Case file · Folklore / legend
Brenin Llwyd, the Grey King of the mist
In Welsh legend the Brenin Llwyd, 'Monarch of the Mist', is a silent grey figure wrapped in mountain mist who seizes travellers, especially children, on high peaks such as Cadair Idris and Snowdon.
1909 CE · 52.70, -3.90 · status: legend
The account
The folklorist Marie Trevelyan described the stories in 1909: in the north he was mighty and feared, and shepherds kept children from the hills when mist came down. He is often compared to Scotland's Big Grey Man of Ben Macdui.
The sceptical view
A personification of the real dangers of sudden mountain fog.