Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
Cyhyraeth
The Cyhyraeth is heard but not seen. Sikes distinguishes its groaning from the bodily apparition of Gwrach y Rhibyn, making sound alone the form of the encounter. In a Towy account the voice begins powerfully, approaches, then grows lower and softer across three cries. A hearer later recognises the same sound in the groans of a dying person.
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In the sources
Principal account
TraditionalThe Cyhyraeth is heard but not seen. Sikes distinguishes its groaning from the bodily apparition of Gwrach y Rhibyn, making sound alone the form of the encounter.
Further detail
TraditionalIn a Towy account the voice begins powerfully, approaches, then grows lower and softer across three cries. A hearer later recognises the same sound in the groans of a dying person.
Context & interpretation
The entry concerns the groaning-spirit accounts quoted by Sikes, including Joshua Coslet’s testimony. Their claim of anticipation remains attributed to those accounts, and the invisible spirit is not merged with the visible Gwrach.
Original passages
Source 1
British Goblins
It is never seenOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880), active reader leaf 234
Exact passage checked against active scan text and its original-leaf mapping; whitespace and scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0044-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0044-E001-P0234
- Original scan leaf
- 235
- Recorded leaf number
- 235
- Current Reader position
- 233
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
British Goblins
a threefold warning of deathOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880), active reader leaf 235
Exact passage checked against active scan text and its original-leaf mapping; whitespace and scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0044-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0044-E001-P0235
- Original scan leaf
- 236
- Recorded leaf number
- 236
- Current Reader position
- 234
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed