Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/73

 Rh not galloped round the flood in the way he did, the well would have been sure to inundate the whole district and drown all. Hence the lake was called the Lake of Owen's Flag ('Llyn Llech Owen').

"I have always felt interested in this story, as it resembled that about the formation of Lough Neagh, etc.; and, happening to meet the Rev. D. Harwood Hughes, B.A., the Vicar of Gors Las (St. Lleian's), last August (1892), I asked him to tell me the legend as he had heard it in his parish. He said that he had been told it, but in a form different from mine, where the 'Owen' was said to have been Owen Glyndwr. This is the substance of the legend as he had heard it:—Owen Glyndwr, when once passing through these parts, arrived here of an evening. He came across a well, and, having watered his horse, placed a stone over it in order to find it again next morning. He then went to lodge for the night at Dyllgoed Farm, close by. In the morning, before proceeding on his journey, he took his horse to the well to give him water, but found to his surprise that the well had become a lake."

Mr. Fisher goes on to mention the later history of the lake: how, some eighty years ago, its banks were the resort on Sunday afternoons of the young people of the neighbourhood, and how a Baptist preacher put an end to their amusements and various kinds of games by preaching at them. However, the lake-side appears to be still a favourite spot for picnics and Sunday-school gatherings.

Mr. Fisher was quite right in appending to his own version that of his friend; but, from the point of view of folk-lore, I must confess that I can make nothing of the latter: it differs from the genuine one as much as chalk does from cheese. It would be naturally gratifying to the pride of local topography to be able to connect with the pool the name of the greatest Owen known to Welsh history; but it is worthy of note that the highly respectable attempt to rationalise the legend wholly fails, as it does not