Reading Notes: Celtic Fairy Tales, Part A

Notes for Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

"The Shepherd of Myddvai"

• Lyn y Van Vach 
• Lake in the Black Mountains/Caermarthenshire 
• Location where shepherd of Myddvai takes his lambs to graze 
• Shepherd of Myddvai 
• Sees three maidens rise out of the lake the first day 
• They wander amongst his flock 
• Falls in love with the maiden closest to him 
• Offers her bread 
• She sings to him and says his bread is too hard 
• The maidens come back the second day 
• He offers her bread again 
• She says it's underbaked 
• The maidens come back the third day 
• He offers the maiden bread he found floating in the water
• She likes the bread and says she will be his wife if he can pick her apart from her sisters the next day 
• The maidens come back the fourth day 
• He knows her by her sandal 
• She says she will be a could wife unless he hits her three times without cause 
• The three maidens 
• Ethereally beautiful
• The first hit 
• He taps her lightly on the shoulder when she forgets to do something 
• The second hit 
• She is sobbing out of joy at a wedding and he taps her on the shoulders to ask why she's crying 
• The third hit 
• He grabs her when she is laughing at a funeral 
• She ends the marriage 
• She takes all the cows with her, including one that had just been slaughtered, which came back to life 
• The cows go live with her in the water 
• She visits once to see her full-grown sons + present gifts to then by which they win the title "Meddygon Myddvai" (the physicians of Myddvai) 

"The Sprightly Tailor"

• Sprightly Tailor 
• Employed by the great Macdonald 
• Makes trews by night in the church for a handsome reward 
• Church is supposed to be haunted 
• Feels the ground tremble + sees a great human head rise up through the stone pavement 
• Keeps sewing 
• Finishes the trews quickly and runs away 
• Gets his reward 
• Rising head 
• Whole body eventually rises 
• Chases after the tailor
• The great Macdonald 
• Lives in a castle at Saddell 

Image from the Tailor of Gloucester from the Gutenberg (source: Wikimedia).