Fairy Islands off St Davids (Pembrokeshire)

Pin It

Exif_JPEG_PICTURE

Editor’s Note: A Brief reference in Parry-Jones to fairy islands off St Davids

Though there is a suprising unanimity in assigning their abode to underground regions, yet in Pembrokeshire they were said to inhabit certain green isles out at sea to the west of St Davids, island which at times could be seen rising through the mist, and on which, without their realizing they were fairy islands, sailors have before now landed. These were supposed to be connected with the mainland by subterranean passages, along which the fairies came to do their shopping in the markets of Haverfordwest and other places along the southern coast of Pembrokeshire. They favoured certain tradesmen – being especially partial to one particular butcher in Milford Haven – who may have got used to them and their ways, for they said not a word but ‘bought in silence their meat and other necessaries, and leaving the money (generally silver pennies), departed, as if knowing that they would have been charged. They sometimes were visible and at other times invisible.’ Yet folk knew of their presence, for the price of things went up. D. Parry-Jones, Welsh Legends and Fairy Lore, 20

Pin It