young and attractive from the front, but seen from behind they are hollow
like kneading-troughs.^33
CelticDedicatory inscriptions from Roman Spain and Gaul bear witness to many
indigenous nymph cults, the Latin Nymphae being qualified by various
local names. Probably no sharp distinction was made between these and the
collectivities of Mothers whose popularity in these countries was noted in
Chapter 3.^34
In any case we must turn to later evidence before any clearer profile
emerges. Guillaume d’Auvergne, Archbishop of Paris from 1228 to 1249,
wrote of people being deluded by evil spirits who appeared sometimes in the
likeness of girls or women, dressed in white, in groves and among leafy trees;
sometimes they visited houses and stables, carrying wax tapers, and left drops
of wax on horses’ manes.^35
French folklore tells of Green Women (Dames vertes) who dwell in the
woods and may sometimes be heard there singing and calling out. They
appear, singly or in groups, to travellers and lead them astray, enticing them
into the deepest thickets, where they persecute them without mercy and lead
them a merry dance.^36
The korrigans of Breton lore are irresistibly beautiful creatures with golden
hair, living in the ancient forest of Brocéliande around wells, fountains,
dolmens, and menhirs. They seduce mortal men and cause them to perish for
love. The Manx lhiannan-shee likewise haunts wells and springs. She appears
before a man, devastatingly beautiful, but unless he resists her charms she
drains him body and soul. There are many Irish and Welsh stories of such
supernatural females who take a mortal lover, perhaps marry him, but then
leave him, often because he has broken an agreed condition, as in the Indian
story of Puru ̄ ruvas and Urvas ́ı ̄.^37
The Welsh fairies known as the Fair Folk (y tylwyth teg) are often associated
with lakes, especially Llyn y Fan Fach in south Wales. They have fair hair, and
are liable to claim fair-haired children as their own.^38
(^33) Ibid. 125.
(^34) Vendryès (1948), 278; cf. F. Heichelheim, RE xvii. 1581–99.
(^35) Guilielmus Alvernus, Opera Omnia, i (Paris 1674), 1066G, quoted by Grimm (1883–8),
287.
(^36) Mannhardt (1905), i. 117–20.
(^37) James MacKillop, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (Oxford–New York 1998), 256, 179 f.
(^38) MacKillop (as n. 37), 368
290 7. Nymphs and Gnomes