British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and TraditionsSikes, Wirt
History
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
Among the traditions of the origin of the Gwyllion is one which
associates them with goats. Goats are in Wales held in peculiar esteem
for their supposed occult intellectual powers. They are believed to be
on very good terms with the Tylwyth Teg, and possessed of more
knowledge than their appearance indicates. It is one of the
peculiarities of the Tylwyth Teg that every Friday night they comb
the goats' beards to make them decent for Sunday. Their association
with the Gwyllion is related in the legend of Cadwaladr's goat:
Cadwaladr owned a very handsome goat, named Jenny, of which he was
extremely fond; and which seemed equally fond of him; but one day, as
if the very diawl possessed her, she ran away into the hills, with
Cadwaladr tearing after her, half mad with anger and affright. At last
his Welsh blood got so hot, as the goat eluded him again and again,
that he flung a stone at her, which knocked her over a precipice, and
she fell bleating to her doom. Cadwaladr made his way to the foot of
the crag; the goat was dying, but not dead, and licked his hand--which
so affected the poor man that he burst into tears, and sitting on the
ground took the goat's head on his arm. The moon rose, and still he
sat there. Presently he found that the goat had become transformed to
a beautiful young woman, whose brown eyes, as her head lay on his arm,
looked into his in a very disturbing way. 'Ah, Cadwaladr,' said she,
'have I at last found you?' Now Cadwaladr had a wife at home, and was
much discomfited by this singular circumstance; but when the goat--yn
awr maiden--arose, and putting her black slipper on the end of a
moonbeam, held out her hand to him, he put his hand in hers and went
with her. As for the hand, though it looked so fair, it felt just like
a hoof. They were soon on the top of the highest mountain in Wales,
and surrounded by a vapoury company of goats with shadowy horns. These
raised a most unearthly bleating about his ears. One, which seemed to
be the king, had a voice that sounded above the din as the castle
bells of Carmarthen used to do long ago above all the other bells in
the town. This one rushed at Cadwaladr and butting him in the stomach
sent him toppling over a crag as he had sent his poor nannygoat. When
he came to himself, after his fall, the morning sun was shining on him
and the birds were singing over his head. But he saw no more of either
his goat or the fairy she had turned into, from that time to his
death.
CHAPTER V.
Changelings--The Plentyn-newid--The Cruel Creed of Ignorance
regarding Changelings--Modes of Ridding the House of the
Fairy Child--The Legend of the Frugal Meal--Legend of the
Place of Strife--Dewi Dal and the Fairies--Prevention of
Fairy Kidnapping--Fairies caught in the Act by
Mothers--Piety as an Exorcism.
I.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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