The Mystical Fairy Faith -fad or deceptive reality?

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The Mystical Fairy Faith -fad or deceptive reality?

In our times there is a surprising revival of sorts going on. This
revival is the post modern fairy faith. There are signs of it in
several
feature films*, festivals, art work, books, Fairy shops and
numerous web sites, if you are observant you should spot some
indications of it in the malls of America and other English countries.

..there are all kinds of fairy things for sale: cards, calendars,
fairy ornaments, fairy costumes, candle holders, fairy statues for
gardens etc. This last June the Third Fairy Congress was held in the
Cascade Mountains of
Washington state. Some of the speakers were from the Findhorn New
Age community of Scotland. Workshops included talks on how to contact
nature spirits (fairies) for guidance and help. Presently there are
more and more books teaching people how to etablish communicate and
contact faeries for instance:

The Book of Faeries: A Guide to the World of Elves, Pixies, Goblins,
and Other Magic Spirits by Francis Melville

Fairy Spells: Seeing and Communicating With the Fairies
by Claire Nahmad

A Witchs Guide to Faery Folk: Reclaiming Our Working Relationship With

Invisible Helpers (Llewellyns New Age Series)
by Authors: Edain McCoy , Edain McCoy

Other books are listed on Amazon.com

Some casual observers
who have noticed this growing interest in faeries
consider it a fad. Is it just an innocent fad as some say or
is there a reality and a darker side to the world of fairie?

The following news clip, quotes from articles and information web
links
may answer this question.

*some films with fairy theme or fairy encounters

The National Film Board of Canada's production, The Fairy Faith
Fairy Tale a True Story
Photography Fairies
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Legend
Willow
Ladybrinth
Peter Pan -the new movie

A faerie affair
Elusive folk and their followers to alight in Sedona for all-day
festival

Michael Kiefer
The Arizona Republic
May. 6, 2003 12:00 AM

Amy Ford sees fairies.

Some are as small as houseflies, others 18 feet tall. They're
pixielike
or feminine, sometimes androgynous, and once, she claims, she woke up
in the woods near Cornville to find herself held captive.

"It was just like Gulliver's Travels," she says. "The fairies had tied

me down with dried grass," while one laughed right in her face.

"It scared the crap out of me."

Ford claims she's seen fairies all her life, and though she won't say
exactly how long that is, it looks to be 30-some years. She's a
musician and astrologer from Scottsdale, short and buxom with long,
dark hair and darker eyes. And though she seems reasonably sane, she
acknowledges, "I'm wired way different."

Ford is part of a growing subculture of fairy folk, not all of whom
claim to see fairies - though that number is bigger than you might
expect. The concept has allure for children, folklorists and
all-purpose whimsical folk, as well. There is fairy music, much of it
borrowing Celtic sounds and rhythms; there are T-shirts with fairy
pictures that sell big at teenage boutiques, and fairy cards and
posters in New Age bookstores. And a British artist named Brian Froud
has sold more than 8 million large-format books of paintings of
fairies, which he, like most fairy folk, spell the old-fashioned way:
"faeries."

"Faeryland is like the sea," Froud says. "It's like the tide, and
sometimes the tide is out a long way and Faeryland is very difficult
to
reach. And sometimes the tide is in. And it does seem to me that the
tide was out for some years, but it's really come in now."

That tide has come in far enough that promoters expect more than 4,000

people to attend an all-day Faerieworlds Festival on Saturday at
Sedona
Cultural Park. The festival will include music, multimedia shows, live

interactive performances and, especially, Froud and his artwork.

The expected attendees will be true believers like Ford, but also
Renaissance Faire fans, families with young children, masqueraders,
New
Age dabblers, Goth kids who have "discovered Faery," as one promoter
put it, and even "folks factioning out of the old Grateful Dead days
who don't have anywhere to go."

Fairies originated in Celtic folklore, and, more often than not, they
were frightening, otherworldly forest beings that were blamed for
unexplainable events, such as ill children, people turned mad and dark

thoughts.

"They're about expression of things in everyday life that we can't
express openly," says Ari Berk, a professor of folklore at Central
Michigan University. "Fairies have always spoken to the human desire
to
have some kind of conversation with the environment around them."

They've populated art and literature for centuries, not just as fairy
tales, but also in Shakespeare and in the poetry of William Butler
Yeats. More recently, they appear in the Lord of the Rings films, as
the elves.

Although children are naturally drawn to fairy tales, the current pop
phenomenon is not really about children. Froud's art, for example, is
not only well researched but very adult.

"Fairies have been relegated to the nursery for far too long," Froud
says. "That's a 20th-century point of view really. Fairies have always

been dangerous creatures. That's why they had to be placated. That's
why little gifts were left out at night, little saucers of milk, or,
otherwise, your cattle died, or, indeed, your children were stolen or
people died. The word 'stroke' comes from 'elf stroke' because a fairy

had touched you. So fairies have always been dangerous. And one way
that people have tried to make them safer is to turn them into fairy
stories, something that was safe, and say, 'Oh it's just for children,

isn't it?' "

Froud, 56, lives in Dartmoor, England, an area he says is slightly
wild
and desolate, and whose landscape influenced his palette.

"When I looked at trees and rocks and hills when I moved to the
country, I wondered what the inside of them looked like," Froud says.
"And as I was wondering that, then I started painting fairies, and
they
were indeed at the souls of trees and landscapes."

He was inspired by illustrations of fairy tales and did a lot of
research with his collaborator, Alan Lee, for his first book, Faeries,

which they published in 1978. It has sold more than 5 million copies,
including more than 100,000 since last October, when a
25th-anniversary
edition was published.

Froud followed up with several other titles, including Good
Faeries/Bad
Faeries, whose paintings sometimes verge on the erotic, with lithesome

near nudes, a merging of several tingling and anticipatory fantasies,
and decidedly not for children. His art was the inspiration for the
Jim
Henson films The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, and Froud's wife, Wendy,
was one of the puppetmakers who designed Yoda for the Star Wars films.

Since he began painting fairies, Froud says they now present
themselves
to him as, he believes, they present themselves to others. The
paintings, he says, are like maps that allow people to safely go on
their fairy journey, as he puts it.

"A lot of people go on the journey and don't return because they lapse

into madness," he says.

Saturday's festival in Sedona promises plenty of controlled madness.

"Right now, everything's so heavy and intense on the planet that I
think people need a fantasy to go to where they feel like they have
power, where they feel they have something to go to," says Emilio
Miller-Lopez, one of the festival's organizers. "What our events offer

people is a chance to participate. Everybody's part of the show."

Miller-Lopez is a spritely fellow of 28 with a shaggy gnome's beard
and
a shock of hair long enough to evoke memories of the early 1970s. His
wife, Kelly, 27, has cascading Maid Marian locks and glittery makeup.
Both dress elfin, in earth tones and billowing sleeves. They draw
stares even in Sedona.

The couple perform in Woodland, a band with Celtic-music roots and a
rich New Age sound, which will play at the festival. Kelly says she
has
seen fairies since she was a child, and she first latched onto Brian
Froud's work when she saw The Dark Crystal and then bought the Faeries

books, which she eventually showed to her husband. Together, they
sought out Froud's agent, Robert Gould, who is also a fantasy artist,
well known as the illustrator for Michael Moorcock's Elric of
Melnibone
novels.

Working with Gould's company, Imaginosis, they staged multimedia fairy

shows in Prescott, Santa Fe and Los Angeles. Fairy fans turned out in
droves.

"It was incredible," Gould says. "People were standing in line for an
hour. Everyone was in costume. Families came. It was pretty wild."

The Santa Fe show took place on Halloween, and the upcoming Sedona
festival is just after May Day, which, as Kelly Miller-Lopez explains,

are those times of the year when the veil is thinnest between the real

world and the fairy world and human-fairy encounters are more likely.

Gould would like to take the show on the road and maybe develop it
into
a Cirque du Soleil-style of interactive performance.

As for the people who claim to see fairies, even Froud is not sure how

many really do.

"It took me a long time to actually work that out," he says. People
constantly ask him how they can see them, too.

"You don't use your eyes," he answers. "You see a fairy through your
heart."

Fairies have been attributed many origins, from natural causes to the
darkest element.

They are the creatures of the wild, primitive and untouched realm of
fantaisy that exists beside each society.

Fallen angels. In the lore of Scandinavia, Scotland, and Ireland, when

God cast out the arrogant angels from heaven, they became the evil
spirits that plague mankind, tormenting us and inflicting us with
harm.
The ones who fell into hell and into caves and abysses became devils
and death-maidens. However, those who fell onto the earth became
goblins, imps, dwarfs, thumblings, alps, noon-and-evening-ghosts, and
will-o'-the-wisps. Those who fell into the forests became the
wood-spirits who live there: the hey-men, the wild-men, the
forest-men,
the wild-women, and the forest-women. Finally, those who fell into the

water became water spirits: water-men, mermaids, and merwomen. These
angels were condemned to remain where they were, becoming the faeries
of seas and rivers, the earth, and the air.

Nature spirits : in most pagan religions, supernatural forces are
associated with animals, the five elements and the Goddess. Sometimes
the fairies were called Goddesses themselves. In several folk ballads
the Fairy Queen is adressed as 'Queen of Heaven.' Welsh fairies were
known as 'the Mother's Blessing.' Breton peasants called the fairies
Godmothers.

Are fallen angels now appearing also as aliens, new age spirit guides,

pagan gods, spirits of shamans, Marian apparations, etc?

The following is from the book "The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries'
published in 1911/ and a quote form a web site on theories of fairy
origins.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/ffcc/

Taking Evidence (Section I, Chapter II, part 2)

III. IN SCOTLAND

Introduction by ALEXANDER CARMICHAEL, Hon. LL.D. of the University of
Edinburgh; author of Carmina Gadelica.

The belief in fairies was once common throughout Scotland -- Highland
and Lowland. It is now much less prevalent even in the Highlands and
Islands, where such beliefs linger longer than they do in the
Lowlands.
But it still lives among the old people, and is privately entertained
here and there even among younger people; and some who hold the belief

declare that they themselves have seen fairies.

Various theories have been advanced as to the origin of

[85]

fairies and as to the belief in them. The most concrete form in which
the belief has been urged has been by the Rev. Robert Kirk, minister
of
Aberfoyle, in Perthshire. (1) Another theory of the origin of fairies
I
took down in the island of Miunghlaidh (Minglay); and, though I have
given it in Carmina Gadelica, it is sufficiently interesting to be
quoted here. During October 1871, Roderick Macneill, known as
'Ruaraidh
mac Dhomhuil, then ninety-two years of age, told it in Gaelic to the
late J. F. Campbell of Islay and the writer, when they were
storm-stayed in the precipitous island of Miunghlaidh, Barra :--

'The Proud Angel fomented a rebellion among the angels of heaven,
where he had been a leading light. He declared that he would go and
found a kingdom for himself. When going out at the door of heaven the
Proud Angel brought prickly lightning and biting lightning out of the
doorstep with his heels. Many angels followed him -- so many that at
last the Son called out, "Father! Father! the city is being emptied!"
whereupon the Father ordered that the gates of heaven and the gates of

hell should be closed. This was instantly done. And those who were in
were in, and those who were out were out; while the hosts who had left

heaven and had not reached hell flew into the holes of the earth, like

the stormy petrels. These are the Fairy Folk -- ever since doomed to
live under the ground, and only allowed to emerge where and when the
King permits. They are never allowed abroad on Thursday, that being
Columba's Day; nor on Friday, that being the Son's Day; nor on
Saturday, that being Mary's Day; nor on Sunday, that being the Lord's
Day.

God be between me and every fairy,
Every ill wish and every druidry;
To-day is Thursday on sea and land,
I trust in the King that they do not hear me.

(1) It was the belief of the Rev. Robert Kirk, as expressed by him in
his Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies, that the fairy
tribes are a distinct order of created beings possessing human-like
intelligence and supernormal powers, who live and move about in this
world invisible to all save men and women of the second-sight (see
this
study, pp. 89, 91 n).

[86]

On certain nights when their bruthain (bowers) are open and their
lamps
are lit, and the song and the dance are moving merrily, the fairies
may
be heard singing lightheartedly : -

Not of the seed of Adam are we,
Nor is Abraham our father;
But of the seed of the Proud Angel,
Driven forth from Heaven.'

Theories of Fairy Origins http://home.att.net/~waeshael/origins.htm

Many of the folk theories of the fairy origins have a theological
Christian background, and that highlighted by Professor Christiansen
is
the one common to Ireland and the Scottish Highlands - the fairies are

fallen angels. A vivid and detailed account of this is given by
Alexander Carmichael in Carmina Gadelica and repeated in The Fairy
Faith in Celtic Countries.1 According to this some of the angels
seduced by Satan were not prominent in his councils, but might rather
be counted his dupes. When Michael hurled the hosts of Satan out of
Heaven they were followed by an almost endless stream of these
comparatively innocent victims of his unholy eloquence. The Shining
Host of Heaven was thinning rapidly, and the Son, seeing the danger,
cried out: 'Father, Father, the City is being emptied!' God raised his

hand; the gates of Heaven closed, the seduced angels stopped
bewildered
and recollected themselves, and those who were already descending
stopped in their tracks, some in the sky, some in the sea, some on
mountains and in woods, some further on their way towards Hell, in
bowels of the earth, and the foremost angels, wholly committed to
evil,
in the burning lake. This origin makes the final position of the Sidh
at the Day of Judgement a very perilous one. In Scotland Kirk, the
author of The Secret Commonwealth,2 describes their destiny as
'pendulous' until the Day of Judgement, but according to Christiansen
the general verdict in Ireland is that they are damned souls. He
mentions several Irish anecdotes in which a human is anxiously
questioned by some of the Sidh as to their final destination. The
human, pitying them, asks the question of a Saint, or of the priest
during the elevation of the Host when he cannot lie. Always the answer

is unfavourable, and when this is reported to the Sidh they break out
into terrible lamentations. A similar story is told by J. F. Campbell
of Islay in his Popular Tales of the West Highlands.3 The Scandinavian

assessment of the fairy fate is more charitable, but as Christiansen
points out, their supposed origin is different, and allows more
possibility for hope. There are variants of this legend, but the most
commonly told is of the hidden Children of Eve. After the fall Adam
and
Eve settled down to domesticity and were the parents of a large number

of children, so many that Eve was ashamed of them. On day God, walking

through the world, called on Eve and asked her to present her children

to Him. Eve sent half of them to hide and brought out those she
thought
most presentable; but God was not deceived. 'Let those who were hidden

from me, ' He said, 'be hidden people.' A different story is that the
Huldre were the offspring of Adam and his first wife, Lilith, about
whom there was much apocryphal information. At any rate in the
Scandinavian beliefs the fairies were half-human in origin and were
not
creatures of another order as the angels were, good or bad.

An earlier investigator of fairy beliefs, though still of this
century,
was Evans Wentz, from who book, The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries, I

have already quoted.

In 1908 Evans Wentz, an American of Celtic descent, who had worked for

some years under John Rhys, the Oxford Professor of Celtic Studies,
set
out on an exploration of the Celtic area - Ireland, the Highlands of
Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man and Brittany. He began by
consulting the leading folklore experts of each region, Douglas Hyde
in
Ireland, Alexander Carmichael in the Scottish Highlands, John Rhys of
Wales, Henry Jenner of Cornwall, Sophia Morrison of the Isle of Man
and
Professor Anatole le Bras of Brittany; then he travelled through all
the regions, for the most part on foot like J. F. Campbell and
Alexander Carmichael, visiting and living in peasant cottages and
collecting material from people of all classes of society. It was no
doubt a help to him in his researches that he was himself a believer
in
fairies, so that though he researched as a folklorist he encountered
believers without any trace of scepticism or condescension, and was
therefore given access to experiences and beliefs that would have been

withheld from a more sophisticated investigator. Most of these point,
as do many of Lady Wilde's4 stories, to a strong connection between
fairies and the dead. Christiansen still found traces of this, but
believed that the fairies were the captors and guardians of the dead
rather than the dead themselves. The recently dead are certainly often

described as being among the fairies, but the dead of the ancient
tribes of Ireland are also thought of as The Gentry. John Boglin, for
instance, of Kilmaeean, near Tara, who was about sixty years when he
gave his evidence, reported this of the fairy tribes:

"There is said to be a whole tribe of little red men living in Glen
Odder, between Ringleston and Tara; and in long evenings in June they
have been heard. There are other breeds or castes of fairies; and it
seems to me, when I recall our ancient traditions, that some of these
fairies are of the Fir Bolgs, some of the Tuatha de Danaan, and some
of
the Milesians. All of them have been seen round the western slope of
Tara, dressed in ancient Irish costumes. Unlike the little red men,
these fairy races are warlike and given to making invasions."5

Later on in giving his evidence, John Boglin said:

The Fairies are the Dead - 'According to the local belief, fairies are

the spirits of the departed. Tradition says that Hugh O'Neil in the
sixteenth century, after his march to the south, encamped his army on
the Rath or Fort of Ringlestown, to be assisted by the spirits of the
mighty dead who dwelt within this rath. And it is believed that Gerald

Fitzgerald has been seen coming out of the Hill Mollyellen, down in
County Louth, leading his horse and dressed in the old Irish costume,
with heartplate, spear and was outfit.'6

In Scotland, which was next visited by Evans Wentz, the evil fairies,
The Host or Sluagh, were thought of as the dead, and the fairies or
Shee are spirits who were decoyed out of their natural allegiance by
The Proud Angel. In a footnote to one piece of evidence, taken from
Carmina Gadelica, (p. 108), Alexander Carmichael explains the
difference:

Sluagh. 'hosts', the spirit-world. The 'hosts' are the spirits of
mortals who have died...According to one informant, the spirits fly
about in great clouds, up and down the face of the earth like
starlings, and come back to the scenes of their earthly
transgressions.
No soul of them is without the clouds of earth, dimming the brightness

of the works of God, nor can any win heaven, till satisfaction is made

for the sins of the earth.7

In Man again, the same belief of 'The Proud Angel' is held, though
there are traces of the fairies as the descendants of the ancient
gods,
particularly Mannanon, son of Lir, a belief we also find in Ireland.
In
Wales the origin is more vaguely given in such sayings as 'The old
folk
thought them a kind of spirit from a spirit world'. In Cornwall the
connection between the pixies and the dead seems to be closer, at
least
among the country people. On P. 172, for instance, we have:

Nature of Piskies - 'I always understood the piskies to be little
people. A great deal was said about ghosts in this place. Whether or
not piskies are the same as ghosts, I cannot tell, but I fancy the old

folk thought they were.'8

Abductions Through The Ages

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/6583/abduct050.html

UFO-like abductions and alien sexual encounters are nothing new.
Witches supposedly were taken into the air for meetings with the
devil.
People who had been abducted by fairies were left with distinctive
body
scars similar to those in UFO abductees. And the incubus and succubus
of medieval times did the exact same things to their abductees as
today's sexually-inclined aliens do to their abductees.

According to fairy lore, fairies create a circular cluster of small
bruises as their mark. The phenomenon is known as "fairy bruising" and

is a sign of either favor or disfavor. The ring of bruises is often
found around the genitals. They did this, according to various 17th
century accounts, by pinching their victims:

An Encyclopedia of Fairies (Briggs, 1976) gives numerous ancient
examples of fairy abductions. Almost always a special drink was given
to the abductee. This drink, usually described as a thick liquid, was
an essential part of the fairy abduction. Women are abducted much more

often than men and some fairies take special delight, in repeatedly
capturing women for amorous motives. In short, some fairies simply
liked having sexual relations with mortals.

Fairies abduct their victims through paralysis; then they simply carry

(levitate and fly) the abductee away into "fairyland." Fairyland is
always nearby; under normal conditions we can't see or perceive it.
The
paralysis induced on the victim is how fairies get their abductee to
enter fairyland. The modem word "stroke" (meaning paralysis) is
derived
from the ancient terms "elf-stroke" and "fairy-stroke." Fairies travel

in circular globes of light, sometimes called "will-o-the-wisp."

There are so many different types of fairies that going through them
would be tedious. Some of them, however, are virtually
indistinguishable from what have been described as demons. One
particular type, the "bogie," looks a lot like the traditional
bigfoot.
Virtually every society has some lore of these "little people" and
myths of them forcing their sexual attentions on human victims.

Fairy lore has a tradition of thousands of years. Fairies have been
said to be abducting humans, human babies, flying in lighted globes,
striking paralysis and amnesia on their victims, forcing strange drink

on their victims, and having sexual relations with humans for all
time.
If we could remove the mythological aspect from fairy abductions and
dress them a little differently, the folklore reports of a thousand
years ago would be virtually indistinguishable from present UFO
abduction reports. The same thing could be said for the reports of
demons.

Sacred Texts Legends and Sagas Celtic Index Previous Next
V. IN WALES

Introduction by The Right Hon. SIR JOHN RHYS, M.A.; D.Litt., F.B.A.,
Hon. LL.D. of the University of Edinburgh; Professor of Celtic in the
University of Oxford; Principal of Jesus College; author of Celtic
Folklore, Welsh and Manx, &c.

The folk-lore of Wales in as far as it concerns the Fairies consists of
a very few typical tales, such as:--

(1) The Fairy Dance and the usual entrapping of a youth, who dances
with the Little People for a long time, while he supposes it only a few
minutes, and who if not rescued is taken by them.

(2) There are other ways in which recruits may be led into Fairyland
and induced to marry fairy maidens, and any one so led away is
practically lost to his kith and kin, for even if he be allowed to
visit them, the visit is mostly cut short in one way or another.

(3) A man catches a fairy woman and marries her. She proves to be an
excellent housewife, but usually she has had put into the
marriage-contract certain conditions which, if broken, inevitably
release her from the union, and when so released she hurries away
instantly, never to return, unless it be now and then to visit her
children. One of the conditions, especially in North Wales, is that the
husband should never touch her with iron. But in the story of the Lady
of Llyn y Fan Fach, in Carmarthenshire, the condition is that he must
not strike the wife without a cause three times, the striking being
interpreted to include any slight tapping, say, on the shoulder. This
story is one of the most remarkable on record in Wales, and it recalls
the famous tale of Undine, published in German many years ago by

p. 136

[paragraph continues] De La Motte Fouqué. It is not known where he
found it, or whether the people among whom it was current were pure
Germans or of Celtic extraction.

(4) The Fairies were fond of stealing nice healthy babies and of
leaving in their place their own sallow offspring. The stories of bow
the right child might be recovered take numerous forms; and some of
these stories suggest how weak and sickly children became the objects
of systematic cruelty at the hands of even their own parents. The
changeling was usually an old man, and many were the efforts made to
get him to betray his identity.

(5) There is a widespread story of the fairy husband procuring for his
wife the attendance of a human midwife. The latter was given a certain
ointment to apply to the baby's eyes when she dressed it. She was not
to touch either of her own eyes with it, but owing to an unfailing
accident she does, and with the eye so touched she is enabled to see
the fairies in their proper shape and form. This has consequences: The
fairy husband pays the midwife well, and discharges her. She goes to a
fair or market one day and observes her old master stealing goods from
a stall, and makes herself known to him. He asks her with which eye she
sees him. She tells him, and the eye to which he objects he instantly
blinds.

(6) Many are the stories about the fairies coming into houses at night
to wash and dress their children after everybody is gone to bed. A
servant-maid who knows her business leaves a vessel full of water for
them, and takes care that the house is neat and tidy, and she then
probably finds in the morning some fairy gift left her, whereas if the
house be untidy and the water dirty, they will pinch her in her sleep,
and leave her black and blue.

(7) The fairies were not strong in their household arrangements, so it
was not at all unusual for them to come to the farm-houses to borrow
what was wanting to them.

In the neighbourhood of Snowdon the fairies were believed to live
beneath the lakes, from which they sometimes came forth, especially on
misty days, and children used to be warned not to stray away from their
homes in that sort of

p. 137

weather, lest they should be kidnapped by them. These fairies were not
Christians, and they were great thieves. They were fond of bright
colours. They were sharp of hearing, and no word that reached the wind
would escape them. If a fairy's proper name was discovered, the fairy
to whom it belonged felt baffled. 1

Some characteristics of the fairies seem to argue an ancient race,
while other characteristics betray their origin in the workshop of the
imagination; but generally speaking, the fairies are heterogeneous,
consisting partly of the divinities of glens and forests and mountains,
and partly of an early race of men more or less caricatured and
equipped by fable with impossible attributes. 2

JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD,
October 1910.

Our field of research in the Land of Arthur includes all the coast
counties save Cardiganshire, from Anglesey on the north to
Glamorganshire on the south. At the very beginning of our investigation
of the belief in the Tylwyth Teg,

p. 138

or 'Fair Folk' in the Isle of Anglesey or Mona, the ancient stronghold
of the Druids, we shall see dearly that the testimony offered by
thoroughly reliable and prominent native witnesses is surprisingly
uniform, and essentially animistic in its nature; and in passing
southward to the end of Wales we shall find the Welsh Fairy-Faith with
this same uniformity and exhibiting the same animistic background
everywhere we go.

TESTIMONY OF AN ANGLESEY BARD

Mr. John Louis Jones, of Gaerwen, Anglesey, a native bard who has taken
prizes in various Eisteddfods, testifies as follows:--

Tylwyth Teg's Visits.--'When I was a boy here on the island, the
Tylwyth Teg were described as a race of little beings no larger than
children six or seven years old, who visited farm-houses at night after
all the family were abed. No matter how securely dosed a house might
be, the Tylwyth Teg had no trouble to get in. I remember how the old
folk used to make the house comfortable and put fresh coals on the
fire, saying, "Perhaps the Tylwyth Teg will come tonight." Then the
Tylwyth Teg, when they did come, would look round the room and say,
"What a clean beautiful place this is!" And all the while the old folk
in bed were listening. Before departing from such a clean house the
Tylwyth Teg always left a valuable present for the family.'

Fairy Wife and Iron Taboo.--'A young man once caught one of the Tylwyth
Teg women, and she agreed to live with him on condition that he should
never touch her with iron.

One day she went to a field with him to catch a horse, but in catching
the horse he threw the bridle in such a way that the bit touched the
Tylwyth Teg woman, and all at once she was gone. As this story
indicates, the Tylwyth Teg could make themselves invisible. I think
they could be seen by some people and not by other people. The old folk
thought them a kind of spirit race from a spirit world.'

p. 139

EVIDENCE FROM CENTRAL ANGLESEY

Owing to the very kindly assistance of Mr. E. H. Thomas, of Llangefni,
who introduced me to the oldest inhabitants of his town, in their own
homes and elsewhere, and then acted as interpreter whenever Welsh alone
was spoken, I gleaned very clear evidence from that part of Central
Anglesey. Seven witnesses, two of whom were women, ranging in age from
seventy-two to eighty-nine years, were thus interviewed, and each of
them stated that in their childhood the belief in the Tylwyth Teg as a
non-human race of good little people--by one witness compared to
singing angels--was general. Mr. John Jones, the oldest of the seven,
among much else, said in Welsh:--'I believe personally that the Tylwyth
Teg are still existing; but people can't see them. I have heard of two
or three persons being together and one only having been able to see
the Tylwyth Teg.'

TESTIMONY FROM TWO ANGLESEY CENTENARIANS

Perhaps nowhere else in Celtic lands could there be found as witnesses
two sisters equal in age to Miss Mary Owen and Mrs. Betsy Thomas, in
their hundred and third and hundredth year respectively (in 1909). They
live a quiet life on their mountain-side farm overlooking the sea, in
the beautiful country near Pentraeth, quite away from the rush and
noise of the great world of commercial activity; and they speak only
the tongue which their prehistoric Kimric ancestors spoke before Roman,
or Saxon, or Norman came to Britain. Mr. W. Jones, of Plas Tinon, their
neighbour, who knows English and Welsh well, acted as interpreter. The
elder sister testified first:--

'Tylwyth Teg's' Nature.--'There were many of the Tylwyth Teg on the
Llwydiarth Mountain above here, and round the Llwydiarth Lake where
they used to dance; and whenever the prices at the Llangefni market
were to be high they would chatter very much at night. They appeared
only after dark; and all the good they ever did was singing

p. 140

and dancing. Ann Jones, whom I knew very well, used often to see the
Tylwyth Teg dancing and singing, but if she then went up to them they
would disappear. She told me they are an invisible people, and very
small. Many others besides Ann Jones have seen the Tylwyth Teg in these
mountains, and have heard their music and song. The ordinary opinion
was that the Tylwyth Teg are a race of spirits. I believe in them as an
invisible race of good little people.'

Fairy Midwife and Magic Oil.--'The Tylwyth Teg had a kind of magic oil,
and I remember this story about it. A farmer went to Llangefni to fetch
a woman to nurse his wife about to become a mother, and he found one of
the Tylwyth Teg, who came with him on the back of his horse. Arrived at
the farm-house, the fairy woman looked at the wife, and giving the
farmer some oil told him to wash the baby in it as soon as it was born.
Then the fairy woman disappeared. The farmer followed the advice, and
what did he do in washing the baby but get some oil on one of his own
eyes. Suddenly he could see the Tylwyth Teg, for the oil had given him
the second-sight. Some time later the farmer was in Llangefni again,
and saw the same fairy woman who had given him the oil. "How is your
wife getting on?" she asked him. "She is getting on very well," he
replied. Then the fairy woman added, "Tell me with which eye you see me
best." "With this one," he said, pointing to the eye he had rubbed with
the oil. And the fairy woman put her stick in that eye, and the farmer
never saw with it again.' 1

p. 141

Seeing 'Tylwyth Teg'.--The younger sister's testimony is as
follows:--'I saw one of the Tylwyth Teg about sixty years ago, near the
Tynymyndd Farm, as I was passing by at night. He was like a little man.
When I approached him he disappeared suddenly. I have heard about the
dancing and singing of the Tylwyth Teg, but never have heard the music
myself. The old people said the Tylwyth Teg could appear and disappear
when they liked; and I think as the old people did, that they are some
sort of spirits.'

TESTIMONY FROM AN ANGLESEY SEERESS

At Pentraeth, Mr. Gwilyn Jones said to me:--'It always was and still is
the opinion that the Tylwyth Teg are a race of spirits. Some people
think them small in size, but the one my mother saw was ordinary human
size.' At this, I immediately asked Mr. Jones if his mother was still
living, and he replying that she was, gave me her address in Llanfair.
So I went directly to interview Mr. Jones's mother, Mrs. Catherine
Jones, and this is the story about the one of the Tylwyth Teg she
saw:--

'Tylwyth Teg' Apparition.--'I was coming home at about half-past ten at
night from Cemaes, on the path to Simdda Wen, where I was in service,
when there appeared just before me a very pretty young lady of ordinary
size. I had no fear, and when I came up to her put out my hand to touch
her, but my hand and arm went right through her form. I could not
understand this, and so tried to touch her repeatedly with the same
result; there was no solid substance in the body, yet it remained
beside me, and was as beautiful a young lady as I ever saw. When I
reached the door of the house where I was to stop, she was still with
me. Then I said "Good night" to her. No response being made, I asked,
"Why do you not speak?"

And at this she disappeared. Nothing happened afterwards, and I always
put this beautiful young lady down as one of the Tylwyth Teg. There was
much talk about my experience when I reported it, and the neighbours,
like myself,

p. 142

thought I had seen one of the Tylwyth Teg. I was about twenty-four
years old at the time of this incident.' 1

TESTIMONY FROM A PROFESSOR OF WELSH

Just before crossing the Menai Straits I had the good fortune to meet,
at his home in Llanfair, Mr. J. Morris Jones, M.A. (Oxon.), Professor
of Welsh in the University College at Bangor, and he, speaking of the
fairy-belief in Anglesey as he remembers it from boyhood days, said:--

'Tylwyth Teg.'--'In most of the tales I heard repeated when I was a
boy, I am quite certain the implication was that the Tylwyth Teg were a
kind of spirit race having human characteristics, who could at will
suddenly appear and suddenly disappear. They were generally supposed to
live underground, and to come forth on moonlight nights, dressed in
gaudy colours (chiefly in red), to dance in circles in grassy fields. I
cannot remember having heard changeling stories here in the Island: I
think the Tylwyth Teg were generally looked upon as kind and
good-natured, though revengeful if not well treated. And they were
believed to have plenty of money at their command, which they could
bestow on people whom they liked.'

EVIDENCE FROM NORTH CARNARVONSHIRE

Upon leaving Anglesey I undertook some investigation of the Welsh
fairy-belief in the country between Bangor and Carnarvon. From the
oldest Welsh people of Treborth

p. 143

[paragraph continues] I heard the same sort of folk-lore as we have
recorded from Anglesey, except that prominence was given to a
flourishing belief in Bwganod, goblins or bogies. But from Mr. T. T.
Davis Evans, of Port Dinorwic, I heard the following very unusual story
based on facts, as he recalled it first hand:--

Jones's Vision.--William Jones, who some sixty years ago declared be
had seen the Tylwyth Teg in the Aberglaslyn Pass near Beddgelert, was
publicly questioned about them in Bethel Chapel by Mr. Griffiths, the
minister; and he explained before the congregation that the Lord had
given him a special vision which enabled him to see the Tylwyth Teg,
and that, therefore, he had seen them time after time as little men
playing along the river in the Pass. The minister induced Jones to
repeat the story many times, because it seemed to please the
congregation very much; and the folks present looked upon Jones's
vision as a most wonderful thing.'

EVIDENCE FROM SOUTH CARNARVONSHIRE

To Mr. E. D. Rowlands, head master of the schools at Afonwen, I am
indebted for a summary of the fairy-belief in South Carnarvonshire:--

'Tylwyth Teg.'--'According to the belief in South Carnarvonshire, the
Tylwyth Teg were a small, very pretty people always dressed in white,
and much given to dancing and singing in rings where grass grew. As a
rule, they were visible only at night; though in the day-time, if a
mother while hay-making was so unwise as to leave her babe alone in the
field, the Tylwyth Teg might take it and leave in its place a
hunchback, or some deformed object like a child. At night, the Tylwyth
Teg would entice travellers to join their dance and then play all sorts
of tricks on them.' 1

Fairy Cows and Fairy Lake-Women.--'Some of the

p. 144

[paragraph continues] Tylwyth Teg lived in caves; others of them lived
in lake-bottoms. There is a lake called Llyn y Morwynion, or "Lake of
the Maidens ", near Festiniog, where, as the story goes, a farmer one
morning found in his field a number of very fine cows such as he had
never seen before. Not knowing where they came from, he kept them a
long time, when, as it happened, he committed some dishonest act and,
as a result, women of the Tylwyth Teg made their appearance in the
pasture and, calling the cows by name, led the whole herd into the
lake, and with them disappeared beneath its waters. The old people
never could explain the nature of the Tylwyth Teg, but they always
regarded them as a very mysterious race, and, according to this story
of the cattle, as a supernatural race.'

EVIDENCE FROM MERIONETHSHIRE

Mr. Louis Foster Edwards, of Harlech, recalling the memories of many
years ago, offers the following evidence:--

Scythe-Blades and Fairies.--'In an old inn on the other side of Harlech
there was to be an entertainment, and, as usual on such occasions, the
dancing would not cease until morning. I noticed, before the guests had
all arrived, that the landlady was putting scythe-blades edge upwards
up into the large chimney, and, wondering why it was, asked her. She
told me that the fairies might come before the entertainment was over,
and that lithe blades were turned edge upwards it would prevent the
fairies from troubling the party, for they would be unable to pass the
blades without being cut.'

'Tylwyth Teg' and their World.--'There was an idea that the Tylwyth Teg
lived by plundering at night. It was thought, too, that if anything
went wrong with cows or horses the Tylwyth Teg were to blame. As a
race, the Tylwyth Teg were described as having the power of
invisibility; and it was believed they could disappear like a spirit
while one happened to be observing them. The world in which they lived
was a world quite unlike ours, and mortals taken to it by them were
changed in nature.

p. 145

[paragraph continues] The way a mortal might be taken by the Tylwyth
Teg was by being attracted into their dance. If they thus took you
away, it would be according to our time for twelve months, though to
you the time would seem no more than a night.'

FAIRY TRIBES IN MONTGOMERYSHIRE

>From Mr. D. Davies-Williams, who outlined for me the Montgomeryshire
belief in the Tylwyth Teg as he has known it intimately, I learned that
this is essentially the same as elsewhere in North and Central Wales.
He summed up the matter by saying:--

Belief in Tylwyth Teg.--'It was the opinion that the Tylwyth Teg were a
real race of invisible or spiritual beings living in an invisible world
of their own. The belief in the Tylwyth Teg was quite general fifty or
sixty years ago, and as sincere as any religious belief is now.'

Our next witness is the Rev. Josiah Jones, minister of the
Congregational Church of Machynlleth; and, after a lifetime's
experience in Montgomeryshire, he gives this testimony:--

A Deacon's Vision.--'A deacon in my church, John Evans, declared that
he had seen the Tylwyth Teg dancing in the day-time, within two miles
from here, and he pointed out the very spot where they appeared. This
was some twenty years ago. I think, however, that he saw only certain
reflections and shadows, because it was a hot and brilliant day.'

Folk-Beliefs in General.--'As I recall the belief, the old people
considered the Tylwyth Teg as living beings halfway between something
material and spiritual, who were rarely seen. When I was a boy there
was very much said, too, about corpse-candles and phantom funerals, and
especially about the Bwganod, plural of Bwgan, meaning a sprite, ghost,
hobgoblin, or spectre. The Bwganod were supposed to appear at dusk, in
various forms, animal and human; and grown-up people as well as
children had great fear of them.'

p. 146

A Minister's Opinion.--'Ultimately there is a substance of truth in the
fairy-belief, but it is wrongly accounted for in the folk-lore: I once
asked Samuel Roberts, of Llanbrynmair, who was quite a noted Welsh
scholar, what he thought of the Tylwyth Teg, of hobgoblins, spirits,
and so forth; and he said that he believed such things existed, and
that God allowed them to appear in times of great ignorance to convince
people of the existence of an invisible world.'

IN CARDIGANSHIRE; AND A FOLK-LORIST'S TESTIMONY

No one of our witnesses from Central Wales is more intimately
acquainted with the living folk-beliefs than Mr. J. Ceredig Davies, of
Llanilar, a village about six miles from Aberystwyth; for Mr. Davies
has spent many years in collecting folk-lore in Central and South
Wales. He has interviewed the oldest and most intelligent of the old
people, and while I write this be has in the press a work entitled The
Folk-Lore of Mid and West Wales. Mr. Davies very kindly gave me the
following outline of the most prominent traits in the Welsh
fairy-belief according to his own investigations:--

'Tylwyth Teg'.--'The Tylwyth Teg were considered a very small people,
fond of dancing, especially on moonlight nights. They often came to
houses after the family were abed; and if milk was left for them, they
would leave money in return; but if not treated kindly they were
revengeful. The changeling idea was common: the mother coming home
would find an ugly changeling in the cradle. Sometimes the mother would
consult the Dynion Hysbys, or "Wise Men" as to how to get her babe
back. As a rule, treating the fairy babe roughly and then throwing it
into a river would cause the fairy who made the change to appear and
restore the real child in return for the changeling.'

'Tylwyth Teg' Marriage Contracts.--'Occasionally a young man would see
the Tylwyth Teg dancing, and, being drawn into the dance, would be
taken by them and married to one of their women. There is usually some
condition in the

p. 147

marriage contract which becomes broken, and, as a result, the fairy
wife disappears--usually into a lake. The marriage contract specifies
either that the husband must never touch his fairy wife with iron, or
else never beat or strike her three times. Sometimes when fairy wives
thus disappear, they take with them into the lake their fairy cattle
and all their household property.'

'Tylwyth Teg' Habitations.--'The Tylwyth Teg were generally looked upon
as an immortal race. In Cardigan-shire they lived underground; in
Carmarthenshire in lakes; and in Pembrokeshire along the sea-coast on
enchanted islands amid the Irish Sea. I have heard of sailors upon
seeing such islands trying to reach them; but when approached, the
islands always disappeared. From a certain spot in Pembrokeshire, it is
said that by standing on a turf taken from the yard of St. David's
Cathedral, one may see the enchanted islands.' 1

'Tylwyth Teg' as Spirits of Druids.--'By many of the old people the
Tylwyth Teg were classed with spirits. They were not looked upon as
mortal at all. Many of the Welsh looked upon the Tylwyth Teg or fairies
as the spirits of Druids dead before the time of Christ, who being too
good to be cast into Hell were allowed to wander freely about on
earth.'

TESTIMONY FROM A WELSHMAN NINETY-FOUR YEARS OLD

At Pontrhydfendigaid, a village about two miles from the
railway-station called Strata Florida, I had the good fortune to meet
Mr. John Jones, ninety-four years old, yet of strong physique, and able
to write his name without eye-glasses. Both Mr. J. H. Davies, Registrar
of the University College of Aberystwyth, and Mr. J. Ceredig Davies,
the eminent folk-lorist of Llanilar, referred me to Mr. John Jones as
one of the most remarkable of living Welshmen who could tell about the
olden times from first-hand knowledge.

p. 148

[paragraph continues] Mr. John Jones speaks very little English, and
Mr. John Rees, of the Council School, acted as our interpreter. This is
the testimony:--

Pygmy-sized 'Tylwyth Teg'.--'I was born and bred where there was
tradition that the Tylwyth Teg lived in holes in the hills, and that
none of these Tylwyth Teg was taller than three to four feet. It was a
common idea that many of the Tylwyth Teg, forming in a ring, would
dance and sing out on the mountain-sides, or on the plain, and that if
children should meet with them at such a time they would lose their way
and never get out of the ring. If the Tylwyth Teg fancied any
particular child they would always keep that child, taking off its
clothes and putting them on one of their own children, which was then
left in its place. They took only boys, never girls.'

Human-sized 'Tylwyth Teg'.--'A special sort of Tylwyth Teg used to come
out of lakes and dance, and their line looks enticed young men to
follow them back into the lakes, and there marry one of them. If the
husband wished to leave the lake he had to go without his fairy wife.
This sort of Tylwyth Teg were as big as ordinary people; and they were
often seen riding out of the lakes and back again on horses.'

'Tylwyth Teg' as Spirits of Prehistoric Race.--'My grandfather told me
that he was once in a certain field and heard singing in the air, and
thought it spirits singing. Soon afterwards he and his brother in
digging dikes in that field dug into a big hole, which they entered and
followed to the end. There they found a place full of human bones and
urns, and naturally decided on account of the singing that the bones
and urns were of the Tylwyth Teg.' 1

A Boy's Visit to the 'Tylwyth Teg's' King.--'About

p. 149

eighty years ago, at Tynylone, my grandfather told me this story: "A
boy ten years old was often whipped and cruelly treated by his
schoolmaster because he could not say his lessons very well. So one day
he ran away from school and went to a river-side, where some little
folk came to him and asked why he was crying. He told them the master
had punished him; and on heating this they said, 'Oh! if you will stay
with us it will not be necessary for you to go to school. We will keep
you as long as you like.' Then they took him under the water and over
the water into a cave underground, which opened into a great palace
where the Tylwyth Teg were playing games with golden balls, in rings
like those in which they dance and sing. The boy had been taken to the
king's family, and he began to play with the king's sons. After he had
been there in the palace in the full enjoyment of all its pleasures he
wished very much to return to his mother and show her the golden ball
which the Tylwyth Teg gave him. And so he took the ball in his pocket
and hurried through the cave the way he had come; but at the end of it
and by the river two of the Tylwyth Teg met him, and taking the ball
away from him they pushed him into the water, and through the water he
found his way home. He told his mother how he had been away for a
fortnight, as he thought, but she told him it had been for two years.
Though the boy often tried to find the way back to the Tylwyth Teg he
never could. Finally, he went back to school, and became a most
wonderful scholar and parson."' 1

IN MERLIN'S COUNTRY; AND A VICAR'S TESTIMONY

The Rev. T. M. Morgan, vicar of Newchurch parish, two miles from
Carmarthen, has made a very careful study of the folk-traditions in his
own parish and in other regions

p. 150

of Carmarthenshire, and is able to offer us evidence of the highest
value, as follows:-- 1

'Tylwyth Teg' Power over Children.--'The Tylwyth Teg were thought to be
able to take children. "You mind, or the Tylwyth Teg will take you
away," parents would say to keep their children in the house after
dark. It was an opinion, too, that the Tylwyth Teg could transform good
children into kings and queens, and bad children into wicked spirits,
after such children bad been taken--perhaps in death. The Tylwyth Teg
were believed to live in some invisible world to which children on
dying might go to be rewarded or punished, according to their behaviour
on this earth. Even in this life the Tylwyth Teg had power over
children for good or evil. The belief, as these ideas show, was that
the Tylwyth Teg were spirits.'

'Tylwyth Teg' as Evil Spirits.--A few days after my return to Oxford,
the Rev. T M. Morgan, through his son, Mr. Basil I. Morgan, of Jesus
College, placed in my hands additional folk-lore evidence from his own
parish, as follows:--'After Mr. Wentz visited me on Thursday, September
30, 1909, I went to see Mr. Shem Morgan, the occupier of Cwmcastellfach
farm, an old man about seventy years old. He told me that in his
childhood days a great dread of the fairies occupied the heart of every
child. They were considered to be evil spirits who visited our world at
night, and dangerous to come in contact with; there were no good
spirits among them. He related to me three narratives touching the
fairies':--

'Tylwyth Teg's' Path.--The first narrative illustrates that the Tylwyth
Teg have paths (precisely like those reserved for the Irish good people
or for the Breton dead), and that it is death to a mortal while walking
in one of these paths to meet the Tylwyth Teg.

'Tylwyth Teg' Divination.--The second narrative I quote:--'A farmer of
this neighbourhood having lost his cattle,

p. 151

went to consult y dyn hysbys (a diviner), in Cardiganshire, who was
friendly with the fairies. Whenever the fairies visited the diviner
they foretold future events, secrets, and the whereabouts of lost
property. After the farmer reached the diviner's house the diviner
showed him the fairies, and then when the diviner had consulted them he
told the farmer to go home as soon as he could and that he would find
the cattle in such and such a place. The farmer did as he was directed,
and found the cattle in the very place where the dyn hysbys told him
they would be.' And the third narrative asserts that a man in the
parish of Trelech who was fraudulently excluded by means of a false
will from inheriting the estate of his deceased father, discovered the
defrauder and recovered the estate, solely through having followed the
advice given by the Tylwyth Teg, when (again as in the above account)
they were called up as spirits by a dyn hysbys, a Mr. Harries, of Cwrt
y Cadno, a place near Aberystwyth. 1

TESTIMONY FROM A JUSTICE OF THE PEACE

Mr. David Williams, J.P., who is a member of the Cymmrodorion Society
of Carmarthen, and who has sat on the judicial bench for ten years,
offers us the very valuable evidence which follows:--

'Tylwyth Teg' and their King and Queen.--'The general idea, as I
remember it, was that the Tylwyth Teg were only visitors to this world,
and had no terrestrial habitations. They were as small in stature as
dwarfs, and always appeared in white. Often at night they danced in
rings amid green fields. Most of them were females, though they had a
king; and, as their name suggests, they were very beautiful in
appearance. The king of the Tylwyth Teg was called Gwydion

p. 152

ab Don, Gwyd referring to a temperament in man's nature. His residence
was among the stars, and called Caer Gwydion. His queen was Gwenhidw. I
have heard my mother call the small fleece-like clouds which appear in
fine weather the Sheep of Gwenhidw.' 1

'Tylwyth Teg' as Aerial Beings.--Mr. Williams's testimony continues,
and leads us directly to the Psychological or Psychical Theory:--'As
aerial beings the Tylwyth Teg could fly and move about in the air at
will. They were a special order of creation. I never heard that they
grew old; and whether they multiplied or not I cannot tell. In
character they were almost always good.'

Ghosts and Apparitions.--Our conversation finally drifted towards
ghosts and apparitions, as usual, and to Druids. In the chapter dealing
with Re-birth (pp. 390-1) we shall record what Mr. Williams said about
Druids, and here what he said about ghosts and apparitions:--'Sixty
years ago there was hardly an individual who did not believe in
apparitions; and in olden times Welsh families would collect round the
fire at night and each in turn give a story about the Tylwyth Teg and
ghosts.'

Conferring Vision of a Phantom Funeral.--'There used to be an old man
at Newchurch named David Davis (who lived about 1780--1840), of
Abernant, noted for seeing

p. 153

phantom funerals. One appeared to him once when he was with a friend.
"Do you see it? Do you see it?" the old man excitedly asked. "No," said
his friend. Then the old man placed his foot on his friend's foot, and
said, "Do you see it now?" And the friend replied that he did.' 1

Magic and Witchcraft.--Finally, we shall hear from Mr. Williams about
Welsh magic and witchcraft, which cannot scientifically be divorced
from the belief in fairies and apparitions:--'There used to be much
witchcraft in this country; and it was fully believed that some men, if
advanced scholars, had the power to injure or to bewitch their
neighbours by magic. The more advanced the scholar the better he could
carry on his craft.'

ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE FROM CARMARTHENSHIRE

My friend, and fellow student at Jesus College, Mr. Percival V. Davies,
of Carmarthen, contributes, as supplementary to what has been recorded
above, the following evidence, from his great-aunt, Mrs. Spurrell, also
of Carmarthen, a native Welshwoman who has seen a canwyll gorff
(corpse-candle):--

Bendith y Mamau.--.'In the Carmarthenshire country, fairies (Tylwyth
Teg) are often called Bendith y Mamau, the "Mothers' Blessing."'

How Ten Children Became Fairies.--'Our Lord, in the days when He walked
the earth, chanced one day to approach a cottage in which lived a woman
with twenty children. Feeling ashamed of the size of her family, she
hid half of them from the sight of her divine visitor. On His departure
she sought for the hidden children in vain; they had become fairies and
had disappeared.'

IN PEMBROKESHIRE; AT THE PENTRE EVAN CROMLECH

Our Pembrokeshire witness is a maiden Welshwoman, sixty years old, who
speaks no English, but a university graduate, her nephew, will act as
our interpreter. She was

p. 154

born and has lived all her life within sight of the famous Pentre Evan
Cromlech, in the home of her ancestors, which is so ancient that after
six centuries of its known existence further record of it is lost. In
spite of her sixty years, our witness is as active as many a city woman
of forty or forty-five. Since her girlhood she has heard curious
legends and stories, and, with a more than ordinary interest in the
lore of her native country, has treasured them all in her clear and
well-trained memory. The first night, while this well-stored memory of
hers gave forth some of its treasures, we sat in her own home, I and my
friend, her nephew, on one side in a chimney-seat, and she and her
niece on the other side in another, exposed to the cheerful glow and
warmth of the fire. When we had finished that first night it was two
o'clock, and there had been no interruption to the even flow of marvels
and pretty legends. A second night we spent likewise. What follows now
is the result, so far as we are concerned with it:--

Fairies and Spirits.--'Spirits and fairies exist all round us,
invisible. Fairies have no solid bodily substance. Their forms are of
matter like ghostly bodies, and on this account they cannot be caught.
In the twilight they are often seen, and on moonlight nights in summer.
Only certain people can see fairies, and such people hold communication
with them and have dealings with them, but it is difficult to get them
to talk about fairies. I think the spirits about us are the fallen
angels, for when old Doctor Harris died his books on witchcraft had to
be burned in order to free the place where he lived from evil spirits.
The fairies, too, are sometimes called the fallen angels. They will do
good to those who befriend them, and harm to others. I think there must
be an intermediate state between life on earth and heavenly life, and
it may be in this that spirits and fairies live. There are two distinct
types of spirits: one is good and the other is bad. I have heard of
people going to the fairies and finding that years passed as days, but
I do not believe in changelings, though there are stories enough about
them. That there are fairies and other spirits like them, both good

p. 155

and bad, I firmly believe. My mother used to tell about seeing the
"fair-folk" dancing in the fields near Cardigan; and other people have
seen them round the cromlech up there on the hill (the Pentre Evan
Cromlech). They appeared as little children in clothes like soldiers'
clothes, and with red caps, according to some accounts.

Death-Candles Described.--'I have seen more than one death-candle. I
saw one death-candle right here in this room where we are sitting and
talking.' I was told by the nephew and niece of our present witness
that this particular death-candle took an untrodden course from the
house across the fields to the grave-yard, and that when the death of
one of the family occurred soon afterwards, their aunt insisted that
the corpse should be carried by exactly the same route; so the road was
abandoned and the funeral went through the ploughed fields. Here is the
description of the death-candle as the aunt gave it in response to our
request:--'The death-candle appears like a patch of bright light; and
no matter how dark the room or place is, everything in it is as clear
as day. The candle is not a flame, but a luminous mass, lightish blue
in colour, which dances as though borne by an invisible agency, and
sometimes it rolls over and over. If you go up to the light it is
nothing, for it is a spirit. Near here a light as big as a pot was
seen, and rays shot out from it in all directions. The man you saw here
in the house to-day, one night as he was going along the road near
Nevern, saw the death-light of old Dr. Harris, and says it was lightish
green.'

Gors Goch Fairies.--Now we began to hear more about fairies:--'One
night there came a strange rapping at the door of the ancient manor on
the Gors Goch farm over in Cardiganshire, and the father of the family
asked what was wanted. Thin, silvery voices said they wanted a warm
place in which to dress their children and to tidy them up. The door
opened then, and in came a dozen or more little beings, who at once set
themselves to hunting for a basin and water, and to cleaning
themselves. At daybreak they departed, leaving a pretty gift in return
for the kindness.

p. 156

[paragraph continues] In this same house at another time, whether by
the same party of little beings or by another could not be told, a
healthy child of the family was changed because he was unbaptized, and
a frightful-looking child left in his place. The mother finally died of
grief, and the other children died because of the loss of their mother,
and the father was left alone. Then some time after this, the same
little folks who came the first time returned to clean up, and when
they departed, in place of their former gifts of silver, left a gift of
gold. It was not long before the father became heir to a rich farm in
North Wales, and going to live on it became a magician, for the little
people, still befriending him, revealed themselves in their true nature
and taught him all their secrets.'

Levi Salmon's Control of Spirits.--'Levi Salmon, who lived about thirty
years ago, between here and Newport, was a magician, and could call up
good and bad spirits; but was afraid to call up the bad ones unless
another person was with him, for it was a dangerous and terrible
ordeal. After consulting certain books which he had, he would draw a
circle on the floor, and in a little while spirits like bulls and
serpents and other animals would appear in it, and all sorts of spirits
would speak. It was not safe to go near them; and to control them Levi
held a whip in his hand. He would never let them cross the circle. And
when he wanted them to go away he always had to throw something to the
chief spirit.'

The Haunted Manor and the Golden Image.--I offer now, in my own
language, the following remarkable story:--The ancient manor-house on
the Trewern Farm (less than a mile from the Pentre Evan Cromlech) bad
been haunted as long as anybody could remember. Strange noises were
often heard in it, dishes would dance about of their own accord, and
sometimes a lady dressed in silk appeared. Many attempts were made to
lay the ghosts, but none succeeded. Finally things got so bad that
nobody wanted to live there. About eighty years ago the sole occupants
of the haunted house were Mr.------ and his two servants. At the time,
it was well known in the neighbourhood that all

p. 157

at once Mr.------ became very wealthy, and his servants seemed able to
buy whatever they wanted. Everybody wondered, but no one could tell
where the money came from; for at first he was a poor man, and be
couldn't have made much off the farm. The secret only leaked out
through one of the servants after Mr.--was dead. The servant declared
to certain friends that one of the ghosts, or, as he thought, the
Devil, appeared to Mr.------- and told him there was an image of great
value walled up in the room over the main entrance to the manor. A
search was made, and, sure enough, a large image of solid gold was
found in the very place indicated, built into a recess in the wall.
Mr.------ bound the servants to secrecy, and began to turn the image
into money. He would cut off small pieces of the image, one at a time,
and take them to London and sell them. In this way he sold the whole
image, and nobody was the wiser. After the image was found and disposed
of, ghosts were no longer seen in the house, nor were unusual noises
heard in it at night. The one thing which beyond all doubt is true is
that when Mr.------ died he left his son an estate worth about £50,000
(an amount probably greatly in excess of the true one); and people have
always wondered ever since where it came from, if not in part from the
golden image. 1

p. 158

Hundreds of parallel stories in which, instead of ghosts, fairies and
demons are said to have revealed hidden treasure could be cited.

IN THE GOWER PENINSULA, GLAMORGANSHIRE

Our investigations in Glamorganshire cover the most interesting part,
the peninsula' of Gower, where there are peculiar folk-lore conditions,
due to its present population being by ancestry English and Flemish as
well as Cornish and Welsh. Despite this race admixture, Brythonic
beliefs have generally survived in Gower even among the non-Cults; and
because of the Cornish element there are pixies, as shown by the
following story related to me in Swansea by Mr. ------, a well-known
mining engineer:--

Pixies.--'At Newton, near the Mumbles (in Gower), an old woman, some
twenty years ago, assured me that she had seen the pixies. Her father's
grey mare was standing in the trap before the house ready to take some
produce to the Swansea market, and when the time for departure arrived
the pixies had come, but no one save the old woman could see them. She
described them to me as like tiny men dancing on the mare's back and
climbing up along the mare's mane. She thought the pixies some kind of
spirits who made their appearance in early morning; and all mishaps to
cows she attributed to them.'

TESTIMONY FROM AN ARCHAEOLOGIST

The Rev. John David Davis, rector of Llanmadoc and Cheriton parishes,
and a member of the Cambrian Archaeological Society, has passed many
years in studying the antiquities and folk-lore of Gower, being the
author of various antiquarian works; and he is without doubt the oldest
and best living authority to aid us. The Rector very willingly offers
this testimony:--

Pixies and 'Verry Volk'.--'In this part of Gower, the name Tylwyth Teg
is never used to describe fairies; Verry Volk is used instead. Some
sixty years ago, as I can remember, there was belief in such fairies
here in Gower, but now there

p. 159

is almost none. Belief in apparitions still exists to some extent. One
may also hear of a person being pixy-led; the pixies may cause a
traveller to lose his way at night if he crosses a field where they
happen to be. To take your coat off and turn it inside out will break
the pixy spell. 1 The Verry Volk were always little people dressed in
scarlet and green; and they generally showed themselves dancing on
moonlight nights. I never heard of their making changelings, though
they had the power of doing good or evil acts, and it was a very risky
thing to offend them. By nature they were benevolent.'

A 'Verry Volk' Feast.--'I heard the following story many years
ago:--The tenant on the Eynonsford Farm here in Gower had a dream one
night, and in it thought he heard soft sweet music and the patter of
dancing feet. Waking up, he beheld his cow-shed, which opened off his
bedroom, filled with a multitude of little beings, about one foot high,
swarming all over his fat ox, and they were preparing to slaughter the
ox. He was so surprised that he could not move. In a short time the
Verry Volk had killed, dressed, and eaten the animal. The feast being
over, they collected the hide and bones, except one very small leg-bone
which they could not find, placed them in position, then stretched the
hide over them; and, as the farmer looked, the ox appeared as sound and
fat as ever, but when he let it out to pasture in the morning he
observed that it had a slight lameness in the leg lacking the missing
bone.' 2

p. 160

FAIRIES AMONG GOWER ENGLISH FOLK

The population of the Llanmadoc region of Gower are generally English
by ancestry and speech; and not until reaching Llanmorlais, beyond
Llanridian, did I find anything like an original Celtic and
Welsh-speaking people, and these may have come into that part within
comparatively recent times; and yet, as the above place-names tend to
prove, in early days all these regions must have been Welsh. It may be
argued, however, that this English-speaking population may be more
Celtic than Saxon, even though emigrants from England. In any case, we
can see with interest how this so-called English population now echo
Brythonic beliefs which they appear to have adopted in Gower, possibly
sympathetically through race kinship; and the following testimony
offered by Miss Sarah Jenkins, postmistress of Llanmadoc, will enable
us to do so:--

Dancing with Fairies.--'A man, whose Christian name was William, was
enticed by the fairy folk to enter their dance, as he was on his way to
the Swansea market in the early morning. They kept him dancing some
time, and then said to him before they let him go, "Will dance well;
the last going to market and the first that shall sell." And though he
arrived at the market very late, be was the first to sell anything.'

Fairy Money.--'An old woman, whom I knew, used to find money left by
the fairies every time they visited her house. For a long time she
observed their request, and told no one about the money; but at last
she told, and so never found money afterwards.

Nature of Fairies.--'The fairies (verry volk) were believed to have
plenty of music and dancing. Sometimes they appeared dressed in bright
red. They could appear and disappear suddenly, and no one could tell
how or where.'

CONCLUSION

Much more might easily be said about Welsh goblins, about Welsh fairies
who live in caves, or about Welsh fairy women who come out of lakes and
rivers, or who are the

p. 161

presiding spirits of sacred wells and fountains, 1 but these will have
some consideration later, in Section III. For the purposes of the
present inquiry enough evidence has been offered to show the
fundamental character of Brythonic fairy-folk as we have found them.
And we can very appropriately close this inquiry by allowing our
Welsh-speaking witness from the Pentre Evan country, Pembrokeshire, to
tell us one of the prettiest and most interesting fairy-tales in all
Wales. The name of Taliessin appearing in it leads us to suspect that
it may be the remnant of an ancient bardic tale which has been handed
down orally for centuries. It will serve to illustrate the marked
difference between the short conversational stories of the living
Fairy-Faith and the longer, more polished ones of the traditional
Fairy-Faith; and we shall see in it how a literary effect is gained at
the expense of the real character of the fairies themselves, for it
transforms them into mortals:--

Einion and Olwen.--'My mother told the story as she used to sit by the
fire in the twilight knitting stockings:--"One day when it was cloudy
and misty, a shepherd boy going to the mountains lost his way and
walked about for hours. At last he came to a hollow place surrounded by
rushes where he saw a number of round rings. He recognized the place as
one he had often heard of as dangerous for shepherds, because of the
rings. He tried to get away from there, but he could not. Then an old,
merry, blue-eyed man appeared. The boy, thinking to find his way home,
followed the old man, and the old man said to him, 'Do not speak a word
till I tell you.' In a little while they came to a menhir (long stone).
The old man tapped it three times, and then lifted it up. A narrow path
with steps descending was revealed, and from it emerged a bluish-white
light. 'Follow me,' said the old man, 'no harm will come to you.' The
boy did so, and it was not long before he saw a fine, wooded, fertile
country with a beautiful palace, and rivers and mountains. He reached
the palace and was enchanted by the

p. 162

singing of birds. Music of all sorts was. in the palace, but he saw no
people. At meals dishes came and disappeared of their own accord. He
could hear voices all about him, but saw no person except the, old
man--who said that now he could speak. When he tried to speak he found
that he could not move his tongue. Soon an old lady with smiles came to
him leading three beautiful maidens, and when the maidens saw the
shepherd boy they smiled and spoke, but he could not reply. Then one of
the girls kissed him; and all at once he began to converse freely and
most wittily. In the full enjoyment of the marvellous country he lived
with the maidens in the palace a day and a year, not thinking it more
than a day, for there was no reckoning of time in that land. When the
day and the year were up, a longing to see his old acquaintances came
on him; and thanking the old man for his kindness, he asked if he could
return home. The old man said to him, 'Wait a little while'; and so he
waited. The maiden who bad kissed him was unwilling to have him go; but
when he promised her to return, she sent him off loaded with riches.

'"At home not one of his people or old friends knew him. Everybody
believed that he had been killed by another shepherd. And this shepherd
had been accused of the murder and had fled to America.

'"On the first day of the new moon the boy remembered his promise, and
returned to the other country; and there was great rejoicing in the
beautiful palace when he arrived. Einion, for that was the boy's name,
and Olwen, for that was the girl's name, now wanted to marry; but they
had to go about it quietly and half secretly, for the fair-folk dislike
ceremony and noise. When the marriage was over, Einion wished to go
back with Olwen to the upper world. So two snow-white ponies were given
them, and they were allowed to depart.

'"They reached the upper world safely; and, being possessed of
unlimited wealth, lived most handsomely on a great estate which came
into their possession. A son was born to them, and he was called
Taliessin. People soon

p. 163

began to ask for Olwen's pedigree, and as none was given it was taken
for granted that she was one of the fair-folk. 'Yes, indeed,' said
Einion, 'there is no doubt that she is one of the fair-folk, there is
no doubt that she is one of the very fair-folk, for she has two sisters
as pretty as she is, and if you saw them all together you would admit
that the name is a suitable one.' And this is the origin of the term
fair-folk (Tylwyth Teg)."'

>From Wales we go to the nearest Brythonic country, Cornwall, to study
the fairy-folk there.

Footnotes

137:1 Sir John Rhys tells me that this Snowdon fairy-lore was
contributed by the late Lady Rhys, who as a girl lived in the
neighbourhood of Snowdon and heard very much from the old people there,
most of whom believed in the fairies; and she herself then used to be
warned, in the manner mentioned, against being carried away into the
under-lake Fairyland.

137:2 Cf. Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx, pp. 683-4 n., where Sir John
Rhys says of his friend, Professor A. C. Haddon:--'I find also that
he, among others, has anticipated me in my theory as to the origins of
the fairies; witness the following extract from the syllabus of a
lecture delivered by him at Cardiff in 1894 on Fairy Tales:--"What are
the fairies?--Legendary origin of the fairies. It is evident from fairy
literature that there is a mixture of the possible and the impossible,
of fact and fancy. Part of fairydom refers to (1) spirits that never
were embodied: other fairies are (2) spirits of environment, nature or
local spirits, and household or domestic spirits; (3) spirits of the
organic world, spirits of plants, and spirits of animals (4) spirits of
men, or ghosts; and (5) witches and wizards, or men possessed with
other spirits. All these, and possibly other elements, enter into the
fanciful aspects of Fairyland, but there is a large residuum of real
occurrences; these point to a clash of races, and we may regard many of
these fairy sagas as stories told by men of the Iron Age of events
which happened to men of the Bronze Age in their conflicts with men of
the Neolithic Age, and possibly these, too, handed on traditions of the
Palaeolithic Age.''

140:1 This is the one tale I have found in North Wales about a midwife
and fairies--a type of tale common to West Ireland, Isle of Man,
Cornwall, and Brittany, but in a reverse version, the midwife there
being (as she is sometimes in Welsh versions) one of the human race
called in by fairies. if evidence of the oneness of the Celtic mind
were needed we should find it here (Cf. pp. 50, 54, 127, 175, 182,
205). There are in this type of fairy tale, as the advocates of the
Pygmy Theory may well hold, certain elements most likely traceable to a
folk-memory of some early race, or special class of some early race,
who knew the secrets of midwifery and the use of medicines when such
knowledge was considered magical. But in each example of this midwife
story there is the germ idea--no matter what other ideas cluster round
it--that fairies, like spirits, are only to be seen by an extra-human
vision, or, as psychical researchers might say, by clairvoyance.

142:1 After this remarkable story, Mrs. Jones told me about another
very rare psychical experience of her own, which is here recorded
because it Illustrates the working of the psychological law of the
association of ideas:--'My husband, Price Jones, was drowned some forty
years ago, within four miles of Arms Head, near Bangor, on Friday at
midday; and that night at about one o'clock he appeared to me in our
bedroom and laid his head on my breast. I tried to ask him where he
came from, but before I could get my breath he was gone. I believed at
the time that he was out at sea perfectly safe and well. But next day,
Saturday, at about noon, a message came announcing his death. I was as
fully awake as one can be when I thus saw the spirit of my husband. He
returned to me a second time about six months later.' Had this happened
in West Ireland, it is almost certain that public opinion would have
declared that Price Jones had been taken by the 'gentry' or 'good
people'.

143:1 Here we find the Tylwyth Teg showing quite the same
characteristics as Welsh elves in general, as Cornish pixies, and as
Breton corrigans or lutins; that is, given to dancing at night, to
stealing children, and to deceiving traveller.

147:1 This folk-belief partially sustains the view put forth in our
chapter on Environment, that St. David's during pagan times was already
a sacred spot and perhaps then the seat of a druidic oracle.

148:1 Here we have an example of the Tylwyth Teg being identified with
a prehistoric race, quite in accordance with the argument of the Pygmy
Theory. We have, however, as the essential idea, that the Tylwyth Teg
heard singing were the spirits of this prehistoric race. Thus our
contention that ancestral spirits play a leading part in the
fairy-belief is sustained, and the Pygmy Theory appears quite at its
true relative value--as able to explain one subordinate ethnological
strand in the complex fabric of the belief.

149:1 This story is much like the one recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis
about a boy going to Fairyland and returning to his mother (see this
study, p. 324). The possibility that it may be an independent version
of the folk-tale told to Cambrensis which has continued to live on
among the people makes it highly interesting.

Mr. Jones gives further evidence on the re-birth doctrine in Wales (pp.
388-9), and concerning Merlin and sacrifice to appease place-spirits
(pp. 436-7).

150:1 As a result of his researches, the Rev. T. M. Morgan has just
published a new work, entitled The History and Antiquities of the
Parish of Newchurch (Carmarthen, 1910).

151:1 In these last two anecdotes, as in modern 'Spiritualism', we
observe a popular practice of necromancy or the calling up of spirits,
so-called 'materialization' of spirits, and spirit communication
through a human 'medium', who is the dyn hysbys, as well as divination,
the revealing of things hidden and the foretelling of future events.
This is direct evidence that Welsh fairies or the Tylwyth Teg were
formerly the same to Welshmen as spirits are to Spiritualists now. We
seem, therefore, to have proof of our Psychological Theory (see chap.
xi).

152:1 Here we have a combination of many distinct elements and
influences. As among mortals, so among the Tylwyth Teg there is a king;
and this conception may have arisen directly from anthropomorphic
influences on the ancient Brythonic religion, or it may have come
directly from druidic teachings. The locating of Gwydion ab Don, like a
god, in a heaven-world, rather than like his counterpart, Gwynn ab
Nudd, in a hades-world, is probably due to a peculiar admixture of
Druidism and Christianity: at first, both gods were probably druidic or
pagan, and the same, but Gwynn ab Nudd became a demon or evil god under
Christian influences, while Gwydion ab Don seems to have curiously
retained his original good reputation in spite of Christianity (cf. p.
320). The name Gwenhidw reminds us at once of Arthur's queen Gwenhwyvar
or 'White Apparition'; and the sheep of Gwenhidw can properly be
explained by the Naturalistic Theory. It seems, however, that analogy
was imaginatively suggested between the Queen Gwenhidw as resembling
the Welsh White Lady or a ghost-like being, and her sheep, the clouds,
also of a necessarily ghost-like character. All this is an admirable
illustration of the great complexity of the Fairy-Faith.

153:1 The parallel between this Welsh method of conferring vision and
the Breton method is very striking (cf. p. 215)

157:1 This is the substance of the story as it was told to me by a
gentleman who lives within sight of the farm where the image is said to
have been found. And one day he took me to the house and showed me the
room and the place in the wall where the find was made. The old manor
is one of the solidest and most picturesque of its kind in Wales, and,
in spite of its extreme age, well preserved. He, being as a native
Welshman of the locality well acquainted with its archaeology, thinks
it safe to place an age of six to eight hundred years on the manor.
What is interesting about this matter of age arises from the query, Was
the image one of the Virgin or of some Christian saint, or was it a
Druid idol? Both opinions are current in the neighbourhood, but there
is a good deal in favour of the second. The region, the little valley
on whose side stands the Pentre Evan Cromlech, the finest in Britain,
is believed to have been a favourite place with the ancient Druids; and
in the oak groves which still exist there tradition says there was once
a flourishing pagan school for neophytes, and that the cromlech instead
of being a place for interments or f or sacrifices was in those days
completely enclosed, forming like other cromlechs a darkened chamber in
which novices when initiated were placed for a certain number of
days--the interior being called the 'Womb or Court of Ceridwen'.

159:1 The same remedy is prescribed in Brittany when mischievous lutins
or corrigans lead a traveller astray, in Ireland when the good people
lead a traveller astray; and at Rollright, Oxfordshire, England, an old
woman told me that it is efficacious against being led astray through
witchcraft. Obviously the fairy and witch spell are alike.

159:2 The same sort of a story as this is told in Lower Brittany, where
the corrigans or lutins slaughter a farmer's fat cow or ox and invite
the farmer to partake of the feast it provides. If he does so with good
grace and humour, he finds his cow or ox perfectly whole in the
morning, but if he refuses to join the feast or joins it unwillingly,
in the morning he is likely to find his cow or ox actually dead and
eaten.

161:1 See Sir John Rhys, Celtic Folk-Lore: Welsh and Manx (Oxford,
1901), passim.

Next: Chapter II. Taking of Evidence: VI. In Cornwall