Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
Shui Rhys
Shui Rhys is a seventeen-year-old farmer’s daughter who delays while bringing cows home. When rebuked for returning late, she explains that the fair folk kept her, changing how the household treats her wandering. Eventually she fails to return at all. Her mother searches and watches on the three spirit nights, but never sees her again; even a rumour of her presence in a foreign city fails to displace the fairy explanation.
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In the sources
Principal account
TraditionalShui Rhys is a seventeen-year-old farmer’s daughter who delays while bringing cows home. When rebuked for returning late, she explains that the fair folk kept her, changing how the household treats her wandering.
Further detail
TraditionalEventually she fails to return at all. Her mother searches and watches on the three spirit nights, but never sees her again; even a rumour of her presence in a foreign city fails to displace the fairy explanation.
Context & interpretation
The entry concerns the Cardiganshire story told to Sikes by a peasant. The character’s disappearance and later rumour belong to that reported narrative; neither the fairy explanation nor the city rumour is established as fact.
Original passages
Source 1
British Goblins
it was the Tylwyth TegOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880), active reader leaf 82
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-P0082
- Original scan leaf
- 83
- Recorded leaf number
- 83
- Current Reader position
- 81
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
British Goblins
Shui never returnedOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880), active reader leaf 84
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-P0084
- Original scan leaf
- 85
- Recorded leaf number
- 85
- Current Reader position
- 83
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Illustrations
Continue exploring
Elidurus
A runaway child welcomed into an underground fairy country until he steals a golden ball.
Same subject and traditionPwyll
The prince of Dyfed whose hunt brings him into contact with Annwn’s hounds.
Same subject and traditionShon ap Shenkin
A listener who returns from a bird’s song to discover that generations have passed.
Same subject and traditionSleeping Warriors
Hidden companies of heroes waiting beside treasure for the time of their return.