The Shepherd of Myddvai
A shepherd sees three maidens rise from a lake.
He offers them bread but they start singing to him, saying his bread is hard and they run away. He comes back the next day with bread that is softer, but the maidens say it is too soft and run away again. He comes back again and this time the bread is good enough for one of the maidens. She says that if he comes back the next day and can select her out from her sisters she will be his wife. He is successful and she tells him she will always be his as long as he doesn't strike her three times without cause. Years pass and everything is okay, but one day she asks for gloves to ride a horse. When it is time to ride and she stands there not moving, he taps her on the shoulder to go and she tells him that is strike number one. Another time, they are at a wedding and she starts to sob. He taps her on the shoulder asking what is wrong and she tells him that bad things are upon them and that that was the second strike. The next is at a funeral and she starts bursting into laughter. He taps her on the shoulder asking what is wrong and she tells him that's the last straw and leaves him. She takes all the animals with her and the only other time she is seen again is when she comes back to see the grown up children she had with the shepherd.
I thought this story was odd and actually really funny in a way. It was a little twisted and manipulative that the maiden could be so heartless, but it was also really amusing. I would love to do this except in like a child romance way like in grade school where a fifth grader's girlfriend says something like he can't touch her hand but he keeps accidentally doing it or something.
Bibliography:
Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs
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