iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 01/08/2026

After four (very) long years, I’ve finally completed my MA in Welsh and Celtic Studies @cardiffuni.bsky.social! 🎓 Incredibly grateful and proud to have graduated last month, and to have been awarded the Sioned Davies prize for my dissertation… … on Welsh ghosts, naturally.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 26/03/2026

As if that weren’t enough, you can also catch me discussing my research with Martin from @threeravenspod.bsky.social as part of their newest series delving into the folklore of the historic Welsh counties, where we chat all things ghosts, language, culture, and my favourite misunderstood monster…🦫

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 26/03/2026

Quick trip to London to catch up over the proofs of my new book with the most wonderfully supportive team @thamesandhudson.bsky.social before nipping over to @britishlibrary.bsky.social to cast an eye over the earliest known copy of Rev. Edmund Jones’s ghost accounts for my latest project.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 05/03/2026

For those of you, like me, who prefer to dog ear, scribble over and highlight their books (but draw an arbitrary line at defacing hardbacks), a newly edited paperback edition of ‘The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts’ is now available to pre-order! www.uwp.co.uk/book/the-fol...

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 02/03/2026

Ar raglen Aled Hughes ar BBC Radio Cymru bora ‘ma i drafod cewri Cymru. Ewch draw i @bbcsounds.bsky.social i wrando (tua 1:12 i mewn i’r rhaglen). ***** A pleasure to be back on Aled Hughes’s show this morning on BBC Radio Cymru, this time to discuss the folklore of Welsh giants. Fee-fi-fo-fum.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 24/02/2026

folklorewales.com has a shiny new look 👀 Find my books, book an event, or share your own ghosts and folklore with me. Link in bio ☝️

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 20/01/2026

It was an honour to be asked to write the introduction for this beautiful new hardback volume - with gilded edges, no less - of Welsh Folk & Fairy Tales by Flame Tree Publishing as part of their Collector’s Editions series. Available in all good bookshops as of today 💫

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 05/01/2026

Wishing a belated blwyddyn newydd dda from our favourite little snowed-in farmhouse in Sir Gâr ❄️

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 01/11/2025

Apparently my dulcet tones could be heard across all Global radio stations throughout yesterday discussing various Nos Galan Gaeaf traditions. Here’s a quick excerpt from @lbc.co.uk 🎃

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 31/10/2025

A spooky Nos Galan Gaeaf to you all 🎃 While lacking ancient provenance, this winter’s eve was the eeriest of the ‘tair ysbrydnos’ (three spirit nights), where the veil between worlds was at its thinnest and the wind blowing over the feet of corpses bore sighs to the homes of those destined to die…

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 28/10/2025

It just so happens that two further pieces of Price memorabilia have also arrived: Another copper token Price commissioned to mark the cremation of his son in 1884. An exceedingly rare pamphlet from an exhibition of Price’s life in 1896. Among its many strange items was his preserved right foot 🔥

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 28/10/2025

Can’t quite believe it’s done but it’s done. Two years of translating and unpicking (and growing a human somewhere in the middle) the most bizarre yet brilliant manifesto by Dr William Price: Gwyllllis yn Nayd. Spoilers: these aren’t the ravings of a lunatic as previous biographers have concluded.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 23/10/2025

Quick stop over in Cardiff to talk The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts with the lovely staff at the National Museum this week. Lovely to chat spooks, as always, but the highlight was getting up close and personal with Catrin here behind the scenes in the painting conservation studio. Phenomenal.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 05/10/2025

With advice from a zookeeping friend and the help of family and Airborne Warriors, Talsarnau, Cowlyd was successfully released during the last stretch of balmy weather at the tail end of September. Yes, that’s me almost being knocked sideways by the sheer force of him bursting out of his cage.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 05/10/2025

By week 2 he was using his claw to weakly grip his perch and was allowing me hand-feed him freely. By week 3, he was able to rip food by himself, and other than changing his pecked bandages and a daily dose of beak scratches, I barely needed to handle him anymore. We knew then he was ready.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 05/10/2025

Six weeks ago, I picked up a year-old tawny owl with a broken leg off the main road near our home and dropped him off at our nearest vet. After a few days, I received one of the most bizarre phone calls I’ve ever had, asking “So when are you coming to pick up your owl?” 🧵

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 08/09/2025

Finally able to contribute to #OwlishMonday with a real, legitimate owl. This is Cowlyd, our little rescue tawny, who’s boarding with us while his broken leg heals. Named after the ancient and wise owl of Welsh lore, turns out he’s a bit more Gwilym. (highly niche Welsh joke there, sorry) 🦉

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 07/09/2025

Catching up with some of the newest additions to the library… My favourite recent purchase is this vanishingly rare essay from the 1851 Newport eisteddfod by Merthyr Tudful preacher, the Rev David Rhys Stephen, concerning one of Wales’s most infamous hauntings - the tale of Pwca’r Trwyn 👻

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 01/09/2025

Foster an owl while writing a book and caring for a child, they said. It’ll be fine, they said. Feeling a little like poor Cowlyd having just submitted the manuscript for my newest book this evening. Looking forward to seeing both in the wild over the coming months 🦉

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 08/07/2025

Slowly dragging myself out of the mat leave bubble so here are some folky updates: Folklore Wales HQ has relocated to Pwllheli. Book 2 and a couple of bits and pieces are in progress; book 3 is on the horizon. And all this with Eryri as my backdrop. There’s few better places to begin new chapters.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 31/12/2024

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda, bawb! 💫 Happy New Year, all!

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 19/11/2024

Robin goch ar ben y rhiniog Yn gofyn tamaid heb un geiniog, Ac yn dwedyd yn ysmala, "Mae hi'n oer, fe ddaw yr eira." #Welsh #Folklore

Rob robin eating seeds from my hand in the snow

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 16/11/2024

Another day of delving into Welsh weirdness (albeit some days are arguably weirder than the rest). Researching for a very exciting project - will share details soon… 👀

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 15/11/2024

Just received my author’s copy of Lowri Haf Cooke’s wonderful new book ‘Amser Nadolig’ (Christmas Time) which includes my chapter on the magic of the season, from my own childhood memories to weird Welsh Yuletide traditions such as the dark origins of Sion Corn, squirrel hunting, and the Mari Lwyd.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 15/11/2024

Braint ac anrhydedd yw cael cyhoeddi pennod yn llyfr hyfryd Nadolig @lowrihafcooke.bsky.social. Ynddo dwi’n trafod hud a lledrith yr ŵyl - o atgofion a thraddodiadau melys plentyndod i rai o ddefodau hudolus y Cymry megis y Fari Lwyd, y plygain a hela’r dryw. Mynnwch gopi gan Santa, da chi 🎄

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 14/11/2024

Hit 1000 followers so here’s my favourite Welsh ghost 👻 Grim ghouls with unfinished business that wail into the gloom: “Long the day and long the night, And long the wait for [name].” The spookiest version is recorded in 1882, where a Ceredigion farm is plagued by a spirit that waits for Arawn.

A woman runs scared by a drychiolaeth carrying a spectral coffin in a churchyard in Wales.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 14/11/2024

Settling in for day one of the Folklore Without Borders symposium this morning with a baby who’s just discovered how to babble and grab, and where its mouth is. Nothing can possibly go wrong.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 10/11/2024

Time for a re-introduction… I'm a folklorist, author and research fellow with a particular interest in Welsh ghost-lore. Side hustle as a paediatric pathologist and ME. Antiquarian book collector and marginalia fiend. Dr William Price enthusiast. Druid. Cymraeg iaith gyntaf; expect a bit of both.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 15/08/2024

Thrilled and somewhat bewildered to hear that The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts has been shortlisted for ‘Best Non-Fiction’ at the @britfantasysoc.bsky.social Awards! To all the wonderful people who voted, Bwci Melyn Bach, Hen Wrach Cors Fochno and both Llanwynno’s ghost donkeys salute you! 👻

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 24/05/2024

Spent the week in a remote cottage decrypting Dr William Price’s 1871 Druidic manifesto Gwyllllis yn Nayd (The Will of My Father) from an impenetrable form of Gwenhwyseg into standard Welsh. Price swore those who translated it would be cursed. So there’s that to look forward to.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 13/05/2024

📣 HENO am 7:30yh 📣 Fydda i’n trafod gwrachyddiaeth, consurwyr, swynion, rheibio, a’r broblem efo’r wrach yng Nghymru efo fy hoff widdon Sara Huws a’r swynol Sian Melangell Dafydd fel rhan o gyfres ‘Coel Gwrach’ 💫 tinyurl.com/4svuvjwy

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 28/04/2024

Braint oedd medru rhannu rhyw fymryn o hanes y Maen Chwŷf efo Rhys Mwyn ar gyfer ei gyfrol newydd wych, a chael rhoi’r byd yn ei le am r’hen Myfyr Morganwg, sy’n haeddu tipyn mwy o gydnabyddiaeth am ei rôl hollbwysig yng nghronicl derwyddol Pontypridd.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 14/04/2024

My favourite tales include the exorcism of Glebe House by conjuror John Williams who bound the troublesome spirit to making ropes of sand on Llanmadog burrows, and the phantom white horse of Oxwich, seen casually walking on its hind legs towards the church by Davies’s brother 👻

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 14/04/2024

Those with an interest in Welsh antiquarianism will likely appreciate the sheer joy I experienced this weekend when, after years of searching, I finally got my mitts on a near pristine (and near affordable!) full 4 vol set of J. D. Davies’s ‘The History of West Gower’ (1877-94)📚

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 25/02/2024

I frequently see this term misspelt as ‘coblynau’ or even ‘coblynaus’ and substituted for the more common term for knockers in Welsh mining folklore: Cnociwr (pl. Cnocwyr) I imagine this is probably due to Sikes’s dubious classification of fairies in ‘British Goblins’ (1880) 🤔

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 25/02/2024

Welsh Folklore Dictionary 101: Coblyn. pl. Coblynnau / Coblynnod / Coblyniaid. 𝘎𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯, 𝘪𝘮𝘱, 𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘨𝘺, ‘𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘳’ 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦, 𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥. First appears in William Salesbury’s 1547 dictionary as ‘koblyn’.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 15/02/2024

In any case, I’m delighted to say that the wonderful @WelshVernacular have given these charms a new home with me in Carreg Wen’s library while I continue my research. If anyone knows of the whereabouts of any further suspiciously similar examples, I’d love to hear from you 💫

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 15/02/2024

It also mirrors a charm housed @NLWales, collected by W Ll Davies [📷] and published in 1938, and another donated to @AmgueddfaCymru in 1916. Museum curator Iorwerth C Peate claimed these charms were all written by a highly sought dyn hysbys (cunning man) from Llangurig, Powys.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 15/02/2024

Interestingly, although this is a fairly common layout for Welsh charms in this period, the handwriting and the wording almost exactly mirrors the charm found in Pentrenant, Powys, by Richard Merrifield, as seen in ‘The Archaeology of Ritual Magic’ (1987), shown here [📷].

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 15/02/2024

An apotropaic charm, repeated with near identical wording on each separate sheet, calling for the protection of the farm’s livestock ‘from all witchcraft’. Complete with astrological symbols, an ABRACADABRA triangle and magical seal, this is the work of an early C20th conjuror.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 15/02/2024

While the envelopes had already been opened at some point in the past, scrawled in black ink was an ominous warning: ‘not to bee open at all’. Inside, were folded three brittle and yellowed sheets of paper, each covered in the same crabbed handwriting…

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 31/12/2023

While 2023 began with pulling all-nighters writing 𝘎𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴, this wild year ends with completion of a book tour and work on some exciting new ventures… Looking forward to sharing the rollercoaster that is set to be 2024 with you all! Blwyddyn newydd dda, gyfeillion diniwed!

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 17/12/2023

Wel, dyma ni’n dwad, Gyfeillion diniwed, I ’mofyn am genad - i ganu. Pure joy spending the afternoon wassailing among friends and the mischievous Mari Lwyd in Llantrisant today.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 03/12/2023

Celebrating the end of an exhilarating, exhausting and spectacular book tour with the most incredible friends in frosty Glastonbury. Diolch, diolch, diolch to everyone who organised, travelled, contributed and supported over the past 2 months. It's been a joy meeting you all 👻

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 29/10/2023

An article of mine printed in The Scotsman this week, condeming previous over-reliance on poorly translated English language sources, and lauding the virtues of using original Welsh language texts when researching the country's much overlooked and ignored regional ghost-lore 👻

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 26/10/2023

The 𝘩𝘸𝘤𝘩 was instead believed to be the devil in the form of a black sow. The tradition first appears in the early 19th century, mainly in northern counties. With some regional variation in its appearance, it was an effective means of sending terrified children home running!

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 26/10/2023

There's a particular misconception about the 𝘩𝘸𝘤𝘩 𝘥𝘥𝘶 𝘨𝘸𝘵𝘢 (tailless black sow) which has crept into discussion recently, describing an "ancient" tradition where men cloaked in pig skins chased children home from the evening celebrations. This... just isn't a thing.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 24/10/2023

...however, the idea can be found a century earlier in Welsh language texts. 'Hynafion Cymreig' (Welsh Antiquities) by Peter Roberts (1823) is the earliest source to record this belief in Wales. Roberts claimed that a focus on divinatory rituals was "proof" of new beginnings.

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 24/10/2023

This year, I'm going to be doing some 𝘕𝘰𝘴 𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘯 𝘎𝘢𝘦𝘢𝘧 (Halloween) lore-busting. Have your 𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘱 (turnips) at the ready, folks... 🎃

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Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 24/10/2023

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