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.

‘She and her brothers and sisters used to be frequently warned by their mother not to go far away from the house when there happened to be thick mist on the ground, lest they should come across the Tylwyth Teg* dancing, and be carried away to their abode-beneath the lake. They were always, she says, supposed to live in the lakes; and the one here alluded to was Llyn Dwythwch, which is one of those famous for its torgochiaid or chars**. The mother is still living; but she seems to have long since, like others, lost her belief in the fairies.’

* Tylwyth Teg – A Welsh term for the ‘Fair Folk’ or Fairies.
** Type of fish.