Roedd erthygl ddiweddar gan Paul Devereux yn 3rd Stone Magazine ar ffyrdd cyrff yn atgoffa rhywun am stori arall o A Geographical, Historical and Religious Account of the Perish of Aberystruth, gan Edmund Jones a argraffwyd yng nghymuned Fethodistaidd Trefeca, Sir Frycheiniog yn 1779. Mae’r stori yn ceisio esbonio presenoldeb dwy garreg fechan sydd yn sefyll mewn cae yn Twyn Allwys ger Gilwern a ddefnyddir i nodi hen ffin y plwyf a’r sir rhwng Sir Fynwy a Sir Frycheiniog. Mae hefyd yn sôn am y math o “ffyrdd cyrff” y bu Paul Deveraux yn eu hymchwilio.
“HAVING several times heard of an exceeding long Grave, called BETH Y GWR HIR, i.e. the Tall Man’s Grave and at last seeing it by the way side which descends from the Mountain into the Valley of Usk and goes into the Town of Abergavenny at a place called, yr Allwys; and enquiring about the person buried there; I had this account from several; That they were going with him from Blaene Gwent to be buried at Lanwenarth Church, where the Blaene Gwent people were buried before the Church at Aberystruth was built, and that that part of the Country was made a Parish, and called Aberystruth, and it growing late, and the weather very tempestuous, and having about two Miles more to go, and a Boat to pass the River Usk before they could reach the Church , they were discouraged from going any farther, the great weight of the Corps also, it may be, adding to their discouragement, they buried him there, laying the Corps from East to West after the manner of their Burying in the Churches, and Church-yards with two large Stones one at each end of the Grave, and the space between them admirably large, for the length of a Grave.
“SPEAKING to an Intelligent friend about it, he went and measured the length between the two Stones, and found it to be thirteen Feet and a half. Now on one hand we cannot suppose that these stones were placed too near the Corps, and on the other hand that it would be improper to set them far from it, and therefore not likely to be done, we may guess at the length of it. Now supposing the distance of the stones from the dead Body should be a Foot at each end, which is the utmost we can reasonably suppose. The length of the Body still must be about eleven Feet. He must have been a person of an extraordinary size, and certainly a Giant, and as tall as Goliath of Gath; and appearing in Goliath’s armour would have made such a figure as Goliath did, which terrified all Israel.”
“I conclude that the Man of whom I spake was a Man of a Gigantick size, in the Parish now called Aberystruth, the like of whom, it may be, was in no other part of Wales.”(1)
Mae hefyd yn ddiddorol i nodi, hyd yn oed yn y 18fed canrif, fod haneswyr lleol yn trafod gwreiddiau canoloesol y ffyrdd traws-gwlad hyn:
“As to the time of the Interment of this extraordinary Corps, we have no particular knowledge, but suppose it must have been sometime afore the building of the Church at Aberystruth; and after the building of Lanwenarth Church . . . I have some reason to think it was between the year 1100 and 1200.” (2)
Ymddengys fod y cawr wedi parhau fel ysbryd yn yr ardal hyd flynyddoedd cynnar y 19fed ganrif. Dywedwyd ei fod yn neilltuol o hoff o edrych drwy ffenestri ystafelloedd gwely ar noson calan gaeaf!
Rhaid ychwanegu ymddangosiad priodasau tylwyth teg at ffenomen angladdau tylwyth teg fel arwyddion o farwolaeth. Ein ffynhonnell, unwaith eto, yw Edmund Jones. Y tro yma daw’r stori o’i waith llai adnabyddus , A Relation of Apparitions of Spirits in the County of Monmouth and the Principality of Wales, a gyhoeddwyd yn 1780:
“THE last Apparition of the Fairies in the Parish of Aberystruth, was in the fields of the Widow of Mr. Edmund Miles, not long before her death -Two men were moving [sic] hay in one of her fields, the Bedwellty side of the river Ebwy Fawr, (one of whom is now an eminent man in his religious life) very early in the morning; at which time they saw the chief Servant of the House coming through the field on the other side of the river, towards them, and like a marriage company of people with some bravery, in white aprons to meet him ; they met him and passed by, but of whom he seemed to them to take no notice. They asked the servant if he saw the marriage company? he said “No”, at the same time they could hardly think any marriage could come that way, and that time of the day. This certainly must have been Fairies, and was partly a pressage of Mrs. Miles's death, and partly it may be of the marriage of her daughter, the heiress of the estate after the death of her brother Mr. John Miles, with that servant: the account of the Fairies, resembling a marriage company, could not be kept a secret from Mrs Miles, which when she heard of it, gave her a deal of uneasiness, as she understood it as a pressage of her death, as indeed it was.” (3)
(1) pp. 64-65.
(2) p. 66.
(3) pp. 22-23.
