Wales Of The Unexpected With Richard Holland, Daily Post

LAST week I wrote about a region of North Wales very rich in fairylore. Not so many miles away, on the borders of Snowdonia National Park, there is a village which seems to have been a popular abode of the fairies - Pentrefoelas, in Conwy.

In the late 19th century the vicar of Pentrefoelas was the Rev Owen Jones, who happened to be a good friend of the Rev Elias Owen, who was busy collecting folk tales for what became his book of Welsh Folklore. Mr Jones was enthusiastic about the folklore of his own parish and passed on the many stories he heard to Owen.

For example, he recorded the account of a Pentrefoelas man who saw a grand procession of Y Tylwyth Teg (the Fair Tribe) one fine summer's night.

Writes Owen: "They were marching in single file and consisted of a number of small people, robed in close-fitting grey clothes, and they were accompanied by speckled dogs that marched along two deep like soldiers."

The fairies urged the man to join them, but he knew better than to do that, so, at length, they departed, dividing into two companies, the dogs marching two abreast in front of each company. 

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