 Brewery of Eggshells
In Treneglwys there is a certain shepherd's
cot known by the name of
Twt y Cymrws because of the strange strife that occurred
there.
There once lived there a man and his wife, and they had
twins whom
the woman nursed tenderly. One day she was called away
to the house
of a neighbour at some distance. She did not much like
going and
leaving her little ones all alone in a solitary house,
especially as
she had heard tell of the good folk haunting the neighbourhood.
Well, she went and came back as soon as she could, but
on her way
back she was frightened to see some old elves of the blue
petticoat
crossing her path though it was midday. She rushed home,
but found
her two little ones in the cradle and everything seemed
as it was
before.
But after a time the good people began to suspect that
something was
wrong, for the twins didn't grow at all.
The man said: "They're not
ours."
The woman said: "Whose else
should they be?"
And so arose the great strife so that the neighbours named
the
cottage after it. It made the woman very sad, so one evening
she
made up her mind to go and see the Wise Man of Llanidloes,
for he
knew everything and would advise her what to do.
So she went to Llanidloes and told the case to the Wise
Man. Now
there was soon to be a harvest of rye and oats, so the
Wise Man said
to her, "When you are getting dinner for the reapers,
clear out the
shell of a hen's egg and boil some potage in it, and then
take it to
the door as if you meant it as a dinner for the reapers.
Then listen
if the twins say anything. If you hear them speaking of
things
beyond the understanding of children, go back and take
them up and
throw them into the waters of Lake Elvyn. But if you don't
hear
anything remarkable, do them no injury."
So when the day of the reap came the woman did all that
the Wise Man
ordered, and put the eggshell on the fire and took it off
and
carried it to the door, and there she stood and listened.
Then she
heard one of the children say to the other:
Acorn before oak I knew,
An egg before a hen,
But I never heard of an eggshell brew
A dinner for harvest men.
So she went back into the house, seized the children and
threw them
into the Llyn, and the goblins in their blue trousers came
and saved
their dwarfs and the mother had her own children back and
so the
great strife ended. |
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