New Collector’s Edition of Welsh Folk and Fairy Tales book released

Ella Groves

A new hardback Collector’s Edition of ‘Welsh Folk and Fairy Tales’ has been published this week.

The publishers, Flame Tree Publishing, were established in the 1990s and have spent the last few decades creating beautiful illustrated books, notebooks, and art calendars.

Part of the Collector’s Editions series, the new hardback edition features a front cover adorned in Welsh imagery with gilded pages.

The book brings together a collection of stories from lesser-known local legends to popular classic tales all featuring cunning folk, fae, and faraway lands.

Including stories such as ‘Pedws Ffowc and St Elian’s Well’ and ‘Pwca of the Trwyn’, the book is full of enchanting tales which reflect the vibrant cultural heritage of Wales.

The author of the new introduction especially for this edition, Dr Delyth Badder, is a Welsh folklorist and Honorary Research Fellow at St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff.

She was honoured by Gorsedd Cymru in 2024 in recognition of her contribution to Welsh folklore study.

On her contribution to the book she said: “I was understandably delighted when Flame Tree approached me to write the introduction for this new anthology of Welsh folk and fairy tales, least of all given how beautiful the Collector’s Editions series is.

“Working as a folklorist, the tales included in this volume are many of those same stories that I grew up reading; they also feature in my research today, and so to be involved in sharing them with a wider audience is always a privilege.”

Dr Badder also expressed the importance of sharing stories from Welsh folklore saying: “There’s an unfortunate tendency for Welsh folklore to be misunderstood, mistranslated, or treated as an afterthought when discussing British – or even ‘Celtic’ – traditions, overlooking the fact that Wales has its own distinct and fascinating regional belief systems which have often evolved and survived separately from those of our neighbouring countries. Sharing these stories is one simple way of highlighting this rich and varied culture.

“The art of storytelling, of course, has a strong history in Wales, as evidenced by the earliest surviving Welsh medieval literature, such as the Four Branches of Y Mabinogi, which were most probably orated before they were eventually written down.

“These tales are full of magical beings and monsters, many of which are still present within contemporary folklore, as the tradition of sharing stories has remained important within Welsh communities to this day.”

Dr Badder announced the release of the book on her Instagram, Folklore Wales, where commenters were quick to share their thoughts, describing the new edition as “stunning” and “beautiful.”

The new edition is on sale for £10.99 and can be found here. It is also available on Amazon.