Y Ladi Wen: a Cymric Folkloric Figure (The White Lady)

Synonyms: Iarlles Wen
Cym: The White Lady

The Ladi Wen is a Cymric bogeyman, and of relatively late date, certainly post-Tudour as attested by the mix of the native Cymric feminine form of white gwen and the Cymricized form of 'Lady' in Ladi though she fits in with the panoply of evil spirits abroad at Calan Gaeaf (All Hallows' Eve). She is normally represented as the spectral apparition of a woman (often headless) dressed in white. She was often used as a bogeywoman to frighten naughty children into obedience. The following poem used to be commonly recited at Calan Gaeaf and mentions the Ladi Wen:

Hwch Ddu Gwta a Ladi Wen heb dimm pen
Hwch Ddu Gwta a gipio'r ola
Hwch Ddu Gwta nos G'langaea
Lladron yn dwad tan weu sana

A tail-less Black Sow and a White Lady without a head
May the tail-less black sow snatch the hindmost.
A tail-less black sow on winter's eve,
Thieves coming along knitting stockings.

Though legends of the Ladi Wen occur in Cymric folklore across the length and breadth of the country there are more from the south than anywhere else. The follwing are some of the legends associated with the Ladi Wen:

Between Ewenny and Bridgend, Glamorgan, there are places named White Lady's Meadow and White Lady's Lane. In former times the white lady was said to appear, and point towards Ewenny. People said she knew where treasure was hidden, but could never go to find it. She was sometimes seen wringing her hands, as if in great trouble. A man once ventured to address her, and she seemed pleased. He asked what he could do to help her, and she answered that if he would hold her tightly by both hands until she told him to stop, her troubles would leave her. The man did as he was bidden, but the loud barking of a dog caused him to look round and release her hands. With a scream she cried, "I shall be bound for another seven years"" and vanished.

At Rhiwsaeson near Llantrisant, Glamorgan, a woman in white used occasionally to appear. A farm labourer returning home one evening met her. She approached him, saying: "Your wife has given birth to a babe. Go and bring the boy to me at once, that I may be saved." The man was surprised to find the event had come about. He feared to do this, and the parson advised him to have the infant christened before taking him out, fearing he might die before his return. When he, carrying the babe, reached the spot where the white woman waited his coming, he found her crying bitterly and wringing her hands, for one of the conditions of her soul's redemption was the kiss of a new-born and unbaptized child.

A shepherd, minding his master's sheep on the Llantrisant Mountain, sat to rest in a sheltered nook where a huge rock covered with heather shielded him from the fierce sunshine at noontide. He looked a few paces away, and saw a white robed girl scattering a few roses. The shepherd waited until she was gone out of sight, and then went from his nook to gather the flowers. He looked at them, and said: "Oh, what beautiful flowers!" He replaced them where they had been scattered. Suddenly the maiden reappeared, looked at him kindly, and smiled sadly, but never uttered a word. That night he took the flowers home, and placed them in water. In the morning he found three gold coins where the flowers had been.

A ploughman was busy ploughing a very large field near Caer Bannau, the site of a celebrated Roman station, about three miles away from Brecon. In the course of his work from day to day he noticed a maiden robed in white, smoothing her hair in the sunshine, and beckoning the man to her. At first he took no notice of her, but as she repeated the signal he mustered up courage to respond. The maiden told him she was a King's daughter who had sunk with a landslip into the ground. She could only be saved by a man who, without halting or looking round, would carry her to the nearest churchyard, and throw her down with all his might. The ploughman promptly picked her up, and ran with her to the nearest church. He was about to fling her off his shoulders when something tweaked his ears so violently that he looked round, and let his burden fall. The maiden flew into the air, lamenting that she must suffer more severely now, and wait another hundred years for a man with a more steady hand.

Ogmore Castle, near Bridgend, Glamorgan had a white lady who was supposed to guard treasure which was kept under the flooring of the tower. A man accosted her once, and she took him to the spot where she asked him to lift a large flooring-stone. This he did, and in a hole under the stone he found an old crock full of golden guineas. "Take one half," said the white lady, and leave the remainder for me." He did as he was bidden, and replaced the stone. One evening he thought he might as well have the other portion, and accordingly lifted the stone, and filled his pockets with the gold pieces. Just as he was leaving the castle the white lady appeared, and accused him of theft. He denied having taken the gold, but she made him take off his coat, and in doing so the money rattled out. The white lady then set upon him, and, to his dismay, he found she had claws instead of fingers, and with these she nearly tore him to pieces. He shouted, and tried in vain to get out of her grasp, but this he was not able to do until she had badly used him. He went home in a dilapidated condition, and was accused of having been mixed up in a drunken brawl which he stoutly denied. Soon afterwards he was taken ill, and gradually became worse. Nobody knew what his illness was, and in the course of time he wasted away. Before he died he confessed to his adventure, and people called his complaint "the white lady's revenge."

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