A Boy Taken to Fairy Land (Wales)

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stolen child

Mrs. Morris, of Cwm Vicarage, near Rhyl, told the writer the following story; She stated that she had heard it related in her family that one of her people had in childhood been induced by the fairies to follow them to their country. This boy had been sent to discharge some domestic errand, but he did not return. He was sought for in all directions, but could not be found. His parents came to the conclusion that he had either been murdered or kidnapped, and in time he was forgotten by most people, but one day he returned with what he had been sent for in his hand. But 80 many years had elapsed since he first left home that he was now an old gray-haired man, though he knew it not; he had, he said, followed, for a short time, delightful music and people; but when convinoed, by the changes around, that years had slipped by since he first left his home, he was so distressed at the changes he saw that he said he would return to the fairies. But alas! he sought in vain for the place where he had met them, and therefore he was obliged to remain with his blood relations. Owen, Elias ‘Welsh Fairy Tales for Christmas’, The Cambrian 12 (1881) 372-373

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