British Goblins: Welsh Folklore, Fairy Mythology, Legends, and Traditions Reprint edition

Wirt Sikes's 1881 tome defines and records Welsh fairy legends as they existed -- still vital, alive, not just a mordant mythology but living folklore in that year. Like many texts of the time, it treats the subject mechanically, detailing fairy legends with such care and precision as to leach away a measuyre of the magic. But all the same, there's plenty of magic here: this is the myth that modern fasntasy grows from; and the truth is that it's not to be found elsewhere still alive. (Jacketless library hardcover.)