Extra Reading Diary: Welsh Fairy Tales (Emerson) II

Myth-Folklore Unit: Welsh Fairy Tales (Emerson) Part B

(Image from Sofi)

READING B:
1. More Short Tales of Fairies

• Go up to a tree and you will receive a reward
• Getting rewards until you brag and boast about fairies
• Fairies are creatures that have manners and customs different than ours, so it is sometimes easy to offend them.
• Don't reveal their hiding places
• I liked how this story was set up as short tales with common themes. I think it would be fun to do that for a future storytelling post.

2. The Pellings

• By a river that falls into a lake, the fairies dance under fair moonlit nights
• The myth that faeries cannot tell you their names
• They are allergic to iron
• Corruptions when their name is known

3. The Long-Lived Ancestors

• Animals being some of the oldest creatures to live: eagle, stag, salmon, owl, blackbird, and a frog.
• I didn't like this story, but as I've mentioned in other reading diaries: I don't like stories with talking animals! 

4. Short Tales of Wonder

• The fairies coming to someone at night with music and dancing. Doing a mundane thing that offends the fairies (because of their customs that the humans are unaware of) and the fairy king punishes someone.

5. Billy Duffy and the Devil

• Selling oneself out to the Devil for something arbitrary
• Devil as a tall gentlemen in black
• A 7 year contract with the devil (or in a story, the contract could be with a fairy)
• Giving hospitality to someone rewards you. Example: the hermit rewards hospitality with three wishes.
• Using the wishes to trick the Devil so that you get out of the deal with the Devil.

6. Billy Duffy and the Devil (cont.)

• Will-'o-the-wisp and Jack-o'-lantern
• Punishment for trickery and being "bad" is turning into a Will-'o-the-wisp

7. The Story of John O'Groats

• I really do not care for story-within-a-story framework for a story. The only times I've liked this is with the Rime of the Ancient Mariner and in Cupid and Psyche.
• I didn't like this story at all.
• I did like the part when the guy was going to commit suicide, but then he found a note that told him that he was to recieve a great fortune, and so he did not commit suicide.

8. The Fishermen of Shetland

• Fairy Queen and her fairies live nearby
• The Fairy Queen gave her powers to a merman and his family of mermaids
• The Merman changes the water to tell the fishermen when to fish
• There lived a wicked witch and a dwarf
• The Merman has a magical belt
• Turning into a bear
• This story has a pretty solid plot-line, which I didn't notice the other stories having. There's a clear protagonist, antagonist, and goal.

9. The Fishermen of Shetland (cont.)

• Turning a belt, or object, three times to get a power
• That story ended a lot happier than I was expecting.