Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
Goblin Funeral
In a story attributed to Edmund Jones, a clergyman mistakes a strange funeral for a burial requiring his service. When he lays a hand on the bier, the procession disappears, leaving a horse’s skull in his hand. A second witness removes a fine black veil from a passing bier and carries it home. The accounts allow contact to leave an object even when the procession itself cannot be retained.
Also known as Teulu
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In the sources
Principal account
TraditionalIn a story attributed to Edmund Jones, a clergyman mistakes a strange funeral for a burial requiring his service. When he lays a hand on the bier, the procession disappears, leaving a horse’s skull in his hand.
Further detail
TraditionalA second witness removes a fine black veil from a passing bier and carries it home. The accounts allow contact to leave an object even when the procession itself cannot be retained.
Context & interpretation
The entry concerns two distinct goblin-funeral accounts reproduced by Sikes. The skull and veil belong to different witnesses’ stories; they are not combined into one procession or treated as independently examined artefacts.
Original passages
Source 1
British Goblins
in his hand he found the skull of a dead horseOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880), active reader leaf 247
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-P0247
- Original scan leaf
- 248
- Recorded leaf number
- 248
- Current Reader position
- 246
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
British Goblins
took off the black veil which was over the bierOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880), active reader leaf 247
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-P0247
- Original scan leaf
- 248
- Recorded leaf number
- 248
- Current Reader position
- 246
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed