Rune Oracle

Celtic folklore

The Tylwyth Teg

The Fair Family of Wales

lakes and hillshealingmusic and dancemarriage bargainscattle

Also called The Fair Family, Bendith y Mamau (Blessing of the Mothers), Gwragedd Annwn (lake maidens).

The tale

The Tylwyth Teg are the fair folk of Wales, who dance in rings on the hillsides and live beneath lakes and hills. In the tale of Llyn y Fan Fach, a young farmer woos a lady who rises from the lake by offering her bread; she refuses it hard-baked and accepts it only half-baked. She marries him on condition that he never strikes her three causeless blows, and brings a herd of fairy cattle as her dowry. Over the years he taps her three times, lightly and without meaning harm, and at the third she returns to the lake with all her cattle, but she comes back to teach her sons the healing arts, and they become the famous Physicians of Myddfai.

When they are met

  • Calan Mai (May Day)
  • Nos Galan Gaeaf (Hallowe'en)
  • Midsummer
  • moonlit nights

Staying on their good side

  • a clean hearth and fresh water left out at night
  • kept promises
  • gentleness, never a careless blow
  • bread and milk

Honouring them, or keeping safe

  1. Leave a bowl of clean water by the hearth or door at night, as Welsh households once did.
  2. Read the tale of the Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach and the Physicians of Myddfai.
  3. Learn a few healing herbs, in honour of the lake lady's gift to her sons.
  4. Take care with promises, since the tales say broken ones end fairy marriages.

What their tales teach

  • healing and herb lore
  • keeping promises
  • kindness in marriage
  • music and dance

Symbols

  • a mountain lake
  • white cattle rising from the water
  • fairy rings
  • iron, which they cannot bear
  • half-baked bread

From Welsh folk tradition written down in the 19th century; the Physicians of Myddfai were real medieval healers.

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