This thesis has two main parts. Part 1 explores the names used as synonyms for ‘Tylwyth Teg’, giving an initial insight through semantics into the nature of these supernatural beings, and revealing the relevance of the cultural context of the relevant texts: motifs and tale types from both nineteenth-century folklore and medieval and early modern literature are explored. I ask anew whether the otherworld is identical to hell or a realm of the dead. The importance of folk beliefs related to the denizens of the otherworld for devising an imagery for the process of poetic creativity and for transformational processes will be shown. Part 2 focusses on the historical development of traditions connected with the Tylwyth Teg, a valuable tool for the historian, providing deepened social insight.
The study is one of longue durée, covering a period from the Middle Ages onwards, and is a combination of overview and focus. I explore various tensions arising between the use of folklore in creative processes of appropriation, and mechanisms that ‘other’ the socially disadvantaged. The euhemerization of the fairies during the rivalry of druidic and Celtic traditions at the turn of the eighteenth to the nineteenth century provokes an extended study of John Rhŷs’ influential model of British prehistory: I explore how he used social Darwinism to read fairy folklore for political and cultural reasons verging on the nationalist and suggest how the broad traditions of interpretation and recreation manifest themselves in nineteenth-century literature. I take here as specific comparative case studies the prose of Daniel Owen and the poetry of Glasynys, highlighting the contrast between more romantic readings, and the novel ideas originating in Rhŷs. Finally, and more briefly, the theories are pushed in the direction of the present day, with an analysis of the role of fairy traditions in alternative religion, once again performed with special attention to how Rhŷs was appropriated (this time by the feminist goddess movement and neo-pagan syncretism). Appendices gives examples from twentieth century literature which suggest future directions of research.