Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Category: Folktales

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Fairies / Folklore / Folktales

The Servant Girl And The Elves

Once upon a time there was a poor servant girl who was diligent and neat. Every day she swept out the house and shook the sweepings onto a large pile outside the door. One morning just as she was beginning her work she found a letter on the pile of sweepings. She could not read, so she stood her broom in the corner and took the letter to her employers.

Folklore / Folktales / Manx Folktales

Goddard Crovan’s Stone

Down in the valley of St. Mark’s, near a little purling brook, lies the famous granite boulder, weighing between twenty and thirty tons, known by the name of Goddard Crovan’s stone. It was cast into this situation one day by Goddard Crovan, son of Harold the Black, of Iceland, who lived with his termagant wife in a great castle on the top of Barrule.

Folklore / Folktales / Manx Folktales

Ivar And Matilda

"In the year 1249 Reginald began to reign on the 6th May, and on the 30th May of the same month was slain by the Knight Ivar and his accomplices."–Chronicon Manniæ. There was a young and gallant knight, named Ivar, who was enamoured of a very beautiful maiden, named Matilda. He loved her ardently, and she reciprocated his affection.

Fairies / Folklore / Folktales / Welsh Fairies / Welsh Folktales

‘The Baby of Y Dolydd’

Y Dolydd is a long vacated, derelict cottage with an interesting Tylwyth Teg (Welsh Fairy) legend associated with it. Many years ago the cottage was the residence to a poor young widow, who one day encountered a charismatic Tylwyth Teg who asked her to bring up a child for him. The widow agreed to this, and several days later she found a beautiful baby boy on her doorstep.

Fairies / Folklore / Folktales

An Underground Woman in Labor

A woman who died at Neu-Bukow in 1841 at the age of 118 told that when she was a child underground people lived in a mountain near her home town. She herself and other children often saw them, but they always ran away from them. One night an underground man knocked at their door and asked the mother to go with him. His wife was in labor. He also asked to borrow a kettle.

Fairies / Folklore / Folktales

The Woman Among The Elves

Not long ago there lived in Frankenberg a midwife who could tell many amazing things about the elves, for once she had spent an entire eight days among them observing their deeds and ways.

Fairies / Folklore / Folktales

The Godmother

Two girls, all dressed up, were walking along playfully and mischievously one evening when suddenly a gigantic fat toad waddled across their path. The girls joked about the large animal: One of them said that if it ever had a baby, she would be its godmother. The other one quickly added that she would cook for the occasion.

Fairies / Folklore / Folktales

The Dwarfs In Schalk Mountain And Wohlden Mountain

Schalk Mountain (Schalksberg), between Ettenbüttel and Wilsche, near Gilde on the Aller River, is only a little mole hill today, but formerly it was a high and narrow mountain in which the dwarf people made their home.