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It is the Druid's presage, who had long In Geirionydd's (note 1) air temple marked The songs that from the Gwyllin (note 2) rose, of eve The children, in the bosom of the lakes. TALIESIN
The oldest account we have met of Welsh Fairies is in the Itinerary of Giraldus Cambrensis, who, in the year 1188, accompanied archbishop Baldwin in his tour through Wales, undertaken for the purpose of exciting the zeal of the people to take part in the crusade, then in contemplation.
Giraldus, who was an attentive observer of nature and of mankind, has in this work given many beautiful descriptions of scenery, and valuable traits of manners. He is liberal of legends of saints, but such was the taste of his age. Among his narratives, however, he gives the two following, which show that there was a believe in South Wales in beings similar to the Fairies and Hobgoblins of England.
A Short time before our days, a circumstance worthy of note occurred in these parts, which Elidurus, a priest, most strenuously affirmed had befallen himself. When a youth of twelve years,--since, as Solomon says, "The root of learning is bitter, although the fruit is sweet;"--and following his literary pursuits, in order to avoid the discipline and frequent stripes inflicted on him by his preceptor, he ran away, and concealed himself under the hollow bank of a river; and after fasting in that situation for two days, two little men of pygmy stature appeared to him, saying, "If you will come with us, we will lead you into a country full of delights and sports." Assenting, and rising up, he followed his guides through a path, at first subterraneous and dark, into a most beautiful country, adorned with rivers and meadows, woods and plains, but obscure, and not illuminated with the full light of the sun. All the days were cloudy, and the nights extremely dark, on account of the absense of the moon and stars. The boy brought before the king, and introduced to him in the presence of the court; when having examined him for a long time, he delivered him to his son, who was then a boy. These men were of the smallest stature, but very well proportioned for their size. They were all fair-haired, with luxuriant hair falling over their shoulders, like that of women. They had horses proportioned to themselves, of the size of greyhounds. They neither ate flesh nor fish, but lived on milk diet, made up into messes with saffron. They never took an oath, for they detested nothing so much as lies. As often as they returned from our upper hemisphere, they reprobated our ambition, infidelities, and inconstancies. They had no religious worship, being only, as it seems, strict lovers and reverers of truth (note 3).
The boy frequently returned to our hemisphere, sometimes by the way he had first gone, sometimes by another; at first in company with others, and afterwards alone, and confided his secret only to his mother, declaring to her the manners, nature, and state of that people. Being desired by her to bring a present of gold, with which the region abounded, he stole, while at play with the king's son, the golden ball with which he used to divert himself, and brought it to his mother in great haste; and when he reached the door of his father's house, but not unpursued, and was entering it in a great hurry, his foot stumbled on the threshold, and, falling down into the room where his mother was sitting, the two Pygmies seized the ball, which had dropped from his hand, and departed, spitting at and deriding the boy. On recovering from his fall, confounded with shame, and execrating the evil counsel of his mother, he returned by the usual track to the subterraneous road, but found no appearance of any passage, though he search for it on the banks of the river for nearly the space of a year. Having been brought back by his friends and mother, and restored to his right way of thinking and his literary pursuits, he, in process of time, attained the rank of priesthood. Whenever David the Second, bishop of St. David's, talked to him in his advanced state of life concerning this event, he could never relate the particulars without shedding tears.
He had also a knowledge of the language of the nation, and used to recite words of it, he had readily acquired in his younger days. These words, which the bishop often repeated to me, were very conformable to the Greek idiom. When they asked for water, they said, "Udor udorum", which signifies "Bring water"; for Udor, in their language, as well as in the Greek, signifies water; and Dwr also, in the British language, signifies water. When they want salt, they say, "Halgein udorum", "Bring salt". Salt is called [GREEK] in Greek, and Halen in British; for that language, from the length of time the which the Britons (then called Trojans, and afterwards Britons, from Brito, their leader), remained in Greece, after the destruction of Troy, became, in many instances, similar to the Greek (note 4).
"If," says the learned archdeacon, "a scrupulous inquirer should ask my opinion of the relation here inserted, I answer, wtih Augustine, `admiranda fore divina miracula non disputatione discutienda'; nor do I, by denial, place bounds to the Devine power; nor, by affirming insuolently, extend that power which cannot be extended. But on such occasions I always call to mind that saying of Mieronymus: `Multa,' says he, `incredibilia reperies et non verisimilia, quae nihilominus tamen vera sunt.' These, and any such that might occur, I should place, according to Augustine's opinion, among those things which are neither to be strongly affirmed nor denied."
David Powel, who edited this work in 1585, thinks this legend is written in imitation of the relation of Eros the Armenian, in Plato, or taken from M. Polo's account of the garden of the Old Man of the Mountain (note 5).
Note 2: These Mr. Davies thinks, and not improbably, correspond to the Gallicenae of Mela. See Brittany.
Note 3: See Iceland.
Note 4: Giraldus Cambrensis, Itinerarium Cambriae, l. I. c. 8, translated by Sir R.C.Hoare.
Note 5: Very likely indeed that Elidurus, or Giraldus either, should now any thing of Plato or of Marco Polo, especially as the latter was not yet born!
Note 6: L.I. c.12
Note 7: The Mabinogion, or Tales for Youth, are probably of great antiquity. The mythology of such as we have seen is not unlike that of the Breton Lais. (See the Tales of King Pwyl in Jones's Bardic Museum.)
Note 8: "The floating island of this lake," says Mr. Davis, "was evidently an Arkite sanctuary." As we put no great faith in the Arkite theory, we shall not dwell on it.
Note 9: Welsh Dictionary, article Tylwyth Teg.
Note 10: It was the writer's good fortune, in the autumn of 1826, to travel, in most agreeable society, the road between Bangor and Shrewsbury. The day was one of those which an ancient would say were "albo notandoe lapillo". A young lady of family from South Wales was one of the party. She had been on a visit in the South of Ireland, and had the Irish Fairy legends nearly by heart. We therefore naturally conversed much of them, and she informed us of the Welsh ones. We particularly recollect her account of a woman who saw them dancing in a field. She described them as being much less than herself; "and indeed," said Miss ---, "she was herself a very very little body." Miss ---, on being subsequently applied to, most kindly collected Fairy legends from the peasantry of her native valley, that the Cambrian Fairies might take their station with Peris, Elves, Trolls, and Yumbos; for the fair collector is thoroughly national: but circumstances afterwards occurred to prevent their appearance in this work.