British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and TraditionsSikes, Wirt
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British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions
Sikes, Wirt
Folklore -- Wales; Goblins -- Wales; Mythology, Celtic -- Wales; Mythology, Welsh; Wales -- Social life and customs
What could have become of him? He could not have gone through
the gate, nor have made his horse leap the high hedges, which on both
sides shut in the road. Where was he? had I been dreaming? was it an
apparition--a spectre, which had been riding by my side for the last
ten minutes? was it but a creature of my imagination? I tried hard to
convince myself that this was the case; but why had the reaper
resheathed his murderous-looking sickle and fled? And then a feeling
of profound awe began to creep over my soul. I remembered the singular
way of his first appearance, his long silence, and the single word to
which he had given utterance after I had mentioned the name of the
Lord; the single occasion on which I had done so. What could I then
believe but that ... in the mysterious horseman I had a special
interference of Providence, by which I was delivered from a position
of extreme danger?'
II.
Of gigantic ghosts there are many examples which are very grotesque
indeed. Such was the apparition which met Edward Frank, a young man
who lived in the parish of Llantarnam. As he was coming home one night
he heard something walking towards him, but at first could see
nothing. Suddenly his way was barred by a tall dismal object which
stood in the path before him. It was the ghost of a marvellous thin
man, whose head was so high above the observer's line of vision that
he nearly fell over backward in his efforts to gaze at it. His knees
knocked together and his heart sank. With great difficulty he gasped
forth, 'In the name of God what is here? Turn out of my way or I will
strike thee!' The giant ghost then disappeared, and the frightened
Edward, seeing a cow not far off, went towards her to lean on her,
which the cow stood still and permitted him to do. The naïveté of this
conclusion is convincing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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