The Fairy Bride Legend in WalesAuthor(s): Juliette WoodReviewed work(s):Source: Folklore, Vol. 103, No. 1 (1992), pp. 56-72Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1261034 .Accessed: 06/03/2012 13:06

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Folklore vol. 103:i, 1992 56

The Fairy Bride Legend in Wales JULIETTE WOOD

Folklore Society Council Lecture, 1991

ON a recent visit to a Cardiff bookshop specialising in Welsh publications, the writer of the present article counted eleven different published versions of the story of the fairy from Llyn Y Fan Fach. The tale, which first appeared in print in the nineteenth century, tells the story of a fairy woman from the depths of Llyn y Fan Fach in Carmarthenshire who married a mortal. She returned to her supernatural realm when her husband violated conditions she herself had laid down, but her children became the famous doctor-magicians, the Physicians of Myddfai.' The published versions, both Welsh and English, currently gracing the shelves of the bookshop at the time of this little ad hoc field exercise all contained suitably romantic illustrations ' la Arthur Rackham. The tale has become firmly fixed in the canon of 'Welsh folktales'. Somehow it seems so typically Welsh with its otherworld fairy bride, poignant sense of lost love, and its doctor-magician sons. Very few printed collections of 'Welsh Folktales' are without it, which presents the interesting situation, in regards to the variant associated with Llyn Y Fan Fach, of a Welsh tale having to be translated back into its original language.2

Print is of course the important word. The Llyn y Fan Fach story appeared in 1861 in the introduction to The Physicians of Myddfai which contained a translation of the medical texts associated with this family and an introduction containing a long, printed English version of the tale.3 This is the first time this story of an otherworld bride was attached to the quite genuine, but presumably independent, traditions and medieval medical texts associated with this family of famous physicians.4 The printed version is long, and rather over-written. The lake lady's hair 'flows gracefully in ringlets over her shoulders ... whilst the glassy surface of her watery couch served for the purpose of a mirror'. The sun 'gilds with its rays the peaks of the Fan' and the young man vainly 'strains his eyeballs' over the lake looking for the 'enchanting vision'.5 Although the elements of the tale are probably genuine and were collected by the Welsh publisher and antiquary William Rees, native of Tonn, which is not far from Llyn Y Fan Fach, the version is given here in English. Once again the Celtic Twilight seems about to cast its roseate and distorting glow on the folklore itself. Fortunately Llyn y Fan Fach is not the only source for information about the Welsh Lake Lady.

About three dozen variants of the tale dating from the tenth to the twentieth century are known, and the very fact that the tale has attained such a curious, almost icon-like status, tells us much about perceptions of Welsh tradition in and outside Wales. The study of folklore is not simply a matter of disentangling the purely oral from the literary and fictitious. The strands intertwine, and despite the comparatively small numbers, the Welsh versions of the Otherworld Bride allow us to chart the development of the tale in a changing cultural context. The tale is part of a widely distributed supernatural legend tradition in which an otherworld woman marries a mortal, but eventually returns to her world leaving him and their children. The tale is widespread, particularly in northern and western European countries where the woman is sometimes in animal form and the loss and recovery of her animal skin motivate her marriage and return. Sometimes she

THE FAIRY BRIDE LEGEND IN WALES 57

is a mermaid and the possession of some object such as an item of clothing is the means by which she becomes subject to her human husband and eventually returns to her own world. In Wales she appears in human form and her return is motivated by the violation of some taboo. In Wales too the numbers of surviving variants are lower than elsewhere, and mainly from printed sources.6 Relatively late collecting and the relatively early shift to industrialization are factors which do not foster the survival of this kind of complex, supernatural tale. Nevertheless the geographical distribution of even such a restricted number of variants indicates the importance of the tradition and, while absolute conclusions are not possible, a great deal more besides.

Both the earliest variants occur in Walter Map's De Nugis Curialium.7 Map wrote this fascinating compilation of tale, anecdote, local history and court gossip in the twelfth century, and he includes a number of supernatural legends relating to Wales, as well as traditions about historical figures such as William the Conqueror and William Rufus which were obviously current at the time.8 The geographical milieu of the tales indicates the close relationship between the Welsh and the Anglo-Normans, and the richness of culture which must have existed. One of the supernatural bride tales is located in Llyn Syfaddon (Llangorse Lake) in South Wales and is attached to the eponymous founder of the area, Brychan Brycheiniog, a Welsh hero, while the other is set in Ledbury North near Hereford and attached to Wild Edric, an Anglo-Saxon heroic figure who opposed the Norman invaders.

One of these medieval variants occurs in a section with other Welsh traditions entitled 'Illusory Apparitions'. For three nights, Brychan Brycheiniog, called Wastin Wastiniac at this point, sees women dancing in his oat field. As they disappear into the lake, he overhears one reveal how they may be caught. On the third night he avails himself of this advice. The narrative is synopsized here in such a way as to make it clear that the original had more information than Map is giving, and indeed comparison with other variants indicates that the motifs of the overheard secret (N450) which allows the mortal to overpower the fairy (F302.4)'0 are common. In this variant, the fairy says she will stay with Brychan (the name given in a corrupted form 'Wastin') until he rushes out and strikes her with his bridle. When this happens Brychan manages to catch only one of their sons, Triunein Vagelauc. The second part of this section concerns the adventures of this son. Triunein seems to be Map's real concern, since the narrative here is both more leisurely and more expansive. The young man's name may indicate that he was the youngest of a large family, and lame, a hint perhaps as to why he was caught." The boy takes work with the King of Dehuebarth (South Wales), but makes an unwise boast as to the superiority of King Brychan and as a result is required to lead an expedition back to Brycheiniog. Interestingly Brychan is here Triunein's overlord rather than his father, the kind of boastful choleric king familiar in heroic Welsh tradition. Several of the episodes in this section relate to Brychan as the king who kills the messenger, has a wild ride on a shackled horse and is a fierce battle leader who dismembers his enemies. Triunein, fighting on the side of the defeated forces, disappears, but Map reports that some thought he did not die but returned to the lake with his mother.

Clearly this section is far more complex than just an 'instance' of the fairy bride tale,12 and raises several interesting possibilities. For example, did Map realize that Brychan and Wastin were the same character? Did Map have access to a somewhat garbled heroic cycle attached to Brychan Brecheiniog? The different spelling of Brychan's name (Wastin Wastiniog when he wins his fairy bride and Brychan when he is the king) might indicate that Map heard the fairy tale orally (or that it has an ultimate oral source), while the

58 JULIETTE WOOD

incidents related to the King were closer to written sources. This would certainly explain why Brychan is the boy's father in the first section and his king/enemy in the rest. The importance of the historical kingdom of Brecon in the history of Wales is itself being reassessed'3 and the view which concentrated on the North and the traditions of the Gwr Y Gogledd as the main route of transmission of early material into Wales is beginning to be refined. Another interesting factor is that the lake-fairy section functions as a kind of family origin legend. These tales are often concerned with the fate of the fairy's children, and the same link between mother and child appears in the very different variant attached to Edric the Wild at Ledbury North. It is not possible to determine at this stage whether Map is transmitting part of a more extensive cycle attached to Brychan Brycheiniog, but it seems clear that the sources for this relatively short section are more complex than has been supposed.

Edric the Wild was an Anglo-Saxon theyn who initially resisted the Anglo-Normans, but made peace with William about 1072. However he seems to have taken on an 'outlaw persona' in tradition.'" Here, there is no lake; the hero captures the bride and she tells him she will stay with him until he reproaches her with her origins. This version grounds the traditional elements in a quasi-historical frame. The woman's beauty is considered proof enough of her supernatural origins, and William the Conqueror is said to have visited Edric to admire the wife. The taboo is of course violated, and the hero dies broken- hearted after his wife vanishes, leaving an heir, Alnoth, who is miraculously cured. The style of this tale is quite different, Walter Map at his narrative best with classical allusions to Dictymus, Dryads and Lares. Map's concluding remarks are worth noting. 'We have heard of demons that are incubi and succubi and of the dangers of union with them; rarely do we read . .. of heirs or offspring who ended their day prosperously .. ."' Map would most certainly be aware of the fact that Henry II's family origins were associated with the Melusine story. He includes an example of this story, and he may be making a graceful and courtly reference to this here. Moreover, Map highlights an important aspect: these stories often function as origin legends attached to unusual families.

The legend of the Fairy Bride at Ledbury North is the most untypical of the variants considered in this paper. It shares certain features with the Swan Maiden (AT400 and 465) in which the hero steals the woman's swan feathers, then loses her when he rebukes her with her origins, although he subsequently regains his supernatural wife. This opening episode most closely resembles the Map narrative which is located in the reign of William the Conqueror who comes to admire the woman. Map's tale, however, does not develop, and indeed simply may not have contained, the theme of the covetous king (H931.1). Speculation as to the origin of the tale would be inappropriate with so little early material. The Welsh variants form a unique sub-group in that the woman is not in mermaid or animal shape and she sets the conditions under which she will remain (unlike the seal- woman common in Scotland and Scandinavia who is vulnerable by virtue of being out of her animal skin, or the Irish mermaid who loses some object).'16

Other supernatural brides occur in the Welsh genealogical tracts, although it is impossible to tell what traditions if any were associated with them." It has been suggested by Sarah L. Keefer that a marriage with a seal creature lies behind an incident in the tale of Math from the Mabinogi.'8 Aranrhod's two children betray her false virginity. One is the hero, Lleu. The other, Dylan Eil Ton, makes only a brief appearance. Kafer's suggestion is that Aranrhod has a child by a seal-man and that this child, Dylan, could change into a seal. Keefer considers the otherworld-bride tales-which she calls the seal-bride even though this is not the commonest form in either Ireland or Wales-in

THE FAIRY BRIDE LEGEND IN WALES 59

order to establish that 'selchie legends' are found in many folktales from Celtic coasts and islands." The Welsh examples are in fact connected with inland lakes and rivers. Eventually she is forced to admit that 'there are no true seal-tales in Welsh.'20 She then compares the Welsh episode with the mid-nineteenth century ballad 'The Great Selchie of Skul Kerry' in which the seal father reclaims his son and prophesies that he shall meet his death by the hand of the wife's new husband. This ballad, Keefer asserts, with great authority but no substantiation, 'is clearly of great antiquity' and represents the closest extant analogue to the tale-family to which the Dylan fragment belongs.21 As so often with these 'lost tale' arguments, no credible context for such a tale is ever given. The author admits that no true seal-tales exist in Welsh, but declines to suggest when and where such a tale might have existed. Presumably, as the argument depends heavily on Irish and Scottish analogues, some common Celtic tale is being reconstructed, but if so, then it hardly strengthens the position that the 'closest analogue' is a Scots, not a Scots-Gaelic ballad. The argument is a good example of what Professor Almquist describes in his consideration of the mermaid bride tale in Ireland as 'Celtomania'.22 Undoubtedly tales get lost during the process of transmission and great light can be thrown on them by careful study, but not as in this case by juggling together analogues regardless of regional or temporal differences and reconstructing a Celtic original. Although supernatural mothers are hinted at in the genealogies, the case for the appearance of a seal father in Pedeir Keinc does not seem convincing.

It is perhaps more interesting and certainly more useful to look not for lost origins, but how the tale may have functioned in a social context. Map's two medieval variants are associated with heroic figures and set in a quasi-historical world soon after the appearance of the Anglo-Normans in Wales. This reflects the court situation as Map knew it: William the Conqueror and William Rufus were the ancestors, quite near ancestors as it happens, of Henry II, the king whom Walter Map served for so long. Much of the De Nugis is concerned with creating a kind of mythic history for the Plantaganets, and the Welsh fit into this scheme as a kind of romantic exotic.23

Map never completed De Nugis Curialium, but the linking of material in the text as it stands may reveal something of his attitudes to the tales.24 The two Fairy Bride narratives are followed by a third story, a variant of another popular legend which resembles it in some ways, namely The Sons of the Dead Woman. This tale concerns a human wife, supposedly dead but actually abducted by fairies, who is rescued by her husband. Her children are called 'the sons of the dead woman'. On the level of narrative, the two fairy brides and the rescued 'dead woman' all concern the dangers of contact with the otherworld. Furthermore, Map asserts the truth of these stories because all three of the 'mothers' have descendents, real descendents and, in the case of the sons of the dead mother, Map has met them.25 Scholars often classify these fairy legends according to the type of belief.26 This concentrates on the nature of belief in the otherworld, its location and shape, and the sources for this belief, usually seen as an older strata. Recent work has taken a new approach and has seen the fictive cosmology not just as an inheritance of belief, but as an area in which the immediate social context itself can be examined. Fairy beliefs become more than an element of continuity with a past culture. They are also a mechanism for distancing oneself from the complexity of the social context and indeed commenting on it.27

The Sons of the Dead Woman, for example, reflects the belief that the premature dead were 'abducted' into fairy land. The fairy beliefs here may be seen as a strategy to deal with untimely and therefore stressful death.28 The Welsh tale of the Otherworld Bride

60 JULIETTE WOOD

deals with another stressful 'rite de passage' marriage. On the level of belief, the tale expresses ideas connected with lakes and clearings as entrances to the otherworld through which the fairy and cattle can pass; the extraordinary beauty of otherworld beings; the extraordinary fecundity of otherworld cattle and the fear of offending these beings (see motif list p. 69). This fictive cosmology in which the lake/clearing is a contact point between worlds presents the young man with a conundrum. The bride brings with her the positive benefits of children and material wealth, but carries the stress of the taboo itself (in Wales it is three blows, or striking with iron, and less commonly criticism of origins, striking with steel, and losing magic acorns) and the consequences of complete or partial loss of the advantages which winning the bride has brought him. On the level of human relations the young man's courtship and the bride's conditions can function as a dramatic metaphor for the required adjustments of marriage. The following scheme suggests some of the tensions and resolutions which underlie the text. Realistic mode: Man + marriage + woman ) children ) Independent lives,

(courtship) (conditions) but affected by parents

Fabulous mode: mortal man + Lake as + supernatural bride ) supernatural cattle

(gains power) contact with (taboo) return to otherworld ) violation ) otherworld

Reducing a tale to this kind of scheme obscures the variety inherent in these narratives and over-emphasizes the didactic elements. Clearly the main motivation for telling these tales is the joy of the tale itself. Most of the Welsh Fairy Bride stories were collected and analysed by John Rhys in his pioneering work on Welsh folklore. Rhys is underrated as a folklorist. He had an excellent ear for language register and often reproduces Welsh texts as they were given to him.29 Rhys used sources, both written and oral, from all the old counties of Wales except Flintshire and Radnorshire, which he lists at the beginning of volume one. There is enough variation among these texts to suggest a tradition which, if lacking the richness found elsewhere, was still viable when

Rh.s was collecting.

The sub-set which comprises the Welsh Fairy Bride stories has a number of unique features. The most striking is that the Welsh Fairy Brides are always hunran, in contrast to the seal found in Scotland and Scandinavia or the swan in some Germanic variants. In most Irish variants, the girl is a mermaid. There may be a few hints of possible animal form in just three Welsh variants. Wild Edric's bride 'vanishes into the air'."30 A tale which Rhys collected near Llyn Y Fan Fach says the boy first mistook the fairy woman for a goose, and another of Rhys' variants says the wife flew away in the shape of a water- fowl.31 This is hardly compelling evidence for a fairy woman in animal form in Welsh, but it is interesting that what indication there is (evidence is too strong a word) points to a bird.

Most Welsh tales associate the fairy with a lake, although in Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Merionethshire and Herefordshire, the young man may see the fairy dancing or meet her near his home, presumably on dry land. These are sufficiently different to be classified as a separate sub-type in The Types and Motifs of Welsh Folklore, but it is well to remember that types and motifs are themselves constructs intended to help the scholar, and one should not become too obsessed with them.32 The woman's consent is gained by various means; capture, learning her name, offering her the right kind of

THE FAIRY BRIDE LEGEND IN WALES 61

bread, but always the prospective wife imposes a condition. Its nature shows some regional variation. In North Wales, the taboo involves touching with iron. In the south, it is when he gives her three blows. Always wealth and prosperity are dependent on the wife, and after her departure her cattle follow her back into the lake, and in one case, her children as well. Often she returns to visit the children and expresses her affection for them in rhyme. Sometimes the fairy heritage is beneficial. The physicians of Myddfai gained magic medical knowledge from a book given to them by their mother; Alnoth was a holy man, and Triunein was supposedly protected by his mother. However, the fairy ancestry can carry a stigma and Rhys describes fights which follow this accusation.

The proposed model also suggests that the legend expresses a number of cultural relationships; the uniqueness, either positive (Physicians of Myddfai) or negative (Pellings) of particular families; the apparently random nature of prosperity (the disappearance of cattle with the fairy wife); a signifier for heroic life (Brychan Brycheniog who must have been well-known historical figure in twelfth century Wales), all expressed in terms of the potential rewards and dangers attendant on contact with the liminal world. Occasionally there is an onomastic element as well. Both Rees' version of Llyn y Fan Fach and Glasynys' tale link it to some element of the landscape. These are highly literary versions it is true, but recent work has shown the importance of onomastic tales in Welsh stories, particularly to emphasize and heighten important events,33 and there is no reason to assume that these elements are not genuine. The Llyn Y Fan Fach tale calls attention to the furrows left by the ox as the cattle hurried after the departing fairy, while Glasynys seems to be adapting a floating island mentioned by Giraldus as a means for the fairy and her husband to continue to meet. Glasynys' conceit is particularly appropriate. The two meet in a place which is neither this world nor the fairy world, namely a floating island, which in effect resolves the differences between her supernatural and his mortal nature.

The effects of contact with the liminal world of fairy beings is an important aspect of the legend. Liminality is attended by both benefits and dangers. The fairy, by definition, never becomes fully integrated into her husband's world, but she brings with her prosperity in the broad sense of children and, specifically, in the sense of cattle. The association of woman as symbol of fertility in marriage both in her own person and in bringing a dowry is almost universal, but the animals brought by the fairy wife have supernatural associations in their own right.

The names of the cattle in the fairy's poem, an unusual feature in Welsh tales, may actually recall the names of certain primitive cattle types.34 Otherworld cattle, and indeed other stockbreeding animals such as horses and pigs, are often envisaged as emerging from lakes and other contact points between the worlds. Mostly their appearance is beneficial if, like the fairy woman herself, they are treated respectfully.35 One variant located in Carmarthenshire gives the colour of the cattle as black. Another variant has the little calf lag behind, and out of fear of the black water of the lake it turns black and is the origin of the famous Welsh black cattle, another instance of origin legends as a final element.36 The deep glacial lakes of Wales are the focus for a number of supernatural beliefs. Many of the traditions are independent of fairy women stories, but they all relate to contact with the other world and more specifically with the lake as portal to that world. Stock-rearing is a chancey business in which even good husbandry does not always assure success. Here, contact between the worlds involving a supernatural woman and a supernatural animal results in marriage and prosperity for a human being, and the loss of both supernatural woman and cattle results in the disruption of the marriage

62 JULIETTE WOOD

and the loss or partial loss of the prosperity. In this context, the ebb and flow of narrative pattern produces a situation which accurately reflects the uncertainties of actual cultural experience.

The narrative may also reflect problems inherent in the fact that marriage, involving as it does different kin groups, creates an uneasy alliance in which the wife is caught in an 'in-between' state." Two euhemerized versions recorded by Rhys express this very tension and in this sense deal with the real give and take of husband/wife relationships. In one variant, the girl is a gypsy, not a fairy, and in another simply a girl from another farm. Both of these omit the supernatural element, but retain the idea that the wife is an outsider, a liminal character with all the attendant perils that implies. However, the tale structure is retained. Although the girl is specifically not supernatural, merely a servant- girl from another farm, she still quarrels with her 'employer' three times and only after the third quarrel does she return 'home'. The lake and the cattle also remain, but she is presumed to have drowned while tending the cattle. Rhys comments perceptively how 'modern rationalism has been modifying the story. .. without wholly getting rid of the original features'.38 The variant is all the more interesting since Rhys collected two others from the same place which included the supernatural elements. The second 'rational' variant makes the wife a gypsy, an outsider by definition and about as liminal as it is possible to get. Here Rhys adds the information, not associated with fairy brides but culled from the same source, that Englishmen and Scots who lived in Wales were thought to be fairies.39

The narrative often functions as a family origin legend, and here again tensions created in the kin-group as a result of marriage feature prominently, particularly in the effects of fairy-mortal marriage on the offspring. Both variants in Walter Map follow the adventures of the fairy's sons, and the best-known Welsh version is linked to the origin of the physicians of Myddfai. The link between the Fairy Bride and this important traditional family of doctors, allegedly physicians to Rhys Gryg of Llandovery in the thirteenth century, is somewhat problematic. However, the existence of the family is not in doubt, and Rhys lists a number of practising physicians and several contemporary families who claimed descent from them.40 A North Wales variant collected by Rhys linked the Fairy Bride with a local family known as Pelling, said to be a corruption of the fairy's name.41 Locally, the family were believed to be a choleric and unsociable lot. Little children were frightened by threats that the Pellings would get them, and fights were reported on market days when members of the family were taunted with their ancestry. The earliest version of the Pellings tale appears in William Williams of Llandegai's book Observations on the Snowdon Mountains. He, by contrast, is very proud of the connection and says they were

a race of people inhabiting the districts about the foot of Snowdon ... formerly distinguished and known by the nickname Pellings which is not yet extinct. There are several persons and even families who are reputed to be descended from these people ... These children [Penelope's] and their descendents, they say, were called Pellings, a word corrupted from their mother's name, Penelope. The late Thomas Rowlands Esq of Caerus in Anglesey, the father of the late Lady Bulkeley, was a descendant of this lady if it be true that the name Pellings came from her, and there are still living several opulent and respectable people who are known to have sprung from the Pellings. The best blood in my own veins is this fairy's.42

Even without the context of a specific family, the fairy mother often returns to see her children, sometimes bringing them luck. Her outsider status is strongly emphasized

THE FAIRY BRIDE LEGEND IN WALES 63

in this context. She recites comforting rhymes through the bedroom window, where she is clearly outside the house, or she meets the children at the edge of the lake. One of the most common folktales with a female protagonist concerns her marriage (as part of the tale, not as part of the happy ever after ending) and estrangement from her husband.43 The estrangement is crucial to the development of the structure of these tales; sometimes, as in the Calumniated Wife, she is re-united with her husband; at other times, as in the Fairy Bride legend, she is not. What is interesting is that the gender perspective is sympathetic to the woman. The wife's position is vulnerable and often marginal, but the tale clearly shows a degree of sympathy for her plight and the difficulties she encounters. Another notable quality of the Fairy Bride is her assertiveness. She sets the conditions, unlike the bride in animal or mermaid form whose fate is linked to the possession of her animal skin or some object. The fairy bride in Wales has characteristics of both the active heroine and the outsider heroine. The conflicts inherent in this are never resolved, but as Professor Bo Almqvist has suggested:

folk legends reflect various attitudes to the traumatic problems caused by abandonment, separation and dissolution of marriages . . . it has not been stressed frequently enough that folk legends rather than expressing a single attitude to a particular problem, due to the flexibility and variation which is their very essence, often serve as vehicles for discussion of different solutions to questions of vital interest to tellers and audience.44

One of the most striking changes in the modern retellings of the Physicians of Myddfai tale is the character of the heroine. The Physicians' tale, as retold by John Williams ab Ithel in the introduction to the nineteenth-century edition of the Physicians of Myddfai (1861), is a composite tale put together from information gathered, presumably in Welsh, by Mr. Rees of Tonn from at least four informants.45 The description of the woman recalls the rather blandly beautiful and conventional fairytale heroine. The prose is overwritten and the whole piece an antiquarian effort, but not one that should be dismissed out of hand. In Rhys' opinion, the sources for the composite tales were genuine enough. Indeed the choices offered to the fairy bride by the young man are paralleled in another Welsh folktale, in which Gwyndydd offers her brother Myrddin three types of gift (wine, milk and water) to induce him to prophesy, and he accepts only after the third.46 The motif of appropriate gift plays a part in inducing the fairy bride to enter into marriage. The partly baked bread is an apt symbol for the marriage between two people, one from the human and one from the supernatural world. The tale also contains a rare Welsh example of the Three Laughs of the Fairy. However, Rhys visited the area some fifty years after the Physicians' tale was printed and found little evidence of it, although he collected other material associated with Llyn Y Fan Fach. One informant told him that until recently people used to visit the lake on the first of August to see the fairy bride appear. Attempts to drain the allegedly bottomless lake resulted in failure and the appearance of a threatening supernatural being.47 In short, the lake itself had remained a focus for tradition.

The question is really whether the tale printed in this edition of Welsh medical treatises is an early one. Morfydd Owen in her extensive study of medieval Welsh medical treatises says that although references to the Physicians are plentiful, the earliest in a fourteenth- century Welsh poem, there is no mention of the lake legend prior to its appearance in print.48 Wirt Sykes, although an unreliable source, cites both the Llyn Y Fan Fach tale and another not linked to the Physicians but located in the same area.49 More telling

64 JULIETTE WOOD

Llyn Corwrion

Llyn Peris

Llyn Cwellyn Llyn Du Arddu ' DENBIGHSHIRE Llyn y Gadair

CAERNARVONSHIRE 40

?

MERIONETHSHIRE SHROPSHIRE

Llyn y Dywarchan

Bala Lake

o

Ledbury North

CARDIGANSHIRE

HEREFORDSHIRE

CARMARTHENSHIRE BRECONSHIRE

0 GLAMORGAN

Llyn y Fan Fach

Llangorse

Llyn Nelferch

DISTRIBUTION OF FAIRY BRIDE VARIANTS IN WALES (map not to scale)

THE FAIRY BRIDE LEGEND IN WALES 65

is the fact that Rhys failed to find any evidence for the tale only fifty years after it was printed. It seems unlikely that such a tradition could survive from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries and then disappear so shortly after its appearance in print."s

Traditions associating a medical family with the area are very strong. The earliest reference occurs in a fourteenth-century Welsh poem,5" although the supposed patron of the family, Rhys Grug, lived earlier. A number of Welsh antiquaries refer to the physicians and their medical writings. Families alleged to possess medical skills are associated with several farms in the area close to Myddfai. Parish records and a local gravestone recall the death of the 'last' hereditary physician; however, alleged descendants of the family were still practising as late as 1971.52 The physicians are associated with Rhys Grug and with his father the Lord Rhys, one of the most powerful and important of the native Welsh princes, noted for his patronage of both native and Latin learning. After the death of the Lord Rhys, the area of Carmarthenshire which includes Myddfai would have come under the control of Rhys Grug and he could very well have settled court officials there, and a physician might have been among them. A degree of continuity could have extended even to the Norman period, as the tenants of the Maenor of Myddfai had to supply the Lord of Llanymyddfri with a doctor.53

What is known of doctors, their duties and methods from early Welsh law tracts is broadly consistent with certain topics covered in the medical tracts associated with the Physicians of Myddfai. Parallels from other Celtic countries further corroborate this interpretation of the Myddfai traditions where certain professional classes bound by a strong hereditary principle with a well-defined legal status emerged at a relatively early period. Of particular interest is the history of a Scottish physician family, the Beatons, whose story resembles that of the Physicians of Myddfai. They practised medicine and owned land in territories held by the Lord of the Isles in Gaelic Scotland until the seventeenth century. Their knowledge seems to have been of the esoteric sort culled from manuscripts held in the family.54 They too were the focus of numerous traditions associating them with supernatural powers gained from contact with otherworld beings. Beaton allegedly gained his power as a child when he ate magic food and escaped the machinations of an evil magician, much in the manner of the Welsh poet Taliesin." Indeed, parallel to what Dr. Owen refers to as the 'tenacity of custom which is characteristic of society' 56 is probably an assumption that a certain uncanny power is associated with words, and the tale associated with the physicians emphasises the liminal source, a gift from a supernatural mother, of the doctors' knowledge. The first published account of the Myddfai tale accompanied the first edition and translation of the Myddfai medical manuscripts. The first manuscript appears to be a copy of a genuine medieval text, the second is probably a forgery by the indefatigable Iolo Morganwg.j' Iolo's interest lay, as did that of so many early Celtic enthusiasts, in the antiquity of tradition, and where he could find no medieval records, he very happily created them. It may be that this kind of thinking was the inspiration for linking the fairy bride, evidently a frequent family origin tale, with a locally famous medical family by means of a story which combined motifs common in analogous tales, important themes involving the ambiguous position of purveyors of such knowledge as is required to perform medical cures.

The variants of the Fairy Bride in Wales are not a rich harvest, but they represent an interesting and rather unique sub-type in a widely dispersed legend complex. When Rhys collected this material in the 1880s, the legend was already no doubt beginning to lose ground. Perhaps Rhgs' interest prolonged its survival somewhat, and the Physicians version of the tale has certainly ensured its place in the canon of Welsh folklore. However,

66 JULIETTE WOOD

if one looks at the distribution of the remaining variants (see map 1), it seems likely that this legend was once widely known throughout Wales. The folktale has never been systematically collected, and this map reflects to a large extent a fortuitous set of circumstances. Rhys himself noted that more records of folklore existed in the counties in which the Welsh language was still strong, but suggested that this might be due to the enthusiasm of the collectors in those areas rather than to an actual lack of material elsewhere.58 Indeed the work of Rhidian Gwyn on the folklore of Penllyn in Merionethshire, and that of Robin Gwyndaf of the Welsh Folk Museum" have, even at a late date, produced some interesting data.

Two aspects of the Welsh Fairy Bride require close consideration by folklorists. The first is the oft-retold Llyn Y Fan Fach version itself and the second the origin and function of the variants which have been identified and classified in the forthcoming Welsh Folktale Index. In many ways the popularity of the Llyn Y Fan Fach version has obscured the complexity of the tradition in Wales, as it has the historical significance of the medical writings."o Recently Dr. Bromwich has drawn attention to the relative lack of references to Welsh prose tales, even among Welsh poets, prior to the nineteenth century. She rightly focuses on the romantic revival attendant on the writings of Matthew Arnold and the publication of Ossian as an impetus to renewed interest in native prose literature. Welsh scholars prior to the publication of the Mabinogion by Charlotte Guest in 1849 cannot have been said to have ignored the native tales, but it is interesting that, as with Ossian, an English translation (not in this case a forgery) provided the stimulus for study."6 Something of the same thing may have happened with Llyn Y Fan Fach, which is most likely a hybrid of current tales grafted onto the traditional authors of a medieval medical treatise. While its authenticity as an early version is dubious, its importance in the emerging picture of Welsh folk narrative tradition is indisputable.

The Welsh variants of the Fairy Bride are undoubtedly related to the tale about an otherworld woman who marries and has children by a mortal, a tale referred to as The Seal Woman, the commonest form in Scotland and Scandinavia,62 or The Mermaid who Marries a Mortal, the form as it is commonly found in Ireland.63 As Professor Almqvist suggests, the whole cycle needs careful and in-depth analysis.64 He inclines to the idea, supported by Dr. Bruford of the School of Scottish Studies, that the tale might have originated in Scotland and spread to Scandinavia.65 The relative paucity of Welsh examples and the unavoidably serendipitous nature of collecting makes it difficult to speculate on origins. There is a strong tendency for the tales to cluster, particularly along rivers and around lakes, and this may reflect the local spread of the tale. [Map 2] The feature which differentiates the Welsh variants most strongly from Scottish, Irish and Scandinavian ones is the character of the supernatural woman who sets the conditions under which she remains among the world of men and brings with her material prosperity. More work needs to be done on this fascinating cycle, but it seems abundantly clear that many streams of tradition have contributed to it. University of Wales, College of Cardiff

LIST OF WELSH VARIANTS BY OLD COUNTIES Brecon: Llyn Syfaddon, Llangorse: Walter Map pp. 77-8 (quoted in Rhys, Celtic Folklore,

pp. 771-2). Cardiganshire: Newquay: WFM T 2993.

Aberystwyth: Communication to the author.

I

Llandegai

1 Llanllechid

.Lyn

Bethesda

Corwrion

17 Llanberis

" 10S Ystrad* -11 Llyn Du'r Arddu

O -- Llyn Gwellyn

S-1 ----- lyn y Dywarchar

Llyn y Gadair 5 Blaeu

Pennono/ 0 6 1 Braich y Dinas

S Dolbenmaen

Ys•t•u cegid-ganol "stom

cegid Isar

CAERNARVONSHIRE VARIANTS (map not to scale)

68 JULIETTE WOOD

Carmarthen: Llyn Y Fan Fach, Llandeusant: (1) The Physicians of Myddvai (Rees) 1861 (quoted in J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, pp. 2-12); WFM Tape 1530; WFM Tape 1531; WFM Tape 1535. (2) Cambro-Briton vol. ii, 1821, pp. 313-315; Elias Owen, Welsh Folk- Lore, pp. 22-24. (3) Wirt Sykes, British Goblins, p. 40.

Caernarvon: Afon Fach Blaen y Cae, Dolbenmaen: J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, p. 108. Blaen Pennant, Dolbenmaen: J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, p. 108. Braich y Dinas: Dolbenmaen Y Genhinen vol. xiii, pp. 290-1 (quoted in J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, pp. 94-97). Bron y Fedw, Betws Farmon: J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, pp. 33-35. Llanberis: J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, pp. 26-30. Llyn Corwrion, Llandegai: (1) Hugh Derfel Hughes, Hynafiaethau Llandegai & Llanlechid, 1866 (quoted in J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, pp. 51-55) (2) J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, p. 61. (3) Hugh Derfel Hughes, Hynaflaethau Llandegai & Llanlechid, 1866 (quoted in J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, p. 55). Llyn Du'r Arddu, Llanberis: J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, pp. 31-2. Llyn y Dywarchen, Betws Garmon: (1) Brython IV, 70 (quoted in Rhys, Celtic Folklore, pp. 86-89); (2) J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, pp. 89-90; (3) Cymru Fu (Glasynys' version), pp. 474-7 (quoted in Rhys, Celtic Folklore, pp. 91-3). Pennant, Dolenmaen: J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, p. 108. Pen-y-groes: WFM T 3553. Rhoshirwaun: WFM T 1986. Ystum Cegid, Dolbenmaen: J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, p. 220. Ystrad, Bettws Garmon: (1) Williams, Observations on the Snowdon Mountains, 1802 (quoted in Rhys, Celtic Folklore, pp. 42-6). (2) Y Brython, 1863, 193 (quoted in Rhys, Celtic Folklore, pp. 40-1). (3) J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, p. 39.

Denbigh: Hafodgarreg, Pentrefoelas: Elias Owen, Welsh Folklore, pp. 8-10. Hafod y Dre, Pentrefoelas: ELias Owen, Welsh Folklore, pp. 10-11. Rhosllannerchrugog: WFM T 2758. Llansannan: WFM T 3894.

Glamorgan: Llyn Nelferch, Rhondda: (1) J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, pp. 27-29. (2) J. RhYs, Celtic Folklore, pp. 23-24. (3) J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, p. 25.

Hereford: Ledbury North: Walter Map (ed. Mynor and James), p. 82. Merionethshire: Llanfrothen: Elias Owen, Welsh Folklore, p. 15.

Penllyn: Rh. Gwyn, 'Penllyn' 129, 130 (3 examples). Llanfachreth: (1) Rh. Gwyn, 'Penllyn' 131; (2) Cymru & (1895), 178.

NOTES ON NAMES: In many of the variants local names have been used by informants for farms, rivers and lakes. For purposes of clarity it has not always been possible to indicate this on the map. Roman numbers in brackets have been used where several versions have been collected from the same location.

KEY TO SOURCES: The following lists the details of all oral material, journals and books containing original material relating to the Welsh Fairy Bride tale. WFM T = Welsh Folk Museum Tape, for all material in the archives of the Welsh Folk Museum,

St. Fagans. Y Brython: cylchgrawn llenyddol Cymru 1 (1858)-5 (1986/3). Cymru 1 (1891)-72 (1927). Y Geninen 1 (1883)-46 (1928). Glasynys (Owen Wynne Jones), Cymru Fu (Wrexham: Hughes and Son, 1862). Gwyn, Rhidian, 'Chwedlau Ileol Penllyn a phlwf Llanfachreth Merionethshire' unpublished

University of Wales M.A. thesis, 1983. Hughes, Hugh Derfel, Hyniaethau Llandegai (Llandegai, 1872), quoted in Rhys. Owen, Elias, Welsh Folk-Lore (Oswestry and Wrecsam 1887). Rh5s, John, Celtic Folklore Welsh and Manx (1901, rpr. Wildwood House, 1980), 2 vols. Sykes, Wirt, British Goblins (London, 1880).

THE FAIRY BRIDE LEGEND IN WALES 69

Walter Map, De Nugis Curialium (1983 ed., see n. 7 below). Williams, William, Observations on the Snowdon Mountains with some Account of the Customs and Manners of the Inhabitants (London, 1802), quoted in Rhys.

The following is a composite summary of events and motifs in the Welsh versions of this tale. No attempt has been made to indicate which variants contain which motifs.

I. A young man sees a company of fairies dancing by moonlight, on or near a lake, or meets a fairy (rarely, gypsy) girl, in hills or field near home. He offers her bread (sometimes three kinds of bread, or asks for one of the apples she is eating).

F217 Congregating places of fairies. F214 Fairies live in hills. F261 Fairies dance. F212 Fairyland under water. F261.3.1.2 Fairies dance under oak tree. F92.1 Visit to lower world through hole made by lifting clump of grass. P715.2* Nations, gypsies.

II. He gains consent to marriage (occasionally by capture). Sometimes she becomes his servant until he discovers her name. Usually she agrees to marry him on the condition that he not give her three blows (quarrels) without cause (never touch her with iron, steel or clay). In some versions he must find out her name or identify her from among her identical sisters.

H323 Suitor test learning girl's name. N475 Secret name overheard by eavesdropper. F302.4 Man obtains power over fairy mistress. F302.2 Man marries fairy and takes her home. F300 Marriage or liaison with fairy. C31.8 Tabu: striking supernatural wife. H161.0.1 Recognition of person among identical companions, prearranged signal. H324 Suitor test: choosing princess from among identically clad sisters. H335.0.1 Bride helps suitor perform tasks. T110 Unusual marriage. F300 Marriage or liaison with fairy. P715.2.1* Marriage with gypsy girl. C531 Tabu: touching with iron. C31.11 Tabu: reproaching supernatural wife about her sisters. C32 Tabu: offending supernatural wife. C517.1* Tabu: losing acorns. D985.4 Magic acorns. C211.3.2 Tabu: fairies eating mortal food. F243.1 Fairies' bread.

III. They prosper, often because of cattle/money (rarely given by father of girl) which the wife brings as dowry, and they have children. One day while trying to catch an animal, the wife is accidentally hit by an iron bridle, bit, clump of earth, etc., or the husband accidentally breaks the tabu by touching her with his gloves when she laughs at an inappropriate moment. She then disappears into the lake followed by her cattle.

F342 Fairy gives mortal money. F343.9 Fairy gives man horses, cattle, etc. F305 Offspring of fairy and mortal. P715.2.3* Gypsy children. C31 Tabu: offending supernatural wife. C31.8 Tabu: striking supernatural wife. C435.1.1 Tabu: uttering name of supernatural wife. C31.8.1* Tabu: three quarrels without cause. C531.2* Tabu: touching with steel. C531.3* Tabu: touching with clay. P617 People laugh at funeral and weep when child is born. C932 Loss of supernatural wife for breaking tabu. C952: Immediate return to Otherworld after breaking tabu. F241.2.3 Fairy cattle under lake. F241.2 Fairies' cows. F241.2.1* Fairies have black cows. A951.4 Contour caused by ploughing of beasts. F989.13 Animal dives into lake and disappears. F989.13.1* Supernatural being disappears into lake.

IV. Sometimes she returns to visit her children, comforts them with a rhyme, gives them a gift such as knowledge of medicine, or their descendants carry a stigma, because of their supposed fairy origins.

F305.2* Fairy mother returns to visit children. F305.1.1 Fairy mother bestows magic power upon half-mortal son. F343.7* Fairy gives book. F305.1.2* Fairy mother returns to visit children. E425.1.1 Revenant as lady in white.

NOTES 1. This article was given as the Folklore Society Council Lecture in 1991. I would like to

express my gratitude to the Society for their invitation, to Mr. Robin Gwyndaf of the Welsh Folk Museum and to Dr. Alan Bruford of the School of Scottish Studies for their helpful discussions on the subject of Welsh and Scottish fairy brides, and particularly to Dr. Bruford for allowing me access to the Archives of the School which contain so many Scottish variants. Finally, I wish to thank Guto Davis for help in the preparation of the maps.

70 JULIETTE WOOD

2. D. Parry-Jones, Welsh Legends and Fairy-lore (Batsford, 1953), pp. 75-85; W. Jenkyn Thomas, The Welsh Fairy Book (University of Wales Press, 1907), pp. 1-11. Gwyn Jones, Welsh Legends and Folk-Tales (Oxford, 1955); Joseph Jacobs, Celtic Fairy Tales (New York, 1882); Hugh Evans, Y Tylwuth Teg (Gwasg Y Brython, 1935); Aneirin Talfan Davies, Crwydro Sir Gar (Llandybid, 1970); F. G. Payne, Yr Aradr Gymreig (University of Wales Press, 1901); Frederik Helmann, Mdrchen Aus Wales Herausgegeben und Ubersetzt (Verlag, 1982), pp. 156-162, 268. Further comments see W. J. Gruffydd, Folklore and Myth in the Mabinogion (Cardiff, 1950), p. 10ff; K. H. Jackson, The International Popular Tale and Early Welsh Tradition (Cardiff, 1961), pp. 48-9; Alwyn and Brinley Rees, Celtic Heritage (Cardiff, 1961), pp. 266, 344.

3. John Williams (Ab Ithol), editor, The Physicians of Myddfai: Meddygon Myddfai. English translation by John Pughe (Llandovery 1861).

4. Morfydd Owen, 'Meddygon Myddfai: A Preliminary Survey of some Medieval Medical Writing in Welsh', Studia Celtica X/IX (1975-76), pp. 210-233; 'Llawsysgrif Ffeddygol a Anwybyddwyd', Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies XXVI (1956), 48-9; P. Diverres, Le plus ancien texte des Meddygon Myddveu (Paris, Maurice Le Dault, 1913).

5. John Rhys, Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx (1901), 2 vols. (Wildwood House rpr. 1980), pp. 1-12 from Williams and Pughe, Physicians of Myddfai, op. cit., xxi; also published by Rhys in Y Cymmroder IV (1881), 155ff.

6. No comprehensive study of this legend exists, and one is certainly needed. For examples of texts and comments on the legend in Scandinavia, Ireland and Scotland see Reidar Th. Christiansen, The Migratory Legends: A Proposed List of Types with a Systematic Catalogue of the Norwegian Variants, FF. Communications No. 175 (Helsinki, 1958); Bo Almqvist, 'Of Mermaids and Marriages: Seamus Heaney's "Maighdean Mara" and Nuala ni Dhomhnaill's "An Mhaighdean Mhara" in the Light of Folk Tradition', Bealoideas 58 (1990), 1-74; 0. Andersson 'Seal-Folk in East and West: Some Comments on a Fascinating Group of Folk Tales', Folklore International Essays in Honor of Wayland Debs Hand (Hatboro, 1967), pp. 1-6; Bo Almqvist, 'Scandinavian and Celtic Folklore Contacts in the Earldom of Orkney', Saga-Book of the Viking Society XX ... 1-2 (1978-79), 103; Linda-May Ballard, 'Seal Stories and Belief on Raithlin Island', Ulster Folklife (1988), 33-42.

7. Walter Map, De Nugis Curialium: Courtier's Trifles, edited and translated by M. R. James, revised by C. N. L. Brooks and R. A. B. Mynors (Clarendon Press, 1983). All references to the text follow this edition unless otherwise stated; Walter Map's De Nugis Curialium, trans. M. R. James, notes by J. E. Lloyd, edited by Sidney Hartland, Cymmrodorion Record Series No. ix (London, 1923).

8. Juliette Wood, 'Walter Map: The Contents and Context of De Nugis Curialium" Transactions

of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion 1985, pp. 91-103. 9. Map, De Nugis Curialium, Dist II, cap. 11. 10. In, for example, Owen Welsh Folk-Lore (Oswestry and Wrecsam, 1887), p. 22 from

Carmarthenshire, and Rhys, Celtic Folklore, p. 62. 11. Map, De Nugis Curialium, p. 150 n.1. Nagelauc-lame or with a crutch. 12. T. Gwynn Jones, Welsh Folk-Lore and Folk Custom, 1930 (rpr. D. S. Brewer, 1979), p. 62. 13. Ewan Campbell and Alan Lane, The Llangorse Crannog Investigations in 1987-88, an interim

report pamphlet. 14. Charles Kightly, Folk Heroes of Britain (Thames & Hudson, 1982), pp. 111-118. Map,

De Nugis Curialium, p. 159. 15. Kightly, p. 117. 16. Bo Almqvist, 'Of Mermaids and

Marriages', Baloideas 58 (1990) 8, n.16. Professor Almqvist

suggest that the tale is unknown in Brittany and Wales, but surely the Welsh tale of the supernatural wife whose sojourn with a mortal husband is dependent on such conditions must be related.

17. P. C. Bartrum, 'Fairy Mothers' Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies XIX (1962), pp. 6-8. 18. Sarah Laratt Keefer, 'The Lost Tales of Dylan in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi',

Studia Celtica xxiv/xxv (1989/90), pp. 26-37. 19. Ibid., pp. 36, 30. 20. Ibid., p. 30. 21. Ibid., p. 33.

22. Almqvist, Bealoideas 8, 22. 23. Wood, op. cit., 'Walter Map' Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (1985),

pp. 91-103. 24. James Hinton, 'Walter Map, Its Plan and Structure', PMLA (1918), p. 132; Map (edited

Brooke and Mynors), pp. xxiv, xxxii. 25. Map, p. 161. 26. Stith Thompson, Motif Index of Folk Literature, 6 vols. (Bloomington Indiana University

Press, 1955-58); Reidar Th. Christiansen, The Migratory Legends, op. cit.; Katharine M. Briggs, The Anatomy of Puck (London, 1959), Pale Hecate's Team (London, 1962).

27. See Motif List at end of article. 28. Gearoid O Crualaoich, 'Contest in the Cosmology and the Ritual of the Irish Merry Wake',

in 'Contests' edited by Andrew Duff-Cooper, Cosmos (Yearbook of the Traditional Cosmology Society) 6 (1990), pp. 145-160.

29. J. Thomas, 'The Development of Folklore Studies in Wales 1700-1900' Keystone Folklore Quarterly 20 (1975), pp. 33-42.

30. Map, p. 158; 'et cetera lurgia facit in aerem'. 31. Rhys, op. cit., p. 55; 'iar-coed'-wood hen. 32. 5090/5092 (W), J. Wood, The Types and Motifs of Welsh Folk Narrative (FFC, forthcoming). 33. T. Gerald Hunter, Onomastic Lore in the Native Middle-Welsh Prose Tale, M. Phil 1989

University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. 34. Ffransis Payne, Yr Aradr Gymreig (Cardiff, 1950) 162ff. The difficulty in accepting that

the name of the cattle may reflect ancient Welsh breeds is that there is nothing in the language or verse of the cattle-calling poems to suggest antiquity.

35. Jennifer Westwood, Albion: A Guide to Legendary Britain (London, 1985, 1987), pp. 314-316. 36. Personal communication to the author on a recent visit to Aberystwyth. 37. Rhys, op. cit., p. 25. 39. Ibid., p. 106. 40. Ibid., pp. 13-15. 41. Ibid., pp. 46-48. 42. Ibid., quoted by Rhys, p. 48. 43. Heda Jason, 'A Multidimensional Approach to Oral Literature' Current Anthopology 10

(1969), pp. 413-426; 'The Fairy Tale of the Active Heroine: An Outline for Discussion' in G. Calame-Griaule, V. G6r6g-Karady and M. Chiche (editors) Le Conte: Pourquoi? Comment? Folktale ... Why and How? (Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, 1984), pp. 79-97; Linda Degh, 'How Storytellers Interpret the Snake Prince Tale' in The Telling of Stories: Approaches to a Traditional Craft: A Symposium (Odense University Press, 1990).

44. Bo Almqvist, op. cit., Bealoideas, p. 39. 45. Rhys, op. cit., p. 2. 46. Thomas Jones, 'Gwraig Maelgwyn Gwynedd a'r Foddrwy', Bulletin of the Board of Celtic

Studies 18 (1958/60), pp. 55-58. 47. Rhys, op. cit., pp. 15-16. 48. Morfydd Owen, op. cit., Studia Celtica X/XI (1975-76), pp. 210-233. 49. Wirt Sykes, British Goblins (London, 1880), p. 40ff. 50. Morfydd Owen, Studia Celtica, p. 213 n. 2. 51. Ibid., p. 213 n. 7; Rhys, Celtic Folklore, p. 3. 52. Morfydd Owen, Studia Celtica, pp. 215-219. 53. Ibid., pp. 220-221. 54. J. Wood, 'A Celtic Sorcerer's Apprentice: The Magician Figure in Scottish Tradition',

Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Scottish Language and Literature, ed. R. J. Lyall and Felicity Riddy (Glasgow, 1983), pp. 127-142.

55. Ibid., pp. 136-138; 56. Morfydd Owen, Studia Celtica, p. 221. 57. G. Williams, 'Meddygon Myddfai' Lljn-Cymru 1 (1950-51), pp. 169-73. 58. Rhys, op. cit. Preface to volume one.

THE FAIRY BRIDE LEGEND IN WALES 71

72 JULIETTE WOOD

59. Rhidian Gwyn. 'Chwedlau Ileol Penllyn a phlwfLlanfachreth Merionethshire', unpublished University of Wales M.A. thesis, 1983. This is an extremely thorough collection of folk narrative in a particular area. Robin Gwyndaf, who has been collecting Welsh folk narratives for many years, also collected interesting material in the area in May 1967 (WFM T 1528-1536).

60. Morfydd Owen, Studia Celtica, p. 210. 61. Rachel Bromwich, 'The Mabinogion and Lady Charlotte Guest', Transactions of the

Honorable Society of Cymmrodorion (1986), 127-141. 62. Bo Almqvist, 'Scandinavian and Celtic Folklore Contacts in the Earldom of Orkney'

Saga-Book of the Viking Society XX . . . 1-2 (1978-79), p. 103. 63. Patricia Lysaght, The Banshee: The Irish Supernatural Death-Messenger (Dublin, 1986).

Of particular interest is the map showing the distribution of these tales, p. 161. 64. Bo Almqvist, Bdaloideas, 64. 65. Alan Bruford 'A note on the Folktale Evidence' in R. J. Berry and H. N. Firth (eds.),

The People of Orkney (Kirkwall, 1986), pp. 171-4.