British Goblins: Welsh Folk Lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions

by Wirt Sikes

primrose path

evanescent

There was something so peculiarly fascinating in that old belief, that ‘once upon a time’ the world was less practical in its facts than now, less commonplace and humdrum, less subject to the inexorable laws of gravitation, optics, and the like.

jocular

rector

Merthyr,

Gwerddonau Llion,

Gwydion,

Dyfed

Demetia)

illimitable

Dyfed.

Vale of Neath,

caves and crevices have been their favourite haunt for many centuries, and upon this rock was held the court of the last fairies who have ever appeared in Wales. Needless to say there are men still living who remember the visits of the fairies to Craig y Ddinas, although they aver the little folk are no longer seen there.

Hergest.’

Gwyn ap Nudd.

He was also ruler over the goblin tribe in general. His name often occurs in ancient Welsh poetry. An old bard of the fourteenth century, who, led away by the fairies, rode into a turf bog on a mountain one dark night, called it the ‘fish-pond of Gwyn ap Nudd, a palace for goblins and their tribe.’

It is nevertheless thought by Cambrian etymologists, that Morgana is derived from

Mor Gwyn,

the white...

Collen,

Annwn

Collen was passing a period of mortification as a hermit, in a cell under a rock on a mountain.

puissant

The green meadows of the sea, called in the triads

Gwerddonau Llion,

are the Green fairy islands, reposing, In sunlight and beauty on ...

They were supposed to be the abode of the souls of certain Druids, who, not holy enough to enter the heaven of the Christians, were still not wicked enough to be condemned to the tortures of annwn, and so were accorded a place in this romantic sort of purgatorial paradise.

fifth century a voyage was made, by

king G...

in search of these enchanted islands; with his family he sailed away into the unknown waters, ...

Three Losses by Disap...

two other...

Mer...

Mad...

Merlin sailed away in a ship of glass; Madog sailed in search of America; and neither returned, b...

The fairies inhabiting these islands are said to have regularly attended the markets at

Milford Haven

Laugh...

They made their purchases without speaking, laid down their money and departed, always leaving the exact sum required, which they seemed to know, without asking the price of anything. Sometimes they were inv...

There was always one special butcher at Milford Haven upon whom the fairies bestowed their patronage, instead of distributing their favours indiscriminately. The Milford Haven folk could see the green fairy islands distinctly, lying out a short distance from land; and the general belief was that they were densely peopled with fairies. It was also said that the latter went to an...

Flemings

A secret veil was supposed to cover this sea-girt promontory; the inhabitants talked in an unintelligible jargon that was neither English, nor French, nor Welsh; and out of its misty darkness came fables of wondrous sort, and accounts of miracles marvellous beyond belief. Mythology and Christianity spoke together from this strange country, and one could not tell at which to be most amazed, the pagan or the priest.

four classes the Scandinavian elements of popular belief as to fairies,

viz.:

1. The Elves; 2. The Dwarfs, or Trolls; 3. The Nisses; and 4. The Necks, Mermen, and Mermaids. How entirely arbitrary this division is, the student of Scandinavian folk-lore at once perceives. Yet it is perhaps as satisfactory as another. The fairies of Wales may be divided into five classes, if analogy be not too sharply insisted on. Thus we have, 1. The Ellyllon, or elves; 2. The Coblynau, or mine fairies; 3. The Bwbachod, or househ...

They are spoken of as bestowing blessings on those mortals whom they select to be thus favoured; and again are called Bendith y Mamau, or their mother’s blessing, that is to say, good little children whom it is a pleasure to know. To name the fairies by a harsh epithet is to invoke their anger; to speak of them in flattering phrase is to propitiate their good offices. The student of fairy mythology perceives in this propitiatory mode of speech a fact of wide significance.

Eumenides,

Ellyllon

are the pigmy elves who haunt the groves and valleys, and correspond pretty closely with the English elves.