Rhaffau'r Tylwyth Teg Or The Ropes Of The Fairies

: FAIRY MEN CAPTURED.
: Welsh Folk-lore

Professor Rhys, in his Welsh Fairy Tales--Y Cymmrodor vol. v., p.

75--says, that gossamer, which is generally called in North Wales

edafedd gwawn, or gwawn yarn, used to be called, according to an

informant, Rhaffau'r Tylwyth Teg, that is to say, the Ropes of the Fair

Family, thus associating the Fairies with marshy, or rushy, places, or

with ferns and heather as their dwelling places. It was supposed that if

a man lay down to sleep in such places the Fairies would come and bind

him with their ropes, and cover him with a gossamer sheet, which would

make him invisible, and incapable of moving.



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