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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the

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Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow

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Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time.

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Speaker 2: I spent last week in Wales, taking in the majestic

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Speaker 2: beauty of the Welsh countryside as well as its vibrant history.

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Speaker 2: During my travels, I asked my tour guide O'shan which

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Speaker 2: monster from Welsh traditions really stands out to him, and

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Speaker 2: his answer was the avonc. The exact nature of the

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Speaker 2: Avonk varies from telling to telling, as does its exact name,

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Speaker 2: but drawing on the book Folklore of Wales by Anne

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Speaker 2: Ross as well as Carol Rose's Giants, Monsters and Dragons,

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Speaker 2: I think we can start with a general consistent tale.

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Speaker 2: Medieval and later Welsh traditions hold that the avank was

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Speaker 2: a terrifying water monster that preyed on human beings until

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Speaker 2: such time as it was chained and dragged away by

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Speaker 2: oxen across the Welsh countryside, sometimes through the moors, till

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Speaker 2: it could be imprisoned in the Lake of shin kum

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Speaker 2: Ethanon in Snowdonia. In other tellings of the tale, it

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Speaker 2: was merely dragged by Oxen onto dry land, where it

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Speaker 2: became powerless. Sometimes this is the work of the Knight Peridur,

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Speaker 2: other times Sir Percival, and even King Arthur himself in

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Speaker 2: some tellings. Again, there are many variations, but this seems

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Speaker 2: to be a good skeleton of a tale to work from. Now.

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Speaker 2: What was the exact nature of the beast in question, Well,

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Speaker 2: Ross and Rose mentioned several different alleged forms, a great

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Speaker 2: supernatural crocodile, a giant beaver, a water demon, a dwarf,

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Speaker 2: a hippocampus or water horse. In at least one telling,

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Speaker 2: according to Ross, it boasts the powers of the Scotch

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Speaker 2: Irish kelpie, taking on the fair form of a horse

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Speaker 2: or a youth in order to lure in its prey. Mostly, however,

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Speaker 2: the avank was said to lurk in the waters and

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Speaker 2: simply attack any human who came too close to the shore,

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Speaker 2: but it was also said to occasionally thrash around in

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Speaker 2: the water with sufficient force to cause devastating, even primordial floods.

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Speaker 2: In one telling, a fetching maiden lured the beast from

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Speaker 2: shin Ur Avunk a pool by the Knwei River, and

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Speaker 2: the Avank fell asleep on her knee, clutching one of

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Speaker 2: her breasts in its claw. And while the creatures slept,

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Speaker 2: men crept up with chains and bound the creature. When

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Speaker 2: the Avank woke to this imprisoned state, it panicked and

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Speaker 2: it fled back with all its strength towards its watery home.

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Speaker 2: The maiden's breast still gripped in its claw. And while

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Speaker 2: the monster did indeed make it back to the waters

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Speaker 2: of shin Ur Avank, trailing its chains the whole way.

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Speaker 2: The men succeeded in binding its chains to Oxen, which

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Speaker 2: succeeded in dragging the monster away to its watery prison

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Speaker 2: in shin kum Ethanon, where it is said to lurk

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Speaker 2: to this day. So if you find yourself in Wales,

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Speaker 2: look out for the Avank and don't get too close

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Speaker 2: to strange waters. Tune in for additional episodes of The

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Speaker 2: Monster Fact each week. As always, you can email us

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Speaker 2: at contact at Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

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Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

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