Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
Ellyllon
The Ellyllon are small elves whose places are groves, valleys and little hollows. Sikes contrasts these forest beings with the more threatening mountain fairies, giving the woodland encounter a distinct setting within the broader fairy family. Their food is described as fairy butter and fairy victuals; their gloves are the bells of the foxglove. These names connect the beings to recognisable features of rocks, fungi and flowers rather than to a separate catalogue of invented materials.
Also known as Ellyll
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In the sources
Principal account
TraditionalThe Ellyllon are small elves whose places are groves, valleys and little hollows. Sikes contrasts these forest beings with the more threatening mountain fairies, giving the woodland encounter a distinct setting within the broader fairy family.
Further detail
TraditionalTheir food is described as fairy butter and fairy victuals; their gloves are the bells of the foxglove. These names connect the beings to recognisable features of rocks, fungi and flowers rather than to a separate catalogue of invented materials.
Context & interpretation
The entry concerns Sikes’s woodland-elves account and the associated names for food and gloves. Plant and food descriptions belong to folklore; his speculative comparisons between words are not adopted here as established etymology.
Original passages
Source 1
British Goblins
pigmy elves who haunt the groves and valleysOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880), active reader leaf 28
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-P0028
- Original scan leaf
- 29
- Recorded leaf number
- 29
- Current Reader position
- 27
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
British Goblins
Their gloves, menyg ellyllon, are the bells of the digitalisOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880), active reader leaf 29
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-P0029
- Original scan leaf
- 30
- Recorded leaf number
- 30
- Current Reader position
- 28
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Continue exploring
Bwbach
A household goblin who helps with work but can torment an unwelcome guest.
Same subject and traditionCoblynau
Mine fairies whose knocking is said to reveal rich veins of ore.
Same subject and traditionEllylldan
The luring elf-fire that draws a wanderer into marshy ground.
Same subject and traditionGwragedd Annwn
Women of the lake realm, whose encounters with humans can cross the boundary of Annwn.