the work referred to will treat not of Brittany and its people, but of Early Britain, Celtic, and Pre-Celtic. It is to form the first of a series dealing with the early history of the island, to be issued by the S.P.C.K., and will be followed by others on Roman, Saxon, and Scandinavian Britain. We understand that a part of the work has been written, and that it will be completed as soon as the Professor's labours in connection with the Education Commission permit him to resume his pen. It has also been announced that Mr. Rhys has undertaken to edit Pennant's Tours for Mr. Humphreys of Carnarvon. STILL more gratifying is the hope held out that the same scholar will soon be called upon to prepare a new edition of the Mabinogion, to be issued by the Clarendon Press. WHILE on the subject of Prof. Rhys's literary engagements, actual and prospective, we are glad to be able to announce that our next number will contain a paper of some length from his pen. WITH regard to the long-expected Welsh Dictionary of Prof. Silvan Evans, the Cymmrodor has already made announcements giving rise to hopes which have proved to be of that kind which "maketh the heart sick”. Mr. Evans has looked in vain for a publisher in the principality; the mantle of Owain Myfyr has not rested on the shoulders of any of his countrymen. However, there is good ground for hope that the same press which promises a new edition of our great romances, will lay us under further obligations by giving to the world the new Geiriadur. The author hopes that at no distant date he will be able to see his way clearly to the press". D Gymmrodor Embodying the Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion etc. EDITED BY THOMAS POWELL, M.A. (Oxon.) PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY BY T. RICHARDS, 37, GREAT QUEEN STREET, W.C. D Cymmrodor. OCTOBER 1881. WELSH FAIRY TALES. BY PROFESSOR RHYS. THE main object the writer of this paper has in view, is to place on record all the matter he can find on the subject of the lake legends of Wales: what he may have to say of them is merely by the way and sporadic, and he would feel well paid for his trouble if the present collection should stimulate others to communicate to the public bits of similar legends, which, it may be, still linger unrecorded among the mountains of the Principality. For it should be clearly understood that all such things bear on the history of the Celts of Wales, as the history of no people can be said to have been written so long as its superstitions and beliefs in past times have not been studied; and those who may think that the legends here recorded are childish and frivolous, may rest assured that they bear on questions which themselves could be called neither childish nor frivolous. So, however silly they may think a legend, let them communicate it to somebody who will place it on record; they will then, probably, find out that it has more meaning and interest than they had anticipated. I. THE MYDDVAI LEGEND-LITTLE VAN LAKE. I find it best to begin by reproducing a story which has already been recorded; this I think desirable on account of VOL. IV. N its being the best told, the most complete of its kind, and the one with which shorter ones can most readily be compared. I allude to the legend of the Lady of the Lake of the Little Van in Carmarthenshire, which I take the liberty of copying from Mr. Rees of Tonn's version of it, in the introduction to The Physicians of Myddvai, published by the Welsh Manuscript Society at Llandovery, in 1861. There he says that he wrote it down from the oral recitations, which I suppose were in Welsh, of John Evans, tiler, of Myddvai, David Williams, Morva, near Myddvai, who was about ninety years old at the time, and Elizabeth Morgan, of Henllys Lodge, near Llandovery, who was a native of the same village of Myddvai; to this it may be added that he acknowledges obligations also to J. Joseph, Esq., F.S.A., Brecon, for collecting particulars from the old inhabitants of the parish of Llanddeusant. The legend, as given by Mr. Rees in English, runs as follows: "When the eventful struggle made by the Princes of South Wales to preserve the independence of their country was drawing to its close in the twelfth century, there lived at Blaensawdde1 near Llanddeusant, Carmarthenshire, a widowed woman, the relict of a farmer who had fallen in those disastrous troubles. "The widow had an only son to bring up, and Providence smiled upon her, and, despite her forlorn condition, her live stock had so increased in course of time that she could not well depasture them upon her farm, so she sent a portion of her cattle to graze on the adjoining Black Mountain, and their most favourite place was near the small lake called 1 "Blaensawdde, or the upper end of the river Sawdde- is situate about three-quarters of a mile S.E. from the village of Llanddeusant. It gives its name to one of the hamlets of that parish. The Sawdde has its source in Llyn-y-Van-Vach, which is nearly two miles distant from Blaensawdde house." |