Welsh Fairy Tales And Other Stories by Edited by P. H. Emerson
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Edited by P. H. Emerson >> Welsh Fairy Tales And Other Stories
Produced by Delphine Lettau, Charles Franks and the people at DP.
WELSH FAIRY-TALES
AND
OTHER STORIES.
COLLECTED AND EDITED BY P. H. EMERSON.
TO
LEONARD, SYBIL, GLADYS, AND ZOE.
AUTHOR'S NOTE.
These tales were collected by me whilst living in Anglesea during
the winter 1891-2.
With the exception of the French story, they were told me and I took
them down at the time.
Particulars respecting the narratives will be found in the Notes.
In most cases I have done but little "editing", preferring to give
the stories as told.
The old book referred to in the Notes I bought from a country
bookseller, who knew neither its author, title, or date, but I have
since been informed the book is Williams' _Observations on the
Snowdon Mountains_, published in 1802, a book well known to
students of Celtic literature.
P. H. E.
CLARINGBOLD, BROADSTAIRS. _April 1894_.
CONTENTS.
THE FAIRIES OF CARAGONAN Welsh
THE CRAIG-Y-DON BLACKSMITH Welsh
OLD GWILYM Welsh
THE BABY-FARMER Welsh
THE OLD MAN AND THE FAIRIES Welsh
TOMMY PRITCHARD Welsh
KADDY'S LUCK Welsh
THE STORY OF GELERT Welsh
ORIGIN OF THE WELSH Welsh
THE CROWS Welsh
ROBERTS AND THE FAIRIES Welsh
THE FAIRY OF THE DELL Welsh
ELLEN'S LUCK Welsh
THE FAIRIES' MINT Welsh
THE PELLINGS Welsh
THE LONG-LIVED ANCESTORS Welsh
THE GIANTESS'S APRON-FULL Welsh
A FABLE Welsh
THE STORY OF THE PIG-TROUGH Irish
BILLY DUFFY AND THE DEVIL Irish
JOHN O' GROATS Scotch
EVA'S LUCK Jersey
THE FISHERMEN OF SHETLAND Shetland
THE PASTOR'S NURSE French
NOTES
THE FAIRIES OF CARAGONAN.
Once upon a time a lot of fairies lived in Mona.
One day the queen fairy's daughter, who was now fifteen years of
age, told her mother she wished to go out and see the world.
The queen consented, allowing her to go for a day, and to change
from a fairy to a bird, or from a bird to a fairy, as she wished.
When she returned one night she said:
"I've been to a gentleman's house, and as I stood listening, I heard
the gentleman was witched: he was very ill, and crying out with
pain."
"Oh, I must look into that," said the queen.
So the next day she went through her process and found that he was
bewitched by an old witch. So the following day she set out with six
other fairies, and when they came to the gentleman's house she found
he was very ill.
Going into the room, bearing a small blue pot they had brought with
them, the queen asked him:
"Would you like to be cured?"
"Oh, bless you; yes, indeed."
Whereupon the queen put the little blue pot of perfume on the centre
of the table, and lit it, when the room was instantly filled with
the most delicious odour.
Whilst the perfume was burning, the six fairies formed in line
behind her, and she leading, they walked round the table three
times, chanting in chorus:
"Round and round three times three,
We have come to cure thee."
At the end of the third round she touched the burning perfume with
her wand, and then touched the gentleman on the head, saying:
"Be thou made whole."
No sooner had she said the words than he jumped up hale and hearty,
and said:
"Oh, dear queen, what shall I do for you? I'll do anything you
wish."
"Money I do not wish for," said the queen, "but there's a little
plot of ground on the sea-cliff I want you to lend me, for I wish to
make a ring there, and the grass will die when I make the ring.
Then I want you to build three walls round the ring, but leave the
sea-side open, so that we may be able to come and go easily."
"With the greatest of pleasure," said the gentleman; and he built
the three stone walls at once, at the spot indicated.
II.
Near the gentleman lived the old witch, and she had the power of
turning at will into a hare. The gentleman was a great hare hunter,
but the hounds could never catch this hare; it always disappeared in
a mill, running between the wings and jumping in at an open window,
though they stationed two men and a dog at the spot, when it
immediately turned into the old witch. And the old miller never
suspected, for the old woman used to take him a peck of corn to
grind a few days before any hunt, telling him she would call for it
on the afternoon of the day of the hunt. So that when she arrived
she was expected.
One day she had been taunting the gentleman as he returned from a
hunt, that he could never catch the hare, and he struck her with his
whip, saying "Get away, you witchcraft!"
Whereupon she witched him, and he fell ill, and was cured as we have
seen.
When he got well he watched the old witch, and saw she often visited
the house of an old miser who lived near by with his beautiful
niece. Now all the people in the village touched their hats most
respectfully to this old miser, for they knew he had dealings with
the witch, and they were as much afraid of him as of her; but
everyone loved the miser's kind and beautiful niece.
III.
When the fairies got home the queen told her daughter:
"I have no power over the old witch for twelve months from to-day,
and then I have no power over her life. She must lose that by the
arm of a man."
So the next day the daughter was sent out again to see whether she
could find a person suited to that purpose.
In the village lived a small crofter, who was afraid of nothing; he
was the boldest man thereabouts; and one day he passed the miser
without saluting him. The old fellow went off at once and told the
witch.
"Oh, I'll settle his cows to-night!" said she, and they were taken
sick, and gave no milk that night.
The fairy's daughter arrived at his croft-yard after the cows were
taken ill, and she heard him say to his son, a bright lad:
"It must be the old witch!"
When she heard this, she sent him to the queen.
So next day the fairy queen took six fairies and went to the croft,
taking her blue pot of perfume. When she got there she asked the
crofter if he would like his cows cured?
"God bless you, yes!" he said.
The queen made him bring a round table into the yard, whereon she
placed the blue pot of perfume, and having lit it, as before, they
formed in line and walked round thrice, chanting the words:
"Round and round three times three,
We have come to cure thee."
Then she dipped the end of her wand into the perfume, and touched
the cows on the forehead, saying to each one:
"Be thou whole."
Whereupon they jumped up cured.
The little farmer was overjoyed, and cried:
"Oh, what can I do for you? What can I do for you?"
"Money I care not for," said the queen, "all I want is your son to
avenge you and me."
The lad jumped up and said:
"What I can do I'll do it for you, my lady fairy."
She told him to be at the walled plot the following day at noon, and
left.
IV.
The next day at noon, the queen and her daughter and three hundred
other fairies came up the cliff to the green grass plot, and they
carried a pole, and a tape, and a mirror. When they reached the plot
they planted the pole in the ground, and hung the mirror on the
pole. The queen took the tape, which measured ten yards and was
fastened to the top of the pole, and walked round in a circle, and
wherever she set her feet the grass withered and died. Then the
fairies followed up behind the queen, and each fairy carried a
harebell in her left-hand, and a little blue cup of burning perfume
in her right. When they had formed up the queen called the lad to
her side, and told him to walk by her throughout. They then started
off, all singing in chorus:
"Round and round three times three,
Tell me what you see."
When they finished the first round, the queen and lad stopped before
the mirror, and she asked the lad what he saw?
"I see, I see, the mirror tells me,
It is the witch that I see,"
said the lad. So they marched round again, singing the same words as
before, and when they stopped a second time before the mirror the
queen again asked him what he saw?
"I see, I see, the mirror tells me,
It is a hare that I see,"
said the lad.
A third time the ceremony and question were repeated.
"I see, I see, the mirror tells me,
The hares run up the hill to the mill."
"Now", said the queen, "there is to be a hare-hunting this day week;
be at the mill at noon, and I will meet you there."
And then the fairies, pole, mirror, and all, vanished and only the
empty ring on the green was left.
V.
Upon the appointed day the lad went to his tryst, and at noon the
Fairy Queen appeared, and gave him a sling, and a smooth pebble from
the beach, saying:
"I have blessed your arms, and I have blessed the sling and the
stone.
"Now as the clock strikes three,
Go up the hill near the mill,
And in the ring stand still
Till you hear the click of the mill.
Then with thy arm, with power and might,
You shall strike and smite
The devil of a witch called Jezabel light,
And you shall see an awful sight."
The lad did as he was bidden, and presently he heard the huntsman's
horn and the hue and cry, and saw the hare running down the opposite
hill-side, where the hounds seemed to gain on her, but as she
breasted the hill on which he stood she gained on them. As she came
towards the mill he threw his stone, and it lodged in her skull, and
when he ran up he found he had killed the old witch. As the huntsmen
came up they crowded round him, and praised him; and then they
fastened the witch's body to a horse by ropes, and dragged her to
the bottom of the valley, where they buried her in a ditch. That
night, when the miser heard of her death, he dropped down dead on
the spot.
As the lad was going home the queen appeared to him, and told him to
be at the ring the following day at noon.
VI.
Next day all the fairies came with the pole and mirror, each
carrying a harebell in her left-hand, and a blue cup of burning
perfume in her right, and they formed up as before, the lad walking
beside the queen. They marched round and repeated the old words,
when the queen stopped before the mirror, and said:
"What do you see?"
"I see, I see, the mirror tells me,
It is an old plate-cupboard that I see."
A second time they went round, and the question, was repeated.
"I see, I see, the mirror tells me,
The back is turned to me."
A third time was the ceremony fulfilled, and the lad answered
"I see, I see, the mirror tells me,
A spring-door is open to me."
"Buy that plate-cupboard at the miser's sale," said the queen, and
she and her companions disappeared as before.
VII.
Upon the day of the sale all the things were brought out in the
road, and the plate-cupboard was put up, the lad recognising it and
bidding up for it till it was sold to him. When he had paid for it
he took it home in a cart, and when he got in and examined it, he
found the secret drawer behind was full of gold. The following week
the house and land, thirty acres, was put up for sale, and the lad
bought both, and married the miser's niece, and they lived happily
till they died.
THE CRAIG-Y-DON BLACKSMITH.
Once upon a time an old blacksmith lived in an old forge at
Craig-y-don, and he used to drink a great deal too much beer.
One night he was coming home from an alehouse very tipsy, and as he
got near a small stream a lot of little men suddenly sprang up from
the rocks, and one of them, who seemed to be older than the rest,
came up to him, and said,
"If you don't alter your ways of living you'll die soon; but if you
behave better and become a better man you'll find it will be to your
benefit," and they all disappeared as quickly as they had come.
The old blacksmith thought a good deal about what the fairies had
told him, and he left off drinking, and became a sober, steady man.
One day, a few months after meeting the little people, a strange man
brought a horse to be shod. Nobody knew either the horse or the man.
The old blacksmith tied the horse to a hole in the lip of a cauldron
(used for the purpose of cooling his hot iron) that he had built in
some masonry.
When he had tied the horse up he went to shoe the off hind-leg, but
directly he touched the horse the spirited animal started back with
a bound, and dragged the cauldron from the masonry, and then it
broke the halter and ran away out of the forge, and was never seen
again: neither the horse nor its master.
When the old blacksmith came to pull down the masonry to rebuild it,
he found three brass kettles full of money.
OLD GWILYM.
Old Gwilym Evans started off one fine morning to walk across the
Eagle Hills to a distant town, bent upon buying some cheese. On his
way, in a lonely part of the hills, he found a golden guinea, which
he quickly put into his pocket.
When he got to the town, instead of buying his provisions, he went
into an alehouse, and sat drinking and singing with some sweet-
voiced quarrymen until dark, when he thought it was time to go home.
Whilst he was drinking, an old woman with a basket came in, and sat
beside him, but she left before him. After the parting glass he got
up and reeled through the town, quite forgetting to buy his cheese;
and as he got amongst the hills they seemed to dance up and down
before him, and he seemed to be walking on air. When he got near the
lonely spot where he had found the money he heard some sweet music,
and a number of fairies crossed his path and began dancing all round
him, and then as he looked up he saw some brightly-lighted houses
before him on the hill; and he scratched his head, for he never
remembered having seen houses thereabouts before. And as he was
thinking, and watching the fairies, one came and begged him to come
into the house and sit down.
So he followed her in, and found the house was all gold inside it,
and brightly lighted, and the fairies were dancing and singing, and
they brought him anything he wanted for supper, and then they put
him to bed.
Gwilym slept heavily, and when he awoke turned round, for he felt
very cold, and his body seemed covered with prickles; so he sat up
and rubbed his eyes, and found that he was quite naked and lying in
a bunch of gorse.
When he found himself in this plight he hurried home, and told his
wife, and she was very angry with him for spending all the money and
bringing no cheese home, and then he told her his adventures.
"Oh, you bad man!" she said, "the fairies gave you money and you
spent it wrongly, so they were sure to take their revenge."
THE BABY-FARMER.
Old Kaddy was a baby-farmer, and one day she went to the woods to
gather sticks for her fire, and whilst she was gathering the sticks
she found a piece of gold, and took it home; but she never told
anyone she had found the money, for she always pretended to be very
poor.
But though she was so poor, she used to dress two of her children in
fine clothes; but the others, whom she did not like, she kept in the
filthiest rags.
One day a man knocked at her door, and asked to see the children.
He sat down in her little room, and she went and brought the
ragged little boy and girl, saying she was very poor, and couldn't
afford to dress them better; for she had been careful to hide the
well-dressed little boy and girl in a cockloft.
After the stranger had gone she went to the cockloft to look for her
well-dressed favourites, but they had disappeared, and they were
never seen afterwards, for they were turned into fairies.
THE OLD MAN AND THE FAIRIES.
Many years ago the Welsh mountains were full of fairies. People used
to go by moonlight to see them dancing, for they knew where they
would dance by seeing green rings in the grass.
There was an old man living in those days who used to frequent the
fairs that were held across the mountains. One day he was crossing
the mountains to a fair, and when he got to a lonely valley he sat
down, for he was tired, and he dropped off to sleep, and his bag
fell down by his side. When he was sound asleep the fairies came and
carried him off, bag and all, and took him under the earth, and when
he awoke he found himself in a great palace of gold, full of fairies
dancing and singing. And they took him and showed him everything,
the splendid gold room and gardens, and they kept dancing round him
until he fell asleep.
When he was asleep they carried him back to the same spot where they
had found him, and when he awoke he thought he had been dreaming, so
he looked for his bag, and got hold of it, but he could hardly lift
it. When he opened it he found it was nearly filled with gold.
He managed to pick it up, and turning round, he went home.
When he got home, his wife Kaddy said: "What's to do, why haven't
you been to the fair?" "I've got something here," he said, and
showed his wife the gold.
"Why, where did you get that?"
But he wouldn't tell her. Since she was curious, like all women, she
kept worrying him all night--for he'd put the money in a box under
the bed--so he told her about the fairies.
Next morning, when he awoke, he thought he'd go to the fair and buy
a lot of things, and he went to the box to get some of the gold, but
found it full of cockle-shells.
TOMMY PRITCHARD.
Tommy Pritchard was going to school one day, and on his way he
thought he heard somebody singing on the other side of a stone wall
by the road, so he climbed up and looked over, and there underneath
a stone he saw a sixpence, so he took it.
Every morning after that, when he went to school, he used to look in
the same place, and he always found a sixpence.
His father noticed he was always spending money in the sweet-shop,
so he began to think Tommy was stealing from somebody, and one day
he asked him where he got the money. Tommy wouldn't tell at first,
but his father threatened to beat him, so he told him where he got
his sixpences.
Next morning he went to look in the same place for his sixpence, and
he found nothing but a cockle-shell. And he never saw anything but a
cockle-shell there afterwards.
KADDY'S LUCK.
There was a tall young woman whom the fairies used to visit, coming
through the keyhole at night. She could hear them dancing and
singing in her room, but in the morning they used to go the way they
had come, only they always left her some money.
When she got married she chose a tall husband like herself, and they
had a fine big child.
One night they went to a fair, and they got to one side to hear the
fairies; for some people could tell when the fairies were coming,
for they made a noise like the wind. Whilst they were waiting she
told her husband how the fairies used to leave her money at night.
When they got home they found their baby all right, and went to bed.
But next morning the young mother found her child had been changed
in the night, and there was a very little baby in the cradle. And
the child never grew big, for the fairies had changed her child for
spite.
THE STORY OF GELERT.
(AS CURRENT IN ANGLESEA)
It was somewhere about 1200, Prince Llewellyn had a castle at Aber,
just abreast of us here; indeed, parts of the towers remain to this
day. His consort was the Princess Joan; she was King John's
daughter. Her coffin remains with us to this day. Llewellyn was a
great hunter of wolves and foxes, for the hills of Carnarvonshire
were infested with wolves in those days, after the young lambs.
Now the prince had several hunting-houses--sorts of farm houses, one
of them was at the place now called Beth-Gelert, for the wolves were
very thick there at this time. Now the prince used to travel from
farm-house to farm-house with his family and friends, when going on
these hunting parties.
One season they went hunting from Aber, and stopped at the house
where Beth-Gelert is now--it's about fourteen miles away. The prince
had all his hounds with him, but his favourite was Gelert, a hound
who had never let off a wolf for six years.
The prince loved the dog like a child, and at the sound of his horn
Gelert was always the first to come bounding up. There was company
at the house, and one day they went hunting, leaving his wife and
the child, in a big wooden cradle, behind him at the farm-house.
The hunting party killed three or four wolves, and about two hours
before the word passed for returning home, Llewellyn missed Gelert,
and he asked his huntsmen:
"Where's Gelert? I don't see him."
"Well, indeed, master, I've missed him this half-hour."
And Llewellyn blew his horn, but no Gelert came at the sound.
Indeed, Gelert had got on to a wolves' track which led to the house.
The prince sounded the return, and they went home, the prince
lamenting Gelert. "He's sure to have been slain--he's sure to have
been slain! since he did not answer the horn. Oh, my Gelert!" And
they approached the house, and the prince went into the house, and
saw Gelert lying by the overturned cradle, and blood all about the
room.
"What! hast thou slain my child?" said the prince, and ran his sword
through the dog.
After that he lifted up the cradle to look for his child, and found
the body of a big wolf underneath that Gelert had slain, and his
child was safe. Gelert had capsized the cradle in the scuffle.
"Oh, Gelert! Oh, Gelert!" said the prince, "my favourite hound, my
favourite hound! Thou hast been slain by thy master's hand, and in
death thou hast licked thy master's hand!" He patted the dog, but it
was too late, and poor Gelert died licking his master's hand.
Next day they made a coffin, and had a regular funeral, the same as
if it were a human being; all the servants in deep mourning, and
everybody. They made him a grave, and the village was called after
the dog, Beth-Gelert--Gelert's Grave; and the prince planted a tree,
and put a gravestone of slate, though it was before the days of
quarries. And they are to be seen to this day.
ORIGIN OF THE WELSH.
Many years ago there lived several wild tribes round the King of
Persia's city, and the king's men were always annoying and harassing
them, exacting yearly a heavy tribute. Now these tribes, though very
brave in warfare, could not hold their own before the Persian army
when sent out against them, so that they paid their yearly tribute
grudgingly, but took revenge, whenever they could, upon travellers
to or from the city, robbing and killing them.
At last one of the tribesmen, a clever old chieftain, thought of a
cunning plan whereby to defeat the Persians, and free themselves
from the yearly tribute. And this was his scheme:
The wild wastes where these tribes lived were infested with large
birds called "Rohs", [Footnote: Pronounced softly.] which were very
destructive to human beings--devouring men, women, and children
greedily whenever they could catch them. Such a terror were they
that the tribes had to protect their village with high walls,
[Footnote: Can this have anything to do with the idea of walling-in
the cuckoo?] and then they slept securely, for the Roh hunted by
night. This old chieftain determined to watch the birds, and find
out their nesting-places; so he had a series of towers built, in
which the watchmen could sleep securely by night. These towers were
advanced in whatever direction the birds were seen to congregate by
night. The observers reported that the Roh could not fly, but ran
very swiftly, being fleeter than any horse.
At length, by watching, their nesting-places were found in a sandy
plain, and it was discovered that those monstrous birds stole sheep
and cattle in great numbers.
The chieftain then gave orders for the watchmen to keep on guard
until the young birds were hatched, when they were commanded to
secure fifty, and bring them into the walled town. The order was
carried out, and one night they secured fifty young birds just out
of the egg, and brought them to the town.
The old chieftain then told off fifty skilful warriors, a man to
each bird, to his son being allotted the largest bird. These
warriors were ordered to feed the birds on flesh, and to train them
for battle. The birds grew up as tame as horses. Saddles and bridles
were made for them, and they were trained and exercised just like
chargers.
When the next tribute day came round, the King of Persia sent his
emissaries to collect the tax, but the chieftains of the tribes
insulted and defied them, so that they returned to the king, who at
once sent forward his army.
The chieftain then marshalled his men, and forty-six of the Rohs
were drawn up in front of the army, the chief getting on the
strongest bird. The remaining four were placed on the right flank,
and ordered at a signal to advance and cut off the army, should they
retreat.
The Rohs had small scales, like those of a fish, on their necks and
bodies, the scales being hidden under a soft hair, except on the
upper half of the neck. They had no feathers except on their wings.
So they were invulnerable except as to the eyes--for in those days
the Persians only had bows and arrows, and light javelins. When the
Persian army advanced, the Rohs advanced at lightning speed, and
made fearful havoc, the birds murdering and trampling the soldiers
under foot, and beating them down with their powerful wings. In less
than two hours half the Persian army was slain, and the rest had
escaped. The tribes returned to their walled towns, delighted with
their victory.