SACRED WATERS
  • Cwm Eleri
  • RIVERS
    • Rivers in a Landscape
    • Healing and Defending Rivers
    • Relating to a River
    • The River Dee
  • MERERID -Guardian of the Well
    • MERERID
    • Mererid and the Deluge
    • Well Maidens & Cup Bearers
    • CANTRE'R GWAELOD
    • Fanahan's Well
    • The Waters of the Otherworld
  • roos
  • GODS
    • Dionysus
    • For Brigid
    • Matrona and Welsh Mermaids
    • Healing and Defending Rivers
    • Sulis and Coventina
  • WATER SPIRITS
    • Greek Nymphs
    • Mermaid
    • The Asrai
    • Ursilla and the Selkie
    • Sulis and Coventina
    • Non’s Well
  • Sabrina and the River Severn
  • Amdanaf
Picture
Ancient Forest flooded by the sea in Borth - the site of Cantre'r Gwaelod

MERERID – The Guardian of the Well

Mererid  (‘Pearl’) is named as a ‘fountain cup-bearer’ in a medieval Welsh poem in The Black Book of Carmarthen. The poem refers to the story of the drowning of the lands known as Cantre’r Gwaelod in Cardigan Bay on the west coast of Wales. This story predates the later and more well-known version which blames the drowning of the land on the drunkenness of Seithennin who leaves open the sluice gates to allow the water in. But in the earlier story Seithennin’s role is more ambiguous as he hears Mererid’s cry ringing out over the fortress as the waters rise.

The Celtic scholar and folklorist John Rhŷs thought that Mererid was the keeper of a ‘fairy well’, the waters from which, implicitly from the Otherworld, rose up to flood the land. Why? These pages offer some exploration of the possible answers to that question and the identity of Mererid and also provides both direct links to similar well legends and further indirect links to stories of water nymphs, rivers, streams and other sacred waters.

More detail on the medieval poem ~>
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  • Cwm Eleri
  • RIVERS
    • Rivers in a Landscape
    • Healing and Defending Rivers
    • Relating to a River
    • The River Dee
  • MERERID -Guardian of the Well
    • MERERID
    • Mererid and the Deluge
    • Well Maidens & Cup Bearers
    • CANTRE'R GWAELOD
    • Fanahan's Well
    • The Waters of the Otherworld
  • roos
  • GODS
    • Dionysus
    • For Brigid
    • Matrona and Welsh Mermaids
    • Healing and Defending Rivers
    • Sulis and Coventina
  • WATER SPIRITS
    • Greek Nymphs
    • Mermaid
    • The Asrai
    • Ursilla and the Selkie
    • Sulis and Coventina
    • Non’s Well
  • Sabrina and the River Severn
  • Amdanaf