Twm Shon Catti

Twm Shon Catti is the Welsh Robin Hood. He was a gay adventurer who robbed the rich, to give to the poor. His home is said to have been in a cave, which is still visible today near the source of the river Towy in the county of Carmarthen. West and mid-Wales were the scenes of his wildest escapades. There are many tales told about him, but we cannot say which are true. This we do know, Twm was born about the year 1530, and he was the son of a certain Catti or Catherine. When he was a young man he lived a very wild life, but after he had married a rich lady, he lived in a fine old house near Tregaron, and became a landowner of great importance. These are the amusing stories of some of his adventures; One day Twm met a wicked highwayman. Twm was a highwayman himself, and he wanted to outwit the other. It was a cold wintry day, Twm rode a weary old horse and his saddlebags were filled with a load of seashells. He was dressed as a poor farmer, no one would have recognised him as Twm Shon Catti the highwayman. Twm rode passed a knoll where he knew the other to be waiting in ambush. As he came abreast of the knoll, the highwayman leapt out. ”Your money or your life!” he demanded. Twm pretended to be terrified. “Have mercy!” he begged, but the highwayman only repeated his threat.”Alas and alack” said Twm “that this should befall me. But my life is of greater worth than this”. He loosened his saddlebags and threw them over the hedge. “Curse you! “ cried the highwayman, as he scrambled through the thicket after them, “Curse you. Can you not be more polite?” Twm watched him stoop for the saddlebags on the other side of the hedge. In a trice Twm leaped from his weary old horse, and was soon astride the fine steed of the highwayman. “Now my beauty” he coaxed ”gallop your fastest.” The highwayman saw too late what and happened. He stamped and cursed, but far away in the next valley Twm was praising his new horse, and plundering the well-filled saddlebags. Twm went to a fair in Llandovery, he stood near a stall where a woman was selling Welsh flannel. Twm watched her as she gossiped busily with a customer. Slyly he fastened the end of the roll of cloth to his coat and hurriedly made his way through the crowd. Later in the day Twm passed the woman’s stall again, she was gossiping more busily now telling people how she had lost a roll of cloth. Twm listened and pretended he was sorry. “Oho!” he said “In future you must do what I do. Fasten your cloth to your coat, then it cannot be stolen. Another well-known story about Twm is the one that tells how he stole a Bull and then sold it back to the owner. Having stolen the Bull, he took it to market to sell it, disguising the animal by fastening a long bushy artificial tail to it’s real tail. So clever was Twm that he persuaded the owner to buy it from him at a goodly price. George Borrow, a traveller who loved the stories of Wales, wrote a book called Wild Wales. He tells an amusing tale of Twm’s adventures in a shop in Llandovery. “I need to buy a porridge pot”, Twm declared in aloud voice when he entered the shop. The ironmonger brought several large pans and cauldrons so that Twm might choose among them. “I see a hole in this one” Twm said, holding one up to the light. “I cannot see a hole,” said the shopkeeper. “Come to the doorway,” said Twm “now put your head closer and you will see it”. Twm stepped forward and brought the pan down hard on the ironmonger’s head. Twm then gathered up the pots and pans, and ran past the blindfolded and bewildered man. On the roadway he turned and said “Friend, had there been no hole in it, you would not have got your head inside it!” Twm is said to have married the heiress of Ystrad Ffin. The facts of his life do not bear out this tale, but it is a pretty one. Twm saved Rhinedd Price from the hands of a highwayman. “How can I repay you for your kind deed?” cried the Lady. “By marrying me” said Twm with a smile. “That I cannot do” said Rhinedd sorrowfully. She asked Twm to her beautiful home, to dine with her and her elderly husband. Twm enjoyed himself, and in taking his leave whispered to Rhinedd: “I will marry you when your husband dies”. Rhinedd smiled and gave her consent. A few years later Esquire Price died, Twm heard of this and rode fast and furiously to the house at Ystrad Ffin for the fulfilment of the promise. At first Rhinedd refused to see Twm, but then she remembered her promise and loved Twm, but she did not wish to marry him. Twm sent the maidservant into the house to beg for one last meeting. “My mistress will be at her window tomorrow night, she will see you there” said the maid. At the appointed hour Twm came to the window, and the Lady stretched forth her hand in greeting. Twm held her hand fast and said “Rhinedd my fairest! I swear by all that is holy that I will cut off your hand with my sword if you do not marry me”. “You jest Twm” cried Rhinedd “By faith, never was I more serious” exclaimed Twm “as proof of my intention, feel you the edge of my sword “. when he drew the cold steel across Rhinedd’s arm the lady yielded. Twm and Rhinedd were married in the little church at Ystrad Ffin. Twm became a great landowner and a justice of the peace. When he died , he was a wealthy Squire, much respected

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