More E-texts

More E-texts The Welsh Fairy Book • Preface - The Welsh Fairy Book • Notes on Welsh Prounciation • The Lady of the Lake • Arthur in the Cave • The Curse of Pantannas • The Drowning of the Bottom Hundred • Elidyr's Sojurn in Fairy-Land • Lowri Dafydd Earns a Purse of Gold • The Llanfabon Changeling • Why the Red Dragon is the Emblem of Wales • Llyn Cwm Llwch • The Adventures of Three Farmers • Cadwaladr and His Goat • The Fairy Wife • Einion and the Lady of the Greenwood • The Green Isles of the Ocean • March's Ears • The Fairy Harp • Guto Bach and the Fairies • Ianto's Chase • The Stray Cow • Bala Lake • The Forbidden Fountain • Tudor Ap Einion • Fairy Walking Stick • Dick the Fiddler's Money • A Strange Otter • Fairy Ointment • Pergrin and the Mermaiden • The Cave of the Young Men of Snowdonia • Einion and the Fair Family • St Collen and the King of the Fairy • Helig's Hollow • Owen Goes A-Wooing • The Fairy Reward • Why Deunant has the Front Door in the Back • Getting Rid of the Fairies • The Mantle of Kings' Beards • Pedws Ffowk and St Elian's Well • Magic Music • Sili go Dwt • Another Changeling • A Fairy Borrowing • Treasure Seeking • The Richest Man • St Beuno and the Curlew • The Cat Witches • The Swallowed Court • What Marged Rolant Saw • Ned Puw's Farewell • Pennard Castle • The Man with the Green Weeds • Goronwy Tudor and the Witches of Llanddona • Robin's Return • The Harper's Gratuity • Six and Four are Ten • Envy Burns Itself • The Bride from the Red Lake • A Fairy Dog • Grace's Well • The Fairy Password • St Winifred's Well • Ancients of the World • Nansi Llywd and the Dog of Darkness • An Adventure in the Big Bog • The Pwca of the Trwyn • John Gethin and the Candle • Fetching a Halter • Dai Sion's Homecoming • Melangell's Lambs • Syfaddon Lake • The Power of St Tegla's Well • The Men of Ardudwy • The Parti-Coloured Cow • Striking a Corpse Candle • Hu Gadarn • The Devil's Bridge • The Martyred Hound • Twm of the Fair Lies • Black Robin • Llyn Llech Owen • A Ghostly Rehersal • A Phantom Funeral • Why the Robin's Breast is Red   Join the Discussion "What is your favorite scary tale?" Join the Forum Discussion...     Related Resources • Edgar Allan Poe • Book Reviews

The Forbidden Fountain

THERE was once a boy of twelve years of age who was often sent by his father to tend the sheep on the Frenni fach. Early one morning in June he drove the sheep to their pasture for the day and looked carefully at the top of the Frenni fawr to see which way the morning fog was declining. Young as he was, he was weather-wise, and knew that if the fog declined to the Pembroke-shire side it would be a fine day, whereas if it went to the Cardiganshire side the weather would be foul. The fog was going to the Pembrokeshire side, and the boy, delighted with the prospect of a fine day, was whistling a merry tune and looking idly about him, when he saw at a considerable distance away what seemed to be a party of soldiers busily engaged in some operation, the nature of which he could not make out at first.

"There cannot be any soldiers on the mountain as early as this," he reflected, and going to the top of a little hillock, he perceived that they were too small for soldiers. "I wonder whether they are the Fair Family," he said. He had often heard of them and had seen their rings, but he had never set eyes on the little people themselves. First of all, he thought of running home to tell his father and mother, but reflecting that they might disappear before he returned and that perhaps his parents might even forbid him to come back — for many people were afraid of the Fair Family — he dismissed that idea. After cogitating for a little while he determined to go as near them as he could, and by degrees he arrived within a short distance of the visitors, where he remained for some time observing their motions. The visitors were tiny little people of both sexes, and they were the most handsome people he had ever seen. Some of them were dancing, whirling round and round in a ring with joined hands. Others were chasing one another with surprising swiftness, and others again were galloping about on small white horses. Their dresses varied in colour, some being white and others scarlet. The little men wore red tripled caps and the little women a light head-dress, which waved fantastically in the breeze. All were laughing gleefully, and as merry as could be.

Before long they noticed the boy, and, with laughing faces, beckoned him to join them. So he gradually went nearer, till at length he ventured to place one foot in the circle. No sooner had he done so than his ears were charmed with the most melodious music in the world, and he moved his other foot into the circle.

The instant he did this, he found himself, not in a fairy ring on the mountain side, but in a magnificent palace glittering with gold and pearls. Every form of beauty surrounded him, and every variety of pleasure was offered him. He was free to range wherever he pleased, and his every movement was waited on by maidens of matchless loveliness. Instead of the tatws a llaeth (potatoes and butter-milk) and the flummery to which he had hitherto been accustomed, here were the choicest viands, served on silver plates, and instead of small beer, the only kind of intoxicating liquor he had before tasted, here were red and yellow wines of wondrous enjoyableness, brought in golden goblets richly inlaid with gems. There was only one restriction on his freedom: he was not to drink on any consideration from a certain fountain in the garden, in which swam fishes of golden and other colours. Each day new joys were provided for him; new pastimes were invented to charm him and new faces presented themselves, more lovely, if possible, than those he had seen before.

Possessing everything that mortal could desire, the boy still wanted the one thing forbidden. Like Eve in the Garden of Eden, he was undone by curiosity. One day he was near the fountain, gazing at the fishes sporting in the water. There was nobody looking on, and he plunged his hand into the fountain: the fishes all disappeared instantly. He put the water to his mouth: a confused shriek ran through the garden. He drank: the palace and all vanished, and he found himself on the mountain in the very place where he first entered the ring. The sheep were grazing just where he had left them, and the fog on the mountain had scarcely moved. He thought he had been absent for many years, but he had only been away so many minutes.