Category: Welsh Fairies

Llyn Barfog (The Bearded Lake)

Llyn Barfog is situated in high countryside above the northern banks of the River Dyfi. The lake is isolated, small, and covered with yellow water lilies in the summer. Sir John Rhys in Celtic Folklore suggests that it was originally called Llyn-y-Barfog (The Bearded One’s Lake) referring to some ancient mythical being who would have lived there.

Llyn y Forwyn

The following tale of Llyn y Forwyn (Damsel’s Pool) appeared in ‘Celtic Folklore Welsh And Manx’ (1901) by John Rhys and was in turn a translation of a Welsh language version featured in Elfed and Cadrawd’s ‘Cyfaill yr Aelwyd a’r Frythones’ (1892).

Llyn Du’r Arddu

In ‘Celtic Folklore Welsh And Manx’ (1901) John Rhys describes the following tale he was told concerning a fairy bride in the summer of 1881. ‘An old woman, called Siân Dafydd, lived at Helfa Fawr, in the dingle called Cwm. Brwynog, along the left side of which you ascend as you go to the top of Snowdon, from the village of lower Llanberis, or Coed y Ddol, as it is there called.

Llyn Irddyn

There is an old local tradition about Llyn Irddyn, that it is unwise to walk too close the shore or the water’s edge because it is inhabited by mischievous fairies. However, they cannot harm you if you walk on the grass.

Tylwyth Teg of Cwm Llan

In this valley below the south eastern side of Yr Wyddfa (Mount Snowdon), it is said that the Tylwyth Teg (Fairy Folk) live. It is said that one day, a shepherd heard a wailing sound, and he moved a rock where the sound was coming from. When he did this he rescued a Tylwyth Teg who has trapped there. Later, he encountered two old men who thanked him, and gave him a staff.

Fairy Gold Of Cwmglas Hollow

According to John Rhys in his ‘Celtic Folklore Welsh And Manx’ [1901] ‘The following is a later tale, which Mr. Thomas Davies heard from his mother, who died in 1832:–‘When she was a girl, living at Yr Hafod, Llanberis, there was a girl of her age being brought up at Cwmglas in the same parish.

Fairies of Llyn Dwythwch

Children were often warned in the past about the dangers of fairies and John Rhys in his ‘Celtic Folklore Welsh And Manx’ (1901) vouched for an account from a lady who grew up in Cwm Brwynog thirty to forty years earlier.