Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of IHeart Radio.

Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is The Monster Fact, a short-form series from

Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters and time.

I spent last week in Wales, taking in the majestic beauty of the Welsh countryside, as well as its vibrant history.

During my travels, I asked my tour guide O'Shaun, which monster from Welsh traditions really stands out to him?

And his answer was the avonk.

The exact nature of the avonk varies from telling to telling, as does its exact name.

But drawing on the book Folklore of Wales by Anne Ross, as well as Carol Rose's Giants,

Monsters, and Dragons, I think we can start with a general, consistent tale.

Medieval and later Welsh traditions hold that the avonk was a terrifying water monster that preyed on human beings.

Until such time as it was chained and dragged away by oxen across the Welsh countryside, sometimes through the moors till it could be imprisoned in the lake of Shin-Kum-Iphenon, in Snowdonium.

In other tellings of the tale, it was merely dragged by oxen onto dry land, where it became palous.

Sometimes this is the work of the knight, Peridur, other times

Sir Percival, and even King Arthur himself in some tellings. Again, there are many variations,

but this seems to be a good skeleton of a tale to work from. Now, what was the exact nature

of the beast in question? Well, Ross and Rose mentioned several different alleged forms.

A great supernatural crocodile, a giant beaver, a water demon, a dwarf, a hippocampus or

water horse.

In at least one telling, according to Ross, it boasts the powers of the Scotch-Irish kelpie, taking on the fair form of a horse or a youth in order to lure in its prey.

Mostly, however, the avonk was said to lurk in the waters and simply attack any human who came too close to the shore.

But it was also said to occasionally thrash around in the water with sufficient force

to cause devastating, even primordial floods. In one telling, a fetching maiden lured the beast

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