Legends associate the cyhyraeth with the area around the River Tywi in eastern Dyfed, as well as the coast of Glamorganshire.
[3] An alternative possibility is that cyhyr is from cyoer, from oer "cold", with the last element being the noun aeth meaning "pain", "woe", "grief", "fear".
[4] Alternatively, the final element could simply be the nominal suffix -aeth (roughly equivalent to English -ness or -ity).
[5] The legend of the cyhyraeth is sometimes conflated with tales of the Gwrach-y-Rhibyn[6] (pronounced [ˈɡwrɑːx ə ˈr̩ibɨn]) or Hag of the Mist, a monstrous Welsh spirit in the shape of a hideously ugly woman – a Welsh saying, to describe a woman without good looks, goes, "Y mae mor salw â Gwrach y Rhibyn" (she is as ugly as the Gwrach y Rhibyn)[7] – with a harpy-like appearance: unkempt hair and wizened, withered arms with leathery wings, long black teeth and pale corpse-like features.
She is the wife of Afagddu, the despised son of Ceridwen and Tegid Foel, in some retellings of the Taliesin myth.