To welcome the new year we thought we would share this short piece on a Welsh legend of the Spirit Of Van Pool.
Spirit Of Van Pool.
Nestled away in the mountains of Carmarthenshire is a lake called Vans Pool and here you can find a very interesting legend. For the first few hours of New Years Day it is said that a golden boat appears carrying a beautiful lady dressed in white with long golden hair. Wearing a white dress with a golden oar in her hand she moves across the waters of Van Pool.
Some say this lady is a fairy depending on who you ask but meetings with fairies in Wales can be found to go back to at least 1181 with this particular legend dating back as far as the 13th century.
With this particular legend the fairy lady entrances a young man and with this they are married. There is one condition to this marriage and if broken the relationship is off. Now its not clear if the man is led to break the condition but either way the condition is broken and the fairy lady vanishes.
You will find many a legend where ladies come from lakes and in many Celtic understandings it is seen that lakes and such bodies of water provide a door way to the other worlds.
John Williams
I wasn’t aware of this legend but it is an interesting one.