Criccieth – The Mermaid

Description

Criccieth - The Mermaid

Once upon a time, a short distance along the coast from Criccieth, lived a young man named Gruffydd, He was known as “Guto Tyddyn Morlais” and was not a rich man. His parents had died and he was very lonely. He only owned two small fields where he grew vegetables, kept chickens a pig and two cows. One field ran down to the sea where he stored his rowing boat. Every morning he would tend his net and lobster pots.

One morning he saw a young girl sitting on a rock and rowed over to her and found to his surprise that she was a mermaid. She told him that at full moon when the tide was very low she came out of the sea to have a look at the people on the land. At the next full moon Guto went out again and every very low tide looked forward to visiting her. They fell in love and after a long courtship got married. Soon afterwards a son was born and eventually the family grew to ten children, all boys. There was not enough land to keep them so they became sailors on the little ships bringing limestone and coal for the kiln and grain for the mill at Criccieth. When a ship approached with one of her sons, the seagulls would fly ahead to “Tyddyn Morlais” to let Morwen, for that was her name, know and she would swim out to welcome him. Mermaids live a very long life and eventually Guto and all the sons died and now it was Morwen who was lonely and so she decided to go and live back in the sea. Every low tide she would come and sit on the rock and watch the people of Criccieth go about their business. On dark, stormy nights when ships could be wrecked on the castle rock she would swim out and warn them that they were in danger.