Case file · Fairy lore
The Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach
A Welsh legend, printed in 1861 with the medical texts of the Physicians of Myddfai, tells of a fairy woman from the lake Llyn y Fan Fach who married a farmer and left after he struck her three times.
1861 CE · 51.88, -3.74 · status: legend
The account
Before returning to the lake she taught her sons healing, and they became the Physicians of Myddfai, a real line of doctors said to have served Rhys Gryg in the 1230s. Their herbal remedies survive in medieval manuscripts.
The sceptical view
The fairy-bride story is a widespread folktale attached to a real medical family; the year is when it was printed.