A young man inherited the small farm on which he had grown up, by a lake not far from Caernarvon. He was bright and hard-working, but still had a great deal of youth in him. As a boy, he used to go about the countryside observing the birds and animals, and in all of that, he had also come to know where the fairies gathered, and he loved to watch them at their dances.

Even after he took over the farm, he would still go out in the evenings to spy on the fairy folk, for there was no one to talk to at his house, and they became a kind of company for him.

There was one young woman among the fairies that he particularly liked to watch at the dance, for she was not just lovely but had a way of laughing when she danced that made all around her happy. After a time, he felt himself falling in love with her, though he knew it could never be.

But, despite knowing it could never be, there came a night when he could watch no longer. He burst into the middle of the dance and, taking the fairy woman by the hand, ran home across the fields while she protested and tried to pull away and all her fairy family chased after them.

Once he had brought her inside the house, however, the fairy folk could come no closer, for the latch and hinges were of iron, and fairies, who come from the old days before such things existed, cannot tolerate iron.

The young man quickly learned that he had made a mistake. The only thing more sure than that a mortal and a fairy cannot be husband and wife is that you can?t force someone to love you against her will, and the fairy was not happy to have been kidnapped from her family.

Still, she saw that the young man had meant no evil, and so she made him this bargain: ?I will not marry you, but, if you can guess my name, I will stay as your servant, and keep your house for you.?

This was better than nothing, he decided, and he began at once to guess every name he had ever heard, and some he had only read in books. But to each, she shook her head, and even laughed at some of them.

Each day, as he worked in the fields and pastures, he thought of names, and each night, he would try them, and she would smile and shake her head again, until it became almost a game between them.

Then one evening, as he came in from the far pasture, he became aware of fairies gathered behind a hedge, and crept close to listen. To his delight, he discovered that they were trying to find a way to free their sister, and one of them said, ?Oh, dear Penelope, why did you ever run away with a mortal??

As soon as he came in the door, he said, ?I hope this evening you will agree to stay as my housekeeper, Penelope.?

At the sound of her name, her face fell, but a bargain was a bargain and she agreed to stay as she had promised. Indeed, between his hard work and her magical influence, the farm became highly successful. The crops grew better, the hens laid more eggs and the cows gave more and richer butter than at other farm in the valley.

What was more surprising than that was that Penelope not only forgave the farmer for taking her from her people, but slowly fell in love with him.

After several years, she agreed to become his wife, but on one condition only: ?You must promise never to strike me with iron,? she said. ?If ever you do, I will have to leave you at once!?

The young man looked hurt. ?I would never strike you at all,? he said.

?Still,? she said, ?you must promise.?

?Very well,? he said. ?I will never strike you with iron. I promise.?

And so they were married, and over the next few years, the farm grew, as did their love for each other. First she bore him a son, and then a daughter, and they raised them to be healthy, happy children in a family of great joy.

One day, they decided to go to the fair in Caernarvon. It would be a nice outing for the children, and the farmer had a young mare he wanted to sell.

The children were clean, dressed and ready, and Penelope had prepared a lunch to take with them, but the farmer was having trouble getting a bridle on the mare.

She was a lively, skittish beast, and every time he came near her, she would toss her head and run across the paddock away from him. At last, Penelope came out to help, and the two of them managed to get the mare into a corner.

The farmer stepped forward slowly, holding the bridle out so the mare could see that he meant no harm.

He gently reached for her, but, at the last minute, she tossed her head again and burst past him. The farmer lost his temper, and, turning, threw the bridle.

To his horror, and hers, it struck Penelope, and the iron bit of the bridle hit her on the cheek. She reached out a hand towards her husband, but the beautiful, loving fairy wife quickly faded into nothingness before his eyes.

And yet our story does not end there. Because she had been struck with iron, she could never return to the land of mortals, but Penelope found a way to visit with her family yet. She made a floating island of sod out in the lake near the farm, and when the moon was full, she would sit on that island.

Her husband and the children would come to the shore of the lake, and tell her what they had been doing.

She would sing to the children, and tell them stories until the sun began to chase the stars from the skies.

And if you go today to northern Wales, you?ll find a lake called ?Llyn y Dywarchen,? or ?The Lake of the Sod,? and there you can see the little island next to the shore, where the fairy wife, Penelope, would sit when she came to visit her lost family.

@EDITRULE: