The Welsh storytelling tradition contains what we could call teaching tales, the most famous being The Four Branches of the Mabinogi. But for how long did this tradition persist? Can we find late signs of it in folk tales about the Tylwyth Teg?
Changelings – fairy children exchanged for human infants – are part of several folk traditions across Europe. In Wales, they are the Plant Cyfnewid. What is the origin of this belief?
The Tylwyth Teg (Welsh Fair Folk) have many attributes that connect them to the earlier supernatural beings of the Mabinogi, attributes that also persisted into the modern era.
The modern folklore regarding Gwyn ap Nudd depicts him as a wild psychopomp, hunting the souls of the dead with his magical hounds on Calan Gaeaf. But how old is this aspect of Gwyn’s myth?
This is the first in a series of talks on Welsh folklore. Gwyn ap Nudd is one of the clearest examples of a Welsh folk character who has remained largely unchanged during the last millennia. We begin with his exploits as a mischievous spirit bothering travellers out in the wilds.