Gwragedd Annwn

The Gwragedd Annwn (Gwrageth anoon) are Welsh water faeries, beautiful Lake
Maidens who occasionally take mortals to be their husbands. One well-known
legend tells of a young man who used to graze his cattle by a small lake near the
Black Mountains. One day he saw a most enchanting creature rowing gently to and
from in a golden boat on the surface of the lake. He fell deeply in love with her and
offered her some of the bread he had brought from home was too hard and
disappeared into the depths. The young man's mother gave him some unbaked
dough to take with him the next day and he offered this to the faerie but she
answered that it was too soft and again disappeared. On the third day his mother
gave him some lightly baked bread and this passed muster. Three figures rose
from the lake, an old men with a beautiful daughter on either side of him. The
girls were identical and the father told the young farmer that he was in love
if he could point her out. The farmer would have given up in despair but
one slightly moved her foot and he, recognizing her slipper, won her hand.

The water-faerie was given a fine dowry and they lived together happily.
However, the young farmer had been warned that he would lose his beautiful wife
should he striker her three times causelessly. It so happened that, although they
were indeed blissfully happy, Gwragedd Annwn had some curious faerie ways; she
might weep at a wedding or laugh and sing at the funeral of a child and this
eventually led her to her loving husband reproving her three times, more by a
love-tap than a blow, but this was enough and she was forced to leave him. She did
not forget her sons however and taught them many secrets of medicine so that they
became famed physicians.

In other days, every New Year's morning a door was to be found open in a rock
by a Welsh lake and those who dared enter came upon a secret passage which led
them to a small island in the middle of the lake. Here they found themselves
in an exquisite garden inhabited by the Gwragedd Annwn who feted their guests,
pressing on them all manner of fruit and flowers and entertaining them with
beautiful music. The faeries told their visitors many wondrous secrets and invited
them to stay as long as they wished. However, they warned them that the
island was a secret and nothing from it should be taken away.

One day it so happened that a visitor to the magic garden pocketed
a flower he had been offered, thinking it would brig him luck. The moment
the thief touched "unhallowed" land again, however, the guest to the enchanted
land were bid farewell with customary politeness but since that day
the door to the beautiful garden has remained firmly closed.