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Title: Welsh Fairy Tales
Author: William Elliot Griffis
Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9368] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead

of schedule] [This file was first posted on September 25, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WELSH FAIRY TALES ***

Welsh Fairy Tales
By
WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS
1921

Although I never saw you, since you died in 1804, I am glad you were one of those
Welshmen who opposed the policy of King George III and that you, after coming to
America in 1783, were among the first sea captains to carry the American flag
around the world. That you knew many of the Free Quakers and other patriots of the
Revolution and that they buried you among them, near Benjamin Franklin, is a
matter of pride to your descendants. That you were born in Wales and spoke Welsh,
as did also those three great prophets of spiritual liberty, Roger Williams,
William Penn, and Thomas Jefferson, is still further ground for pride in one's
ancestry. Now, in the perspective of history we see that our Washington and his
compeers and Wilkes, Barre, Burke and the friends of America in Parliament were
fighting the same battle of Freedom. Though our debt to Wales for many things is
great, we count not least those inheritances from the world of imagination, for
which the Cymric Land was famous, even before the days of either Anglo-Saxon or
Norman.

CONTENTS
I. WELSH RABBIT AND HUNTED HARES
II. THE MIGHTY MONSTER AFANG
III. THE TWO CAT WITCHES
IV. HOW THE CYMRY LAND BECAME INHABITED
V. THE BOY THAT WAS NAMED TROUBLE
VI. THE GOLDEN HARP
VII. THE GREAT RED DRAGON OF WALES
VIII. THE TOUCH OF CLAY
IX. THE TOUCH OF IRON
X. THE MAIDEN OF THE GREEN FOREST
XI. THE TREASURE STONE OF THE FAIRIES
XII. GIANT TOM AND GIANT BLUBB
XIII. A BOY THAT VISITED FAIRYLAND
XIV. THE WELSHERY AND THE NORMANS
XV. THE WELSH FAIRIES HOLD A MEETING

XVI. KING ARTHUR'S CAVE
XVII. THE LADY OF THE LAKE
XVIII. THE KING'S FOOT HOLDER
XIX. POWELL, PRINCE OF DYFED
XX. POWELL AND HIS BRIDE
XXI. WHY THE BACK DOOR WAS FRONT
XXII. THE RED BANDITS OF MONTGOMERY
XXIII. THE FAIRY CONGRESS
XXIV. THE SWORD OF AVALON

Long, long ago, there was a good saint named David, who taught the early Cymric or
Welsh people better manners and many good things to eat and ways of enjoying
themselves.

Now the Welsh folks in speaking of their good teacher pronounced his name Tafid
and affectionately Taffy, and this came to be the usual name for a person born in
Wales. In our nurseries we all learned that "Taffy was a Welshman," but it was
their enemies who made a bad rhyme about Taffy.

Wherever there were cows or goats, people could get milk. So they always had what was necessary for a good meal, whether it were breakfast, dinner or supper. Milk, cream, curds, whey and cheese enriched the family table. Were not these enough?

Saint David showed the girls how to take cheese, slice and toast it over the
coals, or melt it in a skillet and pour it hot over toast or biscuit. This gave
the cheese a new and sweeter flavor. When spread on bread, either plain, or
browned over the fire, the result, in combination, was a delicacy fit for a king,
and equal to anything known.

The fame of this new addition to the British bill of fare spread near and far. The English people, who had always been fond of rabbit pie, and still eat thousands of Molly Cotton Tails every day, named it "Welsh Rabbit," and thought it one of the best things to eat. In fact, there are many people, who do not easily see a joke, who misunderstand the fun, or who suppose the name to be either slang, or vulgar, or a mistake, and who call it "rarebit." It is like "Cape Cod turkey" (codfish), or "Bombay ducks" (dried fish), or "Irish plums" (potatoes) and such funny cookery with fancy names.