Did the Clergyman Meet an Alien ET?

The sleepy village of Bodfari in North Wales

Was this an Alien abduction attempt?

Here is a strange tale indeed. Buried in the memoirs of a clergyman is a tale of his childhood and a meeting with (and a near abduction by), some "strange beings". One would assume that being a Clergyman, he is likely to be truthful in what he wrote. He does not claim to know what these "beings" were, other than the fact that they were terrifying and plainly not human. The incident is said to have taken place in the 1700s, so the thought that they could have possibly been Aliens from another planet would probably not have occurred to him, but the similarities between this story and modern day tales of UFOs and "Alien sightings" is plain to see.

The Clergyman in question is the Rev. Dr. Edward Williams. He was born in 1750, barely three miles away from where I live (North Wales in the UK), at a place called Glan Clwyd, Bodfari, and died in 1813.

The Village Church, Bodfari

Dr. Williams was well known and liked in the area, and later on in his life, he published his autobiography. The story it told of his life was unremarkable, and very much as you would expect a Country Clergyman's life to be.

However, amongst his childhood reminiscences is a tale so strange that it begs to be explained in rational terms. On the face of it, there doesn't seem to be a rational explanation for it. Modern eyes reading the story might assume that this was a UFO related encounter with extraterrestrial aliens. Back then they were perhaps perceived as Welsh Pixies - "Y Tylwyth Teg" (The Fair Folk), but whatever the truth of the matter, it nevertheless provides food for thought.

An early Illustration of "Y Tylwyth Teg" (The Fair Folk) - Welsh Pixies

The Strange Beings - ET?

The story is best told in his own words, so here it is, as he wrote it.

"On a fine summer day (about midsummer) between the hours of twelve at noon and one, my eldest sister and myself, our next neighbours children Barbera and Ann Evans, both older than myself, were in a field called Cae Caled near their house (Llanelwyd), all innocently engaged at play by a hedge under a tree and not far from the stile next to that house, when one of us observed on the middle of the field a company of - what shall I call them? - Beings, neither men nor women nor children dancing with great briskness.

They were in full view less than a hundred yards from us, consisting of about seven or eight couples: we could not well reckon them, owing to the briskness of their motions and the consternation with which we were struck at a sight so unusual.

They were clothed in red, dress not unlike a military uniform, without hats, but their heads tied with handkerchiefs of a reddish colour, sprigged or spotted with yellow, all uniform in this as in habit, all tied behind with the corners hanging down their backs, and white handkerchiefs in their hands held loose by the corners.

They appeared of a size somewhat less than our own, but more like dwarfs than children. On first discovery we began, with no small dread, to question one another as to what they could be, as there were no soldiers in the country, nor was it time for May dancers, and as they differed much from all the human beings we had ever seen.

Thus alarmed we dropped our play, left our station and made for the stile. Still keeping our eyes upon them we observed one of their company starting from the rest and making towards us with a running pace. I being the youngest was last at the stile, and though struck with an inexpressible panic, saw the grim elf just at my heels, having a full and clear, though terrific view of him, with his ancient, swarthy and grim complexion.

I screamed out exceedingly; my sister also and our companions set up a roar, and the former dragged me with violence over the stile on which at the instant I was disengaged from it, this warlike Liliputian leaned and stretched himself after me but came not over".

The Investigation

Following their lucky escape, the terrified children ran all the way back to the house, and gabbled out the story to their concerned parents. A small task force consisting of several men was assembled and sent out to investigate. They arrived en-masse at Cae Caled field, but found nothing. The field was empty. Whoever or whatever had been there was gone.

The Mysterious Lost Land of Llys Helig

Info  PR: ?  I: ?  L: ?  LD: ?  I: ? Rank: ?  Age: ?  I: ?  whois source Robo: ? Sitemap: ?  Rank: ?  Price: ? Links: 12|3 Density

?

Lost Kingdom of Llys Helig

There is a local legend in North Wales about a lost kingdom - or more precisely a principality that once occupied much of north Wales, but no longer exists. The legend tells this story:

Once, way back in the sixth century, there was a Prince named "Helig Ap Glannwg" (Helig son of Glannwg). His son became famous for founding many churches in the North Wales region. Prince Helig owned large tracts of land lying between the Menai Strait, off the north coast of Gwynedd and the Great Ormes Head, near Llandudno in North Wales. His palace was known as Llys Helig (Court of Helig)

Was this once the site of the Fabled Llys Helig?

Prince Helig's daughter was in love with a young man. Unfortunately, he was not a nobleman, and as a commoner had no right to marry her. The girl had a number of other suitors, but  this young man was the only one she was interested in. Prince Helig, realizing that his daughter would never be happy with anyone else, took the young man to one side and told him that if he were to leave and return with a golden torque (the symbol of a nobleman) around his neck, then he would allow him to marry his daughter.

The young man went off to seek his fortune. However, he was under pressure. He realized that the longer he was gone, the more likely it was that the girl would find someone else to marry, so he reasoned that he needed to acquire his golden torque as soon as possible.


Before very long, the young man came across a nobleman riding through the forest. At this juncture, the legend becomes a bit vague, and it is unclear whether the Nobleman was a rival suitor and a duel followed, or whether the young man saw an easy chance to acquire a torque by force. In any case, the result was the same. The nobleman lay dead and the young man rode back to Helig wearing golden torque, to claim his bride.

 The Mark of a Nobleman - A Golden Torque

Everything went well. Prince Helig accepted the young man as a nobleman, agreed to the marriage and a date was fixed. But when the young man confessed to Helig's daughter, about how he had managed to become the owner of a torque in such a short time, she insisted that he went back to get rid of the corpse, so that no one would suspect what he had done. He returned to the scene and began to bury the body beneath some shrubbery. According to the legend, as he dug, he could hear the ghostly sound of a Welsh voice saying  "Dial a Ddaw - Dial a Ddaw" (Revenge will come - revenge will come).

When the act was done, the young man returned to Helig's daughter and told her about the ghostly voice, she basically reasuured him, telling him it was all nonsense. They married and lived happily for many years. One night, decades later,they were holding a big celebration at Llys Helig, when the sea suddenly rolled in, submerging the palace and drowning almost all the inhabitants thereof. According to the legend, the only ones who escaped were a serving girl who gave the alarm when she saw the sea bursting into the basement of the palace, and her lover, the court fool.

The Lost Kingdom - Surely a Legend?

But are these stories just legends, or are they something that may have really happened long ago in the mists of time? What  proof is there - if any?

It is clear that forests once flourished along many parts of the coast of Wales which are now covered by sea . At low tide , the stumps of ancient trees are visible from the coast of Borth, in West Wales, to as far east as Splash Point in Rhyl, North Wales.

The remains of ancient submerged forests can be seen at low tide at Borth in West Wales

But of course, this story of a lost kingdom... it is a legend ... Isn't it?
Well ... The interesting thing about the legend of the drowned Kingdom of Llys Helig is that this is not the only lost kingdom, which had vanished by drowning off the coast of Wales. There are others, such as "Cantre'r Gwaelod (the Lowland Hundreds), which was described as a large region of fertile land lying between the island and Bardsay and  Ramsay Island beneath what is now Cardigan Bay, west Wales.

Cardigan bay once the land of Cantre'r Gwaelod?

A number of expeditions were created in the past to try to figure out the exact location (if any) of the legendary lost kingdom of Llys Helig. In 1864, The two Reverends Richard Parry and Charlton Hall drafted an article for the Liverpool Geological Society. In the company of a geologist and two local boatmen, they explored the shallows off the coast of Penmaenmawr, North Wales.

The report indicates that although the area was completely covered by the large areas of seaweed, it was obvious to them that beneath all the vegetation lay the remains of walls that ran in perfectly straight and regular lines. They took some rough measurements of what they thought were the walls and developed a plan for a building of at least 100 meters long - This, they concluded, might well have been the fabled Helig's Palace

One last interesting point concerns the Church of St. Michael, situated in the peaceful market town of Abergele on the north coast of Wales. St. Michael's church was built on the site of an even earlier church, which is said to date from pre-medieval times. Hidden away in the north wall of the cemetery is a very special tombstone.

The present tombstone is a substitute for the original which had become badly eroded. The legend written on the stone is recorded in both the Welsh and English languages, and says: "Here Lyeth in St. Michael's Churchyard, a man who had his dwelling three miles to the north". If you find a map and measure three miles north of the cemetary you will find that you are, in fact - two and a half miles out to sea!



Link: The Legend of the Welsh Werewolf