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WELSH FAIRY TALES AND OTHER STORIES
This book was especially republished to raise funds for these charities & many more...
33% of the publishers profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities.
This volume contains 24 tales collected in and around Wales by P. H. Emerson. In most cases amended as little as possible recording the stories as told, so that the written story seemed as if was being presented in the vernacular. Herein you will read of the LEGEND OF GELERT, THE FAIRIES OF CARAGONAN, THE CRAIG-Y-DON BLACKSMITH, OLD GWILYM, THE BABY-FARMER, THE OLD MAN AND THE FAIRIES and many more
Why do we call such a collection Fairy Tales? Well, when last did you hear a child say One more folk tale please or 'Another nursery tale, please, grandma'? Fairy tales are stories in which occurs something 'fairy', something extraordinary--fairies, giants, dwarfs, speaking animals, or the remarkable stupidity of some of the characters. Stories of fairy interaction with humans where the kind and thoughtful are blessed and the thoughtless and spiteful are punished.
So take some time out and travel back to a period before television and radio, a time when families would gather around a crackling and spitting hearth and granddad or grandma or uncle or auntie would delight and captivate the gathering with stories passed on to them from their parents and grandparents from time immemorial.
33% of the publishers profit from the sale of this book will be donated to the Princes Trust.
Excerpt from WELSH FAIRY TALES AND OTHER STORIES
THE STORY OF GELERT
It was somewhere about 1200, Prince Llewellyn had a castle at Aber, just abreast of us here; indeed, parts of the towers remain to this day. His consort was the Princess Joan; she was King John's daughter. Her coffin remains with us to this day. Llewellyn was a great hunter of wolves and foxes, for the hills of Carnarvonshire were infested with wolves in those days, after the young lambs.
Now the prince had several hunting-houses--sorts of farm houses, one of them was at the place now called Beth-Gelert, for the wolves were very thick there at this time. Now the prince used to travel from farm-house to farm-house with his family and friends, when going on these hunting parties.
One season they went hunting from Aber, and stopped at the house where Beth-Gelert is now--it's about fourteen miles away. The prince had all his hounds with him, but his favourite was Gelert, a hound who had never let off a wolf for six years.
The prince loved the dog like a child, and at the sound of his horn Gelert was always the first to come bounding up. There was company at the house, and one day they went hunting, leaving his wife and the child, in a big wooden cradle, behind him at the farm-house.
The hunting party killed three or four wolves, and about two hours before the word passed for returning home, Llewellyn missed Gelert, and he asked his huntsmen:
"Where's Gelert? I don't see him."
"Well, indeed, master, I've missed him this half-hour."
And Llewellyn blew his horn, but no Gelert came at the sound.
Indeed, Gelert had got on to a wolves' track which led to the house.
The prince sounded the return, and they went home, the prince lamenting Gelert. "He's sure to have been slain--he's sure to have been slain! since he did not answer the horn. Oh, my Gelert!" And they approached the house, and the prince went into the house, and saw Gelert lying by the overturned cradle, and blood all about the room.
"What! hast thou slain my child?" said the prince, and ran his sword through the dog.
After that he lifted up the cradle to look for his child, and found the body of a big wolf underneath that Gelert had slain, and his child was safe. Gelert had capsized the cradle in the scuffle.
"Oh, Gelert! Oh, Gelert!" said the prince, "my favourite hound, my favourite hound! Thou hast been slain by thy master's hand, and in death thou hast licked thy master's hand!" He patted the dog, but it was too late, and poor Gelert died licking his master's hand.
Next day they made a coffin, and had a regular funeral, the same as if it were a human being; all the servants in deep mourning, and everybody. They made him a grave, and the village was called after the dog, Beth-Gelert--Gelert's Grave; and the prince planted a tree, and put a gravestone of slate, though it was before the days of quarries. And they are to be seen to this day.
Table of Contents for WELSH FAIRY TALES AND OTHER STORIES
| THE FAIRIES OF CARAGONAN (Welsh) |
| THE CRAIG-Y-DON BLACKSMITH (Welsh) |
| OLD GWILYM (Welsh) |
| THE BABY-FARMER (Welsh) |
| THE OLD MAN AND THE FAIRIES (Welsh) |
| TOMMY PRITCHARD (Welsh) |
| KADDY'S LUCK (Welsh) |
| THE STORY OF GELERT (Welsh) |
| ORIGIN OF THE WELSH (Welsh) |
| THE CROWS (Welsh) |
| ROBERTS AND THE FAIRIES (Welsh) |
| THE FAIRY OF THE DELL (Welsh) |
| ELLEN'S LUCK (Welsh) |
| THE FAIRIES' MINT (Welsh) |
| THE PELLINGS (Welsh) |
| THE LONG-LIVED ANCESTORS (Welsh) |
| THE GIANTESS'S APRON-FULL (Welsh) |
| A FABLE (Welsh) |
| THE STORY OF THE PIG-TROUGH (Irish) |
| BILLY DUFFY AND THE DEVIL (Irish) |
| JOHN O' GROATS (Scotch) |
| EVA'S LUCK (Jersey) |
| THE FISHERMEN OF SHETLAND (Shetland) |
| THE PASTOR'S NURSE (French) |
| NOTES |
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