When the long dark settled over Ynys Môn, the oldest standing stones were the last to dim. They had stood through earlier nights and earlier silences, and the power in them was slow to yield. On Holyhead Mountain that power rose instead of sinking, and from it Eirgawr was awakened.
He took shape among the high ground and the ancient stones of the mountain, already knowing the climb. The first thing he did was ascend, carrying a clear, steady light toward the summit. From the heights he could see how the long dark had spread across the lower land, filling the valleys and softening the edges of the hills below. He understood at once that height was not only for escape. It was for placement. Light left on the ground could be covered. Light set on the old stones and the high places of Holyhead Mountain could be seen from farther away and was harder for the night to smother.
The wisest of the five beasts
He is the wisest of the five because the ground that awakened him remembers the most. He does not climb every height. He climbs the ones that matter — the ridges of Holyhead Mountain, the places that have held power longest, the ground that still rewards those who treat it with care. He carries pure light to those points and leaves it where it can endure. There is no haste in him and no desire except to help return Ynys Môn to the brightness the long dark has tried to take. On the mountain he is strongest. The stones and the high paths recognise him and lend him their memory, so each climb is guided by more than strength.
There were nights when the dark pressed so closely that even the summit grew faint. On those nights Eirgawr did not remain below. He climbed until he reached the last clear air above the mountain, and he stayed there, holding the light steady while the night moved beneath him. He learned which places would keep what he brought and which would only hold it for a little while. He wasted nothing. When he descended he left the brightness exactly where it would do the most good, and Holyhead Mountain kept a memory of his passage.
When he first looked at the others, the light in his eye grew suddenly clearer and brighter. He knew then what the stones had intended. Five lights had been raised from different ground, each with a different way of reaching. He had been awakened to climb and to understand. The others had been made to run, to leap, to gather, and to move through water. Together they were the single answer Ynys Môn had shaped against the long dark — not five separate efforts, but one light carried in five forms, meant to meet and move as one.
Eirgawr in The Long Dark game
In our free Welsh mythology game The Long Dark you can play as Eirgawr himself. Just as in the story, he is the climber of the five beasts — slow, sure and immensely strong — and his gift is the ice cloud: he shapes frozen platforms from the cold air itself, placing brightness exactly where it will endure, just as he does on the mountain. Choose him at the start of a run and the journey leads to Holyhead Mountain, where the ancient stones recognise him and every climb is guided by their memory.
Read his full legend on the Eirgawr lore page, send someone an Eirgawr e-card with this artwork, or climb his mountain yourself on the Eirgawr walk, part of our free Anglesey walking trails.