Folk-Lore of West and Mid-WalesDavies, Jonathan Ceredig
History
Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales
Davies, Jonathan Ceredig
Folklore -- Wales; Wales -- Social life and customs
Then he requested of her permission to go to his house to take leave
of, and to say farewell to his wife, Angharad, and his son Einion. "I"
said she, "shall be with thee, invisible to all but to thyself;
go visit thy wife and thy son."
So he went, and the Goblin; and when he saw Angharad his wife, he saw
her a hag-like one grown old, but he retained the recollection of days
past, and still felt extreme affection for her, but he was not able to
loose himself from the bond in which he was. "It is necessary for me"
said he, "to part for a time, I know not how long from thee Angharad,
and from thee my son Einion," and they wept together, and broke a
gold ring between them; he kept one half, and Angharad the other;
and they took their leave of each other, and he went with the Lady of
the Wood, and he knew not where; for a powerful illusion was upon him,
and saw not any place, a person, or object under its true and proper
appearance, excepting the half of the ring alone. And after being a
long time, he knew not how long, with the Goblin, the Lady of the Wood,
he looked one morning as the sun was rising upon the half of the ring,
and he bethought him to place it in the most precious place he could
and resolved to put it under his eyelid; and as he was endeavouring to
do so, he could see a man in white apparel, and mounted on a snow-white
horse, coming towards him, and that person asked him what he did there;
and he told him that he was cherishing an afflicting remembrance
of his wife Angharad. "Dos't thou desire to see her," said the man
in white, "get up on this horse behind me"; and that Einion did,
and looking around he could not see any appearance of the Lady of
the Wood, the Goblin; excepting the track of hoofs of marvellous and
monstrous size, as if journeying towards the north. "What delusion
art thou under?" said the man in white. Then Einion answered him and
told everything, how it occurred betwixt him and the Goblin. "Take
this white staff in thy hand," said the man in white; and Einion took
it. And the man in white told him to desire whatever he wished for. The
first thing he desired was to see the Lady of the Wood, for he was not
yet completely delivered from the illusion. And she appeared to him in
size a hideous and monstrous witch, a thousand times more repulsive
of aspect than the most frightful things seen upon earth. And Einion
uttered a cry from terror; and the man in white cast his cloak over
Einion, and in less than a twinkling Einion alighted as he wished on
the hill of Treveilir, by his own house, where he knew scarcely anyone,
nor did anyone know him. After the Goblin had left Einion, the son
of Gwalchmai, she went to Treveilir in the form of an honourable and
powerful nobleman elegantly and sumptuously appareled, and possessed
of an incalculable amount of gold and silver, and also in the prime
of life, that is thirty years of age. And he placed a letter in
Angharad's hand in which it was stated that Einion had died in Norway
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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