Tales From The Land Of Dragons

by Clive Gilson (Editor)

Overview

Folk & Fairy Tales, Legends, Myths & Sagas from Wales - I’ve been collecting and telling stories for many years now, having had a number of my own works published in recent years, particularly focused on short story writing in the realms of magical realities and science fiction fantasies.

I’ve always drawn heavily on traditional folk and fairy tales, and in so doing have amassed a collection of many thousands of these tales from around the world. It has always been a long-standing intention to gather these stories together and to create a free library of these tales that tell the stories of places and peoples around the world.
Now that I’ve got a digitised archive up and running, I’m finally in a position to start on the great project… and this volume, Tales from the Land of Dragons, is the first in a set of collections covering the whole of the British Isles.

Time and facility allowing, I fully intend to go northwards next, covering the lands of ice and snow, before then heading south and east across Europe. Even then we’ll just be scratching the surface. Far flung continents, lands and peoples beckon us ever onwards in our journey.

That’s the great gift in storytelling. Since the first of our ancestors sat around in a cave somewhere, contemplating an ape’s place in the world, we have, as a species, told each other stories of magic and cunning and caution and love. When I began to read through tales from the Celts, tales from Indonesia, tales from Africa and the Far East, tales from everywhere, one of the things that struck me clearly was just how similar are the roots.

We share characters and characteristics. The natures of these tales are so similar underneath the local camouflage. We clearly share a storytelling heritage so much deeper than the world that we see superficially as always having been just as it is now.

These tales, whenever and wherever their origin, were originally told by firelight as a way of preserving histories and educating both adult and child. These tales form part of our shared heritage, witches, warts and all. They can be dark and violent. They can be sweet and loving. They are we and we are they in many, many ways.

Every story does, by the way, have a brief attribution, both of the original collector / writer and the title that this particular version has been adapted from. I’ve loved reading and re-reading all of these stories. I hope you do too.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781913500047
Publisher:	Clive Gilson
Publication date:	12/15/2019
Series:	Tales from the World's Firesides , #1
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

I was born in 1962 into a predominantly sporting household - Dad being a good footballer, playing senior amateur and lower league professional football in England, as well as running a series of private businesses in partnership with mum, herself an accomplished and medal winning dancer. I obtained a degree in History from Leeds University before wandering rather haphazardly into the emerging world of business computing in the late nineteen-eighties. A little like my sporting father, I followed a succession of amateur writing paths alongside my career in technology, including working as a freelance journalist and book reviewer, my one claim to fame being a by-line in a national newspaper in the UK, The Sunday People. I also spent 10 years treading the boards, appearing all over the south of the UK in pantos and plays, in village halls and occasionally on the stage of a professional theatre or two. Following the sporting theme, and a while after I hung up my own boots, I worked on live TV broadcasts for the BBC, ITV, TVNZ, EuroSport and others as a rugby "Stato", covering Heineken Cups, Six Nations, IRB World Sevens and IRB World Cups in the late '90's and early '00's. I try to combine my love of storytelling with a passion for information technology, and am currently Vice President - Technology with a major UK FinTech company. You can find out more about Clive's work and contact me at: https://www.boyonabench.com

Table of Contents

PREFACE

A BOY THAT VISITED FAIRYLAND

BETH GELLERT

BRYNEGLWYS WAGGONERS

CADER IDRIS DANCERS

CROWS

DAFYDD FAWR

DICK THE FIDDLER AND THE FAIRY CROWN-PIECE

ELIDORUS AND THE FAIRIES

FFRIDD YR YWEN

GWRGAN FARFDRWCH’S FABLE

HAVELOK THE DANE

HE WHO WOULD MARRY A FAIRY

HOW THE CYMRY LAND BECAME INHABITED

KADDY’S LUCK

KING ARTHUR’S CAVE

OLD GWILYM

ORIGIN OF THE WELSH

POWELL, PRINCE OF DYFED

POWELL AND HIS BRIDE

ROBERT ROBERTS AND THE FAIRIES

ROWLI PUGH

TAFFY AP SION

THE BABY-FARMER

THE BLACK GREYHOUND

THE BOY THAT WAS NAMED TROUBLE

THE CORWRION CHANGELING LEGEND

THE CRAIG-Y-DON BLACKSMITH

THE DREAM OF MAXEN WLEDIG

THE EGG SHELL POTTAGE

THE FAIRIES OF CARAGONAN

THE FAIRIES’ MINT

THE FAIRY OF THE DELL

THE FAIRY’S MIDWIFE

THE GREAT RED DRAGON OF WALES

THE HERON, THE CAT & THE BRAMBLE

THE HIDDEN GOLDEN CHAIR

THE KING’S FOOT HOLDER

THE LONG-LIVED ANCESTORS

THE MAIDEN OF THE GREEN FOREST

THE MIGHTY MONSTER AFANG

THE OLD MAN AND THE FAIRIES

THE PENTREFOELAS LEGEND

THE RED BANDITS OF MONTGOMERY

THE SHEPHERD OF MYDDVAI

THE SILVER SHILLINGS

THE SON OF LLECH Y DERWYDD

THE SPELLBOUND MAN

THE STORY OF THE PIG-TROUGH

THE TALE OF IVAN

THE TOUCH OF CLAY

THE TREASURE STONE OF THE FAIRIES

THE TWO CAT WITCHES

THE WELSH FAIRIES HOLD A MEETING

WELSH RABBIT AND HUNTED HARES

WHY THE BACKDOOR WAS FRONT

WILLIAM DAVIES

Y FUWCH GYFEILIORN

HISTORICAL NOTES

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Editorial Reviews

I have edited Clive Gilson’s books for over a decade now – he’s prolific and can turn his hand to many genres. poetry, short fiction, contemporary novels, folklore and science fiction – and the common theme is that none of them ever fails to take my breath away. There’s something in each story that is either memorably poignant, hauntingly unnerving or sidesplittingly funny.

Lorna Howarth, The Write Factor

From the Publisher