Don’t Steal Fairy Flowers! (Powys)

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fairy flower

In the mountains near Brecknock there is a small lake (and)… in ancient times, it is said, a door in a rock near this lake was found open upon a certain day every year, I think it was May day. Those who had the curiosity and resolution to enter, were conducted by a secret passage, which terminated in a small island, in the centre of the lake. Here the visitors were surprised with the prospect of a most enchanting garden, stored with the choicest fruits and flowers, and inhabited by the Tylwyth Teg, or fair family, a kind of fairies.’ Nothing could be seen by those who stood on the margin of the lake, ‘only an indistinct mass’, but straings of soft music floated occasionally to the outside world, very likely when guests were being entertained, for the fairies were not only very beautiful, but extremely kind and courteous to those who pleased them, giving them gifts of fruits and flowers. One condition they made: nothing was to be taken away. One one occasion ‘a sacrilegious writech’ put a flower presented to him in his pocket, but ‘as soon as he touched unhallowed ground’ outside, ‘the flower vanished and he lost his senses’, At the time, they pretended to take no notice of it, but dismissed their guests with the usual courtesy and closed the door. ‘But their resentment ran high.’ And though they are undoubtedly still in his fragrant garden, the door has never been reopened, nor, indeed, seen. ‘From the date of this sacrilegious act, the Cymry [i.e. the Welsh] have been unfortunate. D. Parry-Jones, Welsh Legends and Fairy Lore, 19-20

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