Mythical Creatures: Afanc

You may have seen on Twitter and Instagram that there’s an art challenge every Monday called Animal Alphabets. It’s a challenge going through the alphabet with different themes and a creature beginning with each letter. If you’d like to take a look at the type of thing I mean, you can find it here: AnimalAlphabets The last round, which was the first one I joined in, was all on birds. The current round has the theme of Mythical Creatures and, as I love mythology, I thought I’d post here about each creature. 



The first one was A for Afanc, which I was really excited about because the Afanc is a Welsh creature. There is variation in the name, though. In the tale Peredur, Son of Efrawg, which is one of The Three Romances usually included with The Mabinogion, it is called an Addanc.

I knew what it was as I’ve read a lot of Welsh myth and folklore, but none of the tales tell you what it looks like. I’d been wondering about an Afanc’s appearance for a long time, since I first read The Mabinogion, but never really come up with a solution. The general description of this creature is that it looks like a beaver, a crocodile or a dwarf and is very fierce. You wouldn’t want to meet one! But they can be tamed by maidens. The thought of coming up with a picture of an Afanc put dread into me, but suddenly I had a vision of what it could look like: a sort of beaver/crocodile cross in brown and green looking very angry. Here is my painting:

In folklore, there are quite a few stories of the Afanc. They live in rivers or lakes and cause inundations when angry. All tales are more or less the same, with some variation. One tells of Hu Gadarn who pulled an Afanc out of Llyn Llion (a lake) using two oxen to drag the creature out in order to prevent an inundation.

Another tells of one in Llyn yr Afanc (Lake of the Afanc) in the River Conwy. A maiden lured the Afanc out of the water and while he slept on her lap, men bound him in chains. When he woke, he was furious (quite understandably I think), threw the men off and headed back into the lake. They sent for two oxen, attached the chain to them, and dragged the Afanc out, taking him to Llyn Cwm Ffynnon Las (Lake of the Blue Well Valley) where they left him. They obviously weren’t too bothered about that lake flooding!

There is even a tale of King Arthur pulling an Afanc out of Llyn Barfog with his warhorse.

In the tale of Peredur, who was one of King Arthur’s men, Peredur went on a long journey during which, he came to the court of the Sons of the King of Suffering. He saw three horses carrying a man each in their saddles, all dead. A woman took them off the horses and bathed them in turn in a tub of warm water, applying ointment to their bodies and all three men came back to life. Peredur asked one of the men why this happened and the man replied that every day, they were killed by an Addanc in a cave and came back to be revived to go through the same thing again and again.

The following morning, Peredur asked to go with the men to the cave, but they wouldn’t allow it, saying that if he was killed, there would be no one to bring him back to life. However, Peredur followed them. On the way, he came across a woman sitting on a mound.

‘I know where you are going,’ she said. ‘You go to the cave to fight the Addanc and he will kill you, not with his strength, but with his guile. There is a stone pillar in the entrance of the cave and he hides behind it so that he can see everyone who enters the cave, but they can’t see him. He kills everyone with his poisoned spear. If you promise to love me, I will give you a stone so that you can see him, but he won’t see you.’

Peredur said he did love the woman, she placed the stone in his hand and disappeared. Carrying on his way, Peredur came to the cave, took the stone in his left hand, making him invisible, and his spear in his right hand. Entering the cave, he saw the Addanc, killed him with his spear and cut his head off. As he left, he was met by the three men, who told him that there was a prophecy about him, saying he would kill the monster. They offered him any of their sisters for a wife and half their kingdom, but Peredur refused the offer and carried on his journey.

So, there is a brief summary of the tales of Afancs. I’m hoping to give you a brief overview of other mythical creatures as we go along. I’m also going to tell you more stories from The Mabinogion and the characters within it. I hope you’ll join me and enjoy what I have to tell.

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Folklore from Myths & Legends of Wales retold by Tony Roberts

Tale from Peredur, Son of Efrawg from The Mabinogion translated by Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones