L: Ladon to Lyonesse 171
Llys Helig
A stony patch on the floor of Conway Bay, sometimes visible from the shore
during moments of water clarity, and regarded in folk tradition as the site of a
kingdom formerly ruled by Helig ap Glannawg. He perished with Llys Helig when
it abruptly sank to the bottom of the sea. The stones taken for the ruins of his
drowned palace are part of a suggestive natural formation that recalls one of
several Welsh versions of the Atlantis disaster. Others similarly describe Llyn
Llynclys and Cantref-y-Gwaelod. A large, dark pool of fathomless water in the
town of Radnorshire is supposed to have swallowed an ancient castle known as
Lyngwyn. So many surviving mythic traditions of sunken kingdoms suggest that
the Atlanteans made an enduring impact on Wales.Llyn Savathan
Known in other parts of Wales as Llyn Syfaddon, it was the extensive kingdom
of Helig Voel ap Glannog, whose great possessions, extending far into the sea from
Priestholm, had been suddenly overwhelmed by the sea. His name is remarkable,
because it contains the “og” derivative of Atlantean deluge heroes in other parts of
the world. Another Welsh flood tradition, Llys Elisap Clynog, repeats the “og” theme.
(See Llyn Syfaddon, Ogma, Ogriae)Lono
The white-skinned man-god who arrived long ago by ship in the Hawaiian
Islands, bringing the first `uala, or sweet potato to the natives. His name is still
invoked at every stage in its planting, tending, and harvesting. Lono instituted and
presided over the makahiki celebrations, which began every late October or early
November, the same period used for ceremonies commemorating the dead in
various parts of the world, such as Japan’s Bon, Thailand’s Lak Krathong, Christian
Europe’s and pre-Columbian Mexico’s All Souls’ Day, and so on. This is the time
of year associated with the final destruction of Atlantis.
Like these foreign celebrations, the dating of the makahiki, a new year’s
ceremony, was determined by the first appearance of the Pleiades, or “Atlantises,”
above the horizon at dusk, because it was at this time that Lono traditionally
arrived from Kahiki, one of several names by which the sunken kingdom was known
throughout the Pacific. Ironically, the famous British explorer, Captain James
Cook, landed at the same anchorage, Kealkekua, in Hawaii’s Kona District, where
Lono first appeared. Cook was not the only white man to have followed so closely
in the footsteps of a prehistoric predecessor. Both Cortez in Mexico and Pizarro
in Peru were identically mistaken by the indigenous people for Quetzalcoatl, the
“Feathered Serpent,” and Viracocha, “Sea Foam,” earlier white-skinned visitors.
Clearly, these vastly separated traditions establish a form of prehistorical meeting
common to them all.