Eilian of Garth Dorwan

Eilian was a fair haired girl who had taken a place as a maid servant with an old couple. She would often do her spinning by moonlight in a meadow, and while she spun the Tylwyth Teg would come and sing and dance for her. In the spring when the days grew longer Eilian vanished and she was seen no more in Garth Dorwen.

Now the old woman who had been Eilian's mistress was a midwife, and some time later a gentleman rode to her house to fetch her for his wife, who was about to have a child. He took the old woman to a fort, and within his wife was abed in the richest room the woman had ever seen.

Once the baby was delivered the man gave some ointment to the old woman and asked that she annoint the eyes of the baby, but cautioned her to not touch her own eyes with the ointment. When one of her eyes began to itch she rubbed it, and at once saw that the fine room was nothing more than a damp cave. The lady was Eilian, who had once been her maid, before she escaped to live with the fairies.

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