Courtship and Marriage - British Goblins CT026

Courtship and Marriage

British Goblins: Welsh Folk Lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions (1881)

Book 3 Chapter 5

by

Wirt Sikes

Welsh customs of courtship and marriage. Sikes tells us about the Welsh Goddess of Love, later known as St. Dwynwen and how commonplace was the Welsh custom of 'Bundling' or 'courting abed'! We learn about romantic divination and how a Maid may find herself in trouble with the fairies if she is not a 'true maid'. He finishes the chapter by discussing divination by the Knife and the Sheath!

• Courtship and Marriage
• Planting Weeds and Rue on the Graves of Old Bachelors
• Special Significance of Flowers in connection with virginity
• The Welsh Venus
• Bundling, or Courting Abed
• Kissing Schools
• Rhamanta
• Lovers' Superstitions
• The Maid's Trick
• Dreaming on a Mutton Bone
• Wheat and Shovel
• Garters in a Lovers' Knot
• Egg-Shell Cake
• Sowing Leeks
• Twca and Sheath

 

Names Used in this Section

All proper names, and words in Welsh or other languages, are recorded here in the show-notes and we've done our best to get the pronunciations right for you.

Rhamanta
Twca and Sheath
Howell the Good
Dwynwen, daughter of Brychan

St. Dwynwen - Artwork © Jonathon Earl Bowser – www.JonathonArt.com

Anglesea
Thomas Stephens
Sopen, sypio
Pontypool
Caru yn y gwelu (courting abed)

Bundling, or Courting Abed

Myrdim, Carmarthenshire
Pemrokeshire
Glamorganshire

Y sawl sydd i gydfydio,
Doed i gydgribinio!

'Dyma'r twca, p'le mae'r wain?' (Here's the twca, where's the sheath?)

 

British Goblins can be found on Archive.org

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