Cantref Gwaelod
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Cantref Gwaelod (more commonly: Cantre'r Gwaelod, literally, The Lowland Hundred in English) is the legendary ancient sunken kingdom said to have occupied a tract of fertile land stretching northwards from Ramsey Island to Bardsey Island over what is now Cardigan Bay to the west of Wales, often described as the 'Welsh Atlantis'.
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[edit] The Myth
Cantref Gwaelod's capital was Caer Wyddno, seat of the ruler Gwyddno Garanhir. It is described as a walled country that was defended from the sea by a dyke called Sarn Badrig (Saint Patrick's causeway), over which two princes of the realm held charge. One of these princes, called Seithenyn, was a notorious drunkard and carouser, and it was through his negligence that the sea swept through the open floodgates, ruining the land.
The church bells of Cantref Gwaelod are said to ring out in times of danger.
[edit] Origins of the Myth
The myth, like so many others, may be a folk memory of gradually rising sea levels at the end of the ice age and its structure comparable to the deluge myth found in nearly every ancient culture. The physical remains of the preserved sunken forest at Borth, and of 'Patrick's Causeway', could have suggested to the local mind that some great tragedy had overcome a village long ago, and so the myth may have grown from that. There is little or no physical evidence of the substantial community that legend promises lies under the sea.
[edit] Possible Sighting
The ruins of a city were supposedly visible as late as 1770, when William Owen Pughe reported seeing sunken human habitations about four miles (6.4 km) off the Welsh coast, between the rivers Ystwyth and Teifi.As the sea goes out the remains of tree's are left behind.
[edit] Cantref Gwaelod in Fiction
Although not as famous as Atlantis, Cantref Gwaelod has featured in fiction with a Welsh flavour, notably the alternate universe Louie Knight series. In "Aberystwyth Mon Amour" a group of Druids plan to launch an ark and reclaim the land of Cantref Gwaelod. A schoolboy genius, Dai Brainbocs, assumed it really did exist and was proved right - using microphones to echo locate the town by the sound of the community's bells ringing underwater. Unfortunately to launch the ark Brainbocs needs to destroy the Nant y Moch dam above Aberystwyth, so the flood would destroy much of it. The irony is obvious.
Cantref Gwaelod is also a major location in Susan Cooper's "Silver On The Tree", the fifth and final book in her series "The Dark is Rising". Young Will Stanton, last of the Old Ones (a group of immortal beings associated with the Light that must save mankind from the Dark) and his friend Bran Davies, son of the famous King Arthur, travel through time to Cantr'er Gwaelod, the Lowland Hundred, in search of the last great Thing of Power. With it the Light can finally stand together against the Dark and banish it forever.
