14 h 45 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 14 h 45 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Beneath Welsh lakes, inside mine walls, and across the night sky, old tales give unseen beings a home.
In British Goblins, Wirt Sikes explores the folklore of Welsh farms, villages and mining towns. At its heart stand the Tylwyth Teg, the fair family of Welsh tradition. Around them gather lake maidens, spirits of particular places, and little miners whose knocking sounds inside the rock.
Fairy women live beneath Welsh lakes and sometimes come to shore, while ghostly lights warn of death. The collection moves from fairies and human husbands to death omens, bards, Merlin and King Arthur. Through these stories, you encounter ways people explain their world before schools and newspapers reach every valley.
What you’ll discover
- Meet the fair family Discover the Tylwyth Teg, the fairy people at the heart of these Welsh traditions.
- Maidens beneath the lakes Explore tales of the Gwragedd Annwn, fairy women who sometimes come to shore.
- Knocking in the rock Enter the lore of little miners and spirits tied to hills, water and mines.
- Lights that warn of death Encounter the corpse candle and other omens in tales of the spirit world.
- Beyond the fairy world Follow Sikes into older Welsh legends of bards, Merlin and King Arthur.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you love folk tales, ghost stories and strange old customs, or if you like to trace a legend from a Welsh hillside to its cousins in other lands.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A consul collects the goblins of Wales
- Fairyland has three homes in Wales
- Welsh fairies fall into five families
- Lake wives bring luck and a moral
- People are stolen, bewitched and lost in time
- Fairy gifts come with rules of secrecy
- Welsh ghosts have jobs to finish
- Death announces itself in many voices
- The year and life are marked by old customs
- Bells, wells, stones and dragons keep old power
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- Hardcover
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- Large print hardcover
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Duendes británicos: folclore galés, mitología de las hadas, leyendas y tradiciones
by Wirt Sikes · 1880
A farmer's wife peeps through a door at dancing elves, and the luck of three years ends.
Medium level5–10 hours to readEspañol
Aprende un idioma con clásicos de nivel mediumEspañolFrancésAlemánItalianoJaponésPortuguésInglésCómo medimos los niveles
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In short
What happens when a farmer's wife peeps through a crack in the door at the little people who do her baking? In an old Glamorgan tale, they vanish and never return.
Duendes británicos: folclore galés, mitología de las hadas, leyendas y tradiciones de un vistazo
- Tiempo de lectura
- Unas 8 h6 h 20 min fast, 9 h 35 min slow
- Duración
- 114.600 palabras
- Nivel en la biblioteca
- Mediano longer sentences, everyday words
- Primera publicación
- 1880by Wirt Sikes
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Cuánto se tarda en leer los clásicos · Actualizado
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A consul collects the goblins of Wales
Wirt Sikes wrote while living in Cardiff as the American consul. He focuses on South Wales and Monmouthshire, where the old stories are thickest. He calls Wales a cradle of fairy legend.
His first claim is bold. Educated people assume that fairy belief has died out. In 1858 one learned writer declared that a traveler could cross Wales without meeting a single fairy tale. Eighteen years later another scholar wrote that such tales were still firmly believed near burial mounds and ancient camps. Each age pushes the fairies back to the generation before.
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Has visto
¿Qué edición es la adecuada para mí?
- 15-minute summary
- Las ideas clave de todo el libro en unos 13 minutos. Una buena introducción o un repaso.
Detalles
- First published
- 1880
- Language
- Español
- Level
- Medium level
Cita esta edición
Sikes, Wirt. British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/british-goblins-welsh-folk-lore-fairy-mythology-legends-and-traditions.
Sikes, W. (2026). British goblins: Welsh folk-lore, fairy mythology, legends and traditions. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/british-goblins-welsh-folk-lore-fairy-mythology-legends-and-traditions (Original work published 1880)
Sikes, Wirt. British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/british-goblins-welsh-folk-lore-fairy-mythology-legends-and-traditions.
@book{sikes2026british,
author = {Sikes, Wirt},
title = {British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/british-goblins-welsh-folk-lore-fairy-mythology-legends-and-traditions},
note = {First published 1880}
}
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Questions about Duendes británicos: folclore galés, mitología de las hadas, leyendas y tradiciones
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What is British Goblins about?
It is a collection of Welsh fairy tales, ghost stories, death omens and old customs, gathered in South Wales and Monmouthshire by Wirt Sikes. He frequently compares Welsh traditions with similar legends from other lands.
What is the Tylwyth Teg?
Tylwyth Teg is the Welsh name for the fair family, the fairies. People use the polite name because calling them by a harsh one is thought to bring their anger.
Who was Wirt Sikes and when was the book written?
Sikes was an American writer and the United States consul at Cardiff. He finished the book in 1879, after collecting stories from farmers, miners and villagers around South Wales.
The author
Wirt Sikes
1836–1883 · American writer and folklorist
Wirt Sikes was an American writer born in Watertown, New York, in 1836. He moved to Cardiff, Wales, in 1876 to serve as United States consul. He wrote about Welsh folklore and published British Goblins in 1880. He remained in Cardiff until his death in 1883.
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