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BRITISH GOBLINS:
_WELSH FOLK-LORE, FAIRY MYTHOLOGY,
LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS._
BY
WIRT SIKES,
UNITED STATES CONSUL FOR WALES.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY T. H. THOMAS.
In olde dayes of the Kyng Arthour ...
Al was this lond fulfilled of fayrie.
CHAUCER.
LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET.
1880.
[_All rights reserved._]
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
[Illustration: THE OLD WOMAN OF THE MOUNTAIN.]
TO
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS,
ALBERT EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES,
THIS ACCOUNT OF
THE FAIRY MYTHOLOGY AND FOLK-LORE
OF HIS PRINCIPALITY
IS BY PERMISSION DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
In the ground it covers, while this volume deals especially with
Wales, and still more especially with South Wales--where there appear
to have been human dwellers long before North Wales was peopled--it
also includes the border counties, notably Monmouthshire, which,
though severed from Wales by Act of Parliament, is really very Welsh
in all that relates to the past. In Monmouthshire is the decayed
cathedral city of Caerleon, where, according to tradition, Arthur was
crowned king in 508, and where he set up his most dazzling court, as
told in the 'Morte d'Arthur.'
In a certain sense Wales may be spoken of as the cradle of fairy
legend. It is not now disputed that from the Welsh were borrowed many
of the first subjects of composition in the literature of all the
cultivated peoples of Europe.
The Arthur of British history and tradition stands to Welshmen in much
the same light that Alfred the Great stands to Englishmen. Around this
historic or semi-historic Arthur have gathered a throng of shining
legends of fabulous sort, with which English readers are more or less
familiar. An even grander figure is the Arthur who existed in Welsh
mythology before the birth of the warrior-king. The mythic Arthur, it
is presumed, began his shadowy life in pre-historic ages, and grew
progressively in mythologic story, absorbing at a certain period the
personality of the real Arthur, and becoming the type of romantic
chivalry. A similar state of things is indicated with regard to the
enchanter Merlin; there was a mythic Merlin before the real Merlin was
born at Carmarthen.
With the rich mass of legendary lore to which these figures belong,
the present volume is not intended to deal; nor do its pages treat,
save in the most casual and passing manner, of the lineage and
original significance of the lowly goblins which are its theme. The
questions here involved, and the task of adequately treating them,
belong to the comparative mythologist and the critical historian,
rather than to the mere literary workman.
UNITED STATES CONSULATE, CARDIFF,
_August, 1879_.
CONTENTS.
BOOK I.
THE REALM OF FAERIE.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Fairy Tales and the Ancient Mythology--The Compensations
of Science--Existing Belief in Fairies in Wales--The
Faith of Culture--The Credulity of Ignorance--The
Old-Time Welsh Fairyland--The Fairy King--The Legend of
St. Collen and Gwyn ap Nudd--The Green Meadows of the
Sea--Fairies at Market--The Land of Mystery 1
CHAPTER II.
Classification of Welsh Fairies--General
Designation--Habits of the Tylwyth Teg--Ellyllon, or
Elves--Shakspeare's Use of Welsh Folk-Lore--Rowli Pugh
and the Ellyll--Household Story Roots--The
Ellylldan--The Pooka--Puck Valley, Breconshire--Where
Shakspeare got his Puck--Pwca'r Trwyn--Usual Form of the
Pooka Story--Coblynau, or Mine Fairies--The
Knockers--Miners' Superstitions--Basilisks and Fire
Fiends--A Fairy Coal-mine--The Dwarfs of Cae
Caled--Counterparts of the Coblynau--The Bwbach, or
Household Fairy--Legend of the Bwbach and the
Preacher--Bogies and Hobgoblins--Carrying Mortals
through the Air--Counterparts and Originals 11
CHAPTER III.
Lake Fairies--The Gwragedd Annwn, or Dames of
Elfin-Land--St. Patrick and the Welshmen; a Legend of
Crumlyn Lake--The Elfin Cow of Llyn Barfog--Y Fuwch
Laethwen Lefrith--The Legend of the Meddygon
Myddfai--The Wife of Supernatural Race--The Three Blows;
a Carmarthenshire Legend--Cheese and the Didactic
Purpose in Welsh Folk-Lore--The Fairy Maiden's Papa--The
Enchanted Isle in the Mountain Lake--Legend of the Men
of Ardudwy--Origin of Water Fairies--Their prevalence in
many Lands 34
CHAPTER IV.
Mountain Fairies--The Gwyllion--The Old Woman of the
Mountain--The Black Mountain Gwyll--Exorcism by
Knife--Occult Intellectual Powers of Welsh Goats--The
Legend of Cadwaladr's Goat 49
CHAPTER V.
Changelings--The Plentyn-newid--The Cruel Creed of
Ignorance regarding Changelings--Modes of Ridding the
House of the Fairy Child--The Legend of the Frugal
Meal--Legend of the Place of Strife--Dewi Dal and the
Fairies--Prevention of Fairy Kidnapping--Fairies caught
in the Act by Mothers--Piety as an Exorcism 56
CHAPTER VI.
Living with the Tylwyth Teg--The Tale of Elidurus--Shui
Rhys and the Fairies--St. Dogmell's Parish,
Pembrokeshire--Dancing with the Ellyllon--The Legend of
Rhys and Llewellyn--Death from joining in the Fairy
Reel--Legend of the Bush of Heaven--The Forest of the
Magic Yew--The Tale of Twm and Iago--Taffy ap Sion, a
Legend of Pencader--The Traditions of Pant Shon
Shenkin--Tudur of Llangollen; the Legend of Nant yr
Ellyllon--Polly Williams and the Trefethin Elves--The
Fairies of Frennifawr--Curiosity Tales--The Fiend
Master--Iago ap Dewi--The Original of Rip Van Winkle 65
CHAPTER VII.
Fairy Music--Birds of Enchantment--The Legend of Shon ap
Shenkin--Harp-Music in Welsh Fairy Tales--Legend of the
Magic Harp--Songs and Tunes of the Tylwyth Teg--The
Legend of Iolo ap Hugh--Mystic Origin of an old Welsh
Air 91
CHAPTER VIII.
Fairy Rings--The Prophet Jones and his Works--The
Mysterious Language of the Tylwyth Teg--The Horse in
Welsh Folk-Lore--Equestrian Fairies--Fairy Cattle,
Sheep, Swine, etc.--The Flying Fairies of Bedwellty--The
Fairy Sheepfold at Cae'r Cefn 103
CHAPTER IX.
Piety as a Protection from the Seductions of the Tylwyth
Teg--Various Exorcisms--Cock-crowing--The Name of
God--Fencing off the Fairies--Old Betty Griffith and her
Eithin Barricade--Means of Getting Rid of the Tylwyth
Teg--The Bwbach of the Hendrefawr Farm--The Pwca'r
Trwyn's Flitting in a Jug of Barm 112
CHAPTER X.
Fairy Money and Fairy Gifts in General--The Story of
Gitto Bach, or Little Griffith--The Penalty of
Blabbing--Legends of the Shepherds of Cwm Llan--The
Money Value of Kindness--Ianto Llewellyn and the Tylwyth
Teg--The Legend of Hafod Lwyddog--Lessons inculcated by
these Superstitions 119
CHAPTER XI.
Origins of Welsh Fairies--The Realistic Theory--Legend
of the Baron's Gate--The Red Fairies--The Trwyn Fairy a
Proscribed Nobleman--The Theory of hiding Druids--Colour
in Welsh Fairy Attire--The Green Lady of
Caerphilly--White the favourite Welsh Hue--Legend of the
Prolific Woman--The Poetico-Religious Theory--The Creed
of Science 127
BOOK II.
THE SPIRIT-WORLD.
CHAPTER I.
Modern Superstition regarding Ghosts--American
'Spiritualism'--Welsh Beliefs--Classification of Welsh
Ghosts--Departed Mortals--Haunted Houses--Lady
Stradling's Ghost--The Haunted Bridge--The Legend of
Catrin Gwyn--Didactic Purpose in Cambrian
Apparitions--An Insulted Corpse--Duty-performing
Ghosts--Laws of the Spirit-World--Cadogan's Ghost 137
CHAPTER II.
Household Ghosts and Hidden Treasures--The Miser of St.
Donat's--Anne Dewy's Ghost--The Ghost on
Horseback--Hidden Objects of Small Value--Transportation
through the Air--From Breconshire to Philadelphia, Pa.,
in Thirty-Six Hours--Sir David Llwyd, the Magician--The
Levitation of Walter Jones--Superstitions regarding
Hares--The Legend of Monacella's Lambs--Aerial
Transportation in Modern Spiritualism--Exorcising
Household Ghosts--The Story of Haunted Margaret 151
CHAPTER III.
Spectral Animals--The Chained Spirit--The Gwyllgi, or
Dog of Darkness--The Legend of Lisworney-Crossways--The
Gwyllgi of the Devil's Nags--The Dog of Pant y
Madog--Terrors of the Brute Creation at
Phantoms--Apparitions of Natural Objects--Phantom Ships
and Phantom Islands 167
CHAPTER IV.
Grotesque Ghosts--The Phantom Horseman--Gigantic
Spirits--The Black Ghost of Ffynon yr Yspryd--Black Men
in the Mabinogion--Whirling Ghosts--Antic Spirits--The
Tridoll Valley Ghost--Resemblance to Modern
Spiritualistic Performances--Household Fairies 174
CHAPTER V.
Familiar Spirits--The Famous Sprite of Trwyn Farm--Was
it a Fairy?--The Familiar Spirits of Magicians--Sir
David Llwyd's Demon--Familiar Spirits in Female
Form--The Legend of the Lady of the Wood--The Devil as a
Familiar Spirit--His Disguises in this
Character--Summoning and Exorcising Familiars--Jenkin
the Pembrokeshire Schoolmaster--The Terrible Tailor of
Glanbran 187
CHAPTER VI.
The Evil Spirit in his customary Form--The stupid
Medieval Devil in Wales--Sion Cent--The Devil
outwitted--Pacts with the Fiend and their
Avoidance--Sion Dafydd's Foul Pipe--The Devil's Bridge
and its Legends--Similar Legends in other Lands--The
Devil's Pulpit near Tintern--Angelic Spirits--Welsh
Superstitions as to pronouncing the Name of the Evil
Spirit--The Bardic Tradition of the Creation--The
Struggle between Light and Darkness and its
Symbolization 202
CHAPTER VII.
Cambrian Death-Portents--The Corpse-Bird--The
Tan-Wedd--Listening at the Church-Door--The
Lledrith--The Gwrach y Rhibyn--The Llandaff
Gwrach--Ugliness of this Female Apparition--The Black
Maiden--The Cyhyraeth, or Crying Spirit--Its Moans on
Land and Sea--The St. Mellons Cyhyraeth--The Groaning
Spirit of Bedwellty 212
CHAPTER VIII.
The Tolaeth Death Portent--Its various Forms--The
Tolaeth before Death--Ewythr Jenkin's Tolaeth--A modern
Instance--The Railway Victim's Warning--The Goblin
Voice--The Voice from the Cloud--Legend of the Lord and
the Beggar--The Goblin Funeral--The Horse's Skull--The
Goblin Veil--The Wraith of Llanllwch--Dogs of Hell--The
Tale of Pwyll--Spiritual Hunting Dogs--Origin of the Cwn
Annwn 225
CHAPTER IX.
The Corpse Candle--Its Peculiarities--The Woman of
Caerau--Grasping a Corpse Candle--The Crwys
Candle--Lights issuing from the Mouth--Jesting with the
Canwyll Corph--The Candle at Pontfaen--The Three Candles
at Golden Grove--Origin of Death-Portents in
Wales--Degree of Belief prevalent at the Present
Day--Origin of Spirits in General--The Supernatural--The
Question of a Future Life 238
BOOK III.
QUAINT OLD CUSTOMS.
CHAPTER I.
Serious Significance of seemingly Trivial Customs--Their
Origins--Common Superstitions--The Age we Live in--Days
and Seasons--New Year's Day--The Apple Gift--Lucky Acts
on New Year's Morning--The First Foot--Showmen's
Superstitions--Levy Dew Song--Happy New Year
Carol--Twelfth Night--The Mari Lwyd--The Penglog--The
Cutty Wren--Tooling and Sowling--St. Valentine's
Day--St. Dewi's Day--The Wearing of the Leek--The
Traditional St. David--St. Patrick's Day--St. Patrick a
Welshman--Shrove Tuesday 250
CHAPTER II.
Sundry Lenten Customs--Mothering Sunday--Palm
Sunday--Flowering Sunday--Walking Barefoot to
Church--Spiritual Potency of Buns--Good Friday
Superstitions--Making Christ's Bed--Bad Odour of
Friday--Unlucky Days--Holy Thursday--The Eagle of
Snowdon--New Clothing at Easter--Lifting--The Crown of
Porcelain--Stocsio--Ball-Playing in Churchyards--The
Tump of Lies--Dancing in Churchyards--Seeing the Sun
Dance--Calan Ebrill, or All Fools' Day--May Day--The
Welsh Maypole--The Daughter of Lludd Llaw
Ereint--Carrying the Kings of Summer and Winter 266
CHAPTER III.
Midsummer Eve--The Druidic Ceremonies at Pontypridd--The
Snake Stone--Beltane Fires--Fourth of July Fires in
America--St. Ulric's Day--Carrying Cynog--Marketing on
Tombstones--The First Night of Winter--The Three Nights
for Spirits--The Tale of Thomas Williams the
Preacher--All Hallows Eve Festivities--Running through
Fire--Quaint Border Rhymes--The Puzzling Jug--Bobbing
for Apples--The Fiery Features of Guy Fawkes' Day--St.
Clement's Day--Stripping the Carpenter 277
CHAPTER IV.
Nadolig, the Welsh
Christmas--Bell-Ringing--Carols--Dancing to the Music of
the Waits--An Evening in Carmarthenshire--Shenkin Harry,
the Preacher, and the Jig Tune--Welsh
Morality--Eisteddfodau--Decorating Houses and
Churches--The Christmas Thrift-box--The Colliers'
Star--The Plygain--Pagan Origin of Christmas Customs 286
CHAPTER V.
Courtship and Marriage--Planting Weeds and Rue on the
Graves of Old Bachelors--Special Significance of Flowers
in connection with Virginity--The Welsh Venus--Bundling,
or Courting Abed--Kissing Schools--Rhamanta--Lovers'
Superstitions--The Maid's Trick--Dreaming on a Mutton
Bone--Wheat and Shovel--Garters in a Lovers'
Knot--Egg-Shell Cake--Sowing Leeks--Twca and Sheath 298
CHAPTER VI.
Wedding Customs--The Bidding--Forms of Cymmhorth--The
Gwahoddwr--Horse-Weddings--Stealing a
Bride--Obstructions to the Bridal Party--The
Gwyntyn--Chaining--Evergreen Arches--Strewing
Flowers--Throwing Rice and Shoes--Rosemary in the
Garden--Names after Marriage--The Coolstrin--The Ceffyl
Pren 306
CHAPTER VII.
Death and Burial--The Gwylnos--Beer-drinking at Welsh
Funerals--Food and Drink over the Coffin--Sponge Cakes
at Modern Funerals--The Sin-eater--Welsh Denial that
this Custom ever existed--The Testimony concerning
it--Superstitions regarding Salt--Plate of Salt on
Corpse's Breast--The Scapegoat--The St. Tegla Cock and
Hen--Welsh Funeral Processions--Praying at
Cross-roads--Superstition regarding Criminals'
Graves--Hanging and Welsh Prejudice--The Grassless
Grave--Parson's Penny, or Offrwm--Old Shoes to the
Clerk--Arian y Rhaw, or Spade Money--Burials without
Coffin--The Sul Coffa--Planting and Strewing Graves with
Flowers 321
BOOK IV.
BELLS, WELLS, STONES, AND DRAGONS.
CHAPTER I.
Base of the Primeval Mythology--Bells and their
Ghosts--The Bell that committed Murder and was damned
for it--The Occult Powers of Bells--Their Work as
Detectives, Doctors, etc.--Legend of the Bell of
Rhayader--St. Illtyd's Wonderful Bell--The Golden Bell
of Llandaff 338
CHAPTER II.
Mystic Wells--Their Good and Bad Dispositions--St.
Winifred's Well--The Legend of St.
Winifred--Miracles--St. Tecla's Well--St.
Dwynwen's--Curing Love-sickness--St. Cynfran's--St.
Cynhafal's--Throwing Pins in Wells--Warts--Barry Island
and its Legends--Ffynon Gwynwy--Propitiatory Gifts to
Wells--The Dreadful Cursing Well of St. Elian's--Wells
Flowing with Milk--St. Illtyd's--Taff's Well--Sanford's
Well--Origins of Superstitions of this Class 345
CHAPTER III.
Personal Attributes of Legendary Welsh Stones--Stone
Worship--Canna's Stone Chair--Miraculous Removals of
Stones--The Walking Stone of Eitheinn--The Thigh
Stone--The Talking Stone in Pembrokeshire--The Expanding
Stone--Magic Stones in the 'Mabinogion'--The Stone of
Invisibility--The Stone of Remembrance--Stone
Thief-catchers--Stones of Healing--Stones at
Cross-roads--Memorials of King Arthur--Round Tables,
Carns, Pots, etc.--Arthur's Quoits--The Gigantic
Rock-tossers of Old--Mol Walbec and the Pebble in her
Shoe--The Giant of Trichrug--Giants and the Mythology of
the Heavens--The Legend of Rhitta Gawr 361
CHAPTER IV.
Early Inscribed Stones--The Stone Pillar of Banwan
Bryddin, near Neath--Catastrophe accompanying its
Removal--The Sagranus Stone and the White Lady--The
Dancing Stones of Stackpool--Human Beings changed to
Stones--St. Ceyna and the Serpents--The Devil's Stone at
Llanarth--Rocking Stones and their accompanying
Superstitions--The Suspended Altar of
Loin-Garth--Cromlechs and their Fairy Legends--The
Fairies' Castle at St. Nicholas, Glamorganshire--The
Stone of the Wolf Bitch--The Welsh
Melusina--Parc-y-Bigwrn Cromlech--Connection of these
Stones with Ancient Druidism 373
CHAPTER V.
Baleful Spirits of Storm--The Shower at the Magic
Fountain--Obstacles in the way of Treasure-Seekers--The
Red Lady of Paviland--The Fall of Coychurch
Tower--Thunder and Lightning evoked by Digging--The
Treasure-Chest under Moel Arthur in the Vale of
Clwyd--Modern Credulity--The Cavern of the Ravens--The
Eagle-guarded Coffer of Castell Coch--Sleeping Warriors
as Treasure-Guarders--The Dragon which St. Samson drove
out of Wales--Dragons in the Mabinogion--Whence came the
Red Dragon of Wales?--The Original Dragon of
Mythology--Prototypes of the Welsh Caverns and
Treasure-Hills--The Goblins of Electricity 385
[Illustration: {FAIRIES.}]
BRITISH GOBLINS.
BOOK I.
THE REALM OF FAERIE.
At eve, the primrose path along,
The milkmaid shortens with a song
Her solitary way;
She sees the fairies with their queen
Trip hand-in-hand the circled green,
And hears them raise, at times unseen,
The ear-enchanting lay.
REV. JOHN LOGAN: _Ode to Spring_, 1780.
CHAPTER I.
Fairy Tales and the Ancient Mythology--The Compensations of
Science--Existing Belief in Fairies in Wales--The Faith of
Culture--The Credulity of Ignorance--The Old-Time Welsh
Fairyland--The Fairy King--The Legend of St. Collen and Gwyn
ap Nudd--The Green Meadows of the Sea--Fairies at
Market--The Land of Mystery.
I.
With regard to other divisions of the field of folk-lore, the views of
scholars differ, but in the realm of faerie these differences are
reconciled; it is agreed that fairy tales are relics of the ancient
mythology; and the philosophers stroll hand in hand harmoniously. This
is as it should be, in a realm about which cluster such delightful
memories of the most poetic period of life--childhood, before
scepticism has crept in as ignorance slinks out. The knowledge which
introduced scepticism is infinitely more valuable than the faith it
displaced; but, in spite of that, there be few among us who have not
felt evanescent regrets for the displacement by the _foi scientifique_
of the old faith in fairies. There was something so peculiarly
fascinating in that old belief, that 'once upon a time' the world was
less practical in its facts than now, less commonplace and humdrum,
less subject to the inexorable laws of gravitation, optics, and the
like. What dramas it has yielded! What poems, what dreams, what
delights!
But since the knowledge of our maturer years destroys all that, it is
with a degree of satisfaction we can turn to the consolations of the
fairy mythology. The beloved tales of old are 'not true'--but at least
they are not mere idle nonsense, and they have a good and sufficient
reason for being in the world; we may continue to respect them. The
wit who observed that the final cause of fairy legends is 'to afford
sport for people who ruthlessly track them to their origin,'[1]
expressed a grave truth in jocular form. Since one can no longer rest
in peace with one's ignorance, it is a comfort to the lover of fairy
legends to find that he need not sweep them into the grate as so much
rubbish; on the contrary they become even more enchanting in the
crucible of science than they were in their old character.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] 'Saturday Review,' October 20, 1877.
II.
Among the vulgar in Wales, the belief in fairies is less nearly
extinct than casual observers would be likely to suppose. Even
educated people who dwell in Wales, and have dwelt there all their
lives, cannot always be classed as other than casual observers in this
field. There are some such residents who have paid special attention
to the subject, and have formed an opinion as to the extent of
prevalence of popular credulity herein; but most Welsh people of the
educated class, I find, have no opinion, beyond a vague surprise that
the question should be raised at all. So lately as the year 1858, a
learned writer in the 'Archaeologia Cambrensis' declared that 'the
traveller may now pass from one end of the Principality to the other,
without his being shocked or amused, as the case may be, by any of the
fairy legends or popular tales which used to pass current from father
to son.' But in the same periodical, eighteen years later, I find Mr.
John Walter Lukis (President of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society),
asserting with regard to the cromlechs, tumuli, and ancient camps in
Glamorganshire: 'There are always fairy tales and ghost stories
connected with them; some, though _fully believed in_ by the
inhabitants of those localities, are often of the most absurd
character; in fact, the more ridiculous they are, the more they are
believed in.'[2] My own observation leads me to support the testimony
of the last-named witness. Educated Europeans generally conceive that
this sort of belief is extinct in their own land, or, at least their
own immediate section of that land. They accredit such degree of
belief as may remain, in this enlightened age, to some remote part--to
the south, if they dwell in the north; to the north, if they dwell in
the south. But especially they accredit it to a previous age: in
Wales, to last century, or the middle ages, or the days of King
Arthur. The rector of Merthyr, being an elderly man, accredits it to
his youth. 'I am old enough to remember,' he wrote me under date of
January 30th, 1877, 'that these tales were thoroughly believed in
among country folk forty or fifty years ago.' People of superior
culture have held this kind of faith concerning fairy-lore, it seems
to me, in every age, except the more remote. Chaucer held it, almost
five centuries ago, and wrote:[3]
In olde dayes of the Kyng Arthour, ...
Al was this lond fulfilled of fayrie; ...
I speke of many hundrid yer ago;
But now can no man see non elves mo.
Dryden held it, two hundred years later, and said of the fairies:
I speak of ancient times, for now the swain
Returning late may pass the woods in vain,
And never hope to see the nightly train.
In all later days, other authors have written the same sort of thing;
it is not thus now, say they, but it was recently thus. The truth,
probably, is that if you will but sink down to the level of common
life, of ignorant life, especially in rural neighbourhoods, there you
will find the same old beliefs prevailing, in about the same degree to
which they have ever prevailed, within the past five hundred years. To
sink to this level successfully, one must become a living unit in that
life, as I have done in Wales and elsewhere, from time to time. Then
one will hear the truth from, or at least the true sentiments of, the
class he seeks to know. The practice of every generation in thus
relegating fairy belief to a date just previous to its own does not
apply, however, to superstitious beliefs in general; for, concerning
many such beliefs, their greater or less prevalence at certain dates
(as in the history of witchcraft) is matter of well-ascertained fact.
I confine the argument, for the present, strictly to the domain of
faerie. In this domain, the prevalent belief in Wales may be said to
rest with the ignorant, to be strongest in rural and mining
districts, to be childlike and poetic, and to relate to anywhere
except the spot where the speaker dwells--as to the next parish, to
the next county, to the distant mountains, or to the shadow-land of
Gwerddonau Llion, the green meadows of the sea.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] 'Archaeologia Cambrensis,' 4th Se., vi., 174.
[3] 'Wyf of Bathes Tale,' 'Canterbury Tales.'
III.
In Arthur's day and before that, the people of South Wales regarded
North Wales as pre-eminently the land of faerie. In the popular
imagination, that distant country was the chosen abode of giants,
monsters, magicians, and all the creatures of enchantment. Out of it
came the fairies, on their visits to the sunny land of the south. The
chief philosopher of that enchanted region was a giant who sat on a
mountain peak and watched the stars. It had a wizard monarch called
Gwydion, who possessed the power of changing himself into the
strangest possible forms. The peasant who dwelt on the shores of Dyfed
(Demetia) saw in the distance, beyond the blue waves of the ocean,
shadowy mountain summits piercing the clouds, and guarding this mystic
region in solemn majesty. Thence rolled down upon him the storm-clouds
from the home of the tempest; thence streamed up the winter sky the
flaming banners of the Northern lights; thence rose through the
illimitable darkness on high, the star-strewn pathway of the fairy
king. These details are current in the Mabinogion, those brilliant
stories of Welsh enchantment, so gracefully done into English by Lady
Charlotte Guest,[4] and it is believed that all the Mabinogion in
which these details were found were written in Dyfed. This was the
region on the west, now covered by Pembroke, Carmarthen, and Cardigan
shires.
More recently than the time above indicated, special traditions have
located fairyland in the Vale of Neath, in Glamorganshire. Especially
does a certain steep and rugged crag there, called Craig y Ddinas,
bear a distinctly awful reputation as a stronghold of the fairy
tribe.[5] Its caves and crevices have been their favourite haunt for
many centuries, and upon this rock was held the court of the last
fairies who have ever appeared in Wales. Needless to say there are men
still living who remember the visits of the fairies to Craig y Ddinas,
although they aver the little folk are no longer seen there. It is a
common remark that the Methodists drove them away; indeed, there are
numberless stories which show the fairies to have been animated, when
they were still numerous in Wales, by a cordial antipathy for all
dissenting preachers. In this antipathy, it may be here observed,
teetotallers were included.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] 'The Mabinogion, from the Welsh of the Llyfr Coch o Hergest.'
Translated, with notes, by Lady Charlotte Guest. (New Edition, London,
1877.)
[5] There are two hills in Glamorganshire called by this name, and
others elsewhere in Wales.
IV.
The sovereign of the fairies, and their especial guardian and
protector, was one Gwyn ap Nudd. He was also ruler over the goblin
tribe in general. His name often occurs in ancient Welsh poetry. An
old bard of the fourteenth century, who, led away by the fairies, rode
into a turf bog on a mountain one dark night, called it the 'fish-pond
of Gwyn ap Nudd, a palace for goblins and their tribe.' The
association of this legendary character with the goblin fame of the
Vale of Neath will appear, when it is mentioned that Nudd in Welsh is
pronounced simply Neath, and not otherwise. As for the fairy queen,
she does not seem to have any existence among Cambrian goblins. It is
nevertheless thought by Cambrian etymologists, that Morgana is derived
from Mor Gwyn, the white maid; and the Welsh proper name Morgan can
hardly fail to be mentioned in this connection, though it is not
necessarily significant.
The legend of St. Collen, in which Gwyn ap Nudd figures, represents
him as king of Annwn (hell, or the shadow land) as well as of the
fairies.[6] Collen was passing a period of mortification as a hermit,
in a cell under a rock on a mountain. There he one day overheard two
men talking about Gwyn ap Nudd, and giving him this twofold kingly
character. Collen cried out to the men to go away and hold their
tongues, instead of talking about devils. For this Collen was rebuked,
as the king of fairyland had an objection to such language. The saint
was summoned to meet the king on the hill-top at noon, and after
repeated refusals, he finally went there; but he carried a flask of
holy water with him. 'And when he came there he saw the fairest castle
he had ever beheld, and around it the best appointed troops, and
numbers of minstrels and every kind of music of voice and string, and
steeds with youths upon them, the comeliest in the world, and maidens
of elegant aspect, sprightly, light of foot, of graceful apparel, and
in the bloom of youth; and every magnificence becoming the court of a
puissant sovereign. And he beheld a courteous man on the top of the
castle who bade him enter, saying that the king was waiting for him to
come to meat. And Collen went into the castle, and when he came there
the king was sitting in a golden chair. And he welcomed Collen
honourably, and desired him to eat, assuring him that besides what he
saw, he should have the most luxurious of every dainty and delicacy
that the mind could desire, and should be supplied with every drink
and liquor that the heart could wish; and that there should be in
readiness for him every luxury of courtesy and service, of banquet and
of honourable entertainment, of rank and of presents, and every
respect and welcome due to a man of his wisdom. "I will not eat the
leaves of the trees," said Collen. "Didst thou ever see men of better
equipment than these of red and blue?" asked the king. "Their
equipment is good enough," said Collen, "for such equipment as it is."
"What kind of equipment is that?" said the king. Then said Collen,
"The red on the one part signifies burning, and the blue on the other
signifies coldness." And with that Collen drew out his flask and threw
the holy water on their heads, whereupon they vanished from his sight,
so that there was neither castle nor troops, nor men, nor maidens, nor
music, nor song, nor steeds, nor youths, nor banquet, nor the
appearance of anything whatever but the green hillocks.'
FOOTNOTE:
[6] 'Greal' (8vo. London, 1805), p. 337.
V.
A third form of Welsh popular belief as to the whereabouts of
fairyland corresponds with the Avalon of the Arthurian legends. The
green meadows of the sea, called in the triads Gwerddonau Llion, are
the
Green fairy islands, reposing,
In sunlight and beauty on ocean's calm breast.[7]
Many extraordinary superstitions survive with regard to these islands.
They were supposed to be the abode of the souls of certain Druids,
who, not holy enough to enter the heaven of the Christians, were still
not wicked enough to be condemned to the tortures of annwn, and so
were accorded a place in this romantic sort of purgatorial paradise.
In the fifth century a voyage was made, by the British king Gavran, in
search of these enchanted islands; with his family he sailed away into
the unknown waters, and was never heard of more. This voyage is
commemorated in the triads as one of the Three Losses by
Disappearance, the two others being Merlin's and Madog's. Merlin
sailed away in a ship of glass; Madog sailed in search of America; and
neither returned, but both disappeared for ever. In Pembrokeshire and
southern Carmarthenshire are to be found traces of this belief. There
are sailors on that romantic coast who still talk of the green meadows
of enchantment lying in the Irish channel to the west of
Pembrokeshire. Sometimes they are visible to the eyes of mortals for a
brief space, when suddenly they vanish. There are traditions of
sailors who, in the early part of the present century, actually went
ashore on the fairy islands--not knowing that they were such, until
they returned to their boats, when they were filled with awe at seeing
the islands disappear from their sight, neither sinking in the sea,
nor floating away upon the waters, but simply vanishing suddenly. The
fairies inhabiting these islands are said to have regularly attended
the markets at Milford Haven and Laugharne. They made their purchases
without speaking, laid down their money and departed, always leaving
the exact sum required, which they seemed to know, without asking the
price of anything. Sometimes they were invisible, but they were often
seen, by sharp-eyed persons. There was always one special butcher at
Milford Haven upon whom the fairies bestowed their patronage, instead
of distributing their favours indiscriminately. The Milford Haven
folk could see the green fairy islands distinctly, lying out a short
distance from land; and the general belief was that they were densely
peopled with fairies. It was also said that the latter went to and fro
between the islands and the shore through a subterranean gallery under
the bottom of the sea.
[Illustration: FAIRIES MARKETING AT LAUGHARNE.]
That isolated cape which forms the county of Pembroke was looked upon
as a land of mystery by the rest of Wales long after it had been
settled by the Flemings in 1113. A secret veil was supposed to cover
this sea-girt promontory; the inhabitants talked in an unintelligible
jargon that was neither English, nor French, nor Welsh; and out of its
misty darkness came fables of wondrous sort, and accounts of miracles
marvellous beyond belief. Mythology and Christianity spoke together
from this strange country, and one could not tell at which to be most
amazed, the pagan or the priest.
FOOTNOTE:
[7] Parry's 'Welsh Melodies.'