Note 24 — Chapter XII · Race in Folklore and Myth

At all events, we have obtained something to put by the side of the instances already noticed of the fairy girl who gives, against her will at first, her services in the dairy of her captor (pp. 45, 87); of the other fairy who acts as a nurse for a family in the Pennant Valley, till she is asked to dress better (p. 109); and of Bwca’r Trwyn who works willingly and well, both at the house and in the field, till he has tricks played on him (pp. 593–6). To make this brief survey complete, one has to mention the fairies who used to help Eilian with her spinning (pp. 211–3), and not to omit those who were found to come to the rescue of a woman in despair and to assist her on the condition of getting her baby. The motive here is probably not to be confounded with that of the fairies who stealthily exchanged babies: the explanation seems in this case to be that the fairies, or some of the fairies, were once regarded as cannibals, which is countenanced by such a story as that of Canrig Bwt, ‘Canrig the Stumpy.’ At Ỻanberis the latter is said to have lived beneath the huge stone called y Gromlech, ‘the Dolmen,’ opposite Cwmglas and near the high-road to the Pass. When the man destined to dispatch her came, she was just finishing her dinner off a baby’s flesh. There are traces of a similar story in another district, for a writer who published in the year 1802 uses the following words:—‘There was lately near Cerrig y Drudion, in Merionethshire, a subterraneous room composed of large stones, which was called Carchar Cynric Rwth, i. e. “The Prison of Cynric Rwth,” which has been taken notice of by travellers.’ Cynric Rwth may be rendered ‘Cynric the Greedy or Broad-mouthed.’ A somewhat similar ogress is located by another story on the high ground at Bwlch y Rhiw Felen, on the way from Ỻangoỻen to Ỻandegla, and she is represented by the local tradition as contemporary with Arthur24. I am inclined to think the Cwmglas cromlech natural rather than artificial; but I am, however, struck by the fact that the fairies are not unfrequently located on or near ancient sites, such as seem to be Corwrion (pp. 57, 526), the margin of Ỻyn Irđyn (pp. 148, 563), Bryn y Pibion (pp. 212–4), Dinỻaen (p. 227), Carn Bodüan (p. 227), on which there are, I am told, walls and hut foundations similar to those which I have recently seen on Carn Fadrun in the same district, Moeđin camp (p. 245), and, perhaps, Ynys Geinon Rock and the immediate vicinity of Craig y Nos, neither of which, however, have I ever visited (p. 254). Local acquaintance with each fairy centre would very possibly enable one to produce a list that would be suggestive.