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
Contrasting strongly with this matter-of-fact account of a modern
witness is the glowing description of fairy life contained in the
legend of the Fairies of Frennifawr. About ten miles south of Cardigan
is the Pembrokeshire mountain called Frennifawr, which is the scene of
this tale: A shepherd's lad was tending his sheep on the small
mountains called Frennifach one fine morning in June. Looking to the
top of Frennifawr to note what way the fog hung--for if the fog on
that mountain hangs on the Pembrokeshire side, there will be fair
weather, if on the Cardigan side, storm--he saw the Tylwyth Teg, in
appearance like tiny soldiers, dancing in a ring. He set out for the
scene of revelry, and soon drew near the ring where, in a gay company
of males and females, they were footing it to the music of the harp.
Never had he seen such handsome people, nor any so enchantingly
cheerful. They beckoned him with laughing faces to join them as they
leaned backward almost falling, whirling round and round with joined
hands. Those who were dancing never swerved from the perfect circle;
but some were clambering over the old cromlech, and others chasing
each other with surprising swiftness and the greatest glee. Still
others rode about on small white horses of the most beautiful form;
these riders were little ladies, and their dresses were indescribably
elegant, surpassing the sun in radiance, and varied in colour, some
being of bright whiteness, others the most vivid scarlet. The males
wore red tripled caps, and the ladies a light fantastic headdress
which waved in the wind. All this was in silence, for the shepherd
could not hear the harps, though he saw them. But now he drew nearer
to the circle, and finally ventured to put his foot in the magic ring.
The instant he did this, his ears were charmed with strains of the
most melodious music he had ever heard. Moved with the transports this
seductive harmony produced in him, he stepped fully into the ring. He
was no sooner in than he found himself in a palace glittering with
gold and pearls. Every form of beauty surrounded him, and every
variety of pleasure was offered him. He was made free to range
whither he would, and his every movement was waited on by young women
of the most matchless loveliness. And no tongue can tell the joys of
feasting that were his! Instead of the tatws-a-llaeth (potatoes and
buttermilk) to which he had hitherto been accustomed, here were birds
and meats of every choice description, served on plates of silver.
Instead of home-brewed cwrw, the only bacchic beverage he had ever
tasted in real life, here were red and yellow wines of wondrous
enjoyableness, brought in golden goblets richly inlaid with gems. The
waiters were the most beautiful virgins, and everything was in
abundance. There was but one restriction on his freedom: he must not
drink, on any consideration, from a certain well in the garden, in
which swam fishes of every colour, including the colour of gold. Each
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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