Word of the Day: Afanc

I think the sheer horror of the vasty deep, of all that is cold and wet and old and dead and ought to be buried, but isn't, can be hidden in the many visions that this word can evoke.

The afanc is a Celtic horror, one of the many ghastly terrors conjured up by this race of poets and dreamers and bards. In the older legends (or at least those forged by that master of the tall tale, Iolo Morganwg), it is a demonic presence of scales and slime and watery doom that roars forth from mist-wreathed Welsh lakes to consume (or at least panic, drown and otherwise frighten) the unwary and the unprepared. Arthur himself is supposed to have driven away the physical presence from Llyn Barfog, the Bearded Lake.

Sadly, like most legends, this one has dwindled over time. Modern Welsh uses afanc to mean 'beaver'. How art the mighty fallen, and with what a big splash too.