Fairies The Welsh Version.

Throughout British History there is a common theme.of Fairies, the 'little people'. They are not always described the same in shape, build or sometimes even nature and every single fairy I have researched has its counterpart across the world somewhere. 

I'll folIow you, I'll lead you about a round,
Through bog, through bush, through brake through brier,
Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound,
A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;
And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,
Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn
'Midsummer Night's Dream.' Act III., Sc. 3

In Wales, the Welsh Fairy has a history that is a little easier to research. Quite a lot of records concerning Fairies continues to be discovered in little known tracts or you can be reading on an entirely different subject and a fairy story pops up. 

Nearly all of them have some of the traits mentioned in Midsummer Nights Dream and that would be because (so the Welsh claim is) Shakespeare visited Clydach to see Puck Valley. Some even claim the valley is the scene of the original Midsummers Night.

Shakespear is acknowledged to have used Welsh Folk Lore and Fairy Lore heavily in some of his works.

Witt Sykes in his British Goblin 1880' writes very amusingly of Shakespear :-

There is a Welsh tradition to the effect that Shakespeare received his knowledge of the Cambrian fairies from his friend Richard Price, son of Sir John Price, of the priory of Brecon. It is even claimed that Cwm Pwca, or Puck Valley, a part of the romantic glen of the Clydach, in Breconshire, is the original scene of the Midsummer Night's Dream '--a fancy as light ard airy as Puck himself. [According to a letter written by the poet Campbell to Mrs Fletcher, in 1833, and published in her Autobiography, it was thought Shakespeare went in person to see this magic valley. 'It is no later than yesterday', wrote Campbell, 'that I discovered a probability--almost near a certainty-that Shakespeare visited friends in the very town (Brecon in Wales) where Mrs. Siddons was born, and that he there found in a neighbouring glen, called "The Valley of Fairy Puck," the principal machinery of his "Midsummer Night's Dream."

But Shakespear is not the root of the Welsh Fairies popularity, neither is Wiit Sykes the only author to write about them. John Rhys (1900) Celtic Folk Law Welsh and Manx, The Mabinogian (various authors) The Four ancient Books of Wales, to name but a few of text from original sources. There are dozens of books in modern times devoted to the history of the Fairie in Wales. Not pretty little cartoon characters wearing acorn cups for hats and sleeping in flowers, but mischeivous, comical, and some are down right sexy, and several have agendas that bear no good to their victim.

There are 'some' common themes however. Welsh Fairies are often described as being :-

Small handsome creatures in human form; very kind and generous to humans who treat them well. and  revengful towards those who to treat them badly.

They are dressed very often in white and sometimes in green, are very fair of face, other records state the colours worn are many, the female fairies often being described as so beautiful that human beings could fall in love with them on sight.
Frequently humans are reffered to as 'mortal' giving the impression and occasionally desribing Fairie as immortal or magical.

In The tale The Lady of LLyn ffan Ffach  (pronounced Clhin fan fackh )the Fairie who live in the lake is described as

"one of the most beautiful creatures that mortal eyes ever beheld, her hair flowed gracefully in ringlets over her shoulders, the tresses of which she arranged with a comb."

The Lady bears sons and they become famous physicians……She gifts them bags filled with special herbs…..

"and revealed to them their medicinal qualities or virtues ; and the knowledge she imparted to them, together with their unrivalled skill, soon caused them to attain such celebrity that none ever possessed before them. And in order that their knowledge should not be lost, they wisely committed the same to writing for the benefit of mankind throughout all ages."

There are several versions of the Myddfai Legend. In the " Cambro Briton ' Vol. II., pages 313-315, we have a version in which it is stated that the farmer used to go near the lake and see some lambs he had bought at a fair, and that wherever he so went three most beautiful maidens appeared to him from the lake. But whenever he tried to catch them they ran away into the lake, saying:

"Cras dy fara,

Anhawdd em dala."

(For thee who eatest baked bread It is difficult to catch us.)

Fairies where given the credit for providing mankind with a wealth of knowledge. Sometimes accredited with stealing youths to teach them,.

Dancing was a popular enchantment used by Fairies to entrap people.

Commonly thought to dance ‘on the green’ or within Fairy Circles which where a common sight.

The circles in the grass of green fields are still called "Cylchau y Tylwyth Teg'

The Fairies were "things under the earth,"  generally supposed to dwell in the lower regions, especially beneath lakes, where their country towns and castles were situated :

The people on the coasts of Pembroke shire believe that they inhabited certain enchanted green isles of the sea.

The green meadows of the sea, called in the old Welsh Triads Gwerddonau Llion, are the : The Green Fairy Isles."

" Wilt Sikes, in his "British Goblin?,,1 'page 8, says that there are sailors on the coasts of Pembrokeshire, and southern Carmarthenshire who still talk of the green meadows of enchantment, which are visible sometimes to the eyes of mortals, but only for a brief space, and they suddenly vanish.

Also in the same book is a claim that :- a turf from St. David's Churchyard to stand upon enabled one to behold the enchanted lands of the Fairies; but according to traditions in other parts of the country, it seems that a certain spot in Cemmes was the requisite platform, to see these  beings who were known in some parts as Plant Rhys Ddwfn (Children of Rhys the Deep).

In the Brython, Vol. I., page 130, Gwynionydd says as follows :

" There is a tale current in Dyfed, that there is, or rather that there has been a country between Cemmes, the Northern Hundred of Pembrokeshire, and Aberdaron in Lleyn. The chief patriarch

of the inhabitants was Rhys Ddwfn, and his descendants used to be called after him the Children of Rhys Ddwfn. They were, it is said, a handsome race enough, but remarkably small in size. It is stated that certain herbs of a strange nature grew in their land, so that they were able to keep their

country from being seen by even the most sharp-sighted invaders.

In older times the common held belief of the Welsh was that the next life was reached under the sea. Many tales tell of seeing a land beneath the waves, of fair beauty, with lush green field and all was fair. The Fairie Folk were considered part of that realm and able to entice humans to dissappear into it and never return.

Wirt Sykes in his book British Goblins (1880) wrote:-

The fairies of Wales may be divided into five classes, if analogy be not too sharply insisted on. Thus we have, I. The Ellyllon, or elves; 2. The Coblynau, or mine fairies; 3. The Bwbachod, or household fairies; 4. The Gwragedd Annwn, or fairies of the lakes and streams; and 5. The Gwyllion, or mountain fairies.

The Pygmy Elf is named as Ellyllon haunting groves and hollows and the subject of a great many accusations of every kind of devilry and good deed and all inbetween.

Fairies were in days past totally believed in, marsh gas was the light f the fairies, or the fairies themselves attempting to lead mortals to their deaths in the marshes. Other fairies were feared for leading mortals astray in forests. By the same token, tales are told of the reverse, fairies leading mortals to safety from both environments.

This short article is not meant to give you your fill of Welsh Fairies, there is so much more. A taste, a morsel, to sit lightly on the mind and place a smile upon your lips. Seek the Fairies of Wales in your researches and read the amazing tales and records of sightings and leave your dreams free to visit the Land of Fairy.