There’s something unsettling about a frog emerging from a church wall. Something that doesn’t quite sit right—like a wrongness carved into the stone itself.
My latest limited edition print, The Devil Visits Llandewi Brefi, brings to life one of the most striking tales of witchcraft I’ve encountered from Cardiganshire. It’s a story recorded in the early 1800s, the kind that makes you pause and wonder what desperation or defiance drove people to such acts.
The Tale of Beelze-Frog
Two elderly women attended morning service at Llanddewi Brefi Church. They took Holy Communion alongside the other parishioners, but instead of swallowing the sacred bread, they kept it hidden in their mouths. Once outside, they began to walk around the church—one circuit, then another, counting their steps in silence.
Nine times they circled that holy ground.
On the ninth circuit, something emerged from the church wall. Not in fire or shadow, but in the form of a frog. The Evil One himself, they said. To this creature they gave the consecrated bread from their mouths, completing an unholy exchange. By this act, they were believed to have sold themselves to Satan, entering into his service as witches.
Where Darkness Meets the Ordinary
I’ve always been drawn to folklore with a darker edge—the kind that lingers in the margins of history, half-whispered and half-forgotten. Frogs, like snakes, scorpions, ravens, and black cats, have long been seen as harbingers of doom, creatures that exist in that uncomfortable space between the natural and the supernatural.
What strikes me about this particular story is how it takes the most ordinary elements—a church service, communion, two elderly women—and twists them into something sinister. It’s in these shadowed places that you glimpse something raw, where everyday life touches the strange and unholy.
These small rituals hold a peculiar weight. They feel dangerous and human at the same time. Were they real? Probably not. More likely they were stories conjured to justify suspicion, to explain away something that couldn’t otherwise be understood. But that’s precisely what makes them compelling.
The Print
The Devil Visits Llandewi Brefi measures 210 x 297mm, printed on 300gsm paper in a limited edition run. Each print is a hand-carved exploration of this tale—every line and texture deliberately placed to capture the meeting of the sacred and the profane.
And if you look closely, you might spot something hidden in the design. How many 6’s can you find? It’s a small detail, but then again, the devil has always been in those.
Hwyl fawr for now.
Dan
Daniel Thorne 
Leave a comment