THE WOMB OF CERIDWEN
Michael Howard
Last year Julia Murphy of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Wales, Lampeter published her theory that the Pentre Ifan cromlech or burial chamber was not in fact used as a burial place by the Neolithic farmers who are believed to have built it (Murphy 1999). She based her theory partly on the extant folk beliefs about the monument and the literary descriptions of it from the early 17th century to the end of the 20th century. This article proposes that in her description of the local beliefs surrounding Pentre Ifan Murphy has overlooked a corpus of, mainly contemporary, folklore relating to the site and its environs. This corpus would seem to further confirm her suspicions about the ritual use of Pentre Ifan and possibly other similar sites elsewhere. It provides a further explanation for their use and, definitely in the case of Pentre Ifan, places such megalithic sites firmly within the context of a local sacred landscape.
Pentre Ifan is situated in the lanes off the main road from Cardigan to Fishguard near the seaside village of Newport. It stands in an imposing position on a hillside overlooking a wooded valley and, on a clear day, is in sight of Carn Ingli (‘the hill of the angels’) and the sea in the distance. It is situated on the edge of the Preseli hills and is in the modern Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. It is an area that has been described as one of the most important prehistoric landscapes in the British Isles. Over the years the site has attracted more than its fair share of folklore and legends. For instance in the 19th century a local landowner suddenly became very wealthy. After he died his manservant revealed that a ghost had showed his master the location of a buried treasure. This treasure was a golden idol. When the man died his estate was valued at over £50,000, which was a considerable amount of money in those days. Locals said that the ‘idol’ was the statue of a Celtic Christian saint, but others said it was the image of a pre-Christian god dug up at Pentre Ifan.
Traditionally the cromlech as always the haunt of the Tlwyth Teg or Welsh faery folk. In the 18th century people frequently saw them dancing around the stones. They took the form of small figures dressed in red coats and pointed caps. Psychic observations at the site in recent years suggest the Little People are still very much in occupation today. A few years ago, one Hallowe’en, the writer went in search of an alleged magical spring behind the Iron Age hill fort of Castell Henllys a few miles from the cromlech. Having failed to find it, he asked directions from an old Welsh man who lived in a cottage by a ford and still carved wooden love spoons for the tourist trade. The writer asked him about the location of the spring and received a suspicious look in answer. He shook his head and denied all knowledge of it.
The writer told the old man that he had just come down from Pentre Ifan. With a glint in his eye, the old-timer asked: " Did you see any old People up there?" Playing the game, the writer replied: "No, but I did see the Good People (faeries)". The old man laughed and he promptly took the writer to see the ‘missing’ spring. In fact it was just up the lane hidden in a hedge. It seemed he was its human ‘guardian’ and initially had thought I was an inspector from the water company checking licences for drawing domestic water from natural springs. He realised that a water inspector probably would not believe in faeries!
In her essay Murphy points out that towards the end of the 20th century official perceptions of megalithic monuments changed. Archaeologists no longer saw them in isolation, but as an integral part of a larger ritual landscape. She quotes Christopher Tilley who pointed out that as you approach Pentre Ifan, that is using the modern footpath from the lay-by on the lane, Carn Ingli in the distance is neatly framed by the stones. Of course, such a view may not have been available to our ancestors. In a televised item on the site broadcast last year a member of the Dyfed Archaeological Trust even suggested that the sloping angle of the capstone mirrored the slopes of Carn Ingli as viewed from the site. Again, this would not have been apparent when the stones were covered in a mound of earth as they were in ancient times.
Tilley came to the conclusion that the primary purpose of megalithic sites was as ‘central territorial markers’. This suggests that the megalithic builders had the same ideas about land as we do in our capitalist consumer society. Murphy quotes Tilley as describing these ‘markers’ as ‘symbolic reference and ritually important ceremonial meeting points on paths of movement’. The last three words hint at a link to ley lines, linear alignments, spirit paths and ghost roads etc, but we don’t want to go there in this article.
While their ideas are interesting and thought provoking, in seeking to find an alternative purpose and meaning for Pentre Ifan both Tilley and Murphy are in danger of creating a whole new framework of speculation. Murphy concludes her essay by saying that none of the archaeological evidence from the site supports funerary or burial practices in the ancient past. In her explanation of the folklore surrounding the site she seems unaware that Pentre Ifan exists within an enchanted and magical landscape. Indeed it is located in an area of West Wales which is a ‘hot spot’ of psychic activity, legend and myth, both ancient and modern.
At least one folk tradition still extant in the area, and not mentioned by Murphy, seems to support her premise that Pentre Ifan may not have been used for burials but had other ritual uses which survived into the Iron Age. In local folklore the cromlech is called ‘the womb of Ceridwen’. It is said that in ancient times the druids had a ‘college’ (sic) in the woods below the site and used Pentre Ifan for initiations. Allegedly, the neophyte had to spend a nocturnal vigil inside the burial chamber. They were given a special potion, probably made form narcotic plants, and left to experience contact with the Otherworld and its inhabitants. The recent discovery of ritual cups used to hold narcotic beverages at Stonehenge and Callanish suggests this concept may not be too far-fetched and possibly was a practice inherited by the druids from the aboriginal inhabitants of these islands. The Welsh legend of Ceridwen, her cauldron and the potion that changed Gwion bach into a bard has been seen as a mythical representation of initiation into the Mysteries.
Obviously it is difficult to know how old this folk tradition is, but it originated from local Welsh people whose families have lived in the area for generations. Some of these families have a reputation for possessing psychic powers and practising hereditary witchcraft. The ideas about Pentre Ifan pre-date the influx of hippies into the area in the 1970s and New Agers in the 1980s. These social groups have projected their own fantasies and fakelore on to the pre-existing ritual and magical landscape. Unfortunately the New Age re-interpretation of ancient sites in the area is an ongoing process and one that is reflected in other parts of the British Isles.
As mentioned before, Pentre Ifan is in the middle of an important prehistoric and historical landscape. Carn Ingli, which overshadows Pentre Ifan, takes its Anglicised name from the legend that the Irish saint Brynach spent many years living on its summit as a hermit. During this period he experienced visions of angelic beings. Geophysically the hill is rather strange, as it is one of those odd places where the Earth’s magnetic field is reversed. This causes compasses and electronic equipment to go haywire. Sightings of goblins (sic), a phantom horseman and a Ladi Wen or ‘White Lady’ have all been reported from the hill in recent years. The area around about is also the haunt of the mysterious ‘black dogs’, large ‘black cats’ and even a lion. The writer has seen crop circles in nearby fields and ‘earthlights’ have been reported from the village of Nevern. It is interesting how interpretations of folklore and psychic happenings change. The local newspaper reported these lights as UFOs, but older people in the village said they knew about them as children. Then they were called ‘corpse candles’ and were an omen of death. In the past Nevern and the nearby Gwaun valley were also famous for their cunning men and wise women called ‘the knowing ones’. They were famed for their herbal knowledge, healing powers, and ability to charm animals. Reportedly they could also summon spirits and hex those who crossed them. Several families in the area today are still reputed to be ‘knowing ones’, but little can be discovered about them by outsiders. (John 1998. Also see the article ‘Born in the Old Way’ in TC 97)
Stories are also still told in the Newport area about the so-called Golden idol of Trewern, an ancient manor house about a mile from Pentre Ifan. In the 18th century it was owned by the wealthy Warren family and had the reputation of being badly haunted by a poltergeist and a Ladi Wen. Several attempts were made to exorcise the house without any success. In 1829 the last of the Warrens died and the house lay empty for many years because of its reputation. It was eventually rented to a local Baptist minister called David George. The cleric was not a wealthy man so neighbours were surprised when he started to spend large amounts of money on renovating the house, buying farm animals, hiring retainers and stocking the larder with the finest food and wine.
When the Rev. George died in 1875 an old servant revealed that his master had been told by one of the resident ghosts about ‘an image of gold’ hidden in one of the walls. When it was searched a ‘pagan idol’ was found and the servants were sworn to secrecy. The minister used to have pieces smelted off this image and sold them in London to finance his lifestyle. The ‘idol’ was said to have been druidic in origin and had been discovered by a previous owner near Pentre Ifan. It was blamed for the hauntings and, strange to relate, after the last bit of it was sold off the ghostly happenings ceased.
It is a fault that some folklorists regard folklore ‘the lore of the people’ as merely stories on the level of urban myths. Some folk stories do, of course, come into that category, but perhaps we should view others as a local oral record of actual events or psychic happenings. For instance, in her denial that Pentre Ifan has anything to do with the disposal of the ancient death, Murphy criticises archaeologists for the ease in which they over the years described Pentre Ifan as a tomb. In her words, they have too readily associated the monument with ‘spooky feelings of death and awe’. She claims this is just as far-fetched as ‘dreaming [sic] of fairies at the site’. This is an interesting observation but Pentre Ifan is not ‘spooky’ because archaeologists claim it is a burial ground. In this unique part of West Wales the veil between the worlds seems almost permanently thin. Pentre Ifan certainly changes its atmosphere after dark and this can be felt quite tangible. After darkness falls it is not a place for the fainthearted. It can even be disturbing for the experienced. A friend who visited the site at midnight in a thunderstorm was seriously spooked. Although he was used to communicating with Otherworld entities he felt the atmosphere was intimidating. Another friend, an experienced witch used to working outdoors at ancient sites at night, visited Pentre Ifan at Hallowe’en. She reported that the presences at the site were "overwhelming" and quite scary. Perhaps Murphy should visit the site at full moon, at Hallows or during a winter storm. Possibly even she might experience its atmosphere which has nothing to do with the views of archaeologists.
Presumably Murphy is a materialist who believes that faeries belong in the pages of children’s books and not at ancient sites. However, years of long experience, have convinced the writer that you cannot just investigate these ancient sites from a physical or materialistic approach. That only gives half the story, albeit an important half. What exists beyond the physical senses the Unseen and what is recorded in myth and folklore also has to be considered so the whole picture can be seen. At a physical level the sacred landscape may be able to give up some of its secrets. However there are many more mysteries hidden in the stones and in the beliefs of the people who live in that landscape. It is these beliefs, and the entities conjured into form by them, which transform a physical landscape into a magical or enchanted one. The physical remains we can see and touch with our ordinary senses may indeed be physical markers, but they are only the tip of a psychic iceberg. In reality they do not belong entirely to Middle Earth, but to that mysterious Other realm. They mark those special places that are boundaries where the Other intersects with the material plane. It is the Other which, paradoxically, exists both within and outside the physical matter of the land.
Locally Pentre Ifan still retains an aura of ‘specialness’ among the local people, even if they may not be too sure why nowadays. This was graphically illustrated a few years ago in a documentary on Welsh television in the form of a video diary. It featured a local farmer who had been in dispute with the then Preseli-Pembrokeshire council about a matter of planning permission. This is a sensitive problem in a National Park and letters had flowed to and fro without resolving the problem. Finally, and no doubt prompted by the television interest, the council’s planning officer agreed to meet the farmer face-to-face to thrash out the matter. The farmer agreed, providing the meeting place was neutral ground of his choosing. The place he picked of course was Pentre Ifan.
In recent years archaeologists have began to accept what a lot of us knew a long time ago that not all prehistoric burial chambers were used exclusively for burials. Even when skeletal remains were deposited in burial mounds they were often regularly removed for post-mortem rituals. If this is now accepted as a fact then the folkloric concept of Pentre Ifan as an ancient place of initiation into the Otherworldly mysteries may be a matter of historical reality and not just a fanciful legend told around the fireside on winter nights.
Biographical note: Michael Howard is the author of a new book on Earth Mysteries and ancient sites called The Sacred Earth Guide, to be published by Capall Bann shortly.
Bibliography and references:
‘Archaeology as Folklore; the literary construction of the megalith Pentre Ifan in West Wales’ by Julia Murphy in Archaeology and Folklore edited by A.Gezin-Schwartz and C.F. Hortoff (Routledge 1999),
A Phenomenology of Landscape C.Tilley (1998),
The Ancient Stones of Wales Chris Barber and John Godfrey Williams (Blavenge Books 1989)
Wales: An Archaeological Guide Christopher Houlder (Faber and Faber 1974)
Beneath the Mountain: Tales and Traditions of Newport and Nevern Brian John (Greencroft Books 1998),
Pentre Ifan Burial Chamber Professor W.F. Emes (Department of the Environment and HMSO 1975).
