Sunday, May 26, 2019

Welsh Legends

Tales such as Why the Red Dragon is the Emblem of Wales attempt to explain the events of the post-Roman period.

Later legends show Breton influence and incorporate the elements of courtly love, Arthurian tales and pageantry. Other tales incorporate fairies and the supernatural and relate them to features of the landscape. For example the legend of he 'Meddygon Myddfai' relates that a farmer in the parish of Myddfai, Carmarthenshire, having bought some lambs in a neighbouring fair, led them to graze near Llyn y Fan Fach, on the Black Mountains. Whenever he visited these lambs three beautiful damsels appeared to him from the lake, on whose shores they often made excursions. Sometimes he pursued and tried to catch them, but always failed; the enchanting nymphs ran before him ... read more about the Meddygon Myddfai legend.

The Tale of Elidurus is another typical story of an earthling joining the fairy people dating from the twelfth-century.

Pergrin and the Mermaiden takes contact between man and mermaid as its theme.

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