Plant Rhys Ddwfn, A Fairy Tribe and Invisibility Herbs (Dyfed)

Pin It

herbs

Gwynionydd, a native of Cardiganshire, gives an account of the fairies (Plant Rhys Ddwfn, as they are called in some parts of south Wales) and the region they inhabited, which agrees somewhat with the location of the green islands in that it is to the west of the Pembrokeshire coast. ‘There is a tale current in Dyfed (Pembrokeshire) that there is, or rather there has been, a country between Cemmes, the northern hundred of Pembrokeshire, and Aberdaron in Lleyn. The chief patriarch of the inhabitants was Rhys Ddwfn, and his descendants used to be called after him the children of Rhys Ddwfn. They were, it is said, a handsome race enough, but remarkably small in size. It is stated that certain herbs of a strange nature grew in their land, so that they were able to keep their country from being seen… herbs [that] grew… on a small spot about a square yard in area in a certain part of Cemmes. If it chanced that a man stood alone on it, he beheld the whole of the territory of Plant Rhys Ddwfn; but the moment he moved he would lose sight of it altogether… In another story the requisite platform was a turf from St David’s churchyard. D. Parry-Jones, Welsh Legends and Fairy Lore, 20-21

Pin It