Fairy Procession
If ever you should come across a procession of dancing Tylwyth Teg, and should they ask you to join them, the consensus of opinion is that you should politely decline. The many stories from North East Wales that tell of fairy dancing suggest joining in will lead to dire consequences for the mere mortal. The example of a young boy of Cwm is a case in point, told to Elias Owen by a Mrs Morris of the vicarage at Cwm.
Sent on a domestic errand by his mother one morning, the young boy failed to return. Search parties failed to find the lad, and it was believed by his family, friends and the community that he had been abducted, or worse murdered. Many years passed and the boy was largely forgotten by all but his family.
However, one day he returned, clutching the item that he had originally been sent to collect. However, so many years had passed that he was no longer the boy who had left his mother’s house, but an old man, frail and grey haired. This it appears was a complete surprise to him, since he believed he had only been absent a short while and needed convincing of his great age. He claimed to have heard delightful music played by delightful people and followed a while and unknowingly, it seems, become part of a fairy procession.
On realising what had happened, the old man became quite distressed and, perhaps realising that his loved ones had long since passed on, decided to return to the land of the fairies from whence he had wandered. He spent his last years searching in vain for a way back to Annwn, and died disappointed.