A Visit to Fairyland

The following fairy folk tale takes place around Llyn Cwellyn, a 215 acre, 120 feet deep glacial lake which has now been dammed to create a reservoir. The tale is taken ‘Bedd Gelert: Its Facts, Fairies, and Folk-Lore (1899) by D E Jenkins.

One bright moonlight night, while on his way to Clogwyn y Gwin to see his sweetheart, one of the sons of Llwyn On, in Nant y Bettws, saw a group of fairies carousing and dancing to their heart’s content, on a field by Llyn Cawellyn. He went and stood not far from them, and by degrees he was drawn, by the charming sweetness of their music, and by the nimble and lively manner of their sport, until he was right within their circle. Soon there fell upon him a certain charm, which made everything around him strange to him, and he found himself in one of the most beautiful countries he had ever seen, where everyone spent his time in nothing but joy and mirth. He had been there for seven years, and yet everything was but as a dream of the night; but he remembered the message on which he had set out, and his heart longed for his sweetheart. He therefore asked permission to return home, which was given him together with a whole host of companions to lead to his own country; and all of a sudden he found himself, as if awaking out of a dream, on the meadow on which the fairies were carrying on their sport.

He then turned his face homeward, but when he reached there all was changed: his parents were dead, his brothers and sisters could not recognize him, and his sweetheart was married to another. At the thought of such changes he broke his heart, and died in less than a week after his return.

Note I have retained the original spelling  Llyn Cawellyn from Jenkins 1899 text.