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               BRITISH GOBLINS:

      _WELSH FOLK-LORE, FAIRY MYTHOLOGY,
           LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS._

                      BY

                 WIRT SIKES,

       UNITED STATES CONSUL FOR WALES.


     WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY T. H. THOMAS.


    In olde dayes of the Kyng Arthour...
    Al was this lond fulfilled of fayrie.
                              CHAUCER.


                   LONDON:
  SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,
      CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET.
                    1880.

           [_All rights reserved._]




                   LONDON:
     PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
      STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.



  [Illustration: THE OLD WOMAN OF THE MOUNTAIN.]




                      TO

             HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS,

       ALBERT EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES,

               THIS ACCOUNT OF

      THE FAIRY MYTHOLOGY AND FOLK-LORE
             OF HIS PRINCIPALITY

         IS BY PERMISSION DEDICATED.




PREFACE.


In the ground it covers, while this volume deals especially with
Wales, and still more especially with South Wales--where there appear
to have been human dwellers long before North Wales was peopled--it
also includes the border counties, notably Monmouthshire, which,
though severed from Wales by Act of Parliament, is really very Welsh
in all that relates to the past. In Monmouthshire is the decayed
cathedral city of Caerleon, where, according to tradition, Arthur was
crowned king in 508, and where he set up his most dazzling court, as
told in the 'Morte d'Arthur.'

In a certain sense Wales may be spoken of as the cradle of fairy
legend. It is not now disputed that from the Welsh were borrowed many
of the first subjects of composition in the literature of all the
cultivated peoples of Europe.

The Arthur of British history and tradition stands to Welshmen in much
the same light that Alfred the Great stands to Englishmen. Around this
historic or semi-historic Arthur have gathered a throng of shining
legends of fabulous sort, with which English readers are more or less
familiar. An even grander figure is the Arthur who existed in Welsh
mythology before the birth of the warrior-king. The mythic Arthur, it
is presumed, began his shadowy life in pre-historic ages, and grew
progressively in mythologic story, absorbing at a certain period the
personality of the real Arthur, and becoming the type of romantic
chivalry. A similar state of things is indicated with regard to the
enchanter Merlin; there was a mythic Merlin before the real Merlin was
born at Carmarthen.

With the rich mass of legendary lore to which these figures belong,
the present volume is not intended to deal; nor do its pages treat,
save in the most casual and passing manner, of the lineage and
original significance of the lowly goblins which are its theme. The
questions here involved, and the task of adequately treating them,
belong to the comparative mythologist and the critical historian,
rather than to the mere literary workman.

    UNITED STATES CONSULATE, CARDIFF,
            _August, 1879_.




CONTENTS.


    BOOK I.

    THE REALM OF FAERIE.

    CHAPTER I.

                                                                  PAGE
    Fairy Tales and the Ancient Mythology--The Compensations
    of Science--Existing Belief in Fairies in Wales--The
    Faith of Culture--The Credulity of Ignorance--The
    Old-Time Welsh Fairyland--The Fairy King--The Legend of
    St. Collen and Gwyn ap Nudd--The Green Meadows of the
    Sea--Fairies at Market--The Land of Mystery                      1

    CHAPTER II.

    Classification of Welsh Fairies--General
    Designation--Habits of the Tylwyth Teg--Ellyllon, or
    Elves--Shakspeare's Use of Welsh Folk-Lore--Rowli P