{{no footnotes, date=November 2015 Cythraul is an old

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

word, still in everyday use, meaning 'devil' or, with a capital letter, the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of ...

, probably deriving from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

'Contrarius', 'the Opposer, Enemy'. ''Contr-'' would go to Welsh ''cythr-'' straightforwardly according to historical phonology, and the form 'cythraul' not *cythraur is the result of dissimilation. It is likely to be an early Christian borrowing from

Ecclesiastical Latin Latin, also called Church Latin or Liturgical Latin, is a form of Latin developed to discuss Christian thought in Late Antiquity and used in Christian liturgy, theology, and church administration down to the present day, especially in the Ca ...

, like numerous other words in the Welsh and Irish languages. ''Diawl'' (from Latin ''diablos'') is usually used for the Devil (

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehoo ...

) today, ''cythraul'' usually being used as a pejorative, e.g. "''y cythraul bach!''" '(you) little devil/rascal!'.

Modern Druidic interpretation

Cythraul has been mislabelled as a 'spirit of Chaos' by some modern

Druids A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Whi ...

, an error which dates back as far as

Iolo Morganwg Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg (; 10 March 1747 – 18 December 1826), was a Welsh people, Welsh antiquarian, poet and collector.Jones, Mary (2004)"Edward Williams/Iolo Morganwg/Iolo Morgannwg" From ''Jones' Celt ...

's ''Barddas''. It has found its way into various sourcebooks for neo-Druidry, usually by authors who do not speak Welsh and quite unaware of its history or origin. According to this error, 'Cythraul' is supposed to be a synonym for Chaos, in some way known to the ancient

, which is historically impossible and linguistically extremely unlikely.

Modern Druidic interpretation

Further reading