tale of Elidorus--Celtic and Teutonic stories of theft from
supernatural beings--The thief unsuccessful--Cases of successful
robbery--Robbery from the king of the serpents--Robbery of a
drinking-cup, or horn--The horn of Oldenburg and similar
vessels--The Luck of Edenhall--The cup of Ballafletcher--These
vessels sacrificial and pagan.

The earliest writers who allude to the Welsh fairy traditions are
Giraldus Cambrensis and Walter Map, two members of that constellation of
literary men which rendered brilliant the early years of the Plantagenet
dynasty. Giraldus, with whom alone we have to do in this chapter, lays
the scene of what is perhaps his most famous story near Swansea, and
states that the adventures narrated occurred a short time before his own
days. The story concerns one Elidorus, a priest, upon whose persistent
declarations it is founded. This good man in his youth ran away from the
discipline and frequent stripes of his preceptor, and hid himself under
the hollow bank of a river. There he remained fasting for two days; and
then two men of pigmy stature appeared, and invited him to come with
them, and they would lead him into a country full of delights and
sports. A more powerful temptation could not have been offered to a
runaway schoolboy of twelve years old; and the invitation was speedily
accepted. He accompanied his guides into a subterranean land, where he
found a people of small stature but pure morals. He was brought into the
presence of the king, and by him handed over to his son, who was then a
boy. In that land he dwelt for some time; but he often used to return by
various paths to the upper day, and on one of these occasions he made
himself known to his mother, declaring to her the nature, manners, and
state of the pigmy folk. She desired him to bring her a present of gold,
which was plentiful in that region; and he accordingly stole a golden
ball while at play with the king's son, and ran off with it to his
mother, hotly pursued. Reaching home, his foot stumbled on the
threshold, and, dropping the ball, he fell into the room where his
mother was sitting. The two pigmies who had followed him at once seized
the ball and made off with it, not without expressing their contempt for
the thief who had returned their kindness with such ingratitude; and
Elidorus, though he sought it carefully with penitence and shame, could
never again find the way into the underground realm.[104