The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various CountriesKeightley, Thomas
General
The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries
Keightley, Thomas
Fairies; Fairy tales; Folk literature; Folklore
This story is also told by William of Newbridge,[319] who places it in
the reign of King Stephen. He says he long hesitated to believe it,
but he was at length overcome by the weight of evidence. According to
him, the place where the children appeared was about four or five
miles from Bury St. Edmund's: they came in harvest-time out of the
Wolf-pits; they both lost their green hue, and were baptised, and
learned English. The boy, who was the younger, died; but the girl
married a man at Lenna, and lived many years. They said their country
was called St. Martin's Land, as that saint was chiefly worshiped
there; that the people were Christians, and had churches; that the sun
did not rise there, but that there was a bright country which could be
seen from theirs, being divided from it by a very broad river.
_The Fairy Banquet._
In the next chapter of his history, William of Newbridge relates as
follows:--
"In the province of the Deiri (Yorkshire), not far from my birth-place,
a wonderful thing occurred, which I have known from my boyhood. There is
a town a few miles distant from the Eastern Sea, near which are those
celebrated waters commonly called Gipse.... A peasant of this town went
once to see a friend who lived in the next town, and it was late at
night when he was coming back, not very sober; when lo! from the
adjoining barrow, which I have often seen, and which is not much over a
quarter of a mile from the town, he heard the voices of people singing,
and, as it were, joyfully feasting. He wondered who they could be that
were breaking in that place, by their merriment, the silence of the dead
night, and he wished to examine into the matter more closely. Seeing a
door open in the side of the barrow, he went up to it, and looked in;
and there he beheld a large and luminous house, full of people, women as
well as men, who were reclining as at a solemn banquet. One of the
attendants, seeing him standing at the door, offered him a cup. He took
it, but would not drink; and pouring out the contents, kept the vessel.
A great tumult arose at the banquet on account of his taking away the
cup, and all the guests pursued him; but he escaped by the fleetness of
the beast he rode, and got into the town with his booty. Finally, this
vessel of unknown material, of unusual colour, and of extraordinary
form, was presented to Henry the Elder, king of the English, as a
valuable gift, and was then given to the queen's brother David, king of
the Scots, and was kept for several years in the treasury of Scotland;
and a few years ago (as I have heard from good authority), it was given
by William, king of the Scots, to Henry the Second, who wished to see
it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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