Fairy Tales

Below you will find a rich collection of fairy tales from days gone by. Many of these date back 200 to 500 years ago. I sincerely hope you and your children come to love them as much as my children and grandchildren have.

 THE CRAIG-Y-DON BLACKSMITH  

Once upon a time an old blacksmith lived in an old forge at Craig-y-don, and he used to drink a great deal too much beer. 

One night he was coming home from an alehouse very tipsy, and as he got near a small stream a lot of little men suddenly sprang up from the rocks, and one of them, who seemed to be older than the rest, came up to him, and said, 

"If you don't alter your ways of living you'll die soon; but if you behave better and become a better man you'll find it will be to your benefit," and they all disappeared as quickly as they had come. 

The old blacksmith thought a good deal about what the fairies had told him, and he left off drinking, and became a sober, steady man. 

One day, a few months after meeting the little people, a strange man brought a horse to be shod. Nobody knew either the horse or the man. 

The old blacksmith tied the horse to a hole in the lip of a cauldron (used for the purpose of cooling his hot iron) that he had built in some masonry. 

When he had tied the horse up he went to shoe the off hind-leg, but directly he touched the horse the spirited animal started back with a bound, and dragged the cauldron from the masonry, and then it broke the halter and ran away out of the forge, and was never seen again:  

neither the horse nor its master. 

When the old blacksmith came to pull down the masonry to rebuild it, he found three brass kettles full of money. 

 THE OLD MAN AND THE FAIRIES 

Many years ago the Welsh mountains were full of fairies. People used to go by moonlight to see them dancing, for they knew where they would dance by seeing green rings in the grass. 

There was an old man living in those days who used to frequent the fairs that were held across the mountains. One day he was crossing the mountains to a fair, and when he got to a lonely valley he sat down, for he was tired, and he dropped off to sleep, and his bag fell down by his side. When he was sound asleep the fairies came and carried him off, bag and all, and took him under the earth, and when he awoke he found himself in a great palace of gold, full of fairies dancing and singing. And they took him and showed him everything, the splendid gold room and gardens, and they kept dancing round him until he fell asleep. 

When he was asleep they carried him back to the same spot where they had found him, and when he awoke he thought he had been dreaming, so he looked for his bag, and got hold of it, but he could hardly lift it. When he opened it he found it was nearly filled with gold. 

He managed to pick it up, and turning round, he went home.  

When he got home, his wife Kaddy said: "What's to do, why haven't you been to the fair?" "I've got something here," he said, and showed his wife the gold. 

"Why, where did you get that?" 

But he wouldn't tell her. Since she was curious, like all women, she kept worrying him all night--for he'd put the money in a box under the bed--so he told her about the fairies. 

Next morning, when he awoke, he thought he'd go to the fair and buy a lot of things, and he went to the box to get some of the gold, but found it full of cockle-shells.

EVA'S LUCK 

As black-eyed, black-haired Eva Sauvet was walking one day in J ersey

she saw a lozenge-marked snake, whereupon she ran away frightened.

When she got home and told her mother, the old woman said: 

"Well, child, next time you see the snake give it your handkerchief." 

The next day Eva went out with beating heart, and ere long she saw 

the snake come gliding out from the bushes, so she threw down her 

handkerchief, for she was too frightened to hand it to the snake. 

The snake's eyes gleamed and twinkled, and taking the handkerchief 

into his fangs, he made off to an old ruin, whither Eva followed. 

But when they got to the ruin the snake disappeared, and Eva ran 

home to tell her mother. 

Next day, Pere Sauvet and some men went to the ruin, where Eva 

showed the hole where the snake had disappeared. 

Old Pere Sauvet lit a fire, and smoked the snake out, killing it 

with a stick as it glided over the stones. 

After that they dug out the hole, when they found the handkerchief. 

Digging still further along, they came upon a hollow place, at the 

bottom of which they found a lot of gold. 

I have located several collections of very old Celtic, Irish, Welsh and Scottish fairie tales that I am working on publishing. Come back often and check for as soon as I am finished I will post the link here.  Once I am finished the publications will entail over 1,000 fairie tales that were written from 200 to over 2,000 years ago!

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