The Nanhwynan Version
:
FAIRY MOTHERS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES.
Once on a time, when a midwife from Nanhwynan had newly got to the
Hafodydd Brithion to pursue her calling, a gentleman came to the door on
a fine grey steed and bade her come with him at once. Such was the
authority with which he spoke, that the poor midwife durst not refuse to
go, however much it was her duty to stay where she was. So she mounted
behind him, and off they went like the flight of a swallow, through
C
mllan, over the Bwlch, down Nant yr Aran, and over the Gadair to Cwm
Hafod Ruffydd, before the poor woman had time to say 'Oh.' When they had
got there she saw before her a magnificent mansion, splendidly lit up
with such lamps as she had never before seen. They entered the court,
and a crowd of servants in expensive liveries came to meet them, and she
was at once led through the great hall into a bed-chamber, the like of
which she had never seen. There the mistress of the house, to whom she
had been fetched, was awaiting her. She got through her duties
successfully, and stayed there until the lady had completely recovered;
nor had she spent any part of her life so merrily. There was there
nought but festivity day and night: dancing, singing, and endless
rejoicing reigned there. But merry as it was, she found she must go, and
the nobleman gave her a large purse, with the order not to open it until
she had got into her own house; then he bade one of his servants escort
her the same way she had come. When she reached home she opened the
purse, and, to her great joy, it was full of money, and she lived happily
on those earnings to the end of her life.
Such are these tales. Perhaps they are one and all fragments of the same
story. Each contains a few shreds that are wanting in the others. All,
however, agree in one leading idea, that Fairy mothers have, ere now,
obtained the aid of human midwives, and this one fact is a connecting
link between the people called Fairies and our own remote forefathers.