Adapted from versions of the same story in Welsh Folk-Lore by Owain Elias and in Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs.
IN THE PARISH OF TREFEGLWYS, NEAR Llanidloes, in the county of Montgomery, there is a little shepherd’s cot, that is commonly called Twt y Cwmrws (The Place of Strife) on account of the extraordinary trouble that has occurred there. The inhabitants of the cottage were a man and his wife, and they had born to them twins, whom the woman nursed with great care and tenderness.
Some months afterwards indispensable business called the wife to the house of one of her nearest neighbours; yet, notwithstanding she had not far to go, she did not like to leave her children by themselves in their cradle, even for a minute, as her house was solitary, and there were many tales of goblins or the ‘Tylwyth Têg’ (the Fair Family or the Fairies) haunting the neighbourhood. However, she went, and returned as soon as she could; but on coming back she felt herself not a little terrified on seeing on her way, though it was mid-day, some of ‘the old elves of the blue petticoat,’ as they are usually called. However, when she got back to her house she was rejoiced to find everything in the state that she had left it.
But after some time had passed by, the good people began to wonder that the twins did not grow at all, but still remained small and childlike in stature. The man would have it that they were not his children; the woman said that they must be their children, and about this arose the great strife between them that gave name to the place where they lived.
One evening when the woman was very heavy of heart she determined to go and consult a Gwr Cyfarwydd, a local Wise Man, feeling assured that everything was known to him, and he gave her this counsel. Now there was to be a harvest soon of the rye and oats; so, the wise man offered this advice.
“When you are preparing dinner for the reapers empty the shell of a hen’s egg and boil the shell full of pottage and take it out through the door as if you meant it for a dinner to the reapers, and then listen to what the twins will say. If you hear the children speaking things above the understanding of children, return into the house, take them, and throw them into the waves of Llyn Ebyr, which is very near to you. But if you don’t hear anything remarkable, do them no injury.’
So, when the day of the reaping came the woman did all that the Gwr Cyfarwydd ordered and put the eggshell on the fire and took it off and carried it to the door, and there she stood and listened. Then she heard one of the children say to the other child:
Gwelais vesen cyn gweled derwen,
Gwelais wy cyn gweled iâr,
Erioed ni welais verwi bwyd i vedel
Mewn plisgyn wy iâr!
Acorns before oak I knew,
An egg before a hen,
Never one hen’s egg-shell stew
Enough for harvestmen!
On this the mother returned to her house and took the two children, and threw them into the Llyn, and suddenly the goblins in their trousers came to save the dwarves that they had left in the children’s stead, and the woman had her own children back again, and thus the strife between her and her husband ended.