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
the neighbourhood a wild rumour that Shuï Rhys had been seen in a
great city in a foreign land--Paris, perhaps, or London, who knows?
but this tale was in no way injurious to the sad belief that the
fairies had carried her off; they might take her to those well-known
centres of idle and sinful pleasure, as well as to any other place.
[Illustration: SHUÏ RHYS AND THE TYLWYTH TEG.]
III.
An old man who died in St. Dogmell's parish, Pembrokeshire, a short
time since (viz., in 1860), nearly a hundred years old, used to say
that that whole neighbourhood was considered 'fou.' It was a common
experience for men to be led astray there all night, and after
marvellous adventures and untellable trampings, which seemed as if
they would be endless, to find when day broke that they were close to
their own homes. In one case, a man who was led astray chanced to have
with him a number of hoop-rods, and as he wandered about under the
influence of the deluding phantom, he was clever enough to drop the
rods one by one, so that next day he might trace his journeyings. When
daylight came, and the search for the hoop-rods was entered on, it was
found they were scattered over miles upon miles of country. Another
time, a St. Dogmell's fisherman was returning home from a wedding at
Moelgrove, and it being very dark, the fairies led him astray, but
after a few hours he had the good luck (which Sir John Franklin might
have envied him) to 'discover the North Pole,' and by this beacon he
was able to steer his staggering barque to the safe port of his own
threshold. It is even gravely stated that a severe and dignified
clerical person, no longer in the frisky time of life, but advanced in
years, was one night forced to join in the magic dance of St.
Dogmell's, and keep it up till nearly daybreak. Specific details in
this instance are wanting; but it was no doubt the Ellyllon who led
all these folk astray, and put a cap of oblivion on their heads, which
prevented them from ever telling their adventures clearly.
IV.
Dancing and music play a highly important part in stories of this
class. The Welsh fairies are most often dancing together when seen.
They seek to entice mortals to dance with them, and when anyone is
drawn to do so, it is more than probable he will not return to his
friends for a long time. Edmund William Rees, of Aberystruth, was thus
drawn away by the fairies, and came back at the year's end, looking
very bad. But he could not give a very clear account of what he had
been about, only said he had been dancing. This was a common thing in
these cases. Either they were not able to, or they dared not, talk
about their experiences.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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