Iron and Gold

First published in 1948, this is a skillful retelling of the best known Welsh fairy bride folktale, The Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach. Lured from her underwater home to become a farmer's wife in the Brecon Beacons, the fairy bride discovers that both her difference and her acquired familiarity breed marital breakdown and tragedy. The author uses the story as a reflection on the nature of marriage, the social construction of gender roles, and the human yearning for strange beauty. It is indispensable in any consideration of Welsh feminism in the first half of the 20th century, and continues to have great relevance to the modern reader.