Repeat Faerie Friday Post - Bwca, Bwca, Bwca

I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize for my lackluster (and sometimes absent) Faerie Friday posts.  I liked the quick posts I did for the A to Z challenge, but now after reflection, I’ve decided that this is just making me a very lazy writer. 

Starting next week I’ll strive to be better.  Right now I am hot and cranky and I have little confidence that I can be my usual charming self.  Instead, I’ll share with you an old blog post that was one of my favs.   It’s from November’s Hairy Beastie Month. 

I hope you enjoy. 

Welcome to the last week of Hairy Beastie Month! I know I am two and a half days late. I blame it on pumpkin pie and sausage stuffing. (Speaking of sausage, I do realize that the Bwca in the picture above is exposing his boy-parts. I thought I’d get this out of the way. Laugh and point at the Naked Bwca. I did.)

The Bwca is a Welsh House Faerie, kind of like the English Brownie with a Boggart twist. The Brownie is a faerie that helps out around the house. Not to be confused with young roving-cookie-peddling division of the Girl Scouts. A Boggart is a poorly behaved house spirit who makes a general nuisance of himself (herself?)

The Bwca is short, about two to three feet high, with a long nose and long fingers. He’s described as being shaggy and resides in rural Wales. He doesn’t like teetotalers or clergy men. (I don’t either to tell you the truth.) He apparently doesn’t like people with long noses, either. (I bare no such grudge.)

Bwca’s are mainly known for churning butter. If anyone has tried to make butter, you know it’s a major time suck and not that much fun. Bwcas also do other chores around the house like weaving, laundry, and general household drudgery. He just asks that the hearth be clean and that you leave out a bowl of milk or cream out for him as a reward for a good day’s work.

Should be simple enough, right? A simple you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-your-back arrangement. If the Bwca is offended or slighted in anyway, he can turn horribly vicious pinching, throwing things, ripping clothes, sharing family secrets, banging loudly on the walls. There is a popular story about a woman who left a bowl of urine out for the Bwca who did all the dirty work in her house. The Bwca grabbed the tart by her throat and dragged her around the house, beating the stuffing out of her. As far as I am concerned, if you leave a stale bowl of urine out for someone as payment, you deserve anything you get! She had it coming.

Once a Bwca is offended, you get no more work from him. He sets about to make your life as unpleasant as possible. The only way to get rid of one is the hire a Cunning Man to use iron or holy water to chase the little shit away.

I’d like a Bwca. I’d ask him to put some clothes on first, but he’d be infinitely useful. The laundry is piling up after a month of general laziness and NaNoWriMo. I wonder if he could wrap Christmas presents and clean closets and run the vacuum.