Summary
Summary of Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Customs live in remembered voices
A wedding morning begins with riders at a barred door, rhymed insults passing between the parties, and a bride hiding under a bed. This lively scene opens a world of customs remembered by the people who took part in them.
For about nine years, Jonathan Ceredig Davies walked Cardigan, Carmarthen, and Pembroke, listening to elderly farmers, ministers, and housewives speaking Welsh. His collection brings their voices together with the tales behind familiar actions, beginning with the rituals surrounding love.
Key idea 2
Wedding gifts created lasting obligations
Once a couple agreed to marry, the Bidder went from house to house with a ribboned white wand.
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Key idea 3
The wedding became a staged chase
At a horse wedding, riders galloped to the bride's home and demanded her release.
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Key idea 4
Neighbours faced death together
A funeral brought people from nearly every house, while the wake night gathered neighbours for prayer, hymns, and talk about life's shortness.
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Key idea 5
Seasonal games brought neighbours together
The farming year had its own celebrations.
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Key idea 6
Fairy gifts came with conditions
The Tylwyth Teg lived beneath lakes or on green islands, danced until the cock crowed, and loved music.
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Key idea 7
Death warnings gave dread a language
Death could announce itself before anyone died.
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Key idea 8
Healing joined practical need and belief
Witchcraft offered explanations for trouble in daily life: a churn might stop working after butter was refused, or a wounded hare might be linked to an injured woman.
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Key idea 9
Ritual carried people through shared lives
From courtship and weddings to funerals and healing, these customs form a picture of a countryside held together by mutual obligations.
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About 9 h 40 min to read.Who it’s for
Readers who enjoy local legends, old customs, ghost stories, and fairy tales will love this collection. It also suits anyone curious how Welsh rural life made sense of love, luck, sickness, and death.
What this book is
Picture a wedding morning in West Wales more than a century ago. Ten or twenty riders gallop to the bride's home, find the door barred, and trade rhymed insults with the party inside. Then the bride cannot be found, because she is hiding under a bed.
This is Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales, gathered by Jonathan Ceredig Davies and finished in March 1911. For about nine years he walked Cardigan, Carmarthen, and Pembroke, sitting with elderly farmers, ministers, and housewives who spoke to him in Welsh. You get the customs, the tales behind them, and the voices of those who remembered. Let us begin with love.
In this summary
- 1Courtship ran on night visits, hazel sprigs, and charmsFree
- 2A Bidder walked the countryside inviting everyone to the wedding
- 3The horse wedding staged a chase for the bride
- 4Funerals were public, sung, and shaped by old fears
- 5The farming year was marked by masks and feasts
- 6The Tylwyth Teg lured, married, and kept people
- 7Ghosts returned with work to finish and treasure to show
- 8Death sent warnings by light, sound, and procession
- 9Witches bewitched and wizards cured in the villages
- 10Davies saved what elderly informants still remembered
Key point 1 of 10
Courtship ran on night visits, hazel sprigs, and charms
Davies opens with love. Farm workers toiled from dawn until dark, so young men walked miles at night to tap on a sweetheart's window. Fairs and the walk home from chapel gave other chances to meet.
Signs spoke where words did not. A girl who wished to refuse a suitor gave him a white wand of hazel, since the Welsh word coll means both hazel and loss. A birch wreath meant yes.
On All Hallows Eve a girl lowered a little ladder of wool from her window and asked who was holding it. Others watched a washed shirt drying by the hearth at midnight. If a coffin crossed the room instead of a man, she would die unmarried.
These rites could turn cruel. Around 1800 at Ystrad Meurig, a publican's daughter walked nine times round the church with a knife, and a student in a surplice stepped out to frighten her. She died soon afterward of fright. In old West Wales, love was asked about with sticks, shoes, and tea leaves.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
Why did couples record the gifts received at their wedding?
Right. “The couple wrote down every gift and repaid it later, when the giver married.”Not quite. “The couple wrote down every gift and repaid it later, when the giver married.”
What condition governs the lake lady's marriage to the farmer?
Right. “She agrees to marry him until he gives her three causeless blows, and she brings sheep, cattle, and horses as her dowry.”Not quite. “She agrees to marry him until he gives her three causeless blows, and she brings sheep, cattle, and horses as her dowry.”
How did Davies gather accounts from the people he visited?
Right. “He walked the three counties for nine years and wrote down accounts given in Welsh by older people.”Not quite. “He walked the three counties for nine years and wrote down accounts given in Welsh by older people.”
Go deeper: the whole of Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales
About 9 h 40 min to read.Questions about Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales
What is Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales about?
It collects the customs, legends, and beliefs of Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, and Pembrokeshire, with some material from neighbouring counties. Topics include courtship, weddings, funerals, fairies, ghosts, death omens, witches, wizards, charms, holy wells, and local legends, told as Davies heard them.
What is a Bidder in Welsh weddings?
A Bidder, or Gwahoddwr, was an official who carried a ribboned white wand from house to house and invited neighbours to a wedding. He gave a set speech, often in rhyme, and asked for gifts toward the couple's new start.
What is a toili or phantom funeral?
The toili is a ghostly funeral procession, seen or heard before a real one, which follows the route the real mourners will take. Davies gives witnesses who name the faces in the crowd and see coffins on chairs exactly as foreseen.
Where did Davies get his stories, and when was the book written?
He gathered them over about nine years from older farmers, ministers, and housewives, mostly in Welsh, and named many of them. The book bears the date March 1911 at Llanilar and also draws on earlier folklorists.
Is the book easy to approach and worth reading?
Yes, in the sense that it is built from short, self contained accounts told in plain, lively language, so you can begin with any chapter. Readers who like local legends and old customs will find plenty of vivid stories.
Cite this edition
Davies, Jonathan Ceredig. Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/folk-lore-of-west-and-mid-wales.
Davies, J. C. (2026). Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/folk-lore-of-west-and-mid-wales (Original work published 1911)
Davies, Jonathan Ceredig. Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/folk-lore-of-west-and-mid-wales.
@book{davies2026folklore,
author = {Davies, Jonathan Ceredig},
title = {Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/folk-lore-of-west-and-mid-wales},
note = {First published 1911}
}
