Reading Notes: Celtic Fairy Tales, Part B

Notes for Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

"Beth Gellert"

• Prince Llewelyn 
• Does not enjoy hunting when Gellert isn't there 
• Fears for his son's life when he sees blood in Gellert's mouth 
• Kills Gellert 
• Realizes his son is fine and that Gellert killed a wolf to protect the child 
• Buries Gellert in a public area so everyone can honor him 
• "And to this day the place is called Beth Gellert, or the Grave of Gellert."
• Gellert 
• Prince Llewelyn's greyhound (was a gift from his father-in-law, King John)
• Gentle at home 
• Vicious when hunting 
• Fastest hound 
• Misses a hunt 
• Mouth is covered in blood when the Prince returns 

Notes for "Changeling Legends from the British Isles" collected by Dan Ashliman

Picture of a "Korrigan", a small elf of the Celtic forests from Korringan (source: Wikimedia).

"Brewery of Eggshells"

• Treveglwys
• A town home to the shepherd's cot call Twt y Cwmrws (Place of Strife)
• A man, his wife, and their twins live here 
• Wife's first journey 
• She goes to help a distant neighbor, leaving her twins at home and traveling the haunted road 
• She sees elves on her way home 
• The twins seem fine when she gets home 
• Twins stop growing 
• Husband claims the twins aren't theirs 
• Wife claims the twins are theirs 
• Wife's second journey 
• She goes to see the Wise Man of Llanidloes 
• He tells her to do the following when harvest day arrives: "When you are getting dinner for the reapers, clear out the shell of a hen's egg and boil some potage in it, and then take it to the door as if you meant it as a dinner for the reapers. Then listen if the twins say anything. If you hear them speaking of things beyond the understanding of children, go back and take them up and throw them into the waters of Lake Ebyr. But if you don't hear anything remarkable, do them no injury."
• The wife hears the twins say: "Acorn before oak I knew, An egg before a hen, But I never heard of an eggshell brew A dinner for harvest men."
• She throws them into the lake 
• The goblins save the twins and the actual babies are returned to the mother