The Welsh myth of the Wiston basilisk [World mythology post 571!]

(image source: Wenceslaus Hollar, 17th century, plate depicting a basilisk with its natural enemy, the weasel.)

Wiston castle (Castell Gwys) is an old estate in Haverfordwest, Wales. As with many old fortresses in the region, there is a local folktale associated with it:

As the story goes, ownership of the castle was at one time disputed between several claimants. The situation was further complicated by the presence of a horrible monster: a basilisk had made its lair on the bank of a nearby river. Though the creature was only about 2 feet (60 cm) long, it was exceptionally deadly, being able to kill people merely by looking at them. Any would-be heroes who tried to sneak up on the basilisk from behind were swiftly disposed of as well, as the monster had a separate set of eyes on the back of its head. It was a black and yellow reptile, and those who managed to avoid its 360° death vision would succumb to its deadly noxious breath. But it had a weakness: if the basilisk was seen by a living human, without being able to see that human, it would drop dead on the spot.

And so the locals agreed that if anyone managed to look at the monster without being seen by it, deserved to inherit the Wiston estate. Several adventurers attempted to do so, emboldened by the promise of wealth and titles, but all of their quests ended in deadly failure.

As is often the case with legends about quests and monsters, the hero of the story – curiously, I could not find his name – succeeded through wit and trickery rather than force. He rolled a wooden barrel up a nearby hill and climbed aside. The barrel rolled down the hill past the basilisk’s lair and he cautiously looked through the bunghole (the tiny round gap in the side of a barrel) as he rolled by. He yelled at the monster and mocked it, but the creature could not see him. ‘Ha, bold basilisk!’ he shouted, ‘I can see you, though you can’t see me!’

And so the basilisk fell to the ground. Having fulfilled the requirements of the quest, the hero became the rightful owner of the Wiston castle.

(image source: Edward Topsell, 1658, “The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents”)

Basilisks are a rather well-known type of monster, usually being portrayed as a dragon-like creature or a monstrous rooster in modern times. I will not detail the entire history of basilisks here, but one account by the ancient Roman author Plinius Maior describes the basilisk as a frighteningly noxious snake: these monsters are supposedly so dangerous that the very grass on which they move will burn away from their presence. Its vile breath destroys shrubs and its gaze is lethal (this last trait is commonly attributed to basilisks throughout time, like in the Welsh story we just went over). Plinius claimed that these serpents are about twelve fingers long and can be distinguished by the crown-like white spot on the forehead.

Finally, according to Plinius, there is an older belief that the venom of a basilisk is so horrifyingly potent that if a rider on horseback kills one of these monsters with a spear, the venom would somehow flow up the shaft of the spear and kill both the rider and his horse.

Additionally, it is said that these beasts hatch from the egg of a rooster. Such an egg doesn’t have a normal eggshell, but instead is covered in thick skin. It is round and has a muddy colour, unlike a normal egg, and is supposedly laid when a rooster reaches a certain (old) age, and then can only be laid in summer. Even then, the egg has to be sat upon by a rooster, and it is supposedly very difficult to keep the rooster away from its egg.

Edward Topsell, in his 1658 ‘history of four-footed beasts and serpents’ proposes a possible origin for this story: a rooster living in unsanitary conditions might vomit a compact cluster of undigested food, which might appear as a weird egg to a superstitious farmer. It is possible that such clusters sometimes included a parasitic worm, which appears to ‘hatch’ from the ‘egg’ when the worm starts to move. It is not impossible that such a story was exaggerated through many retellings, until the worm became a snake.

Sources:
Roberts, T., 1984, Myths and Legends of Wales, Abercastle Publications.
Naturalis Historia, by Plinius Maior, book VIII, chapter 33. Which you can read here:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D8%3Achapter%3D33
Edward Topsell, 1658, “The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents”, which you can read here:
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A42668.0001.001