The Fairies have, in Wales, at least three common and distinctive names, as well as others that are not nowadays used.
The first and most general name given to the Fairies is “Y Tylwyth Têg,” or, the Fair Tribe, an expressive and descriptive term. They are spoken of as a people, and not as myths or goblins, and they are said to be a fair or handsome race.
Another common name for the Fairies, is, “Bendith y Mamau,” or, “The Mothers’ Blessing.” In Doctor Owen Pughe’s Dictionary they are called “Bendith eu Mamau,” or, “Their Mothers’ Blessing.” The first is the most common expression, at least in North Wales. It is a
singularly strange expression, and difficult to explain. Perhaps it hints at a Fairy origin on the mother’s side of certain fortunate people.
The third name given to Fairies is “Ellyll,” an elf, a demon, a goblin. This name conveys these beings to the land of spirits, and makes them resemble the oriental Genii, and Shakespeare’s sportive elves. It agrees, likewise, with the modern popular creed respecting goblins and their doings.
Davydd ab Gwilym, in a description of a mountain mist in which he was once enveloped, says:—
Yr ydoedd ym mhob gobant
Ellyllon mingeimion gant.There were in every hollow
A hundred wrymouthed elves.The Cambro-Briton, v. I., p. 348.
In Pembrokeshire the Fairies are called Dynon Buch Têg, or the Fair Small People.
Another name applied to the Fairies is Plant Annwfn, or Plant Annwn. This, however, is not an appellation in common use. The term is applied to the Fairies in the third paragraph of a Welsh prose poem called Bardd Cwsg, thus:—
Y bwriodd y Tylwyth Têg fi . . . oni bai fy nyfod i mewn
pryd i’th achub o gigweiniau Plant Annwfn.Where the Tylwyth Têg threw me . . . if I had not come
in time to rescue thee from the clutches of Plant Annwfn.