Real Fairies:

Mermaids, fairies, and all of the legends from Welsh tales may have been true. We are blinded by their seeming fiction in our modern scientific world, and fail to look at the stem of literal truth these stories bloom from. Perhaps once literal tales of races foreign to the Welsh, they have taken on the ornaments that allowed them to better appeal to generations. These depictions of other races have been warped by time, but there is still a thread of truth in all of them. Many Welsh stories originated in ancient Wales and were likely based on the relations between different races of people settling the island at the same time. They were settled in different areas, with different traditions, languages, and often even completely different bone structure that made them appear ethereal or fairy-like to their neighbors. Welsh stories are an important link to the past, with respect to culture as well as to the literal history that was left unrecorded. Welsh stories are the only somewhat recorded history of what Wales was like pre-Briton. There is important hidden history within many of the seemingly fantastic stories that can allow us to uncover some of the beauty of Wales.

The topography of Wales is so filled with mountains, valleys, and rivers that it was an incredibly dividing force between the different groups that settled there. The separate peoples did not understand each others’ customs and were exposed to each other little enough that the existence of other peoples grew into legends and myths over time. Even the keepers of Welsh history--the Druids--were in a way key to the downfall of the stories. “Anglesey was a particular source of resistance ; it was the headquarters of the Druids, whose cult was obnoxious to the Romans” (Roderick 27). They struggled to survive under the Romans, and therefore the knowledge they held struggled too. Their desire to preserve Welsh independence and history caused their conquerors to take notice and quell them. When the Druids fell to the Romans, much of Welsh history was lost with them.

Once the Druids disappeared, Welsh tales turned rapidly from history into myths. The remnants of history are present in archaeological findings, as Owen notes, “In the lakes of Switzerland and other countries have been discovered vestiges of Lake-villages belonging to the Stone Age, and even to the Bronze Age.  Perhaps those that belong to the Stone Age are the most ancient kind of human abodes still traceable in the world. In Ireland and Scotland these kinds of dwellings have been found.” These homes, if present in Wales, could easily explain the presence of many of the races thought magical by the Welsh due to their living condition and areas. The mystical quality of those who seemed to live in the water, the elusive creatures disappearing into the woods, likely to their caves--these peoples likely existed almost exactly as the Welsh described. “Many small stone utensils found in the ground, the use, or the origin, of which was unknown to the finders, were formerly attributed to the Fairies.  Thus, flint arrow-heads were called elf shots, from the belief that they once belonged to Elves or Fairies. And celts, and other stone implements, were, by the peasants of Wales and other places, ascribed to the same small folk. Very small clay pipes were also attributed to the same people. All this is curious evidence of a pre-existing race, which the Celts supplanted, and from whom, in many respects, they differed” (Owen). These other races have been considered to be fairly apt depictions of the truth by more than a few, but unfortunately there is not enough study surrounding Welsh legends for us to be sure. Understanding more of the history of Wales will come in time, once we better encourage both a national and international interest in the mysterious and beautiful Welsh past. These possibilities to uncover the history of Welsh natives and their culture should not be ignored solely because they seem fantastical.

There were such extreme differences between either physical traits or living conditions that it was easy to turn them into supernatural or fantastical beings. There are many qualities that can be easily traced in Welsh stories to their roots. Many of our modern archaeological finds have led us to discover many of the potential real stories by uncovering races with bodies and lives that match Welsh stories. “Folk memories of these ancient British gods persist to the present day in the form of myths and legends, with the finest example in Wales being the Mabinogi. This collection of tales is thought to have been ancient by the time it was written down in the mid-eleventh century. Some believe it is the closest we can get to the magical world of the ancient Britons” (Religion and Ethics - Romans & the Coming of Christianity). Though the Mabinogi contains many stories of British gods, it also contains many of the myths of fairies and other mythical creatures native to Welsh traditions. This collection may be the biggest key to understanding Welsh history. “In [The Cambrian Popular Antiquities], the author promulgates the theory that the Fairies were a people existing distinct from the known inhabitants of the country and confederated together, and met mysteriously to avoid coming in contact with the stronger race that had taken possession of their land, and he supposes that in these traditionary tales of the Fairies we recognize something of the real history of an ancient people whose customs were those of a regular and consistent policy” (Owen). These fairies are one of several races that likely lived in Wales pre-Briton, and were also likely one of the longest-standing due to the frequency with which they appear in Welsh tales. “Perhaps they are one and all fragments of the same story.  Each contains a few shreds that are wanting in the others” (Owen). This one story could be more of a reality than it seems--it being the history of Wales and a literal truth. This depiction of their history may seem unrealistic and impossible to decode, but perhaps by placing each piece together along with the known history we may uncover a groundbreaking awareness of unrecorded Welsh history. As with all history, the past of Wales has been warped by time. Though we don’t know yet where the line exactly between truth and fiction lies, we have a chance to discover it if we study Welsh archaeology and legends.

Many of the long-standing traditions of Wales are also traceable to real history. Some traditions likely stem from the merging of two groups of people, whereas others seem to be from one culture witnessing the traditions of another before delivering an essence of what they saw to their clan. These traditions became more and more altered over years, and are now barely traceable to the cultures they likely came from. “Present contemplation of the Valleys is inseparable from the melancholy sense of a ruptured past” (Smith 12). This so-called “ruptured past” is not solely due to the harm done by conquerors, but also because of the distortion in Welsh legends from their origin. “Wales had spawned a generation of such public men by 1909. They stressed the qualities needed to maintain a community cohesion. It was to be held by the anchor of past values bred in the Welsh countryside. The scale of things defeated them. Their idea of culture was challenged by the popular, living culture of people increasingly removed from the ties of custom, tradition, religion, language and deference” (Smith 27). There was so much political turmoil in Wales within the last few centuries--political struggles, desire for independence from England, issues with wage gaps and racism from the north--that real history turned to stories, then legends, then myths, and finally fairy tales that only children would believe. This change pushed them away from being thought of as an important part of history, making it less likely for anyone to legitimately study them to find their true origins. Without any written history, the Welsh were unable to preserve it other than by their oral traditions. “Iron Age Britons were non-literate, and so left no first-hand testimony about themselves, their sense of identity, or how they thought about the material and spirit worlds. So we are forced to rely on the reports of authors from the Greco-Roman world, who wrote about the ‘barbarians’ to their nort with varying degrees of ignorance and spin” (Aldhouse-Green 8). The Druids were the most well-versed in this, but ultimately fell. The conquerors that took over Britain recorded some stories they learned from the Welsh for entertainment, but ultimately grouped them all together as a single, uncultured and unevolved race. Even tracing back the traditions of Wales can lead us to interesting finds--stories that were too warped to continue to pass through generations often remain behind a facade of tradition.

Traditions, legends, and myths all likely come from the beautiful mix of cultures that once lived in Wales and were altered by time. We are able to trace back many of these to their origins, but are still discovering new viewpoints every day. Without digging deeper into Welsh stories and their origins, a large part of Welsh history will be lost. By promoting the study of the Welsh language, Welsh traditions and folklore, and archaeological finds, we can someday find the one singular truth behind the trappings of Welsh fairy tales.

Bibliography

Aldhouse-Green, Miranda J. Sacred Britannia: the Gods and Rituals of

Roman Britain. Thames & Hudson, 2018.

Aldhous-Green provides a history of some of the deities worshipped by those residing in Roman Britain. She also details some Welsh traditions and the practices of the Druids. This account also contains some of the Roman ways of conquering societies, their focus on the Druids in Wales, and their perspective regarding the Welsh and their Traditions.

Owen, Elias. Welsh Folk-Lore. CreateSpace Independent Publishing

Platform, 2015.

Owen gives many details of specific Welsh stories, traditions, and their history. He has many extensively researched accounts of the potential past of some Welsh legends. This includes the current modes of thought regarding them from the young and the old. He focuses most on the ability and current success of decoding Welsh legends to discover their origin in society.

“Religion and Ethics - Romans & the Coming of Christianity.” BBC, BBC, 2014,

www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/themes/religion/religion_romans_christianity.shtml.

This article provides an analysis of the Roman invasion of Wales. It focuses specifically on the Druids, the Roman opinion of them, and the customs that caused obstacles for the Romans. It also briefly touches on Roman strategy for the conquering of vastly different areas.

Roderick, A. J., editor. Wales through the Ages. I, C. Davies, 1973.

Wales through the Ages contains a collection of essays focusing on the travel of different peoples through Wales throughout many centuries. Though the focus tends to be on recorded history, it lends a unique look into the eyes of those who met the First People of Wales and related stories of them to those in the travelers’ home countries and those who, at varying points in time, invaded or conquered the Welsh. These essays often reveal the points at which the knowledge history may have changed drastically among the Welsh.

Smith, Dai. Wales! Wales? G. Allen & Unwin, 1984.

The urbanization of Wales harmed their history more than will ever be repairable. Smith gives a detailed account of the turmoil in Wales brought on by urbanization. He includes political, social, and economic unrest that has been present in Wales within the last few centuries.