I was told this story by my oldest corgi Dressy who maintains that it was told to her by her mother who was told this by her mother who was told this by her mother.This is the true story of the origins of the corgis as they know it, not as the humans tell it.

It was at the turn of the 19th century the little folk of the British Isles realized that they were losing the battle with the humans. The industrial age was upon them. The hated iron was everywhere and getting more plentiful by the moment. The fairies and the elves, the bogles and the banshees and all the persons of the fay knew their days were numbered so they called a conference of all the sidhe (fairy folk) to decide on what was to be done.

The conference raged for weeks. Some wanted to leave this plane of existance all together, some wanted to stay but knew that without a major change they would not survive long. Finally, with Beltane (May 1st.) the next day, when the power would be at its height and the planes between the world we live in and the world of magic would be aligned; the fairies decided. The ones who wanted to stay would, but transformed. The elders would cast the circle, and bind the spell and the ones inside would be changed into tall, swift, elegant, hunting hounds. Humans would revere them, treasure them invite them into their homes and treat them like royality. There would be no more strife and the deadly iron would no longer be a bane to them.

So the circle was cast. The spell was almost completed, and as the magic swirled about pandemonium struck! The pwcas! (prononced poo-ka, a mischievious welsh imp renowned for its shape shifting abilities and its nasty practical jokes). The pwcas! The pwcas had not been invited to the conference on purpose and now they charged in, jumped into the circle and joined in the transformation, for they had no wish to leave this world nor to be left at the mercy of men. They loved their jokes and tricks too much to ever give them up and go to the plane of only the sidhe.

Well, if you know anything at all about magic, you know that you simply cannot go jumping into a spell. It simply mucks things up. Things go awry. Instead of elegant hunting hounds out came corgis!

That is why corgis carry so much dignity some of the time. Their heritage from their elven grandparents and are such clowns the other times thanks to their fairy ancestry. And when they are really, really bad we can blame the pwcas. This is also why corgis bark at what we think of as nothing. They have retained some of their fairy sight. They are chasing away bad luck and evil spirits to protect their homes. And why they seem to read our minds or why they simply MUST go outside first thing in the morning to dew-sponge. (It protects the grass and the flowers from burning when the sun comes up. Or so they tell me!)


All of this was told to me by my corgi late at night after a long night of dancing and drinking.

Recorded by Sue Mesa and reproduced with the kind permission of Dressy.

Dressy alias Ch. Vestavia No Dressage, born 2 May 1985 (Cardigan)
Mother: AmCh. Aragorn's Blue Ingenue
Grandmother: AmCh. Aragorn's Oklahoma Blue Elf
Great grandmother: AmCh. Aragorn's Swansea Galadriel
Great-great-grandmother: Ch. Marsh's Llewyn of Llanfai

15.01.2023