Dino Kids
Rhys at the Fairy Dance
A young farmhand joins a fairy dance for just a few minutes, or so he thinks, until his friend comes to bring him home.
Long ago in a green valley in Wales, two young farmhands named Rhys and Llewellyn worked for the same farmer. One evening, they were leading the farmer’s ponies home after a long day of work. The sun had gone down, and the fields were turning silver in the twilight.
Suddenly, Rhys stopped in the middle of the path. “Listen!” he said. “Can you hear that music?” Llewellyn listened very hard, but he could hear nothing but the wind and the ponies’ hooves. “It’s harp music, and lovely tunes I have never heard before,” said Rhys, and his feet began to tap. “You go on with the ponies, and I will catch up with you after just one dance.” Before Llewellyn could say a word, Rhys skipped away across the meadow and was gone.
Llewellyn took the ponies home and waited, but Rhys did not come. In the morning, the farmer and all the neighbors searched the fields, but they could not find him anywhere. Weeks went by, and then months, and Llewellyn missed his friend every single day.
At last, a wise old farmer heard the story and nodded slowly. “Your friend has stepped into a fairy ring,” he said. “Go back to the very same spot a year and a day after he left, and you may bring him home.”
So when the day came, Llewellyn went back to the meadow with the farmer and some friends. At first they saw only grass, but then Llewellyn heard harps playing, sweet and faraway. He looked down and saw a ring of tiny people dancing round and round, dressed in bright colors. And there, in the middle of them, was Rhys, dancing and laughing!
Llewellyn put one foot on the edge of the ring, while his friends held tightly to his coat. He reached in, caught Rhys by the sleeve, and pulled him out onto the grass. The music stopped, and the little dancers vanished like dew in the sunshine.
“Let me go back!” cried Rhys. “I have only danced for five minutes!” “Five minutes?” said Llewellyn. “You have been gone for a whole year!” Rhys did not believe him until he got home and saw how much the lambs had grown.
His mother hugged him and hugged him, and Rhys was glad to be home. But for the rest of his life, whenever he heard harp music on the evening breeze, he smiled and kept his feet very still.
A traditional tale, retold for young children by Dino Kids (CC0).
Hear this story read aloud
In the Dino Kids app, “Rhys at the Fairy Dance” is read aloud, the sentence being read lights up, and there are three reading speeds for little ears. Parents can also record it in their own voice. Free, no ads, no in-app purchases.
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