Folklore & legend

The Easter Monday Fairies of Pencarreg and Caeo

Between Pencarreg and Caeo parishes

In north Carmarthenshire, on Easter Monday, the young men of neighbouring parishes used to meet for a game of football, a rough cross-country affair played between whole communities. Wirt Sikes records that one year, early in the morning, when the men of Pencarreg and Caeo had gathered to play, they saw a numerous company of the Tylwyth Teg dancing.

There were so many young men that they were not frightened in the least, and they went in a body towards the little people. The fairies saw them coming and moved off to another place. The young men followed, and at once the fairies appeared dancing again at the first spot. So the men split up and surrounded them. At that moment the fairies became invisible, and they were never seen there again.

Sikes tells the story in a matter-of-fact way alongside other Carmarthenshire fairy traditions from around Pant Shon Shenkin. The field is not named.

Pencarreg and Caeo are rural parishes in north Carmarthenshire with public lanes.
Evidence
Long-standing local tradition
Access
Open ground
Location
52.085, -4.139 (Parish-level only, treat as an area)

Sources: Wirt Sikes, "British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions" (1880), Project Gutenberg [public-domain]

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