Gathering a story - The Pointed Stone in the Icy Nook

Collecting stories is a hobby of mine.  This one years ago conjured up many an idea.  This strangely bowed prehistoric stone caught up in the outside wall of the porch of Corwen church, just begs the story of 'the hag turned into stone'  It has early Celtic dedication of two saints Mael and Sulien.  

Breverton books on Welsh Saints is a revelation on Welsh history, just checking his reading list, and I can only use one word 'voluminous'! Such dedication to his subject.

So I have collected the information as I find it.  Stories are just that, some would argue that many folklore stories came in the nineteenth century and were made up, but many stories about the saints (usually male) were carefully scribed in monastic houses, giving family detail and often the saints were related to the royalty of the many subdivisions of Welsh tribal Celtic areas.

I always think in English terms also of the bickering and war that went on as various lords strove for dominance, nothing much has changed in that respect.

The church at Corwen was dedicated to the saints Mael and Sulien from the 6th century according to my book by Breverton. A quote...

Sulien ap Hywel ab Emyr Llydaw settled at Bardsey with his cousin Cadfan.  Julien shares a joint dedication with Saint Mael at Corwen parish church (formerly known as Llansilien) Llandrillo near Corwen and at Cym near the coast of Northern Flintshire.  There was a Ffynnon Sulien a mile away from Corwen church, and the water used for its baptisms."

Isn't the Welsh language complicated especially to a novice like me, but it is still taught and used in Wales, and long may it be. I came across the first reference to the stone in Google's books, mentioning a book I had  sometime ago by Elizabeth Rees - Landscape of Celtic Saints.

 We fall in love with the romantic past, of course it is embellished along the way till the true tale becomes lost.  The need for the patriach societies we have lived through to honour a man, produces a sense of a superman apart from humanity.  A monk becomes a saint and is lauded for his piety but it is just a part of a thin sliver of a need to gain control over the population - to have one's religion foremost.

Ref: Elizabeth Rees - Celtic Saints in their Landscapes

       T.D.Breverton - The Book of Welsh Saints

       And then there is always Rhiannon, and her folklore on TMA

       https://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/4914/carreg_y_big_yn_y_fach_rhewllyd.html