Rhos Gafallt

Legend

Rhos Gafallt, takes its name from the chief hound of the legendary king Arthur and is one of several locations in the area connected with the king and his hunting activities.  There is Maenarthur and Coed Maenarthur just to the west and nearby the now lost Talken-y-Gayallt, also Corngafallt to the east and Pumlumon Fawr to the north.  It is likely that the locations refer to Arthur’s great hunt for the boar Trwyth,  for though situated mostly in south Wales this location for the story maybe the result of it taking its final written form at the hands of monks working in south Wales, probably St. Davids, who simply employed familiar topography.  The story is certainly much older than the form which we now possess and it may well have been the case that it was once a myth widely held throughout Wales and the rest of Celtic Britain.  Indeed there are many similar locations that carry the names and alleged footprints of Arthur’s dog or horse which may interestingly actually be one and the same.  Cabal, Arthur ’dog’, may not have been a dog at all, this could simply be a mistake in the transmission of the tale for in Latin -  the language in which the monks recorded the tale - ‘caballus’ means horse.  So in fact Cabal may not be a name at all, rather a noun meaning ‘horse’.  Other places bearing the name of Arthur’s hunting dog or horse include those mentioned above but also the two locations called Carn March Arthur one near Llanferres in Denbighshire (SJ 203626) and the other, as mentioned previously, near Llyn Barfog above Aberdovey (SN 65059816).  Beyond Wales there is also the stone in St Columb, Cornwall (SW913637), located near to the prehistoric enclosure of Arthur's Hunting Lodge, which apparently bears the imprints of the hooves of Arthur's horse and is connected with further legends of him hunting in the area. 

All of this topographic folklore ties in with what we know from old texts and orally transmitted folktales to cement Arthur’s role in the oldest myths as an archetypal hunter.  In Celtic Britain Arthur was often said to be the leader of the supernatural phenomenon known to folklorists as the Wild Hunt.  Along with Gwyn ap Nudd (also a companion of Arthur in Culhwch and Olwen) Arthur is the most common leader of this spectral hunt in western Britain and as late as the early twentieth century many would still swear to have heard the terrible passing of the hunters.  The Cwn Annwn as they are known in Wales are in fact widespread across the UK and indeed the whole of Europe and are said to be variously white with red ears or ‘black, wide-eyed and loathsome’,  as in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 1127 AD.  In North Devon they are called the Yeth (heath) Hounds, on Dartmoor the Whist Hounds and in Cornwall Dando’s Dogs after a local huntsman.  Often the hunters are heard rather than seen, racing overhead during a storm and in the North of England they are known as the Gabriel Hounds or Gabble Retchets.  Across Europe the tales of them strangely agree: the huntsmen usually come on black horses with black hounds and ride through the sky, heaths and woods at terrifying speed often pursuing lonely travellers or the souls of the dead.  When close by clamour strangely dims, being louder farther off and the cries migrating geese, similar to baying hounds, have been proposed as one explanation.  They would ride out at midnight, usually in midwinter, to hunt the souls of the dead (or in the case of the Fairies from the Breton lai ‘Sir Orfeo’ at noontide and to claim the living as well).  Walter Map, writing in the twelfth century describes ’Nocturnal Companies’ of hunters which he calls ’the Household of Herlethingus’  led by an another ancient British king, this time King Herla.  He states they were riding through the Welsh Marches when they swept up into the air and disappeared.  A Norman Monk Walkelin, writing in 1092, states that he saw a warlike host ‘in which no colour was visible, but only blackness and fiery flames...many persons were seen alive who were known to have died’.  Other than Herla, it was often another dead king who was seen to lead the hunters.  In France and Germany often it was Charlemagne, in Denmark King Valdemar, in Spain El Cid.  Yet along with kings, gods too may lead the hunt as with the Saxons of southeast England and Germany who saw their god Woden and the Norse who saw Odin and the Valkyries leading the slain to Valhalla.  Such associations probably led many Christians to believe it was the Devil himself, with his demons and witches that they feared as he hurtled overhead.

In Wales, Scotland, western England and much of France it was King Arthur however who led the spectral hunt.  In France it has been known as ‘la Chasse Artu’ since at least the thirteenth century, in Cornwall he was said to sweep through the skies above Castle-an-Dinas and at Cadbury Castle in Somerset he leads a ghostly precession of horsemen along ‘Arthur’s Hunting Causeway’ on midwinter night.  It could be that the pursuit of the monsterous Boar Twrch Trwyth in Culhwch and Olwen is actually a highly embellished retelling of an archetypal Wild Hunt myth.  Rhos Gafallt, it seems, may be a relic of such tales.

The heath land of Rhos Gaffalt in the upper Ystwyth Valley at the boundary of Coed Bwlchgwallter.

To Contact Chris:

E-bost: legendarylandmarks@hotmail.co.uk

Date & TIME: 22/7/07 - 26/8/07

VENUE (LOCATION): The Ystwyth Gorge in the Hafod Estate near Pontrhydygroes.

ADMISSION: Free

ACCESS: At any reasonable time, access is via an uneven woodland footpath and therefore unsuitable for disabled visitors.

DIRECTIONS:  The artwork can be found at the Ystwyth gorge on the Hafod estate.  The Hafod is located twelve miles south east of Aberystwyth at SN768736.

PARKING: Parking is available in a small car park off the B4574 between Pontrhydygroes and Cwmystwyth.

For Further Details Contact Chris here.

The Artwork:

The work references the local legend of King Arthur hunting in the area, nearby Rhos Gafallt being named after his faithful hunting hound.  It takes the form of a suspended sculpture in the form of a leaping dog composed of a wire mesh frame and covered over with a combination of dark fur effect cloth and organic material (ie, leaves, moss, grass etc.) to give it a wild and slightly otherworldly texture.  The piece is suspended over the Ystwyth gorge in order to suggest the hound sweeping through the air, accompanying the spectral wild hunt through the skies referencing the legend of Arthur as the leader of the ghostly Wild Hunt.

Photographs: