Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
Ellylldan
Sikes identifies Ellylldan with the wandering light known in English as Will-o’-the-wisp. In the Welsh account it dances about marshes and leads a traveller off the route into uncertain ground. A poetic account describes a light that dwindles when the follower stops, then rises and glides onward when he moves again. Eventually it joins other lights in a slow circular dance, leaving the follower asleep.
Also known as Elf-fire · Will-o’-the-wisp
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In the sources
Principal account
TraditionalSikes identifies Ellylldan with the wandering light known in English as Will-o’-the-wisp. In the Welsh account it dances about marshes and leads a traveller off the route into uncertain ground.
Further detail
TraditionalA poetic account describes a light that dwindles when the follower stops, then rises and glides onward when he moves again. Eventually it joins other lights in a slow circular dance, leaving the follower asleep.
Context & interpretation
This entry combines Sikes’s description of the luring light with the poetic account he quotes from The Vale of Glamorgan. It concerns a folkloric being, without asserting a supernatural explanation for actual marsh lights.
Original passages
Source 1
British Goblins
seen dancing about in marshy groundsOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880), active reader leaf 33
Exact passage checked against active scan text and its original-leaf mapping; whitespace and scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0044-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0044-E001-P0033
- Original scan leaf
- 34
- Recorded leaf number
- 34
- Current Reader position
- 32
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
British Goblins
When I lingered or stopped, it waited for meOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880), active reader leaf 34
Exact passage checked against active scan text and its original-leaf mapping; whitespace and scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0044-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0044-E001-P0034
- Original scan leaf
- 35
- Recorded leaf number
- 35
- Current Reader position
- 33
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
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