. Eelrhyw, or Delwfyw. Sept. 9.

1 In Cardiff Library MS. 51 is mentioned a Llech Alhayarn," apparently situated somewhere in Denbighshire (Gwenogfryn Evans, Report on Welsh MSS., ii, pp. 253-4).

2 This is locally called "the laughing of the water," and it is said in the place that the water laughs when any one looks at it.

3 Essay on the Welsh Saints, p. 275; Survey of Bangor, p. 273.

4 Welsh Saints, p. 306.

5 P. 274; Cambrian Register, iii, p. 224 (1818).

Fanuin in clivo situm."

In the latter part of the entry we have an

explanation of the name of Rhiw Church.

Cathrall, again, in his History of North Wales,1 gives the church as dedicated to S. Aelrhyw, and adds that there is a well there called Ffynnon Aeliw, the waters of which were supposed to be efficacious in the cure of cutaneous disorders, particularly one of that description denominated Man Aeliw (the mark or spot of Aeliw). In the alternative dedication given by Willis we have Y Ddelw Fyw, or the Living Image, which occurs in several Welsh Calendars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with festival on September 9, and to which there is a number of allusions in medieval Welsh literature. The Living Image was a rood or crucifix, which, it was alleged, miraculously bled when certain Jews nailed the Image to the cross.2 The church of Rhiw is evidently dedicated to Y Ddelw Fyw, in other words, to the Holy Rood; and Aelrhyw and Aeliw have the appearance of corruptions of the name. But the Living Image more particularly had in mind by the Welsh was a rood or crucifix in Mold Church (S. Mary). It is mentioned in two odes, of the late fifteenth century, to Rheinallt ab Gruffydd, of Tower, in the parish of Mold. The one, by Hywel Cilan, in praising Rheinallt's valour in fighting the English, says :

I roi sawd Iorus ydyw

Urddal i Fair a'r Ddelw Fyw.

(To give battle he is a S. George,

Of the Order of Mary and the Living Image.)

The other, by Tudur Penllyn, contains these lines:

Gwiw ddelw'r wirgrog a addolaf;

Y Ddelw Fyw o'r Wyddgrug a fu ddialwr,

Ag ynte i hunan a wnaeth gyfran gwr.

(The worthy image of the true cross will I worship;

The Living Image of Mold was the avenger,

And he himself did a man's part.)

A rhyming Welsh Calendar in Cardiff MS. 13, circa 1609, commemorates the Festival of the Image thus :

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Gwyl y Ddelw Fyw a phawb a'i clyw,

Yn enwedig pawb a i'r Wyrgrig.

(The Feast of the Living Image, and everybody hears of it, Especially everybody who goes to Mold.)

1 Vol. ii, p. 120 (Manchester, 1828).

2 Robert Owen, Kymry, p. 110 (Carmarthen, 1891), thought the Image "must have been a clumsy replica of some Italian Madonna."

VOL. I.

I

Dafydd ab Gwilym, in the fourteenth century, in one of his poems, exclaims, "Myn y Ddelw Fyw!" "By the Living Image!"'1

S. AFAN, Bishop, Confessor

S. AFAN BUELLT, as he is generally called, was the son of Cedig ab Ceredig ab Cunedda Wledig, by S. Tegfedd or Tegwedd, the daughter of Tegid Foel (the Bald), lord of Penllyn, in Merionethshire.2 Sometimes he is said, but wrongly, to have been the son of Ceredig. He lived in the early part of the sixth century. The epithet Buellt or Buallt (hodie Builth) indicates his connection with the cantref or hundred of that name in Brecknockshire. According to a sixteenth century manuscript,3 the hundred then comprised fifteen parishes, covering practically the whole expanse of the county north of the Eppynt. The Rural Deanery of Builth appears to be conterminous with it. Two of the churches within this Deanery are dedicated to Afan, viz. Llanafan Fawr and Llanafan Fechan (or Fach). The latter, which is otherwise called Llanfechan, is now subject to the former. One other church is dedicated to him, that of Llanafan-y-Trawsgoed, in the Deanery of Llanbadarn Fawr, Cardiganshire. It has been supposed that there once existed a See of Llanafan Fawr; but it is very improbable. At any rate, if it ever existed, it must have been for a very short period. The supposition is due to an inscription, in a very good state of preservation, at Llanafan Fawr, which reads. thus: HIC IACET SANCTUS AVANUS EPISCOPUS. It is deeply cut in capital letters of the Lombardic type, slightly ornamented, on the very hard top-stone of a plain oblong altar tomb in the churchyard; but its date is not older than the end of the thirteenth or the fourteenth century.4

There is here nothing to show when or where Afan was Bishop. He

1 Works, ed. 1789, p. 437. We are indebted to Mr. J. Hobson Matthews, Monmouth, for most of these extracts. To "Yr Wydd Gryc" in the parish list in Peniarth MS. 147, circa 1566, is added, y Ddelw fyw."

2 Peniarth MSS. 16, 27 and 45 (last leaves Cedig out); Iolo MSS., pp. 102, 110, 125; Myv. Arch., pp. 415, 418. Afan as a man's name is probably a loan from the Latin Amandus. It occurs also as a river name.

› Peniarth MS. 147; see Dr. J. Gwenogfryn Evans' Report on Welsh MSS., i, p. 918.

• Westwood, Lapidarium Walliæ, p. 72.

is traditionally said to have been murdered by Irish pirates-by Danes, according to another account-on the banks of the Chwefri, and that the tomb here marks the site of his martyrdom. In the neighbourhood are a brook called Nant yr Esgob, a dingle called Cwm Esgob, and a small holding called Derwen Afan (his Oak). The rectory is called Perth y Sant (the Saint's Bush).

Rees says that" it is not improbable that he was the third Bishop of Llanbadarn; and his churches are situated in the district which may be assigned to that Diocese." 1

Haddan and Stubbs were disposed to accept the existence, for a short time, of a See of Llanafan, "either coincident with Llanbadarn (the seat of the Episcopate being transferred for the time from Llanbadarn to Llanafan Fawr), or taken out of it." 2 If it ever existed it was soon merged in that of Llanbadarn, and then both in that of S. David's, probably not long after 720. It is, however, far more probable that Afan was a bishop without other diocese than his own Llan.

The Demetian Calendar (S.) gives S. Afan's Festival as November 16, but the Calendars in the Iolo MSS. and the Welsh Prymers of 1618 and 1633 give the 17th. Nicolas Roscarrock gives November 16. Browne Willis enters S. Afan, with festival on December 17, as patron, with SS. Sannan and Ievan or John, of Llantrisant, Anglesey.3 He has made a mistake in the month.

SS. AFARWY and AFROGWY

THESE Saints are given as children of Caw, lord of Cwm Cawlwyd, in two lists only of his children, contained in two MSS. belonging to Thomas Trueman. The names cannot be identified with any of those mentioned in other lists. One name is probably a corruption of the other.

1 Essay on the Welsh Saints, p. 209.

2 Councils, etc., i, p. 146. See also Basil Jones and Freeman in their History of S. David's, 1856, p. 266.

3 Survey of Bangor, 1721, p. 279.

▲ Iolo MSS., p. 142.

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