Week 12 Reading: Welsh (Emerson), Part B

Image on Wikipedia

This is a continuation of my Welsh (Emerson) unit notes. I was not as thrilled to read some of these stories as I was the last section from this unit as some of the stories refer to women as “females” who are treated as property by men. It greatly bothers me when women are called “females” because this is essentially taking away a woman’s humanity. We never hear of men referred to as “males.” I don’t care if these tales were written in 1892, this is still sexist.

One of these tales was a disturbing story called The Pellings. In this tale, a man kidnaps a fairy and takes her to his house. Instead of trying to flee, she stays because he is “nice” to her. Of course, she is referred to as his “female” and acts as the perfect housewife and gives him two children. This just sounds like a case of Stockholm syndrome to me. Another tale that referred to a woman as her husband’s “female” was The Long-Lived Ancestors. I was honestly so annoyed that I did not care to read the rest of this particular tale.

A tale that I did enjoy was Gwrgan Farfdrwch's Fable, similar to Aesop’s The Lion and the Goat. I have always enjoyed reading Aesop’s fables as they are short, fun, and usually have an important moral stated at the end. The Welsh tale had no explicit moral, but there is still an important lesson to be learned. In the story, a Lion tries to get a lone Goat to accompany him in the valley by praising her. She is able to see through his flattery and says that she will not join him for her own safety.

If you would like to read these tales, click here: link.

Emerson, Peter. Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories. 1892.