Welsh Folk-Lore | Page 6

description of a mountain mist in which he
was once enveloped, says:--
Yr ydoedd ym mhob gobant Ellyllon mingeimion gant.
There were in every hollow A hundred wrymouthed elves.
The Cambro-Briton, v. I., p. 348.
In Pembrokeshire the Fairies are called Dynon Buch Teg, or the Fair
Small People.
Another name applied to the Fairies is Plant Annwfn, or Plant Annwn.
This, however, is not an appellation in common use. The term is
applied to the Fairies in the third paragraph of a Welsh prose poem
called Bardd Cwsg, thus:--
Y bwriodd y Tylwyth Teg fi . . . oni bai fy nyfod i mewn pryd i'th achub
o gigweiniau Plant Annwfn.
Where the Tylwyth Teg threw me . . . if I had not come in time to rescue
thee from the clutches of Plant Annwfn.
Annwn, or Annwfn is defined in Canon Silvan Evans's Dictionary as an
abyss, Hades, etc. Plant Annwn, therefore, means children of the lower
regions. It is a name derived from the supposed place of abode--the
bowels of the earth--of the Fairies. Gwragedd Annwn, dames of Elfin
land, is a term applied to Fairy ladies.
Ellis Wynne, the author of Bardd Cwsg, was born in 1671, and the
probability is that the words Plant Annwfn formed in his days part of
the vocabulary of the people. He was born in Merionethshire.
Gwyll, according to Richards, and Dr. Owen Pughe, is a Fairy, a goblin,

etc. The plural of Gwyll would be Gwylliaid, or Gwyllion, but this latter
word Dr. Pughe defines as ghosts, hobgoblins, etc. Formerly, there was
in Merionethshire a red haired family of robbers called Y Gwylliaid
Cochion, or Red Fairies, of whom I shall speak hereafter.
Coblynau, or Knockers, have been described as a species of Fairies,
whose abode was within the rocks, and whose province it was to
indicate to the miners by the process of knocking, etc., the presence of
rich lodes of lead or other metals in this or that direction of the mine.
That the words Tylwyth Teg and Ellyll are convertible terms appears
from the following stanza, which is taken from the Cambrian Magazine,
vol. ii, p. 58.
Pan dramwych ffridd yr Ywen, Lle mae Tylwyth Teg yn rhodien, Dos
ymlaen, a phaid a sefyll, Gwilia'th droed--rhag dawnsva'r Ellyll.
When the forest of the Yew, Where Fairies haunt, thou passest through,
Tarry not, thy footsteps guard From the Goblins' dancing sward.
Although the poet mentions the Tylwyth Teg and Ellyll as identical, he
might have done so for rhythmical reasons. Undoubtedly, in the first
instance a distinction would be drawn between these two words, which
originally were intended perhaps to describe two different kinds of
beings, but in the course of time the words became interchangeable,
and thus their distinctive character was lost. In English the words
Fairies and elves are used without any distinction. It would appear from
Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. II., p. 478., that, according to Gervase
of Tilbury, there were two kinds of Goblins in England, called Portuni
and Grant. This division suggests a difference between the Tylwyth Teg
and the Ellyll. The Portuni, we are told, were very small of stature and
old in appearance, "statura pusilli, dimidium pollicis non habentes," but
then they were "senili vultu, facie corrugata." The wrinkled face and
aged countenance of the Portuni remind us of nursery Fairy tales in
which the wee ancient female Fairy figures. The pranks of the Portuni
were similar to those of Shakespeare's Puck. The species Grant is not
described, and consequently it cannot be ascertained how far they
resembled any of the many kinds of Welsh Fairies. Gervase, speaking

of one of these species, says:--"If anything should be to be carried on in
the house, or any kind of laborious work to be done, they join
themselves to the work, and expedite it with more than human facility."
In Scotland there were at least two species of elves, the Brownies and
the Fairies. The Brownies were so called from their tawny colour, and
the Fairies from their fairness. The Portuni of Gervase appear to have
corresponded in character to the Brownies, who were said to have
employed themselves in the night in the discharge of laborious
undertakings acceptable to the family to whose service they had
devoted themselves. The Fairies proper of Scotland strongly resembled
the Fairies of Wales.
The term Brownie, or swarthy elve, suggests a connection between
them and the Gwylliaid Cochion, or Red Fairies of Wales.

FAIRY LADIES MARRYING MORTALS.
In the mythology of the Greeks, and other nations, gods and goddesses
are spoken of as falling in love with human beings, and many an
ancient genealogy began with a celestial ancestor. Much the same thing
is said of the Fairies. Tradition speaks of them as being enamoured