There was once a man named Helig ap Glannawg, who was one of the princes who ruled what is now Wales. In his case, his territories stretched from Flintshire to Conwy. However, what is most notable about Helig is his palace, which is supposed to have stood on land that has since sunk into Conwy Bay.
As the story goes, Helig had a daughter named Gwendud, who had a beautiful face but a not so beautiful heart. One of her suitors was a baron’s son named Tathal, whose relatively humble station prevented the success of his suit. In particular, Gwendud stated that she couldn’t marry him because he didn’t wear the golden torc that indicated a nobleman. Due to this, Tathal volunteered to guide a high-ranking prisoner home, murdered him on the road for his golden torc, and then concocted a story about having been attacked on the road. Both Gwendud and Gwendud’s father consented to his suit, thus resulting in a magnificent feast to celebrate the occasion. However, the ghost of the murdered prisoner showed up at the feast, where he promised to visit his vengeance upon their family.
Both Gwendud and Tathal lived well into their old age because apparently the ghost wasn’t in as big a rush as his words had indicated. Instead, nothing happened until the birth of their great-great-grandchild, which was an important occasion that merited a celebration. When a maid went down into the palace cellar to retrieve more wine, she was very understandably spooked by the fact that she found it flooded. Something that prompted her and her lover to flee the palace as fast as their feet could carry them. As they ran, they heard the screams of the people who hadn’t been quite as fast, who met a watery doom when Helig’s palace sank beneath the sea.
