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WELSH FOLK-LORE
a collection by the Rev. Elias Owen, M.A., F.S.A.
CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE i
PREFACE iii-vi
INDEX vii-xii
ESSAY 1-352
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS 353-359
WELSH FOLK-LORE
A COLLECTION OF THE
FOLK-TALES AND LEGENDS OF
NORTH WALES
BEING THE PRIZE ESSAY OF THE NATIONAL EISTEDDFOD
1887, BY THE
REV. ELIAS OWEN, M.A, F.S.A.
PREFACE
To this Essay on the "Folk-lore of North Wales," was awarded the first
prize at the Welsh National Eisteddfod, held in London, in 1887. The
prize consisted of a silver medal, and 20 pounds. The adjudicators were
Canon Silvan Evans, Professor Rhys, and Mr Egerton Phillimore, editor of
the _Cymmrodor_.
By an arrangement with the Eisteddfod Committee, the work became the
property of the publishers, Messrs. Woodall, Minshall, & Co., who, at the
request of the author, entrusted it to him for revision, and the present
Volume is the result of his labours.
Before undertaking the publishing of the work, it was necessary to obtain
a sufficient number of subscribers to secure the publishers from loss.
Upwards of two hundred ladies and gentlemen gave their names to the
author, and the work of publication was commenced. The names of the
subscribers appear at the end of the book, and the writer thanks them one
and all for their kind support. It is more than probable that the work
would never have been published had it not been for their kind
assistance. Although the study of Folk-lore is of growing interest, and
its importance to the historian is being acknowledged; still, the
publishing of a work on the subject involved a considerable risk of loss
to the printers, which, however, has been removed in this case, at least
to a certain extent, by those who have subscribed for the work.
The sources of the information contained in this essay are various, but
the writer is indebted, chiefly, to the aged inhabitants of Wales, for
his information. In the discharge of his official duties, as Diocesan
Inspector of Schools, he visited annually, for seventeen years, every
parish in the Diocese of St. Asaph, and he was thus brought into contact
with young and old. He spent several years in Carnarvonshire, and he had
a brother, the Revd. Elijah Owen, M.A., a Vicar in Anglesey, from whom he
derived much information. By his journeys he became acquainted with many
people in North Wales, and he hardly ever failed in obtaining from them
much singular and valuable information of bye-gone days, which there and
then he dotted down on scraps of paper, and afterwards transferred to
note books, which still are in his possession.
It was his custom, after the labour of school inspection was over, to ask
the clergy with whom he was staying to accompany him to the most aged
inhabitants of their parish. This they willingly did, and often in the
dark winter evenings, lantern in hand, they sallied forth on their
journey, and in this way a rich deposit of traditions and superstitions
was struck and rescued from oblivion. Not a few of the clergy were
themselves in full possession of all the quaint sayings and Folk-lore of
their parishes, and they were not loath to transfer them to the writer's
keeping. In the course of this work, the writer gives the names of the
many aged friends who supplied him with information, and also the names
of the clergy who so willingly helped him in his investigations. But so
interesting was the matter obtained from several of his clerical friends,
that he thinks he ought in justice to acknowledge their services in this
preface. First and foremost comes up to his mind, the Rev. R. Jones,
formerly Rector of Llanycil, Bala, but now of Llysfaen, near Abergele.
This gentleman's memory is stored with reminiscences of former days, and
often and again his name occurs in these pages. The Rev. Canon Owen
Jones, formerly Vicar of Pentrefoelas, but now of Bodelwyddan, near Rhyl,
also supplied much interesting information of the people's doings in
former days, and I may state that this gentleman is also acquainted with
Welsh literature to an extent seldom to be met with in the person of an
isolated Welsh parson far removed from books and libraries. To him I am
indebted for the perusal of many MSS. To the Rev. David James, formerly
Rector of Garthbeibio, now of Pennant, and to his predecessor the Rev. W.
E. Jones, Bylchau; the late Rev. Ellis Roberts (Elis Wyn o Wyrfai); the
Rev. M. Hughes, Derwen; the Rev. W. J. Williams, Llanfihangel-Glyn-Myfyr,
and in a great degree to his aged friend, the Rev. E. Evans,
Llanfihangel, near Llanfyllin, whose conversation in and love of Welsh
literature of all kinds, including old Welsh Almanacks, was almost
without limit, and whose knowledge and thorough sympathy with his
countrymen made his company most enjoyable. To him and to all these
gentlemen above named, and to others, whose names appear in the body of
this work, the writer is greatly indebted, and he tenders his best thanks
to them all.
The many books from which quotations are made are all mentioned in
connection with the information extracted from their pages.
Welsh Folk-lore is almost inexhaustible, and in these pages the writer
treats of only one branch of popular superstitions. Ancient customs are
herein only incidentally referred to, but they are very interesting, and
worthy of a full description. Superstitions associated with particular
days and seasons are also omitted. Weather signs are passed over, Holy
wells around which cluster superstitions of bye-gone days form no part of
this essay. But on all these, and other branches of Folk-lore, the
author has collected much information from the aged Welsh peasant, and
possibly some day in the uncertain future he may publish a continuation
of the present volume.
He has already all but finished a volume on the Holy Wells of North
Wales, and this he hopes to publish at no very distance period.
The author has endeavoured in all instances to give the names of his
informants, but often and again, when pencil and paper were produced, he
was requested not to mention in print the name of the person who was
speaking to him. This request was made, not because the information was
incorrect, but from false delicacy; still, in every instance, the writer
respected this request. He, however, wishes to state emphatically that
he has authority for every single bit of Folk-lore recorded. Very often
his work was merely that of a translator, for most of his information,
derived from the people, was spoken in Welsh, but he has given in every
instance a literal rendering of the narrative, just as he heard it,
without embellishments or additions of any kind whatsoever.
ELIAS OWEN
_Llanyblodwel Vicarage_,
_St. Mark's Day_, _1896_.
INDEX
Aberhafesp, Spirit in Church of 169
_Angelystor_, announcing deaths 170
AEschylus' Cave-dwellers 113
_Annwn_, _Gwragedd_ 3 134
Annwn, Plant 3
Antagonism between Pagan faiths 160 161 181
_Animal Folk-Lore_ 308-352
Ass 337
Bee 337-340
Birds Singing 310
Flocking 310
Blind worm 352
Cat 321 323 340-342
Cow 129-137 342
Crow 304 314-315
Crane 321
Crickets 342-3
Cuckoo 317-321
Cock 310 321
Duck 321
Eagle 321
Flying Serpent 349
Frog 281
Fox 193
Goose 304 305 312
Goatsucker 322
Haddock 345
Hare 343-345
Heron 321 323
Hen 305 322
Hedgehog 345
Horse 346
Jackdaw 324
Ladybird 347
Magpie 324-327
Mice 348
Mole 348
Owl 304 327
Peacock 327
Pigeon 327
Pigs 348
Raven 304 328
Rook, Crow 304 314 316 316
Robin Redbreast 329 332
Seagull 329 330
Sawyer, Tit 331
Snakes 348-350
Slowworm 352
Sheep 351
Swallow 330 331
Swan 331
Swift 331
Spider 351
Squirrel 351
Tit-Major 331
Woodpigeon 333-336
Woodpecker 336
Wren 331-333
Yellowhammer 337
All Hallow Eve, Nos Glan Gaua 95
Spirits abroad 138-9 168-70
Divination on 280-1 286 288-9
Apparitions 181-209 293-297
Applepip divination 290
Arawn 128
_Avanc_ 133
"_Bardd Cwsg_, _Y_" 144 284 285
Baring-Gould--Spirit leaving body 293
Piper of Hamelin 307
Beaumaris spirit tale 293
Bell, Hand, used at funerals 171-2
Corpse 172
Passing 171-2
Veneration for 172
Devil afraid of 171
Ringing at storms 173
Spirits flee before sound of 173
Bella Fawr, a witch 223
Betty'r Bont, a witch 236 240
Belief in witchcraft 217
Bennion, Doctor 216
Bees, Buying a hive of 337
Swarming 338
Strange swarm 339
Deserting hive 339
Hive in roof of house 339
Informing bees of a death 339
Putting bees into mourning 340
Stolen 340
_Bendith y Mamau_ 2
Bible, a talisman 151 245 248
Bible and key divination 288
Bingley's North Wales--Knockers 121
Birds singing in the night 305
before February 310
Flocking in early Autumn 310
Feathers of 310
Blindworm 352
Boy taken to Fairyland 48
_Brenhin Llwyd_ 142
Bryn Eglwys Man and Fairies 36
"_British Goblins_," Fairy dances 94 97
"_Brython_, _Y_," Fairies' revels 95
Burne's, Miss, Legend of White Cow 131-2
Burns, Old Nick in Kirk 168
Nut divination 289
_Canwyll Corph_, see Corpse Candle,
Canoe in Llyn Llydaw 28
Card-playing 147-151
Cat, Fable of 323
Black, unlucky, &c 321 341
indicates weather 340
Black, drives fevers away 341
May, brings snakes to house 341
Witches taking form of 224
Caesar's reference to Celtic Superstitions 277 310 343
_Careg-yr-Yspryd_ 212
_Careg Gwr Drwg_ 190
Caellwyngrydd Spirit 214
Cave-dwellers 112-13
_Ceffyl y Dwfr_, the Water Horse 138-141
_Cetyn y Tylwyth Teg_ 109
Ceridwen 234
Cerrig-y-drudion Spirit Tale 294
Cerrig-y-drudion, Legend of Church 132
_Ceubren yr Ellyll_, Legend of 191
Changelings, Fairy 51-63
Churches built on Pagan sites 160
Mysterious removal of 174-181
Chaucer on Fairies 89
Charms 238-9 258 262 276
Charm for Shingles 262-3
Toothache 264-266
Whooping Cough 266
Fits 266
Fighting Cocks 267 312
Asthma 267
Warts 267-8
Stye 268
Quinsy 268
Wild wart 268
Rheumatism 269
Ringworm 269
Cattle 269-272
Stopping bleeding 272
Charm with Snake's skin 273
Rosemary 273-4
Charm for making Servants reliable 272
Sweethearts 281
Charm of Conjurors 239-254
Charm for Clefyd y Galon, or Heart Disease 274
_Clefyd yr Ede Wlan_, or Yarn Sickness 275
Christmas Eve, free from Spirits 192
Churns witched 238
_Clefyd y Galon_ 274
_Clefyd yr Ede Wlan_ 275
Crickets in House lucky 342
Deserting house unlucky 343
Crane, see Heron
_Coblynau_, Knockers 112-121
_Coel Ede Wlan_, or Yarn Test 283
Corpse Candle 298-300
Cock, unlawful to eat 343
Devil in form of 310
Offering of 311
Crowing of, at doors 311
Crowing at night 298
Crowing drives Spirits away 311
Charm for Fighting 312
White, unlucky 321 341
Crow 304 314 315
Conjurors 251-262
Charms of 239 254 258-260
Tricks of 255 257 260-1
Cow, Dun 129 131 137
Legend of White 131
Freckled 130-1
Fairy Stray 134-137
Witched 243
_Cyhyraeth_, Death Sound 302
Cynon's Ghost 212
Cuckoo Superstitions 317-321
_Cwn Annwn_ 125-129
Dancing with Fairies 36-39
Davydd ab Gwilym and the Fairies 3 24
Death Portents 297-307
_Deryn Corph_, Corpse Bird 297
Devil 143-192
Devil's Tree 185
Bridge 190
Kitchen 190
Cave 191
Door 170
Destruction of Foxes 193
Dick Spot 212 255 256
Dick the Fiddler 84
Divination 279-290
Candle and Pin 287
_Coel Ede Wlan_, or Yarn Test 283
Frog stuck with Pins 281
Grass 288
Hemp Seed 286
Holly Tree 288
Key and Bible 288
Lovers' 289-90
Nut 289
Pullet's Egg 286
Snail 280
St. John's Wort 280
_Troi Crysau_, Clothes Drying 285
_Twca_, or Knife 284
Washing at Brook 285
Water in Basin 287
Dogs, Hell 125 127
Sky 125 127
Fairy 49 81 83 125
Dwarfs of Cae Caled 97
Droich 113-121
_Dyn Hysbys_ 209 259
_Drychiolaeth_, Spectre 301 302
Eagle, Superstitions about 263-4 321
_Erdion Banawg_ 131
_Ellyll_ 3 4 111 191
_Dan_ 112
_Ellyllon_, _Menyg_ 111
_Bwyd_ 111
Elf Dancers of _Cae Caled_ 98-100
Stones 110
Shots 110-11
Elidorus, the Fairies and 32-35
Epiphany 285-6
Evil Eye 219
Fable of Heron, Cat, and Bramble 323
Magpie and Woodpigeon 335
Robin Redbreast 329
Sea Gull 329
Famous Witches--
Betty'r Bont 236 240
Bella Fawr 223
Moll White 229 232
Pedws Ffoulk 242
Fabulous Animals, see Mythic Beings
Fairies, Origin of 1 2 35 36
Chaucer's reference to 89
Shakespeare's reference to 72 96 97
Milton's reference to 86
Fairies inveigling Men 36-44
Working for Men 85-87
Carrying Men in the air 100-102
in Markets and Fairs 108
Binding Men 112
Children offered to Satan by 63
Love of Truth 35
Grateful 72
Fairy Animals 81-3 124-5 129-132
Dances 87-97
Tricks 100-103
Knockers 112-124
Ladies marrying Men 5-24
Changelings 51-63
Implements 109-112
Men captured 104-107
Mothers and Human Midwives 63-67
Money 82-84
Riches and Gifts 72-81
Visits to human abodes 68-71
Families descended from 6 28
Fetch 294
Fire God 152
Fish, Satan in 153
Flying Serpent 349
Foxglove 111
Frog Divination 281
_Fuwch Frech_ 129-132
_Gyfeiliorn_ 129 134-137
_Ffynnon y Fuwch Frech_ 130
_Elian_ 216
_Oer_ 223
Gay, Nut divination 289
Giraldus Cambrensis 27 32 182
reference to Witches 233-236
Ghost, see Spirit
Ghost in Cerrigydrudion Church 132
Aberhafesp Church 169
Powis Castle 204
revealing Treasures 202
at Gloddaeth 193-4
Nannau Park 191
Tymawr 195
Frith Farm 196
Pontyglyn 197
Ystrad Fawr 197-8
Ty Felin 198
Llandegla 199
Llanidloes 199-200
Llawryglyn 348
Clwchdyrnog 202
Llanwddyn 212
David Salisbury's 201
Cynon's 212
Squire Griffiths' 200
Sir John Wynne's 211
Raising 215
Visiting the Earth 192
Glain Nadroedd 350
Goat-sucker 322
Goblins, different kinds of 5 97
Golden Chair 77
Goose flying over House 304
laying small egg 305
egg laying 312
Gossamer 112
_Gwiber_, Flying Serpent 349
_Gwion Bach_ 234
_Gwragedd Annwn_ 3
_Gwrach y Rhibyn_ 142
_Gwr Cyfarwydd_ 38 55 257 259
_Gwyddelod_ 80
_Gwyll_ 4
_Gwylliaid Cochion_ 4 5 6 25 26
Haddock, why so marked 345
Hag, Mist 142
Hare 227-230 236 343-345
crossing the road 230
Caesar's reference to 343
Giraldus Cambrensis on hags changing themselves to 233
hares
Man changed to a 236
Witch hunted in form of 230-233
Witch shot in the form of 228
S. Monacella, the patroness of hares 345
Harper and Fairies 91
Hedgehog sucking Cows 345
fee for destroying the 346
Hen Chrwchwd, a humpbacked fiend 142
Hen laying two eggs 305
March Chickens 322
Sitting 322
Hindu Fairy Tale 6-8
Heron, sign of weather changing 321 323
Fable of 323-4
Horse, Water, a mythic animal 138
White, lucky 346
Headless 155
Shoe Charm 246
Huw Llwyd, Cynfael, and Witches 224-227
Huw Llwyd and Magical Books 252
Hu Gadarn and the Avanc 133
Ignis Fatuus 112
Jackdaw considered sacred 324
_Jack Ffynnon Elian_ 216
Knockers, or Coblynau 4 97
in Mines 112-121
Ladybird, Weather Sign 347
Lady Jeffrey's Spirit 199
Lake Dwellers 27 28
Llanbrynmair Conjuror 258-9
Llangerniew Spirit 170
Llandegla Spirit 199
Llanddona Witches 222-3
Laying Spirits 209-215
Laws against Witches 218
_Llyn y Ddau Ychain Banawg_ 132
Legends--
_Careg Gwr Drwg_ 190
_Ceubren yr Ellyll_ 191
Fairy Changelings 51-63
_Dafydd Hiraddug_ 158-160
Devil's Bridge 190
Freckled Cow, or _Y Fuwch Frech_ 130
Fairy Marriages 5-24
Fairies inveigling Mortals 32-50
Fairies and Midwives 63-67
Flying Snake 349
Removal of Churches 174-181
Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr 10
Ghosts, see Ghost
Spirits, see Spirit
Satan or Devil, see Satan
_Lledrith_, or Spectre 303
_Llysiau Ifan_, St. John's Wort 280
_Llyn y Geulan Goch_ Spirit 162-166
_Llyn Llion_ 133
Magpie teaching Wood Pigeon to make Nest 335
Superstitions 324-327
Magician's Glass 255
Marriages, Fairy 44-48
Man dancing with Fairies 90 91
witnessing a Fairy dance 90 93
taken away by Fairies 32 36 37 101-102
turned into a Hare 236
turned into a Horse 236
May-day Revels 95
Evil Spirits abroad 168
Mermaids 142
Monacella, S. 345
Moles, Weather Sign 318
Moll White, a Witch 229 232
_Meddygon Myddvai_, Physicians 6 23 24
Mythic Beings--
_Avanc_ 133
_Ceffyl y Dwfr_, Water Horse 138
_Cwn Annwn_, Dogs of the Abyss 125
_Cwn Bendith y Mamau_, Fairy Dogs 125
_Cwn Wybir_, Sky Dogs 125 127
Dragon, or Flying Serpent 349-50
Fairies, see Fairy
_Fuwch Frech_, Fairy Cow 129-134
_Fuwch Gyfeiliorn_ 134-137
_Gwrach y Rhibyn_, Mist Hag 142
Knockers, see above
Mermaids and Mermen 142
Torrent Spectre 141
_Ychain Banawg_ 130-133
_Y Brenhin Llwyd_, the Grey King 142
Mysterious removal of Churches--
Llanllechid 174
Corwen 174
Capel Garmon 175
Llanfair D. C. 175
Llanfihangel Geneu'r Glyn 176
Wrexham 177
Llangar 179
Denbigh 180
Names given to the Devil 191-2
Nightmare 237
North door of Churches opened at Baptisms 171
North door of Churches opened for Satan to go out 170
North side of Churchyard unoccupied 171
_Nos Glan Gaua_ 95 138-9 168-170 280 281 286 288-89
_Ogof Cythreuliaid_ Devils' Cave 191
Ogwen Lake, Tale of Wraith 292
Old Humpbacked, Mythic Being 142
Omen, see Divination 279-290
Owl 304 327
Pan, prototype of Celtic Satan 146
Passing Bell 171-2
Peacock, Weather Sign 327
Pedwe Ffoulk, a Witch 242
Pellings, Fairy Origin 6 13
Pentrevoelas Legend 8
Physicians of Myddfai 6 23 24
Pig Superstitions 154 348
Pigeon Superstitions 327
Pins stuck in "Witch's Butter" 249
Places associated with Satan 190-1
_Plant Annwn_ 3 4
Poocah, Pwka, Pwca 121-124 138-40
Raven 304 328
Rhamanta, see Divination, 279-290
on Hallow Eve 281
_Rhaffau'r Tylwyth Teg_, Gossamer 112
_Rhys Gryg_ 24
Robin Redbreast 329 332-3
Rook, see Crow
Rooks deserting Rookery 316
building new Rookery 316
Sabbath-breaking punished 152-157
Satan, see Apparitions and Devil
afraid of Bell-sounds 171
appearing to Man carrying Bibles 183
appearing to a Minister 184
appearing to a Man 185
appearing to a Sunday-breaker 152-3
appearing to a Sunday traveller 153
appearing as a lovely Maid 186
appearing to a young Man 188
appearing to a Collier 189
appearing to a Tippler 156-7
carrying a Man away 187
in form of a Pig 166
in form of a Fish 153
disappearing as a ball or wheel of fire 148 150
and Churches 160-170
outwitted 157-160
playing Cards 147 148 149
snatching a Man up into the air 150
Sawyer Bird, Tit-Major 331
Seagull, a Weather Sign 329-30
Seventh Daughter 250
Son 266
Shakespeare's Witches 219 220 221
Sheep, Black 351
Satan cannot enter 351
Sir John Wynne 211
Slowworm 352
Snakes 348
Flying 349
Snake Rings 350
Spells, how to break 244-251
Spectral Funeral 301-2
Spirit, see Ghost
Spirit laying 209-211
Spirits laid for a time 164 199 200 210 212
allowed to visit the earth 168
sent to the Red Sea 193 209 210 214
sent to Egypt 211
riding Horses 202
Spirit ejected from Cerrig-y-drudion Church 132
Llanfor Church 152-166
Llandysilio Church 166-7
Spirit in Llangerniew Church 170
Aberhafesp Church 169
Llandegla 199
Lady Jeffrey's 199-200
calling Doctor 294
St. John's Eve 52 95 168 280
St. David 299 307
Spiritualism 290-297
Spirit leaving body 291-293
Spider 351
Squirrel hunting 351-2
Swallow forsaking its nest 330
Breaking nest of 331
Swan, hatching eggs of 381
Swift, flying, Weather Sign 331
_Swyno'r 'Ryri_ 254 262 263-4
Taboo Stories 6 8-24
Tegid 306
Tit-Major, Weather Sign 331
_Tolaeth_ 303
Tobit, Spirit tale 182 210
Torrent Spectre 141
Transformation 227 234-237
Transmigration 276-279
_Tylwyth Teg_, see Fairies
Van Lake Fairy tale 16-24
Voice calling a Doctor 294
Water Horse 138-141
Water Worship 161
Welsh Airs 84 88
_Aden Ddu'r Fran_ 84
_Toriad y Dydd_ 88
Williams, Dr. Edward, and Fairies 97
Witches 216-251
Llanddona 222-3
transforming themselves into cats 224-226
transforming themselves into hares 227-235
hunted in form of hare 230-233
killed in form of hare 228
in churn in form of hare 229
cursing Horse 242
cursing Milk 238-9
cursing Pig 238
how tested 250-1
Spells, how broken 244-250
Punishment of 243
Laws against 218
Wife snatching 29
Woodpecker, Weather Sign 336
Woodpigeon 333-336
Wraith 292 294 308
Wren, unlucky to harm 331-2
Hunting the 332
Curse on breaker of nest 333
_Wyn Melangell_ 345
_Ystrad Legend_ 12
Yarn Sickness 275-6
Test 283-4
_Yspryd Cynon_ 212
_Ystrad Fawr_ 197-8
THE FAIRIES.
ORIGIN OF THE FAIRIES. (Y TYLWYTH TEG.)
The Fairy tales that abound in the Principality have much in common with
like legends in other countries. This points to a common origin of all
such tales. There is a real and unreal, a mythical and a material aspect
to Fairy Folk-Lore. The prevalence, the obscurity, and the different
versions of the same Fairy tale show that their origin dates from remote
antiquity. The supernatural and the natural are strangely blended
together in these legends, and this also points to their great age, and
intimates that these wild and imaginative Fairy narratives had some
historical foundation. If carefully sifted, these legends will yield a
fruitful harvest of ancient thoughts and facts connected with the history
of a people, which, as a race, is, perhaps, now extinct, but which has,
to a certain extent, been merged into a stronger and more robust race, by
whom they were conquered, and dispossessed of much of their land. The
conquerors of the Fair Tribe have transmitted to us tales of their timid,
unwarlike, but truthful predecessors of the soil, and these tales shew
that for a time both races were co-inhabitants of the land, and to a
certain extent, by stealth, intermarried.
Fairy tales, much alike in character, are to be heard in many countries,
peopled by branches of the Aryan race, and consequently these stories in
outline, were most probably in existence before the separation of the
families belonging to that race. It is not improbable that the emigrants
would carry with them, into all countries whithersoever they went, their
ancestral legends, and they would find no difficulty in supplying these
interesting stories with a home in their new country. If this
supposition be correct, we must look for the origin of Fairy Mythology in
the cradle of the Aryan people, and not in any part of the world
inhabited by descendants of that great race.
But it is not improbable that incidents in the process of colonization
would repeat themselves, or under special circumstances vary, and thus we
should have similar and different versions of the same historical event
in all countries once inhabited by a diminutive race, which was overcome
by a more powerful people.
In Wales Fairy legends have such peculiarities that they seem to be
historical fragments of by-gone days. And apparently they refer to a
race which immediately preceded the Celt in the occupation of the
country, and with which the Celt to a limited degree amalgamated.
NAMES GIVEN TO THE FAIRIES.
The Fairies have, in Wales, at least three common and distinctive names,
as well as others that are not nowadays used.
The first and most general name given to the Fairies is "_Y Tylwyth
Teg_," or, the Fair Tribe, an expressive and descriptive term. They are
spoken of as a people, and not as myths or goblins, and they are said to
be a fair or handsome race.
Another common name for the Fairies, is, "_Bendith y Mamau_," or, "The
Mothers' Blessing." In Doctor Owen Pughe's Dictionary they are called
"Bendith _eu_ Mamau," or, "_Their_ Mothers' Blessing." The first is the
most common expression, at least in North Wales. It is a singularly
strange expression, and difficult to explain. Perhaps it hints at a
Fairy origin on the mother's side of certain fortunate people.
The third name given to Fairies is "_Ellyll_," an elf, a demon, a goblin.
This name conveys these beings to the land of spirits, and makes them
resemble the oriental Genii, and Shakespeare's sportive elves. It
agrees, likewise, with the modern popular creed respecting goblins and
their doings.
Davydd ab Gwilym, in a description of a mountain mist in which he was
once enveloped, says:--
Yr ydoedd ym mhob gobant
_Ellyllon_ mingeimion gant.
There were in every hollow
A hundred wrymouthed elves.
_The Cambro-Briton_, v. I., p. 348.
In Pembrokeshire the Fairies are called _Dynon Buch Teg_, or the _Fair
Small People_.
Another name applied to the Fairies is _Plant Annwfn_, or _Plant Annwn_.
This, however, is not an appellation in common use. The term is applied
to the Fairies in the third paragraph of a Welsh prose poem called _Bardd
Cwsg_, thus:--
Y bwriodd y _Tylwyth Teg_ fi . . . oni bai fy nyfod i mewn
pryd i'th achub o gigweiniau _Plant Annwfn_.
Where the _Tylwyth Teg_ threw me . . . if I had not come
in time to rescue thee from the clutches of _Plant Annwfn_.
_Annwn_, or _Annwfn_ is defined in Canon Silvan Evans's Dictionary as an
abyss, Hades, etc. _Plant Annwn_, therefore, means children of the lower
regions. It is a name derived from the supposed place of abode--the
bowels of the earth--of the Fairies. _Gwragedd Annwn_, dames of Elfin
land, is a term applied to Fairy ladies.
Ellis Wynne, the author of _Bardd Cwsg_, was born in 1671, and the
probability is that the words _Plant Annwfn_ formed in his days part of
the vocabulary of the people. He was born in Merionethshire.
_Gwyll_, according to Richards, and Dr. Owen Pughe, is a Fairy, a goblin,
etc. The plural of _Gwyll_ would be _Gwylliaid_, or _Gwyllion_, but this
latter word Dr. Pughe defines as ghosts, hobgoblins, etc. Formerly,
there was in Merionethshire a red haired family of robbers called _Y
Gwylliaid Cochion_, or Red Fairies, of whom I shall speak hereafter.
_Coblynau_, or Knockers, have been described as a species of Fairies,
whose abode was within the rocks, and whose province it was to indicate
to the miners by the process of knocking, etc., the presence of rich
lodes of lead or other metals in this or that direction of the mine.
That the words _Tylwyth Teg_ and _Ellyll_ are convertible terms appears
from the following stanza, which is taken from the _Cambrian Magazine_,
vol. ii, p. 58.
Pan dramwych ffridd yr Ywen,
Lle mae _Tylwyth Teg_ yn rhodien,
Dos ymlaen, a phaid a sefyll,
Gwilia'th droed--rhag dawnsva'r _Ellyll_.
When the forest of the Yew,
Where _Fairies_ haunt, thou passest through,
Tarry not, thy footsteps guard
From the _Goblins'_ dancing sward.
Although the poet mentions the _Tylwyth Teg_ and _Ellyll_ as identical,
he might have done so for rhythmical reasons. Undoubtedly, in the first
instance a distinction would be drawn between these two words, which
originally were intended perhaps to describe two different kinds of
beings, but in the course of time the words became interchangeable, and
thus their distinctive character was lost. In English the words Fairies
and elves are used without any distinction. It would appear from Brand's
_Popular Antiquities_, vol. II., p. 478., that, according to Gervase of
Tilbury, there were two kinds of Goblins in England, called _Portuni_ and
_Grant_. This division suggests a difference between the _Tylwyth Teg_
and the _Ellyll_. The _Portuni_, we are told, were very small of stature
and old in appearance, "_statura pusilli_, _dimidium pollicis non
habentes_," but then they were "_senili vultu_, _facie corrugata_." The
wrinkled face and aged countenance of the _Portuni_ remind us of nursery
Fairy tales in which the wee ancient female Fairy figures. The pranks of
the _Portuni_ were similar to those of Shakespeare's Puck. The species
_Grant_ is not described, and consequently it cannot be ascertained how
far they resembled any of the many kinds of Welsh Fairies. Gervase,
speaking of one of these species, says:--"If anything should be to be
carried on in the house, or any kind of laborious work to be done, they
join themselves to the work, and expedite it with more than human
facility."
In Scotland there were at least two species of elves, the _Brownies_ and
the _Fairies_. The Brownies were so called from their tawny colour, and
the Fairies from their fairness. The _Portuni_ of Gervase appear to have
corresponded in character to the Brownies, who were said to have employed
themselves in the night in the discharge of laborious undertakings
acceptable to the family to whose service they had devoted themselves.
The Fairies proper of Scotland strongly resembled the Fairies of Wales.
The term _Brownie_, or swarthy elve, suggests a connection between them
and the _Gwylliaid Cochion_, or Red Fairies of Wales.
FAIRY LADIES MARRYING MORTALS.
In the mythology of the Greeks, and other nations, gods and goddesses are
spoken of as falling in love with human beings, and many an ancient
genealogy began with a celestial ancestor. Much the same thing is said
of the Fairies. Tradition speaks of them as being enamoured of the
inhabitants of this earth, and content, for awhile, to be wedded to
mortals. And there are families in Wales who are said to have Fairy
blood coursing through their veins, but they are, or were, not so highly
esteemed as were the offspring of the gods among the Greeks. The famous
physicians of Myddfai, who owed their talent and supposed supernatural
knowledge to their Fairy origin, are, however, an exception; for their
renown, notwithstanding their parentage, was always great, and increased
in greatness, as the rolling years removed them from their traditionary
parent, the Fairy lady of the Van Pool.
The _Pellings_ are said to have sprung from a Fairy Mother, and the
author of _Observations on the Snowdon Mountains_ states that the best
blood in his veins is fairy blood. There are in some parts of Wales
reputed descendants on the female side of the _Gwylliaid Cochion_ race;
and there are other families among us whom the aged of fifty years ago,
with an ominous shake of the head, would say were of Fairy extraction.
We are not, therefore, in Wales void of families of doubtful parentage or
origin.
All the current tales of men marrying Fairy ladies belong to a class of
stories called, technically, Taboo stories. In these tales the lady
marries her lover conditionally, and when this condition is broken she
deserts husband and children, and hies back to Fairy land.
This kind of tale is current among many people. Max Muller in _Chips
from a German Workshop_, vol. ii, pp. 104-6, records one of these ancient
stories, which is found in the Brahma_n_a of the Ya_g_ur-veda. Omitting
a few particulars, the story is as follows:--
"Urvasi, a kind of Fairy, fell in love with Pururavas, the son of Ida,
and when she met him she said, 'Embrace me three times a day, but never
against my will, and let me never see you without your royal garments,
for this is the manner of women.' In this manner she lived with him a
long time, and she was with child. Then her former friends, the
Gandharvas, said: 'This Urvasi has now dwelt a long time among mortals;
let us see that she come back.' Now, there was a ewe, with two lambs,
tied to the couch of Urvasi and Pururavas, and the Gandharvas stole one
of them. Urvasi said: 'They take away my darling, as if I had lived in a
land where there is no hero and no man.' They stole the second, and she
upbraided her husband again. Then Pururavas looked and said: 'How can
that be a land without heroes and men where I am?' And naked, he sprang
up; he thought it too long to put on his dress. Then the Gandharvas sent
a flash of lightning, and Urvasi saw her husband naked as by daylight.
Then she vanished; 'I come back,' she said, and went.
Pururavas bewailed his love in bitter grief. But whilst walking along
the border of a lake full of lotus flowers the Fairies were playing there
in the water, in the shape of birds, and Urvasi discovered him and
said:--
'That is the man with whom I dwelt so long.' Then her friends said: 'Let
us appear to him.' She agreed, and they appeared before him. Then the
king recognised her, and said:--
'Lo! my wife, stay, thou cruel in mind! Let us now exchange some words!
Our secrets, if they are not told now, will not bring us back on any
later day.'
She replied: 'What shall I do with thy speech? I am gone like the first
of the dawns. Pururavas, go home again, I am hard to be caught, like the
wind.'"
The Fairy wife by and by relents, and her mortal lover became, by a
certain sacrifice, one of the Gandharvas.
This ancient Hindu Fairy tale resembles in many particulars similar tales
found in Celtic Folk-Lore, and possibly, the original story, in its main
features, existed before the Aryan family had separated. The very words,
"I am hard to be caught," appear in one of the Welsh legends, which shall
be hereafter given:--
Nid hawdd fy nala,
I am hard to be caught.
And the scene is similar; in both cases the Fairy ladies are discovered
in a lake. The immortal weds the mortal, conditionally, and for awhile
the union seems to be a happy one. But, unwittingly, when engaged in an
undertaking suggested by, or in agreement with the wife's wishes, the
prohibited thing is done, and the lady vanishes away.
Such are the chief features of these mythical marriages. I will now
record like tales that have found a home in several parts of Wales.
WELSH LEGENDS OF FAIRY LADIES MARRYING MEN.
1. _The Pentrevoelas Legend_.
I am indebted to the Rev. Owen Jones, Vicar of Pentrevoelas, a mountain
parish in West Denbighshire, for the following tale, which was written in
Welsh by a native of those parts, and appeared in competition for a prize
on the Folk-Lore of that parish.
The son of Hafodgarreg was shepherding his father's flock on the hills,
and whilst thus engaged, he, one misty morning, came suddenly upon a
lovely girl, seated on the sheltered side of a peat-stack. The maiden
appeared to be in great distress, and she was crying bitterly. The young
man went up to her, and spoke kindly to her, and his attention and
sympathy were not without effect on the comely stranger. So beautiful
was the young woman, that from expressions of sympathy the smitten youth
proceeded to words of love, and his advances were not repelled. But
whilst the lovers were holding sweet conversation, there appeared on the
scene a venerable and aged man, who, addressing the female as her father,
bade her follow him. She immediately obeyed, and both departed leaving
the young man alone. He lingered about the place until the evening,
wishing and hoping that she might return, but she came not. Early the
next day, he was at the spot where he first felt what love was. All day
long he loitered about the place, vainly hoping that the beautiful girl
would pay another visit to the mountain, but he was doomed to
disappointment, and night again drove him homewards. Thus daily went he
to the place where he had met his beloved, but she was not there, and,
love-sick and lonely, he returned to Hafodgarreg. Such devotion deserved
its reward. It would seem that the young lady loved the young man quite
as much as he loved her. And in the land of allurement and illusion (yn
nhir hud a lledrith) she planned a visit to the earth, and met her lover,
but she was soon missed by her father, and he, suspecting her love for
this young man, again came upon them, and found them conversing lovingly
together. Much talk took place between the sire and his daughter, and
the shepherd, waxing bold, begged and begged her father to give him his
daughter in marriage. The sire, perceiving that the man was in earnest,
turned to his daughter, and asked her whether it were her wish to marry a
man of the earth? She said it was. Then the father told the shepherd he
should have his daughter to wife, and that she should stay with him,
until he should strike her with _iron_, and that, as a marriage portion,
he would give her a bag filled with bright money. The young couple were
duly married, and the promised dowry was received. For many years they
lived lovingly and happily together, and children were born to them. One
day this man and his wife went together to the hill to catch a couple of
ponies, to carry them to the Festival of the Saint of Capel Garmon. The
ponies were very wild, and could not be caught. The man, irritated,
pursued the nimble creatures. His wife was by his side, and now he
thought he had them in his power, but just at the moment he was about to
grasp their manes, off they wildly galloped, and the man, in anger,
finding that they had again eluded him, threw the bridle after them, and,
sad to say, the bit struck the wife, and as this was of _iron_ they both
knew that their marriage contract was broken. Hardly had they had time
to realise the dire accident, ere the aged father of the bride appeared,
accompanied by a host of Fairies, and there and then departed with his
daughter to the land whence she came, and that, too, without even
allowing her to bid farewell to her children. The money, though, and the
children were left behind, and these were the only memorials of the
lovely wife and the kindest of mothers, that remained to remind the
shepherd of the treasure he had lost in the person of his Fairy spouse.
Such is the Pentrevoelas Legend. The writer had evidently not seen the
version of this story in the _Cambro-Briton_, nor had he read Williams's
tale of a like occurrence, recorded in _Observations on the Snowdon
Mountains_. The account, therefore, is all the more valuable, as being
an independent production.
A fragmentary variant of the preceding legend was given me by Mr. Lloyd,
late schoolmaster of Llanfihangel-Glyn-Myfyr, a native of South Wales,
who heard the tale in the parish of Llanfihangel. Although but a
fragment, it may not be altogether useless, and I will give it as I
received it:--
Shon Rolant, Hafod y Dre, Pentrevoelas, when going home from Llanrwst
market, fortunately caught a Fairy-maid, whom he took home with him. She
was a most handsome woman, but rather short and slight in person. She
was admired by everybody on account of her great beauty. Shon Rolant
fell desperately in love with her, and would have married her, but this
she would not allow. He, however, continued pressing her to become his
wife, and, by and by, she consented to do so, provided he could find out
her name. As Shon was again going home from the market about a month
later, he heard some one saying, near the place where he had seized the
Fairy-maid, "Where is little Penloi gone? Where is little Penloi gone?"
Shon at once thought that some one was searching for the Fairy he had
captured, and when he reached home, he addressed the Fairy by the name he
had heard, and Penloi consented to become his wife. She, however,
expressed displeasure at marrying a dead man, as the Fairies call us.
She informed her lover that she was not to be touched with _iron_, or she
would disappear at once. Shon took great care not to touch her with
_iron_. However, one day, when he was on horseback talking to his
beloved Penloi, who stood at the horse's head, the horse suddenly threw
up its head, and the curb, which was of _iron_, came in contact with
Penloi, who immediately vanished out of sight.
The next legend is taken from Williams's _Observations on the Snowdon
Mountains_. His work was published in 1802. He, himself, was born in
Anglesey, in 1738, and migrated to Carnarvonshire about the year 1760.
It was in this latter county that he became a learned antiquary, and a
careful recorder of events that came under his notice. His
"Observations" throw considerable light upon the life, the customs, and
the traditions of the inhabitants of the hill parts and secluded glens of
Carnarvonshire. I have thought fit to make these few remarks about the
author I quote from, so as to enable the reader to give to him that
credence which he is entitled to. Williams entitles the following story,
"A Fairy Tale," but I will for the sake of reference call it "The Ystrad
Legend."
2. _The Ystrad Legend_.
"In a meadow belonging to Ystrad, bounded by the river which falls from
Cwellyn Lake, they say the Fairies used to assemble, and dance on fair
moon-light-nights. One evening a young man, who was the heir and
occupier of this farm, hid himself in a thicket close to the spot where
they used to gambol; presently they appeared, and when in their merry
mood, out he bounced from his covert and seized one of their females; the
rest of the company dispersed themselves, and disappeared in an instant.
Disregarding her struggles and screams, he hauled her to his home, where
he treated her so very kindly that she became content to live with him as
his maid servant; but he could not prevail upon her to tell him her name.
Some time after, happening again to see the Fairies upon the same spot,
he heard one of them saying, 'The last time we met here, our sister
_Penelope_ was snatched away from us by one of the mortals!' Rejoiced at
knowing the name of his _Incognita_, he returned home; and as she was
very beautiful, and extremely active, he proposed to marry her, which she
would not for a long time consent to; at last, however, she complied, but
on this condition, 'That if ever he should strike her with iron, she
would leave him, and never return to him again.' They lived happily for
many years together, and he had by her a son, and a daughter; and by her
industry and prudent management as a house-wife he became one of the
richest men in the country. He farmed, besides his own freehold, all the
lands on the north side of Nant-y-Bettws to the top of Snowdon, and all
Cwmbrwynog in Llanberis; an extent of about five thousand acres or
upwards.
Unfortunately, one day Penelope followed her husband into the field to
catch a horse; and he, being in a rage at the animal as he ran away from
him, threw at him the bridle that was in his hand, which unluckily fell
on poor Penelope. She disappeared in an instant, and he never saw her
afterwards, but heard her voice in the window of his room one night
after, requesting him to take care of the children, in these words:--
Rhag bod anwyd ar fy mab,
Yn rhodd rhowch arno gob ei dad,
Rhag bod anwyd ar liw'r cann,
Rhoddwch arni bais ei mam.
That is--
Oh! lest my son should suffer cold,
Him in his father's coat infold,
Lest cold should seize my darling fair,
For her, her mother's robe prepare.
These children and their descendants, they say, were called _Pellings_; a
word corrupted from their mother's name, Penelope."
Williams proceeds thus with reference to the descendants of this union:--
"The late Thomas Rowlands, Esq., of Caerau, in Anglesey, the father of
the late Lady Bulkeley, was a descendant of this lady, if it be true that
the name _Pellings_ came from her; and there are still living several
opulent and respectable people who are known to have sprung from the
_Pellings_. The best blood in my own veins is this Fairy's."
This tale was chronicled in the last century, but it is not known whether
every particular incident connected therewith was recorded by Williams.
_Glasynys_, the Rev. Owen Wynne Jones, a clergyman, relates a tale in the
_Brython_, which he regards as the same tale as that given by Williams,
and he says that he heard it scores of times when he was a lad.
_Glasynys_ was born in the parish of Rhostryfan, Carnarvonshire, in 1827,
and as his birth place is not far distant from the scene of this legend,
he might have heard a different version of Williams's tale, and that too
of equal value with Williams's. Possibly, there were not more than from
forty to fifty years between the time when the older writer heard the
tale and the time when it was heard by the younger man. An octogenarian,
or even a younger person, could have conversed with both Williams and
_Glasynys_. _Glasynys's_ tale appears in Professor Rhys's _Welsh Fairy
Tales_, _Cymmrodor_, vol. iv., p. 188. It originally appeared in the
_Brython_ for 1863, p. 193. It is as follows:--
"One fine sunny morning, as the young heir of Ystrad was busied with his
sheep on the side of Moel Eilio, he met a very pretty girl, and when he
got home he told the folks there of it. A few days afterwards he met her
again, and this happened several times, when he mentioned it to his
father, who advised him to seize her when he next met her. The next time
he met her he proceeded to do so, but before he could take her away, a
little fat old man came to them and begged him to give her back to him,
to which the youth would not listen. The little man uttered terrible
threats, but he would not yield, so an agreement was made between them
that he was to have her to wife until he touched her skin with iron, and
great was the joy both of the son and his parents in consequence. They
lived together for many years, but once on a time, on the evening of
Bettws Fair, the wife's horse got restive, and somehow, as the husband
was attending to the horse, the stirrups touched the skin of her bare
leg, and that very night she was taken away from him. She had three or
four children, and more than one of their descendants, as _Glasynys_
maintains, were known to him at the time he wrote in 1863."
3. _The Llanfrothen Legend_.
I am indebted to the Rev. R. Jones, Rector of Llanycil, Bala, for the
following legend. I may state that Mr. Jones is a native of Llanfrothen,
Merionethshire, a parish in close proximity to the scene of the story.
Mr. Jones's informant was his mother, a lady whose mind was well stored
with tales of by-gone times, and my friend and informant inherits his
mother's retentive memory, as well as her love of ancient lore.
A certain man fell in love with a beautiful Fairy lady, and he wished to
marry her. She consented to do so, but warned him that if he ever
touched her with iron she would leave him immediately. This stipulation
weighed but lightly on the lover. They were married, and for many years
they lived most happily together, and several children were born to them.
A sad mishap, however, one day overtook them. They were together,
crossing Traethmawr, Penrhyndeudraeth, on horseback, when the man's horse
became restive, and jerked his head towards the woman, and the bit of the
bridle touched the left arm of the Fairy wife. She at once told her
husband that they must part for ever. He was greatly distressed, and
implored her not to leave him. She said she could not stay. Then the
man, appealing to a mother's love for her children, begged that she would
for the sake of their offspring continue to dwell with him and them, and,
said he, what will become of our children without their mother? Her
answer was:--
Gadewch iddynt fod yn bennau cochion a thrwynau hirion.
Let them be redheaded and longnosed.
Having uttered these words, she disappeared and was never seen
afterwards.
No Welsh Taboo story can be complete without the pretty tale of the Van
Lake Legend, or, as it is called, "The Myddfai Legend." Because of its
intrinsic beauty and worth, and for the sake of comparison with the
preceding stories, I will relate this legend. There are several versions
extant. Mr. Wirt Sikes, in his _British Goblins_, has one, the
_Cambro-Briton_ has one, but the best is that recorded by Professor Rhys,
in the _Cymmrodor_, vol. iv., p. 163, in his _Welsh Fairy Tales_. There
are other readings of the legend to be met with. I will first of all
give an epitome of the Professor's version.
4. _The Myddvai Legend_.
A widow, who had an only son, was obliged, in consequence of the large
flocks she possessed, to send, under the care of her son, a portion of
her cattle to graze on the Black Mountain near a small lake called
Llyn-y-Van-Bach.
One day the son perceived, to his great astonishment, a most beautiful
creature with flowing hair sitting on the unruffled surface of the lake
combing her tresses, the water serving as a mirror. Suddenly she beheld
the young man standing on the brink of the lake with his eyes rivetted on
her, and unconsciously offering to herself the provision of barley bread
and cheese with which he had been provided when he left his home.
Bewildered by a feeling of love and admiration for the object before him,
he continued to hold out his hand towards the lady, who imperceptibly
glided near to him, but gently refused the offer of his provisions. He
attempted to touch her, but she eluded his grasp, saying
Cras dy fara;
Nid hawdd fy nala.
Hard baked is thy bread;
It is not easy to catch me.
She immediately dived under the water and disappeared, leaving the
love-stricken youth to return home a prey to disappointment and regret
that he had been unable to make further acquaintance with the lovely
maiden with whom he had desperately fallen in love.
On his return home he communicated to his mother the extraordinary
vision. She advised him to take some unbaked dough the next time in his
pocket, as there must have been some spell connected with the hard baked
bread, or "Bara Cras," which prevented his catching the lady.
Next morning, before the sun was up, the young man was at the lake, not
for the purpose of looking after the cattle, but that he might again
witness the enchanting vision of the previous day. In vain did he glance
over the surface of the lake; nothing met his view, save the ripples
occasioned by a stiff breeze, and a dark cloud hung heavily on the summit
of the Van.
Hours passed on, the wind was hushed, the overhanging clouds had
vanished, when the youth was startled by seeing some of his mother's
cattle on the precipitous side of the acclivity, nearly on the opposite
side of the lake. As he was hastening away to rescue them from their
perilous position, the object of his search again appeared to him, and
seemed much more beautiful than when he first beheld her. His hand was
again held out to her, full of unbaked bread, which he offered to her
with an urgent proffer of his heart also, and vows of eternal attachment,
all of which were refused by her, saying
Llaith dy fara!
Ti ni fynna.
Unbaked is thy bread!
I will not have thee.
But the smiles that played upon her features as the lady vanished beneath
the waters forbade him to despair, and cheered him on his way home. His
aged parent was acquainted with his ill success, and she suggested that
his bread should the next time be but slightly baked, as most likely to
please the mysterious being.
Impelled by love, the youth left his mother's home early next morning.
He was soon near the margin of the lake impatiently awaiting the
reappearance of the lady. The sheep and goats browsed on the precipitous
sides of the Van, the cattle strayed amongst the rocks, rain and sunshine
came and passed away, unheeded by the youth who was wrapped up in looking
for the appearance of her who had stolen his heart. The sun was verging
towards the west, and the young man casting a sad look over the waters
ere departing homewards was astonished to see several cows walking along
its surface, and, what was more pleasing to his sight, the maiden
reappeared, even lovelier than ever. She approached the land and he
rushed to meet her in the water. A smile encouraged him to seize her
hand, and she accepted the moderately baked bread he offered her, and
after some persuasion she consented to become his wife, on condition that
they should live together until she received from him three blows without
a cause,
Tri ergyd diachos,
Three causeless blows,
when, should he ever happen to strike her three such blows, she would
leave him for ever. These conditions were readily and joyfully accepted.
Thus the Lady of the Lake became engaged to the young man, and having
loosed her hand for a moment she darted away and dived into the lake.
The grief of the lover at this disappearance of his affianced was such
that he determined to cast himself headlong into its unfathomed depths,
and thus end his life. As he was on the point of committing this rash
act, there emerged out of the lake two most beautiful ladies, accompanied
by a hoary-headed man of noble mien and extraordinary stature, but having
otherwise all the force and strength of youth. This man addressed the
youth, saying that, as he proposed to marry one of his daughters, he
consented to the union, provided the young man could distinguish which of
the two ladies before him was the object of his affections. This was no
easy task, as the maidens were perfect counterparts of each other.
Whilst the young man narrowly scanned the two ladies and failed to
perceive the least difference betwixt the two, one of them thrust her
foot a slight degree forward. The motion, simple as it was, did not
escape the observation of the youth, and he discovered a trifling
variation in the mode in which their sandals were tied. This at once put
an end to the dilemma, for he had on previous occasions noticed the
peculiarity of her shoe-tie, and he boldly took hold of her hand.
"Thou hast chosen rightly," said the Father, "be to her a kind and
faithful husband, and I will give her, as a dowry, as many sheep, cattle,
goats, and horses, as she can count of each without heaving or drawing in
her breath. But remember, that if you prove unkind to her at any time
and strike her three times without a cause, she shall return to me, and
shall bring all her stock with her."
Such was the marriage settlement, to which the young man gladly assented,
and the bride was desired to count the number of sheep she was to have.
She immediately adopted the mode of counting by fives, thus:--One, two,
three, four, five,--one, two, three, four, five; as many times as
possible in rapid succession, till her breath was exhausted. The same
process of reckoning had to determine the number of goats, cattle, and
horses, respectively; and in an instant the full number of each came out
of the lake, when called upon by the Father.
The young couple were then married, and went to reside at a farm called
Esgair Llaethdy, near Myddvai, where they lived in prosperity and
happiness for several years, and became the parents of three beautiful
sons.
Once upon a time there was a christening in the neighbourhood to which
the parents were invited. When the day arrived the wife appeared
reluctant to attend the christening, alleging that the distance was too
great for her to walk. Her husband told her to fetch one of the horses
from the field. "I will," said she, "if you will bring me my gloves
which I left in our house." He went for the gloves, and finding she had
not gone for the horse, he playfully slapped her shoulder with one of
them, saying "_dos_, _dos_, go, go," when she reminded him of the terms
on which she consented to marry him, and warned him to be more cautious
in the future, as he had now given her one causeless blow.
On another occasion when they were together at a wedding and the
assembled guests were greatly enjoying themselves the wife burst into
tears and sobbed most piteously. Her husband touched her on the shoulder
and inquired the cause of her weeping; she said, "Now people are entering
into trouble, and your troubles are likely to commence, as you have the
_second_ time stricken me without a cause."
Years passed on, and their children had grown up, and were particularly
clever young men. Amidst so many worldly blessings the husband almost
forgot that only _one_ causeless blow would destroy his prosperity.
Still he was watchful lest any trivial occurrence should take place which
his wife must regard as a breach of their marriage contract. She told
him that her affection for him was unabated, and warned him to be careful
lest through inadvertence he might give the last and only blow which, by
an unalterable destiny, over which she had no control, would separate
them for ever.
One day it happened that they went to a funeral together, where, in the
midst of mourning and grief at the house of the deceased, she appeared in
the gayest of spirits, and indulged in inconsiderate fits of laughter,
which so shocked her husband that he touched her, saying--"Hush! hush!
don't laugh." She said that she laughed because people when they die go
out of trouble, and rising up, she went out of the house, saying, "The
last blow has been struck, our marriage contract is broken, and at an
end. Farewell!" Then she started off towards Esgair Llaethdy, where she
called her cattle and other stock together, each by name, not forgetting,
the "little black calf" which had been slaughtered and was suspended on
the hook, and away went the calf and all the stock, with the Lady across
Myddvai Mountain, and disappeared beneath the waters of the lake whence
the Lady had come. The four oxen that were ploughing departed, drawing
after them the plough, which made a furrow in the ground, and which
remains as a testimony of the truth of this story.
She is said to have appeared to her sons, and accosting Rhiwallon, her
firstborn, to have informed him that he was to be a benefactor to
mankind, through healing all manner of their diseases, and she furnished
him with prescriptions and instructions for the preservation of health.
Then, promising to meet him when her counsel was most needed, she
vanished. On several other occasions she met her sons, and pointed out
to them plants and herbs, and revealed to them their medicinal qualities
or virtues.
So ends the Myddvai Legend.
A variant of this tale appears in the form of a letter in the
_Cambro-Briton_, vol. ii, pp. 313-315. The editor prefaces the legend
with the remark that the tale "acquires an additional interest from its
resemblance in one particular to a similar tradition current in Scotland,
wherein certain beasts, brought from a lake, as in this tale, play much
the same part as is here described." The volume of the _Cambro-Briton_
now referred to was published in 1821 and apparently the writer, who
calls himself _Siencyn ab Tydvil_, communicates an unwritten tradition
afloat in Carmarthenshire, for he does not tell us whence he obtained the
story. As the tale differs in some particulars from that already given,
I will transcribe it.
5. _The Cambro-Briton version of the Myddvai Legend_.
"A man, who lived in the farm-house called Esgair-llaethdy, in the parish
of Myddvai, in Carmarthenshire, having bought some lambs in a
neighbouring fair, led them to graze near _Llyn y Van Vach_, on the Black
Mountains. Whenever he visited the lambs, three most beautiful female
figures presented themselves to him from the lake, and often made
excursions on the boundaries of it. For some time he pursued and
endeavoured to catch them, but always failed; for the enchanting nymphs
ran before him, and, when they had reached the lake, they tauntingly
exclaimed,
Cras dy fara,
Anhawdd ein dala,
which, with a little circumlocution, means, 'For thee, who eatest baked
bread, it is difficult to catch us.'
One day some moist bread from the lake came to shore. The farmer
devoured it with great avidity, and on the following day he was
successful in his pursuit and caught the fair damsels. After a little
conversation with them, he commanded courage sufficient to make proposals
of marriage to one of them. She consented to accept them on the
condition that he would distinguish her from her two sisters on the
following day. This was a new, and a very great difficulty to the young
farmer, for the fair nymphs were so similar in form and features, that he
could scarcely perceive any difference between them. He observed,
however, a trifling singularity in the strapping of her sandal, by which
he recognized her the following day. Some, indeed, who relate this
legend, say that this Lady of the Lake hinted in a private conversation
with her swain that upon the day of trial she would place herself between
her two sisters, and that she would turn her right foot a little to the
right, and that by this means he distinguished her from her sisters.
Whatever were the means, the end was secured; he selected her, and she
immediately left the lake and accompanied him to his farm. Before she
quitted, she summoned to attend her from the lake seven cows, two oxen,
and one bull.
This lady engaged to live with him until such time as he would strike her
three times without cause. For some years they lived together in
comfort, and she bore him three sons, who were the celebrated Meddygon
Myddvai.
One day, when preparing for a fair in the neighbourhood, he desired her
to go to the field for his horse. She said she would; but being rather
dilatory, he said to her humorously, '_dos_, _dos_, _dos_,' i.e., 'go,
go, go,' and he slightly touched her arm _three times_ with his glove.
As she now deemed the terms of her marriage broken, she immediately
departed, and summoned with her her seven cows, her two oxen, and the
bull. The oxen were at that very time ploughing in the field, but they
immediately obeyed her call, and took the plough with them. The furrow
from the field in which they were ploughing, to the margin of the lake,
is to be seen in several parts of that country to the present day.
After her departure, she once met her two sons in a Cwm, now called _Cwm
Meddygon_ (Physicians' Combe), and delivered to each of them a bag
containing some articles which are unknown, but which are supposed to
have been some discoveries in medicine.
The Meddygon Myddvai were Rhiwallon and his sons, Cadwgan, Gruffydd, and
Einion. They were the chief physicians of their age, and they wrote
about A.D. 1230. A copy of their works is in the Welsh School Library,
in Gray's Inn Lane."
Such are the Welsh Taboo tales. I will now make a few remarks upon them.
The _age_ of these legends is worthy of consideration. The legend of
_Meddygon Myddvai_ dates from about the thirteenth century. Rhiwallon
and his sons, we are told by the writer in the _Cambro-Briton_, wrote
about 1230 A.D., but the editor of that publication speaks of a
manuscript written by these physicians about the year 1300. Modern
experts think that their treatise on medicine in the _Red Book of
Hergest_ belongs to the end of the fourteenth century, about 1380 to
1400.
_Dafydd ab Gwilym_, who is said to have flourished in the fourteenth
century, says, in one of his poems, as given in the _Cambro-Briton_, vol.
ii., p. 313, alluding to these physicians:--
"Meddyg, nis gwnai modd y gwnaeth
Myddfai, o chai ddyn meddfaeth."
"A Physician he would not make
As Myddvai made, if he had a mead fostered man."
It would appear, therefore, that these celebrated physicians lived
somewhere about the thirteenth century. They are described as Physicians
of Rhys Gryg, a prince of South Wales, who lived in the early part of the
thirteenth century. Their supposed supernatural origin dates therefore
from the thirteenth, or at the latest, the fourteenth century.
I have mentioned _Y Gwylliaid Cochion_, or, as they are generally styled,
_Gwylliaid Cochion Mawddwy_, the Red Fairies of Mawddwy, as being of
Fairy origin. The Llanfrothen Legend seems to account for a race of men
in Wales differing from their neighbours in certain features. The
offspring of the Fairy union were, according to the Fairy mother's
prediction in that legend, to have red hair and prominent noses. That a
race of men having these characteristics did exist in Wales is undoubted.
They were a strong tribe, the men were tall and athletic, and lived by
plunder. They had their head quarters at Dinas Mawddwy, Merionethshire,
and taxed their neighbours in open day, driving away sheep and cattle to
their dens. So unbearable did their depredations become that John Wynn
ap Meredydd of Gwydir and Lewis Owen, or as he is called Baron Owen,
raised a body of stout men to overcome them, and on Christmas Eve, 1554,
succeeded in capturing a large number of the offenders, and, there and
then, some hundred or so of the robbers were hung. Tradition says that a
mother begged hard for the life of a young son, who was to be destroyed,
but Baron Owen would not relent. On perceiving that her request was
unheeded, baring her breast she said:--
Y bronau melynion hyn a fagasant y rhai a ddialant waed fy mab, ac a
olchant eu dwylaw yn ngwaed calon llofrudd eu brawd.
These yellow breasts have nursed those who will revenge my son's
blood, and will wash their hands in the heart's blood of the murderer
of their brother.
According to _Pennant_ this threat was carried out by the murder of Baron
Owen in 1555, when he was passing through the thick woods of Mawddwy on
his way to Montgomeryshire Assizes, at a place called to this day
_Llidiart y Barwn_, the Baron's Gate, from the deed. Tradition further
tells us that the murderers had gone a distance off before they
remembered their mother's threat, and returning thrust their swords into
the Baron's breast, and washed their hands in his heart's blood. This
act was followed by vigorous action, and the banditti were extirpated,
the females only remaining, and the descendants of these women are
occasionally still to be met with in Montgomeryshire and Merionethshire.
For the preceding information the writer is indebted to _Yr Hynafion
Cymreig_, pp. 91-94, _Archaeologia Cambrensis_, for 1854, pp. 119-20,
_Pennant_, vol. ii, pp. 225-27, ed. Carnarvon, and the tradition was told
him by the Revd. D. James, Vicar of Garthbeibio, who likewise pointed out
to him the very spot where the Baron was murdered.
But now, who were these _Gwylliaid_? According to the hint conveyed by
their name they were of Fairy parentage, an idea which a writer in the
_Archaeologia Cambrensis_, vol. v., 1854, p. 119, intended, perhaps, to
throw out. But according to _Brut y Tywysogion_, _Myf. Arch_., p. 706,
A.D. 1114, Denbigh edition, the _Gwylliaid Cochion Mawddwy_ began in the
time of Cadwgan ab Bleddyn ab Cynvyn.
From Williams's _Eminent Welshmen_, we gather that Prince Cadwgan died in
1110, A.D., and, according to the above-mentioned _Brut_, it was in his
days that the Gwylliaid commenced their career, if not their existence.
Unfortunately for this beginning of the red-headed banditti of Mawddwy,
Tacitus states in his Life of Agricola, ch. xi., that there were in
Britain men with red hair who he surmises were of German extraction. We
must, therefore, look for the commencement of a people of this
description long before the twelfth century, and the Llanfrothen legend
either dates from remote antiquity, or it was a tale that found in its
wanderings a resting place in that locality in ages long past.
From a legend recorded by _Giraldus Cambrensis_, which shall by and by be
given, it would seem that a priest named Elidorus lived among the Fairies
in their home in the bowels of the earth, and this would be in the early
part of the twelfth century. The question arises, is the priest's tale
credible, or did he merely relate a story of himself which had been
ascribed to some one else in the traditions of the people? If his tale
is true, then, there lived even in that late period a remnant of the
aborigines of the country, who had their homes in caves. The Myddvai
Legend in part corroborates this supposition, for that story apparently
belongs to the thirteenth century.
It is difficult to fix the date of the other legends here given, for they
are dressed in modern garbs, with, however, trappings of remote times.
Probably all these tales have reached, through oral tradition, historic
times, but in reality they belong to that far-off distant period, when
the prehistoric inhabitants of this island dwelt in Lake-habitations, or
in caves. And the marriage of Fairy ladies, with men of a different
race, intimates that the more ancient people were not extirpated, but
were amalgamated with their conquerors.
Many Fairy tales in Wales are associated with lakes. Fairy ladies emerge
from lakes and disappear into lakes. In the oriental legend Pururavas
came upon his absconding wife in a lake. In many Fairy stories lakes
seem to be the entrance to the abodes of the Fairies. Evidently,
therefore, those people were lake-dwellers. In the lakes of Switzerland
and other countries have been discovered vestiges of Lake-villages
belonging to the Stone Age, and even to the Bronze Age. Perhaps those
that belong to the Stone Age are the most ancient kind of human abodes
still traceable in the world. In Ireland and Scotland these kinds of
dwellings have been found. I am not in a position to say that they have
been discovered in Wales; but some thirty years ago Mr. Colliver, a
Cornish gentleman, told the writer that whilst engaged in mining
operations near Llyn Llydaw he had occasion to lower the water level of
that lake, when he discovered embedded in the mud a canoe formed out of
the trunk of a single tree. He saw another in the lake, but this he did
not disturb, and there it is at the present day. The late Professor
Peter of Bala believed that he found traces of Lake-dwellings in Bala
Lake, and the people in those parts have a tradition that a town lies
buried beneath its waters--a tradition, indeed, common to many lakes. It
is not therefore unlikely that if the lakes of Wales are explored they
will yield evidences of lake-dwellers, and, however unromantic it may
appear, the Lady of the Van Lake was only possibly a maiden snatched from
her watery home by a member of a stronger race.
In these legends the lady does not seem to evince much love for her
husband after she has left him. Possibly he did not deserve much, but
towards her children she shows deep affection. After the husband is
deserted, the children are objects of her solicitation, and they are
visited. The Lady of the Van Lake promised to meet her son whenever her
counsel or aid was required. A like trait belongs to the Homeric
goddesses. Thetis heard from her father's court far away beneath the
ocean the terrible sounds of grief that burst from her son Achilles on
hearing of the death of his dear friend Patroclus, and quickly ascended
to earth all weeping to learn what ailed her son. These Fairy ladies
also show a mother's love, immortal though they be.
The children of these marriages depart not with their mother, they remain
with the father, but she takes with her her dowry. Thus there are many
descendants of the Lady of the Van Lake still living in South Wales, and
as Professor Rhys remarks--"This brings the legend of the Lady of the Van
Lake into connection with a widely spread family;" and, it may be added,
shows that the Celts on their advent to Wales found it inhabited by a
race with whom they contracted marriages.
The manner in which the lady is seized when dancing in the Ystrad Legend
calls to mind the strategy of the tribe of Benjamin to secure wives for
themselves of the daughters of Shiloh according to the advice of the
elders who commanded them,--"Go and lie in wait in the vineyards; and
see, and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances,
then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you everyone his wife of the
daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin," Judges, ch. xxi.
The rape of the Sabine women, who were seized by the followers of Romulus
on a day appointed for sacrifice and public games, also serves as a
precedent for the action of those young Welshmen who captured Fairy wives
whilst enjoying themselves in the dance.
It is a curious fact, that a singular testimony to wife snatching in
ancient times is indicated by a custom once general, and still not
obsolete in South Wales, of a feigned attempt on the part of the friends
of the young woman about to get married to hinder her from carrying out
her object. The Rev. Griffith Jones, Vicar of Mostyn, informed the
writer that he had witnessed such a struggle. The wedding, he stated,
took place at Tregaron, Cardiganshire. The friends of both the young
people were on horseback, and according to custom they presented
themselves at the house of the young woman, the one to escort her to the
church, and the other to hinder her from going there. The friends of the
young man were called "_Gwyr shegouts_." When the young lady was
mounted, she was surrounded by the _gwyr shegouts_, and the cavalcade
started. All went on peaceably until a lane was reached, down which the
lady bolted, and here the struggle commenced, for her friends dashed
between her and her husband's friends and endeavoured to force them back,
and thus assist her to escape. The parties, Mr. Jones said, rode
furiously and madly, and the struggle presented a cavalry charge, and it
was not without much apparent danger that the opposition was overcome,
and the lady ultimately forced to proceed to the church, where her future
husband was anxiously awaiting her arrival. This strange custom of
ancient times and obscure origin is suggestive of the way in which the
stronger party procured wives in days of old.
Before the marriage of the Fairy lady to the mortal takes place, the
father of the lady appears on the scene, sometimes as a supplicant, and
at others as a consenting party to the inevitable marriage, but never is
he depicted as resorting to force to rescue his daughter. This
pusillanimity can only be reasonably accounted for by supposing that the
"little man" was physically incapable of encountering and overcoming by
brute force the aspirant to the hand of his daughter. From this conduct
we must, I think, infer that the Fairy race were a weak people bodily,
unaccustomed and disinclined to war. Their safety and existence
consisted in living in the inaccessible parts of the mountains, or in
lake dwellings far removed from the habitations of the stronger and
better equipped race that had invaded their country. In this way they
could, and very likely did, occupy parts of Wales contemporaneously with
their conquerors, who, through marriage, became connected with the mild
race, whom they found in possession of the land.
In the Welsh legends the maid consents to wed her capturer, and remain
with him until he strikes her with _iron_. In every instance where this
stipulation is made, it is ultimately broken, and the wife departs never
to return. It has been thought that this implies that the people who
immediately succeeded the Fair race belonged to the Iron Age, whilst the
fair aborigines belonged to the Stone or Bronze age, and that they were
overcome by the superior arms of their opponents, quite as much as by
their greater bodily strength. Had the tabooed article been in every
instance _iron_, the preceding supposition would have carried with it
considerable weight, but as this is not the case, all that can be said
positively is, that the conquerors of the Fair race were certainly
acquainted with iron, and the blow with iron that brought about the
catastrophe was undoubtedly inflicted by the mortal who had married the
Fairy lady. Why iron should have been tabooed by the Fairy and her
father, must remain an open question. But if we could, with reason,
suppose, that that metal had brought about their subjugation, then in an
age of primitive and imperfect knowledge, and consequent deep
superstition, we might not be wrong in supposing that the subjugated race
would look upon iron with superstitious dread, and ascribe to it
supernatural power inimical to them as a race. They would under such
feelings have nothing whatever to do with iron, just as the benighted
African, witnessing for the first time the effects of a gun shot, would,
with dread, avoid a gun. By this process of reasoning we arrive at the
conclusion that the Fairy race belonged to a period anterior to the Iron
Age.
With one remark, I will bring my reflections on the preceding legends to
an end. Polygamy apparently was unknown in the distant times we are
considering. But the marriage bond was not indissoluble, and the
initiative in the separation was taken by the woman.
MEN CAPTURED BY FAIRIES.
In the preceding legends, we have accounts of men capturing female
Fairies, and marrying them. It would be strange if the kidnapping were
confined to one of the two races, but Folk-Lore tells us that the Fair
Family were not innocent of actions similar to those of mortals, for many
a man was snatched away by them, and carried off to their subterranean
abodes, who, in course of time, married the fair daughters of the
_Tylwyth Teg_. Men captured Fairy ladies, but the Fairies captured
handsome men.
The oldest written legend of this class is to be found in the pages of
_Giraldus Cambrensis_, pp. 390-92, Bohn's edition. The Archdeacon made
the tour of Wales in 1188; the legend therefore which he records can
boast of a good old age, but the tale itself is older than _The Itinerary
through Wales_, for the writer informs us that the priest Elidorus, who
affirmed that he had been in the country of the Fairies, talked in his
old age to David II., bishop of St. David, of the event. Now David II.
was promoted to the see of St. David in 1147, or, according to others, in
1149, and died A.D. 1176; therefore the legend had its origin before the
last-mentioned date, and, if the priest were a very old man when he died,
his tale would belong to the eleventh century.
With these prefatory remarks, I will give the legend as recorded by
Giraldus.
1. _Elidorus and the Fairies_.
"A short time before our days, a circumstance worthy of note occurred in
these parts, which Elidorus, a priest, most strenuously affirmed had
befallen to himself.
When a youth of twelve years, and learning his letters, since, as Solomon
says, 'The root of learning is bitter, although the fruit is sweet,' in
order to avoid the discipline and frequent stripes inflicted on him by
his preceptor, he ran away and concealed himself under the hollow bank of
the river. After fasting in that situation for two days, two little men
of pigmy stature appeared to him, saying, 'If you will come with us, we
will lead you into a country full of delights and sports.' Assenting and
rising up, he followed his guides through a path, at first subterraneous
and dark, into a most beautiful country, adorned with rivers and meadows,
woods and plains, but obscure, and not illuminated with the full light of
the sun. All the days were cloudy, and the nights extremely dark, on
account of the absence of the moon and stars. The boy was brought before
the King, and introduced to him in the presence of the court; who, having
examined him for a long time, delivered him to his son, who was then a
boy. These men were of the smallest stature, but very well proportioned
in their make; they were all of a fair complexion, with luxuriant hair
falling over their shoulders like that of women. They had horses and
greyhounds adapted to their size. They neither ate flesh nor fish, but
lived on milk diet, made up into messes with saffron. They never took an
oath, for they detested nothing so much as lies. As often as they
returned from our upper hemisphere, they reprobated our ambition,
infidelities, and inconstancies; they had no form of public worship,
being strict lovers and reverers, as it seemed, of truth.
The boy frequently returned to our hemisphere, sometimes by the way he
had first gone, sometimes by another; at first in company with other
persons, and afterwards alone, and made himself known only to his mother,
declaring to her the manners, nature, and state of that people. Being
desired by her to bring a present of gold, with which that region
abounded, he stole, while at play with the king's son, the golden ball
with which he used to divert himself, and brought it to his mother in
great haste; and when he reached the door of his father's house, but not
unpursued, and was entering it in a great hurry, his foot stumbled on the
threshold, and falling down into the room where his mother was sitting,
the two pigmies seized the ball which had dropped from his hand and
departed, showing the boy every mark of contempt and derision. On
recovering from his fall, confounded with shame, and execrating the evil
counsel of his mother, he returned by the usual track to the
subterraneous road, but found no appearance of any passage, though he
searched for it on the banks of the river for nearly the space of a year.
But since those calamities are often alleviated by time, which reason
cannot mitigate, and length of time alone blunts the edge of our
afflictions and puts an end to many evils, the youth, having been brought
back by his friends and mother, and restored to his right way of
thinking, and to his learning, in process of time attained the rank of
priesthood.
Whenever David II., Bishop of St. David's, talked to him in his advanced
state of life concerning this event, he could never relate the
particulars without shedding tears. He had made himself acquainted with
the language of that nation, the words of which, in his younger days, he
used to recite, which, as the bishop often had informed me, were very
conformable to the Greek idiom. When they asked for water, they said
'Ydor ydorum,' which meant 'Bring water,' for Ydor in their language, as
well as in the Greek, signifies water, whence vessels for water are
called Adriai; and Dwr, also in the British language signifies water.
When they wanted salt they said 'Halgein ydorum,' 'Bring salt.' Salt is
called al in Greek, and Halen in British, for that language, from the
length of time which the Britons (then called Trojans and afterwards
Britons, from Brito, their leader) remained in Greece after the
destruction of Troy, became, in many instances, similar to the Greek."
This legend agrees in a remarkable degree with the popular opinion
respecting Fairies. It would almost appear to be the foundation of many
subsequent tales that are current in Wales.
The priest's testimony to Fairy temperance and love of truth, and their
reprobation of ambition, infidelities, and inconstancies, notwithstanding
that they had no form of public worship, and their abhorrence of theft
intimate that they possessed virtues worthy of all praise.
Their abode is altogether mysterious, but this ancient description of
Fairyland bears out the remarks--perhaps suggested the remarks, of the
Rev. Peter Roberts in his book called _The Cambrian Popular Antiquities_.
In this work, the author promulgates the theory that the Fairies were a
people existing distinct from the known inhabitants of the country and
confederated together, and met mysteriously to avoid coming in contact
with the stronger race that had taken possession of their land, and he
supposes that in these traditionary tales of the Fairies we recognize
something of the real history of an ancient people whose customs were
those of a regular and consistent policy. Roberts supposes that the
smaller race for the purpose of replenishing their ranks stole the
children of their conquerors, or slyly exchanged their weak children for
their enemies' strong children.
It will be observed that the people among whom Elidorus sojourned had a
language cognate with the Irish, Welsh, Greek, and other tongues; in
fact, it was similar to that language which at one time extended, with
dialectical differences, from Ireland to India; and the _Tylwyth Teg_, in
our legends, are described as speaking a language understood by those
with whom they conversed. This language they either acquired from their
conquerors, or both races must have had a common origin; the latter,
probably, being the more reasonable supposition, and by inference,
therefore, the Fairies and other nations by whom they were subdued were
descended from a common stock, and ages afterwards, by marriage, the
Fairies again commingled with other branches of the family from which
they had originally sprung.
Omitting many embellishments which the imagination has no difficulty in
bestowing, tradition has transmitted one fact, that the _Tylwyth Teg_
succeeded in inducing men through the allurements of music and the
attractions of their fair daughters to join their ranks. I will now give
instances of this belief.
The following tale I received from the mouth of Mr. Richard Jones,
Ty'n-y-wern, Bryneglwys, near Corwen. Mr. Jones has stored up in his
memory many tales of olden times, and he even thinks that he has himself
seen a Fairy. Standing by his farm, he pointed out to me on the opposite
side of the valley a Fairy ring still green, where once, he said, the
Fairies held their nightly revels. The scene of the tale which Mr. Jones
related is wild, and a few years ago it was much more so than at present.
At the time that the event is said to have taken place the mountain was
unenclosed, and there was not much travelling in those days, and
consequently the Fairies could, undisturbed, enjoy their dances. But to
proceed with the tale.
2. _A Bryneglwys Man inveigled by the Fairies_.
Two waggoners were sent from Bryneglwys for coals to the works over the
hill beyond Minera. On their way they came upon a company of Fairies
dancing with all their might. The men stopped to witness their
movements, and the Fairies invited them to join in the dance. One of the
men stoutly refused to do so, but the other was induced to dance awhile
with them. His companion looked on for a short time at the antics of his
friend, and then shouted out that he would wait no longer, and desired
the man to give up and come away. He, however, turned a deaf ear to the
request, and no words could induce him to forego his dance. At last his
companion said that he was going, and requested his friend to follow him.
Taking the two waggons under his care he proceeded towards the coal pits,
expecting every moment to be overtaken by his friend; but he was
disappointed, for he never appeared. The waggons and their loads were
taken to Bryneglwys, and the man thought that perhaps his companion,
having stopped too long in the dance, had turned homewards instead of
following him to the coal pit. But on enquiry no one had heard or seen
the missing waggoner. One day his companion met a Fairy on the mountain
and inquired after his missing friend. The Fairy told him to go to a
certain place, which he named, at a certain time, and that he should
there see his friend. The man went, and there saw his companion just as
he had left him, and the first words that he uttered were "Have the
waggons gone far." The poor man never dreamt that months and months had
passed away since they had started together for coal.
A variant of the preceding story appears in the _Cambrian Magazine_, vol.
ii., pp. 58-59, where it is styled the Year's Sleep, or "The Forest of
the Yewtree," but for the sake of association with like tales I will call
it by the following title:--
3. _Story of a man who spent twelve months in Fairyland_.
"In Mathavarn, in the parish of Llanwrin, and the Cantrev of Cyveilioc,
there is a wood which is called _Ffridd yr Ywen_ (the Forest of the Yew);
it is supposed to be so called because there is a yew tree growing in the
very middle of it. In many parts of the wood are to be seen green
circles, which are called 'the dancing places of the goblins,' about
which, a considerable time ago, the following tale was very common in the
neighbourhood:--
Two servants of John Pugh, Esq., went out one day to work in the 'Forest
of the Yew.' Pretty early in the afternoon the whole country was so
covered with dark vapour, that the youths thought night was coming on;
but when they came to the middle of the 'Forest' it brightened up around
them and the darkness seemed all left behind; so, thinking it too early
to return home for the night, they lay down and slept. One of them, on
waking, was much surprised to find no one there but himself; he wondered
a good deal at the behaviour of his companion, but made up his mind at
last that he had gone on some business of his own, as he had been talking
of it some time before; so the sleeper went home, and when they inquired
after his companion, he told them he was gone to the cobbler's shop. The
next day they inquired of him again about his fellow-servant, but he
could not give them any account of him; but at last confessed how and
where they had both gone to sleep. Alter searching and searching many
days, he went to a '_gwr cyvarwydd_' (a conjuror), which was a very
common trade in those days, according to the legend; and the conjuror
said to him, 'Go to the same place where you and the lad slept; go there
exactly a year after the boy was lost; let it be on the same day of the
year, and at the same time of the day, but take care that you do not step
inside the Fairy ring, stand on the border of the green circles you saw
there, and the boy will come out with many of the goblins to dance, and
when you see him so near to you that you may take hold of him, snatch him
out of the ring as quickly as you can.' He did according to this advice,
and plucked the boy out, and then asked him, 'if he did not feel hungry,'
to which he answered 'No,' for he had still the remains of his dinner
that he had left in his wallet before going to sleep, and he asked 'if it
was not nearly night, and time to go home,' not knowing that a year had
passed by. His look was like a skeleton, and as soon as he had tasted
food he was a dead man."
A story in its main features similar to that recorded in the _Cambrian
Magazine_ was related to me by my friend, the Rev. R. Jones, Rector of
Llanycil. I do not think Mr. Jones gave me the locality where the
occurrence is said to have taken place; at least, if he did so, I took no
note of it. The story is as follows:--
4. _A man who spent twelve months and a day with the Fairies_.
A young man, a farm labourer, and his sweetheart were sauntering along
one evening in an unfrequented part of the mountain, when there appeared
suddenly before them two Fairies, who proceeded to make a circle. This
being done, a large company of Fairies accompanied by musicians appeared,
and commenced dancing over the ring; their motions and music were
entrancing, and the man, an expert dancer, by some irresistible power was
obliged to throw himself into the midst of the dancers and join them in
their gambols. The woman looked on enjoying the sight for several hours,
expecting every minute that her lover would give up the dance and join
her, but no, on and on went the dance, round and round went her lover,
until at last daylight appeared, and then suddenly the music ceased and
the Fairy band vanished; and with them her lover. In great dismay, the
young woman shouted the name of her sweetheart, but all in vain, he came
not to her. The sun had now risen, and, almost broken-hearted, she
returned home and related the events of the previous night. She was
advised to consult a man who was an adept in the black art. She did so,
and the conjuror told her to go to the same place at the same time of the
night one year and one day from the time that her lover had disappeared
and that she should then and there see him. She was farther instructed
how to act. The conjuror warned her from going into the ring, but told
her to seize her lover by the arm as he danced round, and to jerk him out
of the enchanted circle. Twelve months and a day passed away, and the
faithful girl was on the spot where she lost her lover. At the very
moment that they had in the first instance appeared the Fairies again
came to view, and everything that she had witnessed previously was
repeated. With the Fairy band was her lover dancing merrily in their
midst. The young woman ran round and round the circle close to the young
man, carefully avoiding the circle, and at last she succeeded in taking
hold of him and desired him to come away with her. "Oh," said he, "do
let me alone a little longer, and then I will come with you." "You have
already been long enough," said she. His answer was, "It is so
delightful, let me dance on only a few minutes longer." She saw that he
was under a spell, and grasping the young man's arm with all her might
she followed him round and round the circle, and an opportunity offering
she jerked him out of the circle. He was greatly annoyed at her conduct,
and when told that he had been with the Fairies a year and a day he would
not believe her, and affirmed that he had been dancing only a few
minutes; however, he went away with the faithful girl, and when he had
reached the farm, his friends had the greatest difficulty in persuading
him that he had been so long from home.
The next Fairy tale that I shall give akin to the preceding stories is to
be found in _Y Brython_, vol. iii., pp. 459-60. The writer of the tale
was the Rev. Benjamin Williams, whose bardic name was Gwynionydd. I do
not know the source whence Mr. Williams derived the story, but most
likely he obtained it from some aged person who firmly believed that the
tale was a true record of what actually occurred. In the _Brython_ the
tale is called: "Y Tylwyth Teg a Mab Llech y Derwydd," and this title I
will retain, merely translating it. The introduction, however, I will
not give, as it does not directly bear on the subject now under
consideration.
5. _The Son of Llech y Derwydd and the Fairies_.
The son of Llech y Derwydd was the only son of his parents and heir to
the farm. He was very dear to his father and mother, yea, he was as the
very light of their eyes. The son and the head servant man were bosom
friends, they were like two brothers, or rather twins. As they were such
close friends the farmer's wife was in the habit of clothing them exactly
alike. The two friends fell in love with two young handsome women who
were highly respected in the neighbourhood. This event gave the old
people great satisfaction, and ere long the two couples were joined in
holy wedlock, and great was the merry-making on the occasion. The
servant man obtained a convenient place to live in on the grounds of
Llech y Derwydd. About six months after the marriage of the son, he and
the servant man went out to hunt. The servant penetrated to a ravine
filled with brushwood to look for game, and presently returned to his
friend, but by the time he came back the son was nowhere to be seen. He
continued awhile looking about for his absent friend, shouting and
whistling to attract his attention, but there was no answer to his calls.
By and by he went home to Llech y Derwydd, expecting to find him there,
but no one knew anything about him. Great was the grief of the family
throughout the night, but it was even greater the next day. They went to
inspect the place where the son had last been seen. His mother and his
wife wept bitterly, but the father had greater control over himself,
still he appeared as half mad. They inspected the place where the
servant man had last seen his friend, and, to their great surprise and
sorrow, observed a Fairy ring close by the spot, and the servant
recollected that he had heard seductive music somewhere about the time
that he parted with his friend. They came to the conclusion at once that
the man had been so unfortunate as to enter the Fairy ring, and they
conjectured that he had been transported no one knew where. Weary weeks
and months passed away, and a son was born to the absent man. The little
one grew up the very image of his father, and very precious was he to his
grandfather and grandmother. In fact, he was everything to them. He
grew up to man's estate and married a pretty girl in the neighbourhood,
but her people had not the reputation of being kind-hearted. The old
folks died, and also their daughter-in-law.
One windy afternoon in the month of October, the family of Llech y
Derwydd saw a tall thin old man with beard and hair as white as snow, who
they thought was a Jew, approaching slowly, very slowly, towards the
house. The servant girls stared mockingly through the window at him, and
their mistress laughed unfeelingly at the "old Jew," and lifted the
children up, one after the other, to get a sight of him as he neared the
house. He came to the door, and entered the house boldly enough, and
inquired after his parents. The mistress answered him in a surly and
unusually contemptuous manner, and wished to know "What the drunken old
Jew wanted there," for they thought he must have been drinking or he
would never have spoken in the way he did. The old man looked at
everything in the house with surprise and bewilderment, but the little
children about the floor took his attention more than anything else. His
looks betrayed sorrow and deep disappointment. He related his whole
history, that, yesterday he had gone out to hunt, and that he had now
returned. The mistress told him that she had heard a story about her
husband's father, which occurred before she was born, that he had been
lost whilst hunting, but that her father had told her that the story was
not true, but that he had been killed. The woman became uneasy and angry
that the old "Jew" did not depart. The old man was roused and said that
the house was his, and that he would have his rights. He went to inspect
his possessions, and shortly afterwards directed his steps to the
servant's house. To his surprise he saw that things there were greatly
changed. After conversing awhile with an aged man who sat by the fire,
they carefully looked each other in the face, and the old man by the fire
related the sad history of his lost friend, the son of Llech y Derwydd.
They conversed together deliberately on the events of their youth, but
all seemed like a dream. However, the old man in the corner came to the
conclusion that his visitor was his dear friend, the son of Llech y
Derwydd, returned from the land of the Fairies after having spent there
half a hundred years. The old man with the white beard believed the
story related by his friend, and long was the talk and many were the
questions which the one gave to the other. The visitor was informed that
the master of Llech y Derwydd was from home that day, and he was
persuaded to eat some food; but, to the horror of all, when he had done
so, he instantly fell down dead.
Such is the story. The writer adds that the tale relates that the cause
of this man's sudden death was that he ate food after having been so long
in the land of the Fairies, and he further states that the faithful old
servant insisted on his dead friend's being buried with his ancestors,
and the rudeness of the mistress of Llech y Derwydd to her father-in-law
brought a curse upon the place and family, and her offence was not
expiated until the farm had been sold nine times.
The next tale that I shall relate is recorded by _Glasynys_ in _Cymru
Fu_, pp. 177-179. Professor Rhys in his _Welsh Fairy Tales_, _Y
Cymmrodor_, vol. v., pp. 81-84, gives a translation of this story. The
Professor prefaces the tale with a caution that _Glasynys_ had elaborated
the story, and that the proper names were undoubtedly his own. The
reverend author informs his readers that he heard his mother relate the
tale many times, but it certainly appears that he has ornamented the
simple narrative after his own fashion, for he was professedly a believer
in words; however, in its general outline, it bears the impress of
antiquity, and strongly resembles other Welsh Fairy tales. It belongs to
that species of Fairy stories which compose this chapter, and therefore
it is here given as translated by Professor Rhys. I will for the sake of
reference give the tale a name, and describe it under the following
heading.
6. _A young man marries a Fairy Lady in Fairy Land, and brings her to
live with him among his own people_.
"Once on a time a shepherd boy had gone up the mountain. That day, like
many a day before and after, was exceedingly misty. Now, though he was
well acquainted with the place, he lost his way, and walked backwards and
forwards for many a long hour. At last he got into a low rushy spot,
where he saw before him many circular rings. He at once recalled the
place, and began to fear the worst. He had heard, many hundreds of
times, of the bitter experiences in those rings of many a shepherd who
had happened to chance on the dancing-place or the circles of the Fair
Family. He hastened away as fast as ever he could, lest he should be
ruined like the rest; but though he exerted himself to the point of
perspiring, and losing his breath, there he was, and there he continued
to be, a long time. At last he was met by a little fat old man with
merry blue eyes, who asked him what he was doing. He answered that he
was trying to find his way homeward. 'Oh,' said he, 'come after me, and
do not utter a word until I bid thee.' This he did, following him on and
on until they came to an oval stone, and the little old fat man lifted
it, after tapping the middle of it three times with his walking stick.
There was there a narrow path with stairs to be seen here and there, and
a sort of whitish light, inclining to grey and blue, was to be seen
radiating from the stones. 'Follow me fearlessly,' said the fat man, 'no
harm will be done thee.' So on the poor youth went, as reluctantly as a
dog to be hanged; but presently a fine-wooded, fertile country spread
itself out before them, with well arranged mansions dotting it over,
while every kind of apparent magnificence met the eye, and seemed to
smile in its landscape; the bright waters of its rivers meandered in
twisted streams, and its hills were covered with the luxuriant verdure of
their grassy growth, and the mountains with a glossy fleece of smooth
pasture. By the time they had reached the stout gentleman's mansion, the
young man's senses had been bewildered by the sweet cadence of the music
which the birds poured forth from the groves, then there was gold there
to dazzle his eyes and silver flashing on his sight. He saw there all
kinds of musical instruments and all sorts of things for playing, but he
could discern no inhabitant in the whole place; and when he sat down to
eat, the dishes on the table came to their places of themselves and
disappeared when one had done with them. This puzzled him beyond
measure; moreover, he heard people talking together around him, but for
the life of him he could see no one but his old friend. At length the
fat man said to him, 'Thou canst now talk as much as it may please thee;'
but when he attempted to move his tongue it would no more stir than if it
had been a lump of ice, which greatly frightened him. At this point, a
fine old lady, with health and benevolence beaming in her face, came to
them and slightly smiled at the shepherd. The mother was followed by her
three daughters, who were remarkably beautiful. They gazed with somewhat
playful looks at him, and at length began to talk to him, but his tongue
would not wag. Then one of the girls came to him, and, playing with his
yellow and curly locks, gave him a smart kiss on his ruddy lips. This
loosened the string that bound his tongue, and he began to talk freely
and eloquently. There he was, under the charm of that kiss, in the bliss
of happiness, and there he remained a year and a day without knowing that
he had passed more than a day among them, for he had got into a country
where there was no reckoning of time. But by and by he began to feel
somewhat of a longing to visit his old home, and asked the stout man if
he might go. 'Stay a little yet,' said he, 'and thou shalt go for a
while.' That passed, he stayed on; but Olwen, for that was the name of
the damsel that had kissed him, was very unwilling that he should depart.
She looked sad every time he talked of going away, nor was he himself
without feeling a sort of a cold thrill passing through him at the
thought of leaving her. On condition, however, of returning, he obtained
leave to go, provided with plenty of gold and silver, of trinkets and
gems. When he reached home, nobody knew who he was; it had been the
belief that he had been killed by another shepherd, who found it
necessary to betake himself hastily far away to America, lest he should
be hanged without delay. But here is Einion Las at home, and everybody
wonders especially to see that the shepherd had got to look like a
wealthy man; his manners, his dress, his language, and the treasure he
had with him, all conspired to give him the air of a gentleman. He went
back one Thursday night, the first of the moon that month, as suddenly as
he had left the first time, and nobody knew whither. There was great joy
in the country below when Einion returned thither, and nobody was more
rejoiced at it than Olwen, his beloved. The two were right impatient to
get married, but it was necessary to do that quietly, for the family
below hated nothing more than fuss and noise; so, in a sort of a
half-secret fashion, they were wedded. Einion was very desirous to go
once more among his own people, accompanied, to be sure, by his wife.
After he had been long entreating the old man for leave, they set out on
two white ponies, that were, in fact, more like snow than anything else
in point of colour; so he arrived with his consort in his old home, and
it was the opinion of all that Einion's wife was the handsomest person
they had anywhere seen. Whilst at home, a son was born to them, to whom
they gave the name of Taliesin. Einion was now in the enjoyment of high
repute, and his wife received proper respect. Their wealth was immense,
and soon they acquired a large estate; but it was not long till people
began to inquire after the pedigree of Einion's wife--the country was of
opinion that it was not the right thing to be without a pedigree. Einion
was questioned about it, without his giving any satisfactory answer, and
one came to the conclusion that she was one of the Fair Family (_Tylwyth
Teg_). 'Certainly,' replied Einion, 'there can be no doubt that she
comes from a very fair family, for she has two sisters who are as fair as
she, and if you saw them together, you would admit that name to be a
capital one.' This, then, is the reason why the remarkable family in the
land of charm and phantasy (_Hud a Lledrith_) are called the Fair
Family."
7. _A Boy taken to Fairy Land_.
Mrs. Morris, of Cwm Vicarage, near Rhyl, told the writer the following
story. She stated that she had heard it related in her family that one
of their people had in childhood been induced by the Fairies to follow
them to their country. This boy had been sent to discharge some domestic
errand, but he did not return. He was sought for in all directions but
could not be found. His parents came to the conclusion that he had
either been murdered or kidnapped, and in time he was forgotten by most
people, but one day he returned with what he had been sent for in his
hand. But so many years had elapsed since he first left home, that he
was now an old grey-headed man, though he knew it not; he had, he said,
followed, for a short time, delightful music and people; but when
convinced, by the changes around, that years had slipped by since he
first left his home, he was so distressed at the changes he saw that he
said he would return to the Fairies. But alas! he sought in vain for the
place where he had met them, and therefore he was obliged to remain with
his blood relations.
The next tale differs from the preceding, insomuch that the seductive
advances of the Fairies failed in their object. I am not quite positive
whence I obtained the story, but this much I know, that it belongs to
Pentrevoelas, and that a respectable old man was in the habit of
repeating it, as an event in his own life.
_A Man Refusing the Solicitations of the Fairies_.
A Pentrevoelas man was coming home one lovely summer's night, and when
within a stone's throw of his house, he heard in the far distance singing
of the most enchanting kind. He stopped to listen to the sweet sounds
which filled him with a sensation of deep pleasure. He had not listened
long ere he perceived that the singers were approaching. By and by they
came to the spot where he was, and he saw that they were marching in
single file and consisted of a number of small people, robed in
close-fitting grey clothes, and they were accompanied by speckled dogs
that marched along two deep like soldiers. When the procession came
quite opposite the enraptured listener, it stopped, and the small people
spoke to him and earnestly begged him to accompany them, but he would
not. They tried many ways, and for a long time, to persuade him to join
them, but when they saw they could not induce him to do so they departed,
dividing themselves into two companies and marching away, the dogs
marching two abreast in front of each company. They sang as they went
away the most entrancing music that was ever heard. The man,
spell-bound, stood where he was, listening to the ravishing music of the
Fairies, and he did not enter his house until the last sound had died
away in the far-off distance.
Professor Rhys records a tale much like the preceding. (See his _Welsh
Fairy Tales_, pp. 34, 35.) It is as follows:--"One bright moonlight
night, as one of the sons of the farmer who lived at Llwyn On in Nant y
Bettws was going to pay his addresses to a girl at Clogwyn y Gwin, he
beheld the Tylwyth enjoying themselves in full swing on a meadow close to
Cwellyn Lake. He approached them and little by little he was led on by
the enchanting sweetness of their music and the liveliness of their
playing until he got within their circle. Soon some kind of spell passed
over him, so that he lost his knowledge of every place, and found himself
in a country the most beautiful he had ever seen, where everybody spent
his time in mirth and rejoicing. He had been there seven years, and yet
it seemed to him but a night's dream; but a faint recollection came to
his mind of the business on which he had left home, and he felt a longing
to see his beloved one: so he went and asked permission to return home,
which was granted him, together with a host of attendants to lead him to
his country; and, suddenly, he found himself, as waking from a dream, on
the bank where he had seen the Fairy Family amusing themselves. He
turned towards home, but there he found everything changed: his parents
were dead, his brothers could not recognize him, and his sweetheart was
married to another man. In consequence of such changes, he broke his
heart, and died in less than a week after coming back."
Many variants of the legends already related are still extant in Wales.
This much can be said of these tales, that it was formerly believed that
marriages took place between men and Fairies, and from the tales
themselves we can infer that the men fared better in Fairy land than the
Fairy ladies did in the country of their earthly husbands. This,
perhaps, is what might be expected, if, as we may suppose, the Fair Tribe
were supplanted, and overcome, by a stronger, and bolder people, with
whom, to a certain extent, the weaker and conquered or subdued race
commingled by marriage. Certain striking characteristics of both races
are strongly marked in these legends. The one is a smaller and more
timid people than the other, and far more beautiful in mind and person
than their conquerors. The ravishing beauty of the Fairy lady forms a
prominent feature in all these legends. The Fairies, too, are spoken of
as being without religion. This, perhaps, means nothing more than that
they differed from their conquerors in forms, or objects of worship.
However this might be, it would appear that their conquerors knew but
little of that perfect moral teaching which made the Fairies, according
to the testimony of Giraldus, truthful, void of ambition, and honest.
It must, however, be confessed, that there is much that is mythical in
these legends, and every part cannot well be made to correspond with
ordinary human transactions.
It is somewhat amusing to note how modern ideas, and customs, are mixed
up with these ancient stories. They undoubtedly received a gloss from
the ages which transmitted the tales.
In the next chapter I shall treat of another phase of Fairy Folk-lore,
which will still further connect the Fair Race with their conquerors.
FAIRY CHANGELINGS.
It was firmly believed, at one time, in Wales, that the Fairies exchanged
their own weakly or deformed offspring for the strong children of
mortals. The child supposed to have been left by the Fairies in the
cradle, or elsewhere, was commonly called a changeling. This faith was
not confined to Wales; it was as common in Ireland, Scotland, and
England, as it was in Wales. Thus, in Spenser's _Faery Queen_, reference
is made in the following words to this popular error:--
And her base Elfin brood there for thee left;
Such, men do chaungelings call, so chaung'd by Faeries theft.
_Faery Queen_, Bk. I, c. 10.
The same superstition is thus alluded to by Shakespeare:--
A lovely boy, stol'n from an Indian king,
She never had so sweet a changeling.
_A Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act II., Sc. 1.
And again, in another of his plays, the Fairy practice of exchanging
children is mentioned:--
O, that it could be prov'd,
That some night-tripping Fairy had exchanged
In cradle-clothes our children, where they lay,
And call'd mine, Percy, his Plantagenet:
Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.
_Henry IV_., Pt. 1., Act I, Sc. 1.
In Scotland and other countries the Fairies were credited with stealing
unbaptized infants, and leaving in their stead poor, sickly, noisy, thin,
babies. But to return to Wales, a poet in _Y Brython_, vol. iii, p. 103,
thus sings:--
Llawer plentyn teg aeth ganddynt,
Pan y cym'rynt helynt hir;
Oddi ar anwyl dda rieni,
I drigfanau difri dir.
Many a lovely child they've taken,
When long and bitter was the pain;
From their parents, loving, dear,
To the Fairies' dread domain.
John Williams, an old man, who lived in the Penrhyn quarry district,
informed the writer that he could reveal strange doings of the Fairies in
his neighbourhood, for often had they changed children with even
well-to-do families, he said, but more he would not say, lest he should
injure those prosperous families.
It was believed that the Fairies were particularly busy in exchanging
children on _Nos Wyl Ifan_, or St. John's Eve.
There were, however, effectual means for protecting children from their
machinations. The mother's presence, the tongs placed cross-ways on the
cradle, the early baptism of the child, were all preventives. In the
Western Isles of Scotland fire carried round a woman before she was
churched, and round the child until he was christened, daily, night and
morning, preserved both from the evil designs of the Fairies. (Brand,
vol. ii, p. 486.) And it will be shortly shewn that even after an
exchange had been accomplished there were means of forcing the Fairies to
restore the stolen child.
It can well be believed that mothers who had sickly or idiotic babies
would, in uncivilized places, gladly embrace the idea that the child she
nursed was a changeling, and then, naturally enough, she would endeavour
to recover her own again. The plan adopted for this purpose was
extremely dangerous. I will in the following tales show what steps were
taken to reclaim the lost child.
Pennant records how a woman who had a peevish child acted to regain from
the Fairies her own offspring. His words are:--"Above this is a
spreading oak of great antiquity, size, and extent of branches; it has
got the name of _Fairy Oak_. In this very century (the eighteenth) a
poor cottager, who lived near the spot, had a child who grew uncommonly
peevish; the parents attributed this to the _Fairies_, and imagined that
it was a changeling. They took the child, put it into a cradle, and left
it all night beneath the tree, in hopes that the _Tylwyth Teg_, or _Fairy
Family_, or the Fairy folk, would restore their own before the morning.
When morning came, they found the child perfectly quiet, so went away
with it, quite confirmed in their belief."--_History of Whiteford_, pp.
5, 6.
These people by exposing their infant for a night to the elements ran a
risk of losing it altogether; but they acted in agreement with the
popular opinion, which was that the Fairies had such affection for their
own children that they would not allow them to be in any danger of losing
their life, and that if the elfin child were thus exposed the Fairies
would rescue it, and restore the exchanged child to its parents. The
following tale exhibits another phase of this belief.
The story is to be found in the _Cambrian Magazine_, vol. ii., pp. 86,
87.
1. "_The Egg Shell Pottage_."
"In the parish of Treveglwys, near Llanidloes, in the county of
Montgomery, there is a little shepherd's cot, that is commonly called Twt
y Cwmrws (the place of strife) on account of the extraordinary strife
that has been there. The inhabitants of the cottage were a man and his
wife, and they had born to them twins, whom the woman nursed with great
care and tenderness. Some months afterwards indispensable business
called the wife to the house of one of her nearest neighbours; yet,
notwithstanding she had not far to go, she did not like to leave her
children by themselves in their cradle, even for a minute, as her house
was solitary, and there were many tales of goblins or the '_Tylwyth Teg_'
(the Fair Family or the Fairies) haunting the neighbourhood. However,
she went, and returned as soon as she could; but on coming back she felt
herself not a little terrified on seeing, though it was mid-day, some of
'the old elves of the blue petticoat,' as they are usually called;
however, when she got back to her house she was rejoiced to find
everything in the state she had left it.
But after some time had passed by, the good people began to wonder that
the twins did not grow at all, but still continued little dwarfs. The
man would have it that they were not his children; the woman said that
they must be their children, and about this arose the great strife
between them that gave name to the place. One evening when the woman was
very heavy of heart she determined to go and consult a _Gwr Cyfarwydd_
(i.e., a wise man, or a conjuror), feeling assured that everything was
known to him, and he gave her his counsel. Now there was to be a harvest
soon of the rye and oats; so the wise man said to her:--'When you are
preparing dinner for the reapers empty the shell of a hen's egg, and boil
the shell full of pottage and take it out through the door as if you
meant it for a dinner to the reapers, and then listen what the twins will
say; if you hear the children speaking things above the understanding of
children, return into the house, take them, and throw them into the waves
of Llyn Ebyr, which is very near to you; but if you don't hear anything
remarkable, do them no injury.' And when the day of the reaping came,
the woman did as her adviser had recommended to her; and as she went
outside the door to listen, she heard one of the children say to the
other:--
Gwelais vesen cyn gweled derwen,
Gwelais wy cyn gweled iar,
Erioed ni welais verwi bwyd i vedel
Mewn plisgyn wy iar!
Acorns before oak I knew,
An egg before a hen,
Never one hen's egg-shell stew
Enough for harvest men!
On this the mother returned to her house and took the two children, and
threw them into the Llyn, and suddenly the goblins in their trousers came
to save their dwarfs, and the woman had her own children back again, and
thus the strife between her and her husband ended."
The writer of the preceding story says that it was translated almost
literally from Welsh, as told by the peasantry, and he remarks that the
legend bears a striking resemblance to one of the Irish tales published
by Mr. Croker.
Many variants of the legend are still extant in many parts of Wales.
There is one of these recorded in Professor Rhys's _Welsh Fairy Tales_,
_Y Cymmrodor_, vol. iv., pp. 208-209. It is much like that given in the
_Cambrian Magazine_.
2. _Corwrion Changeling Legend_.
Once on a time, in the fourteenth century, the wife of a man at Corwrion
had twins, and she complained one day to the witch who lived close by, at
Tyddyn y Barcut, that the children were not getting on, but that they
were always crying, day and night. 'Are you sure that they are your
children?' asked the witch, adding that it did not seem to her that they
were like hers. 'I have my doubts also,' said the mother. 'I wonder if
somebody has changed children with you,' said the witch. 'I do not
know,' said the mother. 'But why do you not seek to know?' asked the
other. 'But how am I to go about it?' said the mother. The witch
replied, 'Go and do something rather strange before their eyes and watch
what they will say to one another.' 'Well I do not know what I should
do,' said the mother. 'Oh,' said the other, 'take an egg-shell, and
proceed to brew beer in it in a chamber aside, and come here to tell me
what the children will say about it.' She went home and did as the witch
had directed her, when the two children lifted their heads out of the
cradle to see what she was doing, to watch, and to listen. Then one
observed to the other:--'I remember seeing an oak having an acorn,' to
which the other replied, 'And I remember seeing a hen having an egg,' and
one of the two added, 'But I do not remember before seeing anybody brew
beer in the shell of a hen's egg.'
The mother then went to the witch and told her what the twins had said
one to the other, and she directed her to go to a small wooden bridge not
far off, with one of the strange children under each arm, and there to
drop them from the bridge into the river beneath. The mother went back
home again and did as she had been directed. When she reached home this
time, to her astonishment, she found that her own children had been
brought back."
There is one important difference between these two tales. In the
latter, the mother drops the children over the bridge into the waters
beneath, and then goes home, without noticing whether the poor children
had been rescued by the goblins or not, but on reaching her home she
found in the cradle her own two children, presumably conveyed there by
the Fairies. In the first tale, we are informed that she saw the goblins
save their offspring from a watery grave. Subjecting peevish children to
such a terrible ordeal as this must have ended often with a tragedy, but
even in such cases superstitious mothers could easily persuade themselves
that the destroyed infants were undoubtedly the offspring of elfins, and
therefore unworthy of their fostering care. The only safeguard to
wholesale infanticide was the test applied as to the super-human
precociousness, or ordinary intelligence, of the children.
Another version of this tale was related to me by my young friend, the
Rev. D. H. Griffiths, of Clocaenog Rectory, near Ruthin. The tale was
told him by Evan Roberts, Ffriddagored, Llanfwrog. Mr. Roberts is an
aged farmer.
3. _Llanfwrog Changeling Legend_.
A mother took her child to the gleaning field, and left it sleeping under
the sheaves of wheat whilst she was busily engaged gleaning. The Fairies
came to the field and carried off her pretty baby, leaving in its place
one of their own infants. At the time, the mother did not notice any
difference between her own child and the one that took its place, but
after awhile she observed with grief that the baby she was nursing did
not thrive, nor did it grow, nor would it try to walk. She mentioned
these facts to her neighbours, and she was told to do something strange
and then listen to its conversation. She took an egg-shell and pretended
to brew beer in it, and she was then surprised to hear the child, who had
observed her actions intently, say:--
Mi welais fesen gan dderwen,
Mi welais wy gan iar,
Ond ni welais i erioed ddarllaw
Mewn cibyn wy iar.
I have seen an oak having an acorn,
I have seen a hen having an egg,
But I never saw before brewing
In the shell of a hen's egg.
This conversation proved the origin of the precocious child who lay in
the cradle. The stanza was taken down from Roberts's lips. But he could
not say what was done to the fairy changeling.
In Ireland a plan for reclaiming the child carried away by the Fairies
was to take the Fairy's changeling and place it on the top of a dunghill,
and then to chant certain invocatory lines beseeching the Fairies to
restore the stolen child.
There was, it would seem, in Wales, a certain form of incantation
resorted to to reclaim children from the Fairies, which was as
follows:--The mother who had lost her child was to carry the changeling
to a river, but she was to be accompanied by a conjuror, who was to take
a prominent part in the ceremony. When at the river's brink the conjuror
was to cry out:--
Crap ar y wrach--
A grip on the hag;
and the mother was to respond--
Rhy hwyr gyfraglach--
Too late decrepit one;
and having uttered these words, she was to throw the child into the
stream, and to depart, and it was believed that on reaching her home she
would there find her own child safe and sound.
I have already alluded to the horrible nature of such a proceeding. I
will now relate a tale somewhat resembling those already given, but in
this latter case, the supposed changeling became the mainstay of his
family. I am indebted for the _Gors Goch_ legend to an essay, written by
Mr. D. Williams, Llanfachreth, Merionethshire, which took the prize at
the Liverpool Eisteddfod, 1870, and which appears in a publication called
_Y Gordofigion_, pp. 96, 97, published by Mr. I. Foulkes, Liverpool.
4. _The Gore Goch Changeling Legend_.
The tale rendered into English is as follows:--"There was once a happy
family living in a place called Gors Goch. One night, as usual, they
went to bed, but they could not sleep a single wink, because of the noise
outside the house. At last the master of the house got up, and
trembling, enquired 'What was there, and what was wanted.' A clear sweet
voice answered him thus, 'We want a warm place where we can tidy the
children.' The door was opened when there entered half full the house of
the _Tylwyth Teg_, and they began forthwith washing their children. And
when they had finished, they commenced singing, and the singing was
entrancing. The dancing and the singing were both excellent. On going
away they left behind them money not a little for the use of the house.
And afterwards they came pretty often to the house, and received a hearty
welcome in consequence of the large presents which they left behind them
on the hob. But at last a sad affair took place which was no less than
an exchange of children. The Gors Goch baby was a dumpy child, a sweet,
pretty, affectionate little dear, but the child which was left in its
stead was a sickly, thin, shapeless, ugly being, which did nothing but
cry and eat, and although it ate ravenously like a mastiff, it did not
grow. At last the wife of Gors Goch died of a broken heart, and so also
did all her children, but the father lived a long life and became a rich
man, because his new heir's family brought him abundance of gold and
silver."
As I have already given more than one variant of the same legend, I will
supply another version of the Gors Goch legend which appears in _Cymru
Fu_, pp. 177-8, from the pen of the Revd. Owen Wyn Jones, _Glasynys_, and
which in consequence of the additional facts contained in it may be of
some value. I will make use of Professor Rhys's translation. (See _Y
Cymmrodor_, vol. v., pp. 79-80.)
5. _Another Version of the Gors Goch Legend_.
"When the people of the Gors Goch one evening had gone to bed, lo! they
heard a great row and disturbance around the house. One could not at all
comprehend what it might be that made a noise that time of night. Both
the husband and the wife had waked up, quite unable to make out what
there might be there. The children also woke but no one could utter a
word; their tongues had all stuck to the roofs of their mouths. The
husband, however, at last managed to move, and to ask, 'Who is there?
What do you want?' Then he was answered from without by a small silvery
voice, 'It is room we want to dress our children.' The door was opened,
and a dozen small beings came in, and began to search for an earthen
pitcher with water; there they remained for some hours, washing and
titivating themselves. As the day was breaking they went away, leaving
behind them a fine present for the kindness they had received. Often
afterwards did the Gors Goch folks have the company of this family. But
once there happened to be a fine roll of a pretty baby in his cradle.
The Fair Family came, and, as the baby had not been baptized, they took
the liberty of changing him for one of their own. They left behind in
his stead an abominable creature that would do nothing but cry and scream
every day of the week. The mother was nearly breaking her heart, on
account of the misfortune, and greatly afraid of telling anybody about
it. But everybody got to see that there was something wrong at Gors
Goch, which was proved before long by the mother dying of longing for her
child. The other children died broken-hearted after their mother, and
the husband was left alone with the little elf without anyone to comfort
them. But shortly after, the Fairies began to resort again to the hearth
of the Gors Goch to dress children, and the gift which had formerly been
silver money became henceforth pure gold. In the course of a few years
the elf became the heir of a large farm in North Wales, and that is why
the old people used to say, 'Shoe the elf with gold and he will grow.'"
(_Fe ddaw gwiddon yn fawr ond ei bedoli ag aur_.)
It will be observed that this latter version differs in one remarkable
incident from the preceding tale. In the former there is no allusion to
the fact that the changed child had not been baptized; in the latter,
this omission is specially mentioned as giving power to the Fairies to
exchange their own child for the human baby. This preventive carries
these tales into Christian days. Another tale, which I will now relate,
also proves that faith in the Fairies and in the efficacy of the Cross
existed at one and the same time. The tale is taken from _Y
Gordofigion_, p. 96. I will first give it as it originally appeared, and
then I will translate the story.
6. _Garth Uchaf, Llanuwchllyn_, _Changeling Legend_.
"Yr oedd gwraig Garth Uchaf, yn Llanuwchllyn, un tro wedi myned allan i
gweirio gwair, a gadael ei baban yn y cryd; ond fel bu'r anffawd, ni
roddodd yr efail yn groes ar wyneb y cryd, ac o ganlyniad, ffeiriwyd ei
baban gan y Tylwyth Teg, ac erbyn iddi ddyfod i'r ty, nid oedd yn y cryd
ond rhyw hen gyfraglach o blentyn fel pe buasai wedi ei haner lewygu o
eisiau ymborth, ond magwyd ef er hyny."
The wife of Garth Uchaf, Llanuwchllyn, went out one day to make hay, and
left her baby in the cradle. _Unfortunately_, _she did not place the
tongs crossways on the cradle_, and consequently the Fairies changed her
baby, and by the time she came home there was nothing in the cradle but
some old decrepit changeling, which looked is if it were half famished,
but nevertheless, it was nursed.
The reason why the Fairies exchanged babies with human beings, judging
from the stories already given, was their desire to obtain healthy
well-formed children in the place of their own puny ill-shaped offspring,
but this is hardly a satisfactory explanation of such conduct. A
mother's love is ever depicted as being so intense that deformity on the
part of her child rather increases than diminishes her affection for her
unfortunate babe. In Scotland the difficulty is solved in a different
way. There it was once thought that the Fairies were obliged every
seventh year to pay to the great enemy of mankind an offering of one of
their own children, or a human child instead, and as a mother is ever a
mother, be she elves flesh or Eve's flesh, she always endeavoured to
substitute some one else's child for her own, and hence the reason for
exchanging children.
In Allan Cunningham's _Traditional Tales_, Morley's edition, p. 188,
mention is made of this belief. He writes:--
"'I have heard it said by douce Folk,' 'and sponsible,' interrupted
another, 'that every seven years the elves and Fairies pay kane, or make
an offering of one of their children, to the grand enemy of salvation,
and that they are permitted to purloin one of the children of men to
present to the fiend,' 'a more acceptable offering, I'll warrant, than
one of their own infernal blood that are Satan's sib allies, and drink a
drop of the deil's blood every May morning.'"
The Rev. Peter Roberts's theory was that the smaller race kidnapped the
children of the stronger race, who occupied the country concurrently with
themselves, for the purpose of adding to their own strength as a people.
Gay, in lines quoted in Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, vol. ii., p. 485,
laughs at the idea of changelings. A Fairy's tongue ridicules the
superstition:--
Whence sprung the vain conceited lye,
That we the world with fools supply?
What! Give our sprightly race away
For the dull helpless sons of clay!
Besides, by partial fondness shown,
Like you, we dote upon our own.
Where ever yet was found a mother
Who'd give her booby for another?
And should we change with human breed,
Well might we pass for fools, indeed.
With the above fine satire I bring my remarks on Fairy Changelings to a
close.
FAIRY MOTHERS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES.
Fairies are represented in Wales as possessing all the passions,
appetites, and wants of human beings. There are many tales current of
their soliciting help and favours in their need from men and women. Just
as uncivilized nations acknowledge the superiority of Europeans in
medicine, so did the Fairies resort in perplexing cases to man for aid.
There is a class of tales which has reached our days in which the Fairy
lady, who is about to become a mother, obtains from amongst men a
midwife, whom she rewards with rich presents for her services. Variants
of this story are found in many parts of Wales, and in many continental
countries. I will relate a few of these legends.
1. _Denbighshire Version of a Fairy Mother and Human Midwife_.
The following story I received from the lips of David Roberts, whom I
have previously mentioned, a native of Denbighshire, and he related the
tale as one commonly known. As might be expected, he locates the event
in Denbighshire, but I have no recollection that he gave names. His
narrative was as follows:--
A well-known midwife, whose services were much sought after in
consequence of her great skill, had one night retired to rest, when she
was disturbed by a loud knocking at her door. She immediately got up and
went to the door, and there saw a beautiful carriage, which she was
urgently requested to enter at once to be conveyed to a house where her
help was required. She did so, and after a long drive the carriage drew
up before the entrance to a large mansion, which she had never seen
before. She successfully performed her work, and stayed on in the place
until her services were no longer required. Then she was conveyed home
in the same manner as she had come, but with her went many valuable
presents in grateful recognition of the services she had rendered.
The midwife somehow or other found out that she had been attending a
Fairy mother. Some time after her return from Fairy land she went to a
fair, and there she saw the lady whom she had put to bed nimbly going
from stall to stall, and making many purchases. For awhile she watched
the movements of the lady, and then presuming on her limited
acquaintance, addressed her, and asked how she was. The lady seemed
surprised and annoyed at the woman's speech, and instead of answering
her, said, "And do you see me?" "Yes, I do," said the midwife. "With
which eye?" enquired the Fairy. "With this," said the woman, placing her
hand on the eye. No sooner had she spoken than the Fairy lady touched
that eye, and the midwife could no longer see the Fairy.
Mrs. Lowri Wynn, Clocaenog, near Ruthin, who has reached her eightieth
year, and is herself a midwife, gave me a version of the preceding which
differed therefrom in one or two particulars. The Fairy gentleman who
had driven the woman to and from the Hall was the one that was seen in
the fair, said Mrs. Wynn, and he it was that put out the eye or blinded
it, she was not sure which, of the inquisitive midwife, and Lowri thought
it was the left eye.
2. _Merionethshire Version of the Fairy Mother and Human Midwife_.
A more complete version of this legend is given in the _Gordofigion_, pp.
97, 98. The writer says:--
"Yr oedd bydwraig yn Llanuwchllyn wedi cael ei galw i Goed y Garth, sef
Siambra Duon--cartref y Tylwyth Teg--at un o honynt ar enedigaeth baban.
Dywedasant wrthi am gymeryd gofal rhag, cyffwrdd y dwfr oedd ganddi yn
trin y babi yn agos i'w llygaid; ond cyffyrddodd y wraig a'r llygad aswy
yn ddigon difeddwl. Yn y Bala, ymhen ychydig, gwelai y fydwraig y gwr,
sef tad y baban, a dechreuodd ei holi pa sut yr oeddynt yn Siambra Duon?
pa fodd yr oedd y wraig? a sut 'roedd y teulu bach i gyd? Edrychai yntau
arni yn graff, a gofynodd, 'A pha lygad yr ydych yn fy ngweled i?' 'A
hwn,' ebe hithau, gan gyfeirio at ei llygad aswy. Tynodd yntau y llygad
hwnw o'i phen, ac yna nis gallai'r wraig ei ganfod."
This in English is:--
There was a midwife who lived at Llanuwchllyn, who was called to Coed y
Garth, that is, to Siambra Duon, the home of the Tylwyth Teg, to attend
to one of them in child birth. They told her to be careful not to touch
her eyes with the water used in washing the baby, but quite
unintentionally the woman touched her left eye. Shortly afterwards the
midwife saw the Fairy's husband at Bala, and she began enquiring how they
all were at Siambra Duon, how the wife was, and how the little family
was? He looked at her intently, and then asked, "With which eye do you
see me?" "With this," she said, pointing to her left eye. He plucked
that eye out of her head, and so the woman could not see him.
With regard to this tale, the woman's eye is said to have been plucked
out; in the first tale she was only deprived of her supernatural power of
sight; in other versions the woman becomes blind with one eye.
Professor Rhys in _Y Cymmrodor_, vol. iv., pp. 209, 210, gives a variant
of the midwife story which differs in some particulars from that already
related. I will call this the Corwrion version.
3. _The Corwrion Version_.
One of the Fairies came to a midwife who lived at Corwrion and asked her
to come with him and attend on his wife. Off she went with him, and she
was astonished to be taken into a splendid palace. There she continued
to go night and morning to dress the baby for some time, until one day
the husband asked her to rub her eyes with a certain ointment he offered
her. She did so and found herself sitting on a tuft of rushes, and not
in a palace. There was no baby, and all had disappeared. Some time
afterwards she happened to go to the town, and whom should she see busily
buying various wares but the Fairy on whose wife she had been attending.
She addressed him with the question, "How are you, to-day?" Instead of
answering her he asked, "How do you see me?" "With my eyes," was the
prompt reply. "Which eye?" he asked. "This one," said she, pointing to
it; and instantly he disappeared, never more to be seen by her.
There is yet one other variant of this story which I will give, and for
the sake of reference I will call it the Nanhwynan version. It appears
in the _Brython_, vol. ix., p. 251, and Professor Rhys has rendered it
into English in _Y Cymmrodor_, vol. ix., p. 70. I will give the tale as
related by the Professor.
4. _The Nanhwynan Version_.
"Once on a time, when a midwife from Nanhwynan had newly got to the
Hafodydd Brithion to pursue her calling, a gentleman came to the door on
a fine grey steed and bade her come with him at once. Such was the
authority with which he spoke, that the poor midwife durst not refuse to
go, however much it was her duty to stay where she was. So she mounted
behind him, and off they went like the flight of a swallow, through
Cwmllan, over the Bwlch, down Nant yr Aran, and over the Gadair to Cwm
Hafod Ruffydd, before the poor woman had time to say 'Oh.' When they had
got there she saw before her a magnificent mansion, splendidly lit up
with such lamps as she had never before seen. They entered the court,
and a crowd of servants in expensive liveries came to meet them, and she
was at once led through the great hall into a bed-chamber, the like of
which she had never seen. There the mistress of the house, to whom she
had been fetched, was awaiting her. She got through her duties
successfully, and stayed there until the lady had completely recovered;
nor had she spent any part of her life so merrily. There was there
nought but festivity day and night: dancing, singing, and endless
rejoicing reigned there. But merry as it was, she found she must go, and
the nobleman gave her a large purse, with the order not to open it until
she had got into her own house; then he bade one of his servants escort
her the same way she had come. When she reached home she opened the
purse, and, to her great joy, it was full of money, and she lived happily
on those earnings to the end of her life."
Such are these tales. Perhaps they are one and all fragments of the same
story. Each contains a few shreds that are wanting in the others. All,
however, agree in one leading idea, that Fairy mothers have, ere now,
obtained the aid of human midwives, and this one fact is a connecting
link between the people called Fairies and our own remote forefathers.
FAIRY VISITS TO HUMAN ABODES.
Old people often told their children and servant girls, that one
condition of the Fairy visits to their houses was cleanliness. They were
always instructed to keep the fire place tidy and the floor well swept,
the pails filled with water, and to make everything bright and nice
before going to bed, and that then, perhaps, the Fairies would come into
the house to dance and sing until the morning, and leave on the hearth
stone a piece of money as a reward behind them. But should the house be
dirty, never would the Fairies enter it to hold their nightly revels,
unless, forsooth, they came to punish the slatternly servant. Such was
the popular opinion, and it must have acted as an incentive to order and
cleanliness. These ideas have found expression in song.
A writer in _Yr Hynafion Cymreig_, p. 153, sings thus of the place loved
by the Fairies:--
Ysgafn ddrws pren, llawr glan dan nen,
A'r aelwyd wen yn wir,
Tan golau draw, y dwr gerllaw,
Yn siriaw'r cylchgrwn clir.
A light door, and clean white floor,
And hearth-stone bright indeed,
A burning fire, and water near,
Supplies our every need.
In a ballad, entitled "The Fairy Queen," in Percy's _Reliques of Ancient
English Poetry_, Nichols's edition, vol. iii., p. 172, are stanzas
similar to the Welsh verse given above, which also partially embody the
Welsh opinions of Fairy visits to their houses. Thus chants the "Fairy
Queen":--
When mortals are at rest,
And snoring in their nest,
Unheard, and un-espy'd,
Through key-holes we do glide;
Over tables, stools, and shelves,
We trip it with our Fairy elves.
And, if the house be foul
With platter, dish, or bowl,
Upstairs we nimbly creep,
And find the sluts asleep:
There we pinch their arms and thighs;
None escapes, nor none espies.
But if the house be swept
And from uncleanness kept,
We praise the household maid,
And duely she is paid:
For we use before we goe
To drop a tester in her shoe.
It was not for the sake of mirth only that the Fairies entered human
abodes, but for the performance of more mundane duties, such as making
oatmeal cakes. The Rev. R. Jones, Rector of Llanycil, told me a story,
current in his native parish, Llanfrothen, Merionethshire, to the effect
that a Fairy woman who had spent the night in baking cakes in a farm
house forgot on leaving to take with her the wooden utensil used in
turning the cakes on the bake stone; so she returned, and failing to
discover the lost article bewailed her loss in these words, "Mi gollais
fy mhig," "I have lost my shovel." The people got up and searched for
the lost implement, and found it, and gave it to the Fairy, who departed
with it in her possession.
Another reason why the Fairies frequented human abodes was to wash and
tidy their children. In the Gors Goch legend, already given, is recorded
this cause of their visits. Many like stories are extant. It is said
that the nightly visitors expected water to be provided for them, and if
this were not the case they resented the slight thus shown them and
punished those who neglected paying attention to their wants. But
tradition says the house-wives were ever careful of the Fairy wants; and,
as it was believed that Fairy mothers preferred using the same water in
which human children had been washed, the human mother left this water in
the bowl for their special use.
In Scotland, also, Fairies were propitiated by attention being paid to
their wants. Thus in Allan Cunningham's _Traditional Tales_, p. 11, it
is said of Ezra Peden:--"He rebuked a venerable dame, during three
successive Sundays for placing a cream bowl and new-baked cake in the
paths of the nocturnal elves, who, she imagined, had plotted to steal her
grandson from the mother's bosom."
But in the traditions of the Isle of Man we obtain the exact counterpart
of Welsh legends respecting the Fairies visiting houses to wash
themselves. I will give the following quotation from _Brand_, vol. ii.,
p. 494, on this point:--
"The Manks confidently assert that the first inhabitants of their island
were Fairies, and that these little people have still their residence
among them. They call them _the good people_, and say they live in wilds
and forests, and on mountains, and shun great cities because of the
wickedness acted therein. All the houses are blessed where they visit
for they fly vice. A person would be thought impudently profane who
should suffer his family to go to bed without having first set a tub, or
pail full of clean water for the guests to bathe themselves in, which the
natives aver they constantly do, as soon as the eyes of the family are
closed, wherever they vouchsafe to come."
Several instances have already been given of the intercourse of Fairies
with mortals. In some parts of Wales it is or was thought that they were
even so familiar as to borrow from men. I will give one such tale, taken
from the _North Wales Chronicle_ of March 19th, 1887.
_A Fairy Borrowing a Gridiron_.
"The following Fairy legend was told to Mr. W. W. Cobb, of Hilton House,
Atherstone, by Mrs. Williams, wife of Thomas Williams, pilot, in whose
house he lodged when staying in Anglesey:--Mary Roberts, of Newborough,
used to receive visits once a week from a little woman who used to bring
her a loaf of bread in return for the loan of her gridiron (gradell) for
baking bread. The Fairy always told her not to look after her when she
left the house, but one day she transgressed, and took a peep as the
Fairy went away. The latter went straight to the lake--Lake
Rhosddu--near the house at Newborough, and plunged into its waters, and
disappeared. This took place about a century ago. The house where Mary
Roberts lived is still standing about 100 yards north of the lake."
Compare the preceding with the following lines:--
If ye will with Mab finde grace,
Set each platter in its place;
Rake the fire up and set
Water in ere sun be set,
Wash your pales and cleanse your dairies,
Sluts are loathsome to the Fairies;
Sweep your house; who doth not so,
Mab will pinch her by the toe.
_Herrick's Hesperides_, 1648. (See _Brand_, vol. ii., p. 484.)
_Fairy Riches and Gifts_.
The riches of the Fairies are often mentioned by the old people, and the
source of their wealth is variously given. An old man, who has already
been mentioned, John Williams, born about 1770, was of opinion that the
Fairies stole the money from bad rich people to give it to good poor
folk. This they were enabled to do, he stated, as they could make
themselves invisible. In a conversation which we once had on this
subject, my old friend posed me with this question, "Who do you think
robbed . . . of his money without his knowledge?" "Who do you think took
. . . money only twenty years ago?" "Why, the Fairies," added he, "for
no one ever found out the thief."
Shakespeare, in _Midsummer Night's Dream_, A. iii., S. 1, gives a very
different source to the Fairy riches:--
I will give thee Fairies to attend on thee,
And they _shall fetch thee jewels from the deep_.
Without inquiring too curiously into the source of these riches, it shall
now be shown how, and for what services, they were bestowed on mortals.
Gratitude is a noble trait in the Fairy character, and favours received
they ever repaid. But the following stories illustrate alike their
commiseration, their caprice, and their grateful bounty.
_The Fairies Placing Money on the Ground for a Poor Man_.
The following tale was told me by Thomas Jones, a small mountain farmer,
who occupies land near Pont Petrual, a place between Ruthin and
Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr. Jones informed me that he was acquainted with
all the parties mentioned in the tale. His story was as follows:--
A shoemaker, whose health would not permit him to pursue his own trade,
obtained work in a tanyard at Penybont, near Corwen. The shoemaker lived
in a house called Ty'n-y-graig, belonging to Clegir isa farm. He walked
daily to his employment, a distance of several miles, because he could
not afford to pay for lodgings. One day, he noticed a round bit of green
ground, close to one of the gates on Tan-y-Coed farm, and going up to it
discovered a piece of silver lying on the sward. Day after day, from the
same spot, he picked up a silver coin. By this means, as well as by the
wage he received, he became a well-to-do man. His wife noticed the many
new coins he brought home, and questioned him about them, but he kept the
secret of their origin to himself. At last, however, in consequence of
repeated inquiries, he told her all about the silver pieces, which daily
he had picked up from the green plot. The next day he passed the place,
but there was no silver, as in days gone by, and he never discovered
another shilling, although he looked for it every day. The poor man did
not live long after he had informed his wife whence he had obtained the
bright silver coins.
_The Fairies and their Chest of Gold_.
The following tale I obtained from the Rev. Owen Jones, Vicar of
Pentrevoelas. The scene lies amongst the wildest mountains of
Merionethshire.
David, the weaver, lived in a house called Llurig, near Cerniogau Mawr,
between Pentrevoelas and Cerrig-y-Drudion. One day David was going over
the hill to Bala. On the top of the Garn two Fairies met him, and
desired him to follow them, promising, if he would do so, that they would
show him a chest filled with gold, and furthermore, they told him that
the gold should be his. David was in want of money, and he was therefore
quite willing to follow these good natured Fairies. He walked many miles
with them across the bleak, bare mountain, and at last, descending from
the summit, they reached a deep secluded glen, lying at the foot of the
mountain, and there the Fairies exposed to his view a chest, which had
never before been seen by mortal eye, and they informed him that it was
his. David was delighted when he heard the good news, and mentally bade
farewell to weaving. He knew, though, from tradition, that he must in
some way or other, there and then, take possession of his treasure, or it
would disappear. He could not carry the chest away, as it was too heavy,
but to show his ownership thereto he thrust his walking stick into the
middle of the gold, and there it stood erect. Then he started homewards,
and often and again, as he left the glen, he turned round to see whether
the Fairies had taken his stick away, and with it the chest; but no,
there it remained. At last the ridge hid all from view, and, instead of
going on to Bala, he hastened home to tell his good wife of his riches.
Quickly did he travel to his cottage, and when there it was not long
before his wife knew all about the chest of gold, and where it was, and
how that David had taken possession of his riches by thrusting his
walking stick into the middle of the gold. It was too late for them to
set out to carry the chest home, but they arranged to start before the
sun was up the next day. David, well acquainted with Fairy doings,
cautioned his wife not to tell anyone of their good fortune, "For, if you
do," said he, "we shall vex the Fairies, and the chest, after all, will
not be ours." She promised to obey, but alas, what woman possesses a
silent tongue! No sooner had the husband revealed the secret to his wife
than she was impatient to step to her next door neighbour's house, just
to let them know what a great woman she had all at once become. Now,
this neighbour was a shrewd miller, called Samuel. David went out, to
attend to some little business, leaving his wife alone, and she, spying
her opportunity, rushed to the miller's house, and told him and his wife
every whit, and how that she and David had arranged to go for the chest
next morning before the sun was up. Then she hurried home, but never
told David where she had been, nor what she had done. The good couple
sat up late that night, talking over their good fortune and planning
their future. It was consequently far after sunrise when they got up
next day, and when they reached the secluded valley, where the chest had
been, it had disappeared, and with it David's stick. They returned home
sad and weary, but this time there was no visit made to the miller's
house. Ere long it was quite clearly seen that Samuel the miller had
come into a fortune, and David's wife knew that she had done all the
mischief by foolishly boasting of the Fairy gift, designed for her
husband, to her early rising and crafty neighbour, who had forestalled
David and his wife, and had himself taken possession of the precious
chest.
_The Fairy Shilling_.
The Rev. Owen Jones, Pentrevoelas, whom I have already mentioned as
having supplied me with the Folk-lore of his parish, kindly gave me the
following tale:--
There was a clean, tidy, hardworking woman, who was most particular about
keeping her house in order. She had a place for everything, and kept
everything in its place.
Every night, before retiring to rest, she was in the habit of brushing up
the ashes around the fire place, and putting a few fresh peat on the fire
to keep it in all night, and she was careful to sweep the floor before
going to bed. It was a sight worth seeing to see her clean cottage. One
night the Fairies, in their rambles, came that way and entered her house.
It was just such a place as they liked. They were delighted with the
warm fire, the clean floor and hearth, and they stayed there all night
and enjoyed themselves greatly. In the morning, on leaving, they left a
bright new shilling on the hearthstone for the woman. Night after night,
they spent in this woman's cottage, and every morning she picked up a new
shilling. This went on for so long a time that the woman's worldly
condition was much improved. This her neighbours with envy and surprise
perceived, and great was their talk about her. At last it was noticed
that she always paid for the things she bought with new shilling pieces,
and the neighbours could not make out where she got all these bright
shillings from. They were determined, if possible, to ascertain, and one
of their number was deputed to take upon her the work of obtaining from
the woman the history of these new shillings. She found no difficulty
whatever in doing so, for the woman, in her simplicity, informed her
gossip that every morning the coin was found on the hearthstone. Next
morning the woman, as usual, expected to find a shilling, but never
afterwards did she discover one, and the Fairies came no more to her
house, for they were offended with her for divulging the secret.
This tale is exactly like many others that may be heard related by old
people, in many a secluded abode, to their grandchildren.
A lesson constantly inculcated by Fairy tales is this--Embrace
opportunities as they occur, or they will be lost for ever. The
following stories have reference to this belief.
_The Hidden Golden Chair_.
It is a good many years since Mrs. Mary Jones, Corlanau, Llandinorwig,
Carnarvonshire, told me the following tale. The scene of the story is
the unenclosed mountain between Corlanau, a small farm, and the hamlet,
Rhiwlas. There is still current in those parts a tale of a hidden golden
chair, and Mrs. Jones said that it had once been seen by a young girl,
who might have taken possession of it, but unfortunately she did not do
so, and from that day to this it has not been discovered. The tale is
this:--
There was once a beautiful girl, the daughter of poor hardworking
parents, who held a farm on the side of the hill, and their handsome
industrious daughter took care of the sheep. At certain times of the
year she visited the sheep-walk daily, but she never went to the mountain
without her knitting needles, and when looking after the sheep she was
always knitting stockings, and she was so clever with her needles that
she could knit as she walked along. The Fairies who lived in those
mountains noticed this young woman's good qualities. One day, when she
was far from home, watching her father's sheep, she saw before her a most
beautiful golden chair. She went up to it and found that it was so
massive that she could not move it. She knew the Fairy-lore of her
neighbourhood, and she understood that the Fairies had, by revealing the
chair, intended it for her, but there she was on the wild mountain, far
away from home, without anyone near to assist her in carrying it away.
And often had she heard that such treasures were to be taken possession
of at once, or they would disappear for ever. She did not know what to
do, but all at once she thought, if she could by attaching the yarn in
her hand to the chair connect it thus with her home, the chair would be
hers for ever. Acting upon this suggestion she forthwith tied the yarn
to the foot of the chair, and commenced unrolling the ball, walking the
while homewards. But long before she could reach her home the yarn in
the ball was exhausted; she, however, tied it to the yarn in the stocking
which she had been knitting, and again started towards her home, hoping
to reach it before the yarn in the stocking would be finished, but she
was doomed to disappointment, for that gave out before she could arrive
at her father's house. She had nothing else with her to attach to the
yarn. She, however, could now see her home, and she began to shout,
hoping to gain the ear of her parents, but no one appeared. In her
distress she fastened the end of the yarn to a large stone, and ran home
as fast as she could. She told her parents what she had done, and all
three proceeded immediately towards the stone to which the yarn had been
tied, but they failed to discover it. The yarn, too, had disappeared.
They continued a futile search for the golden chair until driven away by
the approaching night. The next day they renewed their search, but all
in vain, for the girl was unable to find the spot where she had first
seen the golden chair. It was believed by everybody that the Fairies had
not only removed the golden chair, but also the yarn and stone to which
the yarn had been attached, but people thought that if the yarn had been
long enough to reach from the chair to the girl's home then the golden
chair would have been hers for ever.
Such is the tale. People believe the golden chair is still hidden away
in the mountain, and that some day or other it will be given to those for
whom it is intended. But it is, they say, no use anyone looking for it,
as it is not to be got by searching, but it will be revealed, as if by
accident, to those fated to possess it.
_Fairy treasures seen by a Man near Ogwen Lake_.
Another tale, similar to the preceding one, is told by my friend, Mr.
Hugh Derfel Hughes, in his Hynafiaethau Llandegai a Llanllechid, pp. 35,
36. The following is a translation of Mr. Hughes's story:--
It is said that a servant man penetrated into the recesses of the
mountains in the neighbourhood of Ogwen Lake, and that he there
discovered a cave within which there was a large quantity of brazen
vessels of every shape and description. In the joy of his heart at his
good fortune, he seized one of the vessels, with the intention of
carrying it away with him, as an earnest that the rest likewise were his.
But, alas, it was too heavy for any man to move. Therefore, with the
intention of returning the following morning to the cave with a friend to
assist him in carrying the vessels away, he closed its month with stones,
and thus he securely hid from view the entrance to the cave. When he had
done this it flashed upon his mind that he had heard of people who had
accidentally come across caves, just as he had, but that they, poor
things, had afterwards lost all traces of them. And lest a similar
misfortune should befall him, he determined to place a mark on the mouth
of the cave, which would enable him to come upon it again, and also he
bethought himself that it would be necessary, for further security, to
indicate by some marks the way from his house to the cave. He had
however nothing at hand to enable him to carry out this latter design,
but his walking stick. This he began to chip with his knife, and he
placed the chips at certain distances all along the way homewards. In
this way he cut up his staff, and he was satisfied with what he had done,
for he hoped to find the cave by means of the chips. Early the next
morning he and a friend started for the mountain in the fond hope of
securing the treasures, but when they arrived at the spot where the
chip-marked pathway ought to begin, they failed to discover a single
chip, because, as it was reported--"They had been gathered up by the
Fairies." And thus this vision was in vain.
The author adds to the tale these words:--"But, reader, things are not
always to be so. There is a tradition in the Nant, that a Gwyddel is to
have these treasures and this is how it will come to pass. A Gwyddel
Shepherd will come to live in the neighbourhood, and on one of his
journeys to the mountain to shepherd his sheep, when fate shall see fit
to bring it about, there will run before him into the cave a black sheep
with a speckled head, and the Gwyddel shepherd will follow it into the
cave to catch it, and on entering, to his great astonishment, he will
discover the treasures and take possession of them. And in this way it
will come to pass, in some future age, that the property of the Gwyddelod
will return to them."
_The Fairies giving Money to a Man for joining them in their Dance_.
The following story came to me through the Rev. Owen Jones, Vicar of
Pentrevoelas. The occurrence is said to have taken place near
Pentrevoelas. The following are the particulars:--
Tomas Moris, Ty'n-y-Pant, returning home one delightful summer night from
Llanrwst fair, came suddenly upon a company of Fairies dancing in a ring.
In the centre of the circle were a number of speckled dogs, small in
size, and they too were dancing with all their might. After the dance
came to an end, the Fairies persuaded Tomas to accompany them to Hafod
Bryn Mullt, and there the dance was resumed, and did not terminate until
the break of day. Ere the Fairies departed they requested their visitor
to join them the following night at the same place, and they promised, if
he would do so, to enrich him with gifts of money, but they made him
promise that he would not reveal to any one the place where they held
their revels. This Tomas did, and night after night was spent pleasantly
by him in the company of his merry newly-made friends. True to their
word, he nightly parted company with them, laden with money, and thus he
had no need to spend his days as heretofore, in manual labour. This went
on as long as Tomas Moris kept his word, but alas, one day, he divulged
to a neighbour the secret of his riches. That night, as usual, he went
to Hafod Bryn Mullt, but his generous friends were not there, and he
noticed that in the place where they were wont to dance there was nothing
but cockle shells.
In certain parts of Wales it was believed that Fairy money, on close
inspection, would be found to be cockle shells. Mrs. Hugh Jones,
Corlanau, who has already been mentioned, told the writer that a man
found a crock filled, as he thought when he first saw it, with gold, but
on taking it home he discovered that he had carried home from the
mountain nothing but cockle shells. This Mrs. Jones told me was Fairy
money.
_The Fairies rewarding a Woman for taking care of their Dog_.
Mention has already been made of Fairy Dogs. It would appear that now
and again these dogs, just like any other dogs, strayed from home; but
the Fairies were fond of their pets, and when lost, sought for them, and
rewarded those mortals who had shown kindness to the animals. For the
following tale I am indebted to the Rev. Owen Jones.
One day when going home from Pentrevoelas Church, the wife of Hafod y
Gareg found on the ground in an exhausted state a Fairy dog. She took it
up tenderly, and carried it home in her apron. She showed this kindness
to the poor little thing from fear, for she remembered what had happened
to the wife of Bryn Heilyn, who had found one of the Fairy dogs, but had
behaved cruelly towards it, and consequently had fallen down dead. The
wife of Hafod y Gareg therefore made a nice soft bed for the Fairy dog in
the pantry, and placed over it a brass pot. In the night succeeding the
day that she had found the dog, a company of Fairies came to Hafod y
Gareg to make inquiries after it. The woman told them that it was safe
and sound, and that they were welcome to take it away with them. She
willingly gave it up to its masters. Her conduct pleased the Fairies
greatly, and so, before departing with the dog, they asked her which she
would prefer, a clean or a dirty cow? Her answer was, "A dirty one."
And so it came to pass that from that time forward to the end of her
life, her cows gave more milk than the very best cows in the very best
farms in her neighbourhood. In this way was she rewarded for her
kindness to the dog, by the Fairies.
FAIRY MONEY TURNED TO DROSS.
Fairies' treasure was of uncertain value, and depended for its very
existence on Fairy intentions. Often and again, when they had lavishly
bestowed money on this or that person, it was discovered to be only
leaves or some equally worthless substance; but people said that the
recipients of the money richly deserved the deception that had been
played upon them by the Fairies.
In this chapter a few tales shall be given of this trait of Fairy
mythology.
1. _A Cruel Man and a Fairy Dog_.
The person from whom the following tale was derived was David Roberts,
Tycerrig, Clocaenog, near Ruthin.
A Fairy dog lost its master and wandered about here and there seeking
him. A farmer saw the dog, and took it home with him, but he behaved
very unkindly towards the wee thing, and gave it little to eat, and
shouted at it, and altogether he showed a hard heart. One evening a
little old man called at this farmer's house, and inquired if any stray
dog was there. He gave a few particulars respecting the dog, and
mentioned the day that it had been lost. The farmer answered in the
affirmative, and the stranger said that the dog was his, and asked the
farmer to give it up to him. This the farmer willingly did, for he
placed no value on the dog. The little man was very glad to get
possession of his lost dog, and on departing he placed a well filled
purse in the farmer's hand. Some time afterwards the farmer looked into
the purse, intending to take a coin out of it, when to his surprise and
annoyance he found therein nothing but leaves.
Roberts told the writer that the farmer got what he deserved, for he had
been very cruel to the wee dog.
Another tale much like the preceding one, I have heard, but I have
forgotten the source of the information. A person discovered a lost
Fairy dog wandering about, and took it home, but he did not nurse the
half-starved animal, nor did he nourish it. After a while some of the
Fairy folk called on this person to inquire after their lost dog, and he
gave it to them. They rewarded this man for his kindness with a pot
filled with money and then departed. On further inspection, the money
was found to be cockle shells.
Such lessons as these taught by the Fairies were not without their effect
on people who lived in days gone by.
2. _Dick the Fiddler and the Fairy Crown-Piece_.
For the following story I am indebted to my friend, Mr Hamer, who records
it in his "Parochial account of Llanidloes," published in the
_Montgomeryshire Collections_, vol. x., pp. 252-3-4. Mr Hamer states
that the tale was related to him by Mr. Nicholas Bennett, Glanrafon,
Trefeglwys.
"Dick the Fiddler was in the habit of going about the country to play at
merry-makings, fairs, etc. This worthy, after a week's _fuddle_ at
Darowen, wending his way homeward, had to walk down 'Fairy Green Lane,'
just above the farmstead of Cefn Cloddiau, and to banish fear, which he
felt was gradually obtaining the mastery over him, instead of whistling,
drew out from the skirt pocket of his long-tailed great coat his
favourite instrument. After tuning it, be commenced elbowing his way
through his favourite air, _Aden Ddu'r Fran_ (the Crow's Black Wing).
When he passed over the green sward where the _Tylwyth Teg_, or Fairies,
held their merry meetings, he heard something rattle in his fiddle, and
this something continued rattling and tinkling until he reached Llwybr
Scriw Riw, his home, almost out of his senses at the fright caused by
that everlasting 'tink, rink, jink,' which was ever sounding in his ears.
Having entered the cottage he soon heard music of a different kind, in
the harsh angry voice of his better half, who justly incensed at his
absence, began lecturing him in a style, which, unfortunately, Dick, from
habit, could not wholly appreciate. He was called a worthless fool, a
regular drunkard and idler. 'How is it possible for me to beg enough for
myself and half a house-full of children nearly naked, while you go about
the country and bring me nothing home.' 'Hush, hush, my good woman,'
said Dick, 'see what's in the blessed old fiddle.' She obeyed, shook it,
and out tumbled, to their great surprise, a five-shilling piece. The
wife looked up into the husband's face, saw that it was 'as pale as a
sheet' with fright: and also noting that he had such an unusually large
sum in his possession, she came to the conclusion that he could not live
long, and accordingly changed her style saying, 'Good man go to
Llanidloes to-morrow, it is market-day and buy some shirting for
yourself, for it may never be your good fortune to have such a sum of
money again.' The following day, according to his wife's wishes, Dick
wended his way to Llanidloes, musing, as he went along, upon his
extraordinary luck, and unable to account for it. Arrived in the town,
he entered Richard Evans's shop, and called for shirting linen to the
value of five shillings, for which he gave the shopkeeper the crown piece
taken out of the fiddle. Mr. Evans placed it in the till, and our worthy
Dick betook himself to Betty Brunt's public-house (now known as the
Unicorn) in high glee with the capital piece of linen in the skirt pocket
of his long-tailed top coat. He had not, however, been long seated
before Mr. Evans came in, and made sharp enquiries as to how and where he
obtained possession of the crown piece with which he had paid for the
linen. Dick assumed a solemn look, and then briefly related where and
how he had received the coin. 'Say you so,' said Evans, 'I thought as
much, for when I looked into the till, shortly after you left the shop,
to my great surprise it was changed into a heap of musty horse dung.'"
FAIRIES WORKING FOR MEN.
It was once thought that kind Fairies took compassion on good folk, who
were unable to accomplish in due time their undertakings, and finished in
the night these works for them; and it was always observed that the Fairy
workman excelled as a tradesman the mortal whom he assisted. Many an
industrious shoemaker, it is said, has ere this found in the morning that
the Fairies had finished in the night the pair of shoes which he had only
commenced the evening before. Farmers too, who had in part ploughed a
field, have in the morning been surprised to find it finished. These
kind offices, it was firmly believed, were accomplished by Fairy friends.
Milton in _L'Allegro_ alludes to this belief in the following lines:--
Tells how the drudging Goblin swet,
To earn his cream-bowl duly set,
When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn,
That ten day-labourers could not end.
MILTON, _L'Allegro_, lines 105-9.
In Scotland the sprite, or Fairy, called Browny, haunted family abodes,
and did all manner of work in the night for those who treated him kindly.
In England, Robin Goodfellow was supposed to perform like functions.
Thus sings Robin:--
Yet now and then, the maids to please,
At midnight I card up their wooll;
And while they sleepe, and take their ease,
With wheel to threads their flax I pull.
I grind at mill
Their malt up still;
I dress their hemp, I spin their tow.
If any 'wake.
And would me take,
I wend me, laughing, ho, ho, ho!
_Percy's Reliques_, vol. iii., p. 169.
Welsh Fairies are not described as ordinarily inclined to lessen men's
labours by themselves undertaking them; but there are a few tales current
of their having assisted worthy persons in their manual works. Professor
Rhys records one of these stories in _Y Cymmrodor_, vol. iv. 210. He
writes thus:--
"One day Guto, the Farmer of Corwrion, complained to his wife that he was
in need of men to mow his hay, and she answered, 'Why fret about it? look
yonder! there you have a field full of them at it, and stripped to their
shirt sleeves.' When he went to the spot the sham workmen of the Fairy
family had disappeared. This same Guto, or somebody else, happened
another time to be ploughing, when he heard some person he could not see
calling out to him, 'I have got the _bins_ (that is the _vice_) of my
plough broken.' 'Bring it to me,' said the driver of Guto's team, 'that
I may mend it.' When they brought the furrow to an end, there they found
the broken vice, and a barrel of beer placed near it. One of the men sat
down and mended it. Then they made another furrow, and when they
returned to the spot they found there a two-eared dish, filled to the
brim with _bara a chwrw_, or bread and beer."
FAIRY DANCES.
The one occupation of the Fairy folk celebrated in song and prose was
dancing. Their green rings, circular or ovoidal in form, abounded in all
parts of the country, and it was in these circles they were said to dance
through the livelong night. In "_Can y Tylwyth Teg_," or the Fairies'
Song, thus they chant:--
O'r glaswellt glen a'r rhedyn man,
Gyfeillion dyddan, dewch,
E ddarfu'r nawn--mae'r lloer yu llawn,
Y nos yn gyflawn gewch;
O'r chwarau sydd ar dwyn y dydd,
I'r Dolydd awn ar daith.
Nyni sydd lon, ni chaiff gerbron,
Farwolion ran o'n gwaith.
_Yr Hynafion Cymraeg_, p. 153.
From grasses bright, and bracken light,
Come, sweet companions, come,
The full moon shines, the sun declines,
We'll spend the night in fun;
With playful mirth, we'll trip the earth,
To meadows green let's go,
We're full of joy, without alloy,
Which mortals may not know.
The spots where the Fairies held their nightly revels were preserved from
intrusion by traditional superstitions. The farmer dared not plough the
land where Fairy circles were, lest misfortune should overtake him. Thus
were these mythical beings left in undisturbed possession of many fertile
plots of ground, and here they were believed to dance merrily through
many a summer night.
Canu, canu, drwy y nos,
Dawnsio, dawnsio, ar waen y rhos,
Yn ngoleuni'r lleuad dlos;
Hapus ydym ni!
Pawb o honom sydd yn llon,
Heb un gofid dan ei fron:
Canu, dawnsio, ar y ton--
Dedwydd ydym ni!
Singing, singing, through the night,
Dancing, dancing, with our might,
Where the moon the moor doth light:
Happy ever we!
One and all of merry mien,
Without sorrow are we seen,
Singing, dancing on the green:
Gladsome ever we!
_Professor Rhys's Fairy Tales_.
These words correctly describe the popular opinion of Fairy dance and
song, an opinion which reached the early part of the present century.
Since so much has reached our days of Fairy song and dance, it is not
surprising that we are told that the beautiful Welsh melody, _Toriad y
Dydd_, or the Dawn of Day, is the work of a Fairy minstrel, and that this
song was chanted by the Fairy company just as the pale light in the east
announced the approach of returning day.
Chaucer (1340 c. to 1400 c.), alluding to the Fairies and their dances,
in his 'Wife of Bath's Tale,' writes:--
In olde dayes of King Artour,
Of which the Bretons speken gret honour,
All was this lond ful-filled of Faerie;
The elf-quene with hire joly compagnie
Danced ful oft in many a grene mede.
This was the old opinion as I rede;
I speke of many hundred yeres ago;
But now can no man see non elves mo.
Tyrwhitt's Chaucer i., p. 256.
In the days of the Father of English poets, the elves had disappeared,
and he speaks of "many hundred yeres ago," when he says that the Fairy
Queen and her jolly company danced full often in many a green meadow.
Number 419 of the Spectator, published July 1st, 1712, states that
formerly "every large common had a circle of Fairies belonging to it."
Here again the past is spoken of, but in Wales it would seem that up to
quite modern days some one, or other, was said to have seen the Fairies
at their dance, or had heard of some one who had witnessed their gambols.
Robert Roberts, Tycerrig, Clocaenog, enumerated several places, such as
Nantddu, Clocaenog, Craig-fron-Bannog, on Mynydd Hiraethog, and
Fron-y-Go, Llanfwrog, where the Fairies used to hold their revels, and
other places, such as Moel Fammau, have been mentioned as being Fairy
dancing ground. Many an aged person in Wales will give the name of spots
dedicated to Fairy sports. Information of this kind is interesting, for
it shows how long lived traditions are, and in a manner, places
associated with the Fair Tribe bring these mysterious beings right to our
doors.
I will now relate a few tales of mortals witnessing or joining in Fairy
dances.
The first was related to me by David Roberts. The scene of the dance was
the hill side by Pont Petrual between Ruthin and Cerrig-y-Drudion.
1. _A Man who found himself on a Heap of Ferns after joining in a Fairy
Dance_.
A man who went to witness a Fairy dance was invited to join them. He did
so, and all night long he greatly enjoyed himself. At the break of day
the company broke up, and the Fairies took their companion with them.
The man found himself in a beautiful hall with everything he could desire
at his command, and here he pleasantly passed the time ere he retired to
rest. In the morning when he awoke, instead of finding himself on a
couch in Fairy Hall, be found himself lying on a heap of fern on the wild
mountain side.
Although somewhat unfortunate, this man fared better than most men who
joined the Fairy dances.
2. _The Fairies threw dust into a Man's Eyes who Saw them Dance_.
This tale is taken from _Cymru Fu_, p. 176, and is from the pen of
_Glasynys_. I give it in English.
William Ellis, of Cilwern, was once fishing in Llyn Cwm Silin on a dark
cloudy day, when he observed close by, in the rushes, a great number of
men, or beings in the form of men, about a foot high, jumping and
singing.
He watched them for hours, and he never heard in all his life such
singing. But William went too near them, and they threw some kind of
dust into his eyes, and whilst he was rubbing his eyes, the little family
disappeared and fled somewhere out of sight and never afterwards was
Ellis able to get a sight of them.
The next tale _Glasynys_ shall relate in his own words. It appears in
_Cymru Fu_ immediately after the one just related.
3. _A Man Dancing with the Fairies for Three Days_.
"Y mae chwedl go debyg am le o'r enw Llyn-y-Ffynonau. Yr oedd yno rasio
a dawnsio, a thelynio a ffidlo enbydus, a gwas o Gelli Ffrydau a'i ddau
gi yn eu canol yn neidio ac yn prancio mor sionc a neb. Buont wrthi hi
felly am dridiau a theirnos, yn ddi-dor-derfyn; ac oni bai bod ryw wr
cyfarwydd yn byw heb fod yn neppell, ac i hwnw gael gwybod pa sut yr oedd
pethau yn myned yn mlaen, y mae'n ddiddadl y buasai i'r creadur gwirion
ddawnsio 'i hun i farwolaeth. Ond gwaredwyd of y tro hwn." This in
English is as follows:--
"There is a tale somewhat like the preceding one told in connection with
a place called Llyn-y-Ffynonau. There was there racing and dancing, and
harping and furious fiddling, and the servant man of Gelli Ffrydau with
his two dogs in their midst jumping and dancing like mad. There they
were for three days and three nights without a break dancing as if for
very life, and were it not that there lived near by a conjuror, who knew
how things were going on, without a doubt the poor creature would have
danced himself to death. But he was spared this time."
The next tale I received from Mr. David Lloyd, schoolmaster,
Llanfihangel-Glyn-Myfyr, and he heard it in that parish.
4. _A Harper and the Fairies_.
There once lived in a remote part of Denbighshire, called Hafod Elwy, an
old harper, named Shon Robert, who used to be invited to parties to play
for the dancers, or to accompany the singers. One evening he went to
Llechwedd Llyfn, in the neighbourhood of Cefn Brith, to hold a merry
meeting, and it was late before the lads and lasses separated. At last
the harper wended his way homeward. His path was over the bare mountain.
As he came near a lake called Llyndau-ychain, he saw on its verge a grand
palace, vividly illuminated. He was greatly surprised at the sight, for
he had never seen such a building there before. He, however, proceeded
on his way, and when he came in front of this beautiful palace he was
hailed by a footman, and invited to enter. He accepted the invitation,
and was ushered into a magnificent room, where a grand ball was being
held. The guests surrounded the harper and became very friendly, and, to
his wonder, addressed him by name. This hall was magnificently
furnished. The furniture was of the most costly materials, many things
were made of solid gold. A waiter handed him a golden cup filled with
sparkling wine, which the harper gladly quaffed. He was then asked to
play for the company, and this he did to the manifest satisfaction of the
guests. By and by one of the company took Shon Robert's hat round and
collected money for the harper's benefit, and brought it back to him
filled with silver and gold. The feast was carried on with great pomp
and merriment until near the dawn of day, when, one by one, the guests
disappeared, and at last Shon was left alone. Perceiving a magnificent
couch near, he laid himself thereon, and was soon fast asleep. He did
not awake until mid-day, and then, to his surprise, he found himself
lying on a heap of heather, the grand palace had vanished away, and the
gold and silver, which he had transferred from his hat the night before
into his bag, was changed to withered leaves.
The following tale told me by the Rev. R. Jones shows that those who
witness a Fairy dance know not how time passes.
5. _A Three Hours Fairy Dance seeming as a Few Minutes_.
The Rev. R. Jones's mother, when a young unmarried woman, started one
evening from a house called Tyddyn Heilyn, Penrhyndeudraeth, to her home,
Penrhyn isaf, accompanied by their servant man, David Williams, called on
account of his great strength and stature, Dafydd Fawr, Big David. David
was carrying home on his back a flitch of bacon. The night was dark, but
calm. Williams walked somewhat in the rear of his young mistress, and
she, thinking he was following, went straight home. But three hours
passed before David appeared with the pork on his back.
He was interrogated as to the cause of his delay, and in answer said he
had only been about three minutes after his young mistress. He was told
that she had arrived three hours before him, but this David would not
believe. At length, however, he was convinced that he was wrong in his
time, and then he proceeded to account for his lagging behind as
follows:--
He observed, he said, a brilliant meteor passing through the air, which
was followed by a ring or hoop of fire, and within this hoop stood a man
and woman of small size, handsomely dressed. With one arm they embraced
each other, and with the other they took hold of the hoop, and their feet
rested on the concave surface of the ring. When the hoop reached the
earth these two beings jumped out of it, and immediately proceeded to
make a circle on the ground. As soon as this was done, a large number of
men and women instantly appeared, and to the sweetest music that ear ever
heard commenced dancing round and round the circle. The sight was so
entrancing that the man stayed, as he thought, a few minutes to witness
the scene. The ground all around was lit up by a kind of subdued light,
and he observed every movement of these beings. By and by the meteor
which had at first attracted his attention appeared again, and then the
fiery hoop came to view, and when it reached the spot where the dancing
was, the lady and gentleman who had arrived in it jumped into the hoop,
and disappeared in the same manner in which they had reached the place.
Immediately after their departure the Fairies vanished from sight, and
the man found himself alone and in darkness, and then he proceeded
homewards. In this way he accounted for his delay on the way.
In Mr. Sikes's _British Goblins_, pp. 79-81, is a graphic account of a
mad dance which Tudur ap Einion Gloff had with the Fairies, or Goblins,
at a place called Nant-yr-Ellyllon, a hollow half way up the hill to
Castell Dinas Bran, in the neighbourhood of Llangollen. All night, and
into the next day, Tudur danced frantically in the Nant, but he was
rescued by his master, who understood how to break the spell, and release
his servant from the hold the Goblins had over him! This he did by
pronouncing certain pious words, and Tudur returned home with his master.
Mr. Evan Davies, carpenter, Brynllan, Efenechtyd, who is between seventy
and eighty years old, informed the writer that his friend John Morris
told him that he had seen a company of Fairies dancing, and that they
were the handsomest men and women that he had ever seen. It was night
and dark, but the place on which the dance took place was strangely
illuminated, so that every movement of the singular beings could be
observed, but when the Fairies disappeared it became suddenly quite dark.
Although from the tales already given it would appear that the Fairies
held revelry irrespective of set times of meeting, still it was thought
that they had special days for their great banquets, and the eve of the
first of May, old style, was one of these days, and another was _Nos Wyl
Ifan_, St. John's Eve, or the evening of June 23rd.
Thus sings _Glasynys_, in _Y Brython_, vol. iii. p. 270:--
_Nos Wyl Ifan_.
_Tylwyth Teg_ yn lluoedd llawen,
O dan nodded tawel Dwynwen,
Welir yn y cel encilion,
Yn perori mwyn alawon,
Ac yn taenu hyd y twyni,
Ac ar leiniau'r deiliog lwyni,
_Hud a Lledrith_ ar y glesni,
Ac yn sibrwd dwyfol desni!
I am indebted to my friend Mr Richard Williams, F.R.H.S., Newtown,
Montgomeryshire, for the following translation of the preceding Welsh
lines:--
The Fairy Tribe in merry crowds,
Under Dwynwen's calm protection,
Are seen in shady retreats
Chanting sweet melodies,
And spreading over the bushes
And the leafy groves
Illusion and phantasy on all that is green,
And whispering their mystic lore.
May-day dances and revelling have reached our days, and probably they
have, like the Midsummer Eve's festivities, their origin in the far off
times when the Fairy Tribe inhabited Britain and other countries, and to
us have they bequeathed these Festivals, as well as that which ushers in
winter, and is called in Wales, _Nos glan gaua_, or All Hallow Eve. If
so, they have left us a legacy for which we thank them, and they have
also given us a proof of their intelligence and love of nature.
But I will now briefly refer to Fairy doings on _Nos Wyl Ifan_ as
recorded by England's greatest poet, and, further on, I shall have more
to say of this night.
Shakespeare introduces into his _Midsummer Night's Dream_ the prevailing
opinions respecting Fairies in England, but they are almost identical
with those entertained by the people of Wales; so much so are they
British in character, that it is no great stretch of the imagination to
suppose that he must have derived much of his information from an
inhabitant of Wales. However, in one particular, the poet's description
of the Fairies differs from the more early opinion of them in Wales.
Shakespeare's Fairies are, to a degree, diminutive; they are not so small
in Wales. But as to their habits in both countries they had much in
common. I will briefly allude to similarities between English and Welsh
Fairies, confining my remarks to Fairy music and dancing.
To begin, both danced in rings. A Fairy says to Puck:--
And I serve the Fairy Queen
To dew her orbs upon the green.
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act II., S I.
And allusion is made in the same play to these circles in these words:--
If you will patiently dance in our round
And see our moonlight revels, go with us.
Act II., S. I.
Then again Welsh and English Fairies frequented like spots to hold their
revels on. I quote from the same play:--
And now they never meet in grove or green,
By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen.
Act II., S. I.
And again:--
And never since the middle summer's spring
Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead
By paved fountain or by rushy brook
Or by the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind.
Act II., S. I
And further the Fairies in both countries meet at night, and hold their
Balls throughout the hours of darkness, and separate in early morn. Thus
Puck addressing Oberon:--
Fairy King, attend and hark;
I do hear the morning lark.