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Editorial
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Welsh Folk Lore

E >> Elias Owen >> Welsh Folk Lore

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Gay, Nut divination 289
Giraldus Cambrensis 27 32 182
reference to Witches 233-236
Ghost, see Spirit
Ghost in Cerrigydrudion Church 132
Aberhafesp Church 169
Powis Castle 204
revealing Treasures 202
at Gloddaeth 193-4
Nannau Park 191
Tymawr 195
Frith Farm 196
Pontyglyn 197
Ystrad Fawr 197-8
Ty Felin 198
Llandegla 199
Llanidloes 199-200
Llawryglyn 348
Clwchdyrnog 202
Llanwddyn 212
David Salisbury's 201
Cynon's 212
Squire Griffiths' 200
Sir John Wynne's 211
Raising 215
Visiting the Earth 192
Glain Nadroedd 350
Goat-sucker 322
Goblins, different kinds of 5 97
Golden Chair 77
Goose flying over House 304
laying small egg 305
egg laying 312
Gossamer 112
_Gwiber_, Flying Serpent 349
_Gwion Bach_ 234
_Gwragedd Annwn_ 3
_Gwrach y Rhibyn_ 142
_Gwr Cyfarwydd_ 38 55 257 259
_Gwyddelod_ 80
_Gwyll_ 4
_Gwylliaid Cochion_ 4 5 6 25 26

Haddock, why so marked 345
Hag, Mist 142
Hare 227-230 236 343-345
crossing the road 230
Caesar's reference to 343
Giraldus Cambrensis on hags changing themselves to 233
hares
Man changed to a 236
Witch hunted in form of 230-233
Witch shot in the form of 228
S. Monacella, the patroness of hares 345
Harper and Fairies 91
Hedgehog sucking Cows 345
fee for destroying the 346
Hen Chrwchwd, a humpbacked fiend 142
Hen laying two eggs 305
March Chickens 322
Sitting 322
Hindu Fairy Tale 6-8
Heron, sign of weather changing 321 323
Fable of 323-4
Horse, Water, a mythic animal 138
White, lucky 346
Headless 155
Shoe Charm 246
Huw Llwyd, Cynfael, and Witches 224-227
Huw Llwyd and Magical Books 252
Hu Gadarn and the Avanc 133

Ignis Fatuus 112

Jackdaw considered sacred 324
_Jack Ffynnon Elian_ 216

Knockers, or Coblynau 4 97
in Mines 112-121

Ladybird, Weather Sign 347
Lady Jeffrey's Spirit 199
Lake Dwellers 27 28
Llanbrynmair Conjuror 258-9
Llangerniew Spirit 170
Llandegla Spirit 199
Llanddona Witches 222-3
Laying Spirits 209-215
Laws against Witches 218
_Llyn y Ddau Ychain Banawg_ 132
Legends--
_Careg Gwr Drwg_ 190
_Ceubren yr Ellyll_ 191
Fairy Changelings 51-63
_Dafydd Hiraddug_ 158-160
Devil's Bridge 190
Freckled Cow, or _Y Fuwch Frech_ 130
Fairy Marriages 5-24
Fairies inveigling Mortals 32-50
Fairies and Midwives 63-67
Flying Snake 349
Removal of Churches 174-181
Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr 10
Ghosts, see Ghost
Spirits, see Spirit
Satan or Devil, see Satan
_Lledrith_, or Spectre 303
_Llysiau Ifan_, St. John's Wort 280
_Llyn y Geulan Goch_ Spirit 162-166
_Llyn Llion_ 133

Magpie teaching Wood Pigeon to make Nest 335
Superstitions 324-327
Magician's Glass 255
Marriages, Fairy 44-48
Man dancing with Fairies 90 91
witnessing a Fairy dance 90 93
taken away by Fairies 32 36 37 101-102
turned into a Hare 236
turned into a Horse 236
May-day Revels 95
Evil Spirits abroad 168
Mermaids 142
Monacella, S. 345
Moles, Weather Sign 318
Moll White, a Witch 229 232
_Meddygon Myddvai_, Physicians 6 23 24
Mythic Beings--
_Avanc_ 133
_Ceffyl y Dwfr_, Water Horse 138
_Cwn Annwn_, Dogs of the Abyss 125
_Cwn Bendith y Mamau_, Fairy Dogs 125
_Cwn Wybir_, Sky Dogs 125 127
Dragon, or Flying Serpent 349-50
Fairies, see Fairy
_Fuwch Frech_, Fairy Cow 129-134
_Fuwch Gyfeiliorn_ 134-137
_Gwrach y Rhibyn_, Mist Hag 142
Knockers, see above
Mermaids and Mermen 142
Torrent Spectre 141
_Ychain Banawg_ 130-133
_Y Brenhin Llwyd_, the Grey King 142
Mysterious removal of Churches--
Llanllechid 174
Corwen 174
Capel Garmon 175
Llanfair D. C. 175
Llanfihangel Geneu'r Glyn 176
Wrexham 177
Llangar 179
Denbigh 180

Names given to the Devil 191-2
Nightmare 237
North door of Churches opened at Baptisms 171
North door of Churches opened for Satan to go out 170
North side of Churchyard unoccupied 171
_Nos Glan Gaua_ 95 138-9 168-170 280 281 286 288-89

_Ogof Cythreuliaid_ Devils' Cave 191
Ogwen Lake, Tale of Wraith 292
Old Humpbacked, Mythic Being 142
Omen, see Divination 279-290
Owl 304 327

Pan, prototype of Celtic Satan 146
Passing Bell 171-2
Peacock, Weather Sign 327
Pedwe Ffoulk, a Witch 242
Pellings, Fairy Origin 6 13
Pentrevoelas Legend 8
Physicians of Myddfai 6 23 24
Pig Superstitions 154 348
Pigeon Superstitions 327
Pins stuck in "Witch's Butter" 249
Places associated with Satan 190-1
_Plant Annwn_ 3 4
Poocah, Pwka, Pwca 121-124 138-40

Raven 304 328
Rhamanta, see Divination, 279-290
on Hallow Eve 281
_Rhaffau'r Tylwyth Teg_, Gossamer 112
_Rhys Gryg_ 24
Robin Redbreast 329 332-3
Rook, see Crow
Rooks deserting Rookery 316
building new Rookery 316

Sabbath-breaking punished 152-157
Satan, see Apparitions and Devil
afraid of Bell-sounds 171
appearing to Man carrying Bibles 183
appearing to a Minister 184
appearing to a Man 185
appearing to a Sunday-breaker 152-3
appearing to a Sunday traveller 153
appearing as a lovely Maid 186
appearing to a young Man 188
appearing to a Collier 189
appearing to a Tippler 156-7
carrying a Man away 187
in form of a Pig 166
in form of a Fish 153
disappearing as a ball or wheel of fire 148 150
and Churches 160-170
outwitted 157-160
playing Cards 147 148 149
snatching a Man up into the air 150
Sawyer Bird, Tit-Major 331
Seagull, a Weather Sign 329-30
Seventh Daughter 250
Son 266
Shakespeare's Witches 219 220 221
Sheep, Black 351
Satan cannot enter 351
Sir John Wynne 211
Slowworm 352
Snakes 348
Flying 349
Snake Rings 350
Spells, how to break 244-251
Spectral Funeral 301-2
Spirit, see Ghost
Spirit laying 209-211
Spirits laid for a time 164 199 200 210 212
allowed to visit the earth 168
sent to the Red Sea 193 209 210 214
sent to Egypt 211
riding Horses 202
Spirit ejected from Cerrig-y-drudion Church 132
Llanfor Church 152-166
Llandysilio Church 166-7
Spirit in Llangerniew Church 170
Aberhafesp Church 169
Llandegla 199
Lady Jeffrey's 199-200
calling Doctor 294
St. John's Eve 52 95 168 280
St. David 299 307
Spiritualism 290-297
Spirit leaving body 291-293
Spider 351
Squirrel hunting 351-2
Swallow forsaking its nest 330
Breaking nest of 331
Swan, hatching eggs of 381
Swift, flying, Weather Sign 331
_Swyno'r 'Ryri_ 254 262 263-4

Taboo Stories 6 8-24
Tegid 306
Tit-Major, Weather Sign 331
_Tolaeth_ 303
Tobit, Spirit tale 182 210
Torrent Spectre 141
Transformation 227 234-237
Transmigration 276-279
_Tylwyth Teg_, see Fairies

Van Lake Fairy tale 16-24
Voice calling a Doctor 294

Water Horse 138-141
Water Worship 161
Welsh Airs 84 88
_Aden Ddu'r Fran_ 84
_Toriad y Dydd_ 88
Williams, Dr. Edward, and Fairies 97
Witches 216-251
Llanddona 222-3
transforming themselves into cats 224-226
transforming themselves into hares 227-235
hunted in form of hare 230-233
killed in form of hare 228
in churn in form of hare 229
cursing Horse 242
cursing Milk 238-9
cursing Pig 238
how tested 250-1
Spells, how broken 244-250
Punishment of 243
Laws against 218
Wife snatching 29
Woodpecker, Weather Sign 336
Woodpigeon 333-336
Wraith 292 294 308
Wren, unlucky to harm 331-2
Hunting the 332
Curse on breaker of nest 333
_Wyn Melangell_ 345

_Ystrad Legend_ 12
Yarn Sickness 275-6
Test 283-4
_Yspryd Cynon_ 212
_Ystrad Fawr_ 197-8





THE FAIRIES.


ORIGIN OF THE FAIRIES. (Y TYLWYTH TEG.)


The Fairy tales that abound in the Principality have much in common with
like legends in other countries. This points to a common origin of all
such tales. There is a real and unreal, a mythical and a material aspect
to Fairy Folk-Lore. The prevalence, the obscurity, and the different
versions of the same Fairy tale show that their origin dates from remote
antiquity. The supernatural and the natural are strangely blended
together in these legends, and this also points to their great age, and
intimates that these wild and imaginative Fairy narratives had some
historical foundation. If carefully sifted, these legends will yield a
fruitful harvest of ancient thoughts and facts connected with the history
of a people, which, as a race, is, perhaps, now extinct, but which has,
to a certain extent, been merged into a stronger and more robust race, by
whom they were conquered, and dispossessed of much of their land. The
conquerors of the Fair Tribe have transmitted to us tales of their timid,
unwarlike, but truthful predecessors of the soil, and these tales shew
that for a time both races were co-inhabitants of the land, and to a
certain extent, by stealth, intermarried.

Fairy tales, much alike in character, are to be heard in many countries,
peopled by branches of the Aryan race, and consequently these stories in
outline, were most probably in existence before the separation of the
families belonging to that race. It is not improbable that the emigrants
would carry with them, into all countries whithersoever they went, their
ancestral legends, and they would find no difficulty in supplying these
interesting stories with a home in their new country. If this
supposition be correct, we must look for the origin of Fairy Mythology in
the cradle of the Aryan people, and not in any part of the world
inhabited by descendants of that great race.

But it is not improbable that incidents in the process of colonization
would repeat themselves, or under special circumstances vary, and thus we
should have similar and different versions of the same historical event
in all countries once inhabited by a diminutive race, which was overcome
by a more powerful people.

In Wales Fairy legends have such peculiarities that they seem to be
historical fragments of by-gone days. And apparently they refer to a
race which immediately preceded the Celt in the occupation of the
country, and with which the Celt to a limited degree amalgamated.



NAMES GIVEN TO THE FAIRIES.


The Fairies have, in Wales, at least three common and distinctive names,
as well as others that are not nowadays used.

The first and most general name given to the Fairies is "_Y Tylwyth
Teg_," or, the Fair Tribe, an expressive and descriptive term. They are
spoken of as a people, and not as myths or goblins, and they are said to
be a fair or handsome race.

Another common name for the Fairies, is, "_Bendith y Mamau_," or, "The
Mothers' Blessing." In Doctor Owen Pughe's Dictionary they are called
"Bendith _eu_ Mamau," or, "_Their_ Mothers' Blessing." The first is the
most common expression, at least in North Wales. It is a singularly
strange expression, and difficult to explain. Perhaps it hints at a
Fairy origin on the mother's side of certain fortunate people.

The third name given to Fairies is "_Ellyll_," an elf, a demon, a goblin.
This name conveys these beings to the land of spirits, and makes them
resemble the oriental Genii, and Shakespeare's sportive elves. It
agrees, likewise, with the modern popular creed respecting goblins and
their doings.

Davydd ab Gwilym, in a description of a mountain mist in which he was
once enveloped, says:--

Yr ydoedd ym mhob gobant
_Ellyllon_ mingeimion gant.

There were in every hollow
A hundred wrymouthed elves.

_The Cambro-Briton_, v. I., p. 348.

In Pembrokeshire the Fairies are called _Dynon Buch Teg_, or the _Fair
Small People_.

Another name applied to the Fairies is _Plant Annwfn_, or _Plant Annwn_.
This, however, is not an appellation in common use. The term is applied
to the Fairies in the third paragraph of a Welsh prose poem called _Bardd
Cwsg_, thus:--

Y bwriodd y _Tylwyth Teg_ fi . . . oni bai fy nyfod i mewn
pryd i'th achub o gigweiniau _Plant Annwfn_.

Where the _Tylwyth Teg_ threw me . . . if I had not come
in time to rescue thee from the clutches of _Plant Annwfn_.

_Annwn_, or _Annwfn_ is defined in Canon Silvan Evans's Dictionary as an
abyss, Hades, etc. _Plant Annwn_, therefore, means children of the lower
regions. It is a name derived from the supposed place of abode--the
bowels of the earth--of the Fairies. _Gwragedd Annwn_, dames of Elfin
land, is a term applied to Fairy ladies.

Ellis Wynne, the author of _Bardd Cwsg_, was born in 1671, and the
probability is that the words _Plant Annwfn_ formed in his days part of
the vocabulary of the people. He was born in Merionethshire.

_Gwyll_, according to Richards, and Dr. Owen Pughe, is a Fairy, a goblin,
etc. The plural of _Gwyll_ would be _Gwylliaid_, or _Gwyllion_, but this
latter word Dr. Pughe defines as ghosts, hobgoblins, etc. Formerly,
there was in Merionethshire a red haired family of robbers called _Y
Gwylliaid Cochion_, or Red Fairies, of whom I shall speak hereafter.

_Coblynau_, or Knockers, have been described as a species of Fairies,
whose abode was within the rocks, and whose province it was to indicate
to the miners by the process of knocking, etc., the presence of rich
lodes of lead or other metals in this or that direction of the mine.

That the words _Tylwyth Teg_ and _Ellyll_ are convertible terms appears
from the following stanza, which is taken from the _Cambrian Magazine_,
vol. ii, p. 58.

Pan dramwych ffridd yr Ywen,
Lle mae _Tylwyth Teg_ yn rhodien,
Dos ymlaen, a phaid a sefyll,
Gwilia'th droed--rhag dawnsva'r _Ellyll_.

When the forest of the Yew,
Where _Fairies_ haunt, thou passest through,
Tarry not, thy footsteps guard
From the _Goblins'_ dancing sward.

Although the poet mentions the _Tylwyth Teg_ and _Ellyll_ as identical,
he might have done so for rhythmical reasons. Undoubtedly, in the first
instance a distinction would be drawn between these two words, which
originally were intended perhaps to describe two different kinds of
beings, but in the course of time the words became interchangeable, and
thus their distinctive character was lost. In English the words Fairies
and elves are used without any distinction. It would appear from Brand's
_Popular Antiquities_, vol. II., p. 478., that, according to Gervase of
Tilbury, there were two kinds of Goblins in England, called _Portuni_ and
_Grant_. This division suggests a difference between the _Tylwyth Teg_
and the _Ellyll_. The _Portuni_, we are told, were very small of stature
and old in appearance, "_statura pusilli_, _dimidium pollicis non
habentes_," but then they were "_senili vultu_, _facie corrugata_." The
wrinkled face and aged countenance of the _Portuni_ remind us of nursery
Fairy tales in which the wee ancient female Fairy figures. The pranks of
the _Portuni_ were similar to those of Shakespeare's Puck. The species
_Grant_ is not described, and consequently it cannot be ascertained how
far they resembled any of the many kinds of Welsh Fairies. Gervase,
speaking of one of these species, says:--"If anything should be to be
carried on in the house, or any kind of laborious work to be done, they
join themselves to the work, and expedite it with more than human
facility."

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