Tylwyth Teg

Tylwyth Teg (Middle Welsh for "Fair Family";^[1] Welsh pronunciation: [ˈtəlʊi̯θ teːg]) is the most usual term in Wales for the mythological creatures corresponding to the fairy folk of Welsh and Irish folklore Aos Sí. Other names for them include Bendith y Mamau ("Blessing of the Mothers"), Gwyllion and Ellyllon.^[2]

The term tylwyth teg is first attested in a poem attributed to the 14th-century Dafydd ap Gwilym, in which the principal character gets perilously but comically lost while going to visit his girlfriend: "Hudol gwan yn ehedeg, / hir barthlwyth y Tylwyth Teg" ("(The) weak enchantment (now) flees, / (the) long burden of the Tylwyth Teg (departs) into the mist").^[3]

In later sources the tylwyth teg are described as fair-haired and covet golden-haired human children whom they kidnap, leaving changelings (or crimbilion, sing. crimbil) in their place.^[4] They dance and make fairy rings and they live underground or underwater. They bestow riches on those they favour but these gifts vanish if they are spoken of, and fairy maidens may become the wives of human men.^[1] These fairy wives are however still bound by traditional taboos. They must be careful to avoid touching iron or they will vanish back to their realm never to be seen by their husbands again.^[5]

As the Bendith y Mamau (the mothers blessing, a Southern Welsh name for fair folk),

• Evans, Hugh (1938). Y Tylwyth Teg. Liverpool: Gwasg Y Brython. p. 98.
• Evans-Wentz, W. Y. (1994) [1909]. The Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries. Citadel Press. p. 576.
  ISBN 978-0-8065-1160-3
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• MacKillop, James (1998). Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford:
  ISBN 0-19-280120-1
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