‘You looking at my bird?’

Glamorgan Star news 21/12/2022

3 minutes read

By Graham Loveluck-Edwards

In Welsh folklore, there is no shortage of people able to morph into other forms and I have discovered a brace of such stories from Glamorgan.

One rather charming genre is romantic stories about swans who can transform into beautiful maidens. Here are two lovely examples, though there are plenty more where they came from.

As many readers may know, the village of Candleston used to lie between Merthyr Mawr and Tythegston, but these days has been lost to the sand dunes. But this story is set when it was a thriving community which helps us date it to around the 14th Century.

A Candleston innkeeper’s wife was known to keep a string of lovers behind her husband’s back. A wizard, seeking to punish her for her propensities, transformed her into a swan. Despite her indiscretions, the innkeeper loved his wife dearly and begged the wizard to turn her back. He refused, saying that she would turn back into human form in a year, by which time she would have learned the value of monogamy.

The innkeeper tied a blue ribbon to one of her wings, so that when she was swimming with the other swans in the estuary of the Ogmore river, he would know his beloved wife from the others. But one day, she reverted to her philandering ways and made advances on a male swan, whose partner was not best pleased. In the tussle that ensued between the two rivals, the ribbon was lost.

When the flock flew south for the winter, the innkeeper watched them departing, unable to spot his wife amongst them to bid her farewell. He never found out where she had flown to, or whether she turned back to her previous human form. They were never united again.

But if the innkeeper had come to hear of another local tale, then his story might have had a different ending. This might be total coincidence, but I think I might know where his wife got to. Barry Island. Typical!

This was back in the 16th Century, when the island was still physically detached from the mainland, before it had houses or fun fairs, and was simply farmland. While working in a field above Whitmore Bay, a young man saw a beautiful swan alighting among the rocks. There she laid aside her feathers and wings, turned herself into a beautiful maiden and bathed in the waters. He snuck to the water’s edge, seized her swan garments, and hid them.

When eventually she rose from her bathe, she spied the farmer. Unable to recast herself as a swan, she asked him if he knew where her garments were. He claimed ignorance.

They started chatting, got to know each other, fell in love, and got married. For three years all was well. Then one day, the farmer accidentally left open the oak chest where he had hidden her wings. Spotting them, she was enraged at the deception.

The farmer returned home from work that day to see his beautiful swan-like wife, her newly found wings outstretched. She turned and slowly flew into the sunset to re-join her flock. Her voice could be heard plaintively crying, ‘Farewell.’ The farmer so bitterly lamented his loss that he pinned away and within a few months had died of a broken heart.

These things tend not to end well.

If you enjoy my regular column in the Glamorgan Star about our rich and diverse local history, legends, and folklore you might be interested to know that I have compiled them all (and many more) into a second book on the subject which was newly released in September this year. It is called ‘More legends and folklore from Barry, Bridgend and the Vale’. It retails for £12.99 and is available from Amazon, all good book shops or from my own website at a discounted price at www.grahamloveluckedwards.com. It would make a great present for anyone interested in Glamorgan’s colourful past.