Jawnomicon

Llamhigyn Y Dwr

Also called Llamhigyn y Dwr, The Water-Leaper, Water-Leaper, Water Leaper.

In Welsh folklore, the Llamhigyn Y Dwr, or Water-Leaper, is a winged, tailed river monster shaped like a monstrous toad that snaps fishing lines and drags the unwary beneath the water.

At a glance

Tradition
Welsh folklore
Region
Wales (habitat)
Trait family
The Death-Criers
Symbols
Frog

Near this figure

Symbols

Judged against the description by a model. Meanings are our own paraphrase.

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

  • Hybrid of multiple animals
    why

    Tellings describe it as built like an outsized toad or frog, but wrong in its particulars: in most descriptions it has bat-like wings where its legs should be, along with a long tail, so that the creature reads as neither fully amphibian nor fully airborne.

Sight and sound

  • Blood curdling scream
    why

    accounts describe the Llamhigyn Y Dwr snapping the lines of anyone fishing nearby, often preceded or accompanied by a shriek so unsettling that the startled angler loses footing and falls into the water, where in some versions of the tale it drags him under to be consumed.

Curses

  • Drowning lure
    why

    When no one is fishing, several sources note that the creature turns its attention to sheep grazing near the bank, luring or startling them into the river to be devoured in the same manner.

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.