Welsh Folk-Lore Part 1

Welsh Folk-Lore.

by Elias Owen.

PREFACE

To this Essay on the "Folk-lore of North Wales," was awarded the first prize at the Welsh National Eisteddfod, held in London, in 1887. The prize consisted of a silver medal, and 20 pounds. The adjudicators were Canon Silvan Evans, Professor Rhys, and Mr Egerton Phillimore, editor of the _Cymmrodor_.

By an arrangement with the Eisteddfod Committee, the work became the property of the publishers, Messrs. Woodall, Minshall, & Co., who, at the request of the author, entrusted it to him for revision, and the present Volume is the result of his labours.

Before undertaking the publis.h.i.+ng of the work, it was necessary to obtain a sufficient number of subscribers to secure the publishers from loss.

Upwards of two hundred ladies and gentlemen gave their names to the author, and the work of publication was commenced. The names of the subscribers appear at the end of the book, and the writer thanks them one and all for their kind support. It is more than probable that the work would never have been published had it not been for their kind a.s.sistance. Although the study of Folk-lore is of growing interest, and its importance to the historian is being acknowledged; still, the publis.h.i.+ng of a work on the subject involved a considerable risk of loss to the printers, which, however, has been removed in this case, at least to a certain extent, by those who have subscribed for the work.

The sources of the information contained in this essay are various, but the writer is indebted, chiefly, to the aged inhabitants of Wales, for his information. In the discharge of his official duties, as Diocesan Inspector of Schools, he visited annually, for seventeen years, every parish in the Diocese of St. Asaph, and he was thus brought into contact with young and old. He spent several years in Carnarvons.h.i.+re, and he had a brother, the Revd. Elijah Owen, M.A., a Vicar in Anglesey, from whom he derived much information. By his journeys he became acquainted with many people in North Wales, and he hardly ever failed in obtaining from them much singular and valuable information of bye-gone days, which there and then he dotted down on sc.r.a.ps of paper, and afterwards transferred to note books, which still are in his possession.

It was his custom, after the labour of school inspection was over, to ask the clergy with whom he was staying to accompany him to the most aged inhabitants of their parish. This they willingly did, and often in the dark winter evenings, lantern in hand, they sallied forth on their journey, and in this way a rich deposit of traditions and superst.i.tions was struck and rescued from oblivion. Not a few of the clergy were themselves in full possession of all the quaint sayings and Folk-lore of their parishes, and they were not loath to transfer them to the writer's keeping. In the course of this work, the writer gives the names of the many aged friends who supplied him with information, and also the names of the clergy who so willingly helped him in his investigations. But so interesting was the matter obtained from several of his clerical friends, that he thinks he ought in justice to acknowledge their services in this preface. First and foremost comes up to his mind, the Rev. R. Jones, formerly Rector of Llanycil, Bala, but now of Llysfaen, near Abergele.

This gentleman's memory is stored with reminiscences of former days, and often and again his name occurs in these pages. The Rev. Canon Owen Jones, formerly Vicar of Pentrefoelas, but now of Bodelwyddan, near Rhyl, also supplied much interesting information of the people's doings in former days, and I may state that this gentleman is also acquainted with Welsh literature to an extent seldom to be met with in the person of an isolated Welsh parson far removed from books and libraries. To him I am indebted for the perusal of many MSS. To the Rev. David James, formerly Rector of Garthbeibio, now of Pennant, and to his predecessor the Rev. W.

E. Jones, Bylchau; the late Rev. Ellis Roberts (Elis Wyn o Wyrfai); the Rev. M. Hughes, Derwen; the Rev. W. J. Williams, Llanfihangel-Glyn-Myfyr, and in a great degree to his aged friend, the Rev. E. Evans, Llanfihangel, near Llanfyllin, whose conversation in and love of Welsh literature of all kinds, including old Welsh Almanacks, was almost without limit, and whose knowledge and thorough sympathy with his countrymen made his company most enjoyable. To him and to all these gentlemen above named, and to others, whose names appear in the body of this work, the writer is greatly indebted, and he tenders his best thanks to them all.

The many books from which quotations are made are all mentioned in connection with the information extracted from their pages.

Welsh Folk-lore is almost inexhaustible, and in these pages the writer treats of only one branch of popular superst.i.tions. Ancient customs are herein only incidentally referred to, but they are very interesting, and worthy of a full description. Superst.i.tions a.s.sociated with particular days and seasons are also omitted. Weather signs are pa.s.sed over, Holy wells around which cl.u.s.ter superst.i.tions of bye-gone days form no part of this essay. But on all these, and other branches of Folk-lore, the author has collected much information from the aged Welsh peasant, and possibly some day in the uncertain future he may publish a continuation of the present volume.

He has already all but finished a volume on the Holy Wells of North Wales, and this he hopes to publish at no very distance period.

The author has endeavoured in all instances to give the names of his informants, but often and again, when pencil and paper were produced, he was requested not to mention in print the name of the person who was speaking to him. This request was made, not because the information was incorrect, but from false delicacy; still, in every instance, the writer respected this request. He, however, wishes to state emphatically that he has authority for every single bit of Folk-lore recorded. Very often his work was merely that of a translator, for most of his information, derived from the people, was spoken in Welsh, but he has given in every instance a literal rendering of the narrative, just as he heard it, without embellishments or additions of any kind whatsoever.

ELIAS OWEN

_Llanyblodwel Vicarage_, _St. Mark's Day_, _1896_.

THE FAIRIES.

ORIGIN OF THE FAIRIES. (Y TYLWYTH TEG.)

The Fairy tales that abound in the Princ.i.p.ality have much in common with like legends in other countries. This points to a common origin of all such tales. There is a real and unreal, a mythical and a material aspect to Fairy Folk-Lore. The prevalence, the obscurity, and the different versions of the same Fairy tale show that their origin dates from remote antiquity. The supernatural and the natural are strangely blended together in these legends, and this also points to their great age, and intimates that these wild and imaginative Fairy narratives had some historical foundation. If carefully sifted, these legends will yield a fruitful harvest of ancient thoughts and facts connected with the history of a people, which, as a race, is, perhaps, now extinct, but which has, to a certain extent, been merged into a stronger and more robust race, by whom they were conquered, and dispossessed of much of their land. The conquerors of the Fair Tribe have transmitted to us tales of their timid, unwarlike, but truthful predecessors of the soil, and these tales shew that for a time both races were co-inhabitants of the land, and to a certain extent, by stealth, intermarried.

Fairy tales, much alike in character, are to be heard in many countries, peopled by branches of the Aryan race, and consequently these stories in outline, were most probably in existence before the separation of the families belonging to that race. It is not improbable that the emigrants would carry with them, into all countries whithersoever they went, their ancestral legends, and they would find no difficulty in supplying these interesting stories with a home in their new country. If this supposition be correct, we must look for the origin of Fairy Mythology in the cradle of the Aryan people, and not in any part of the world inhabited by descendants of that great race.

But it is not improbable that incidents in the process of colonization would repeat themselves, or under special circ.u.mstances vary, and thus we should have similar and different versions of the same historical event in all countries once inhabited by a diminutive race, which was overcome by a more powerful people.

In Wales Fairy legends have such peculiarities that they seem to be historical fragments of by-gone days. And apparently they refer to a race which immediately preceded the Celt in the occupation of the country, and with which the Celt to a limited degree amalgamated.

NAMES GIVEN TO THE FAIRIES.

The Fairies have, in Wales, at least three common and distinctive names, as well as others that are not nowadays used.

The first and most general name given to the Fairies is "_Y Tylwyth Teg_," or, the Fair Tribe, an expressive and descriptive term. They are spoken of as a people, and not as myths or goblins, and they are said to be a fair or handsome race.

Another common name for the Fairies, is, "_Bendith y Mamau_," or, "The Mothers' Blessing." In Doctor Owen Pughe's Dictionary they are called "Bendith _eu_ Mamau," or, "_Their_ Mothers' Blessing." The first is the most common expression, at least in North Wales. It is a singularly strange expression, and difficult to explain. Perhaps it hints at a Fairy origin on the mother's side of certain fortunate people.

The third name given to Fairies is "_Ellyll_," an elf, a demon, a goblin.

This name conveys these beings to the land of spirits, and makes them resemble the oriental Genii, and Shakespeare's sportive elves. It agrees, likewise, with the modern popular creed respecting goblins and their doings.

Davydd ab Gwilym, in a description of a mountain mist in which he was once enveloped, says:--

Yr ydoedd ym mhob gobant _Ellyllon_ mingeimion gant.

There were in every hollow A hundred wrymouthed elves.

_The Cambro-Briton_, v. I., p. 348.

In Pembrokes.h.i.+re the Fairies are called _Dynon Buch Teg_, or the _Fair Small People_.

Another name applied to the Fairies is _Plant Annwfn_, or _Plant Annwn_.

This, however, is not an appellation in common use. The term is applied to the Fairies in the third paragraph of a Welsh prose poem called _Bardd Cwsg_, thus:--

Y bwriodd y _Tylwyth Teg_ fi . . . oni bai fy nyfod i mewn pryd i'th achub o gigweiniau _Plant Annwfn_.

Where the _Tylwyth Teg_ threw me . . . if I had not come in time to rescue thee from the clutches of _Plant Annwfn_.

_Annwn_, or _Annwfn_ is defined in Canon Silvan Evans's Dictionary as an abyss, Hades, etc. _Plant Annwn_, therefore, means children of the lower regions. It is a name derived from the supposed place of abode--the bowels of the earth--of the Fairies. _Gwragedd Annwn_, dames of Elfin land, is a term applied to Fairy ladies.

Ellis Wynne, the author of _Bardd Cwsg_, was born in 1671, and the probability is that the words _Plant Annwfn_ formed in his days part of the vocabulary of the people. He was born in Merioneths.h.i.+re.

_Gwyll_, according to Richards, and Dr. Owen Pughe, is a Fairy, a goblin, etc. The plural of _Gwyll_ would be _Gwylliaid_, or _Gwyllion_, but this latter word Dr. Pughe defines as ghosts, hobgoblins, etc. Formerly, there was in Merioneths.h.i.+re a red haired family of robbers called _Y Gwylliaid Cochion_, or Red Fairies, of whom I shall speak hereafter.

_Coblynau_, or Knockers, have been described as a species of Fairies, whose abode was within the rocks, and whose province it was to indicate to the miners by the process of knocking, etc., the presence of rich lodes of lead or other metals in this or that direction of the mine.

That the words _Tylwyth Teg_ and _Ellyll_ are convertible terms appears from the following stanza, which is taken from the _Cambrian Magazine_, vol. ii, p. 58.

Pan dramwych ffridd yr Ywen, Lle mae _Tylwyth Teg_ yn rhodien, Dos ymlaen, a phaid a sefyll, Gwilia'th droed--rhag dawnsva'r _Ellyll_.

When the forest of the Yew, Where _Fairies_ haunt, thou pa.s.sest through, Tarry not, thy footsteps guard From the _Goblins'_ dancing sward.

Although the poet mentions the _Tylwyth Teg_ and _Ellyll_ as identical, he might have done so for rhythmical reasons. Undoubtedly, in the first instance a distinction would be drawn between these two words, which originally were intended perhaps to describe two different kinds of beings, but in the course of time the words became interchangeable, and thus their distinctive character was lost. In English the words Fairies and elves are used without any distinction. It would appear from Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, vol. II., p. 478., that, according to Gervase of Tilbury, there were two kinds of Goblins in England, called _Portuni_ and _Grant_. This division suggests a difference between the _Tylwyth Teg_ and the _Ellyll_. The _Portuni_, we are told, were very small of stature and old in appearance, "_statura pusilli_, _dimidium pollicis non habentes_," but then they were "_senili vultu_, _facie corrugata_." The wrinkled face and aged countenance of the _Portuni_ remind us of nursery Fairy tales in which the wee ancient female Fairy figures. The pranks of the _Portuni_ were similar to those of Shakespeare's Puck. The species _Grant_ is not described, and consequently it cannot be ascertained how far they resembled any of the many kinds of Welsh Fairies. Gervase, speaking of one of these species, says:--"If anything should be to be carried on in the house, or any kind of laborious work to be done, they join themselves to the work, and expedite it with more than human facility."

In Scotland there were at least two species of elves, the _Brownies_ and the _Fairies_. The Brownies were so called from their tawny colour, and the Fairies from their fairness. The _Portuni_ of Gervase appear to have corresponded in character to the Brownies, who were said to have employed themselves in the night in the discharge of laborious undertakings acceptable to the family to whose service they had devoted themselves.

The Fairies proper of Scotland strongly resembled the Fairies of Wales.

The term _Brownie_, or swarthy elve, suggests a connection between them and the _Gwylliaid Cochion_, or Red Fairies of Wales.