THE SCENE: For a minor Welsh noble, the curious efficacy of a member of the household staff makes sense in retrospect after the Lord “discovers” that his servant was actually descended from a demon.
THE TEXT: In this province of Pembroke, a manifestation occurred in the home of Elidyr of Stackpole. It took the form of a young man with red hair called Simon. This was a full incarnation, for he could be seen and touched. He removed the household keys from the man in charge of them, and with complete self-assurance took on the function of steward. He administered the household with such foresight and attention to detail, or so it seemed, that in his hands everything prospered and nothing was ever lacking. Elidyrd and his wife had only to think of something which they would like for their table or their day-to-day use, mentioning it perhaps to each other, but certainly not to Simon, and he would immediately procure it, without having been asked to do so. “You wanted this,” he would say, “and I have got it for you.” He knew all about their family finances, and the money that they were trying to save, and he would sometimes grumble at them. Whenever they planned to avoid some particular expense, or to practice some economy, he would say: “Why one earth are you afraid to spend this money? Your days are numbered. The money you are making such an effort to hoard will never be of any use to you. It will simply go to others.”
He liked to see the farm-laborers and household servants eat and drink well. These things had been acquired by the sweat of their brow, he would say, and it was only fair that they should enjoy them. Whatever he made up his mind to do, whether it pleaser his master and mistress or not, for, as I have told you, he knew all their secrets, he would carry out immediately, brooking no opposition. He never went to church, and no Christian word was ever heard on his lips. He never slept in the house, but reported for work each morning with amazing punctuality.
Then by chance he was seen one night by some members of the family conversing with his fellow-demons by the water-mill and the pool. The next morning he was interviewed by his master and mistress. He was dismissed on the spot and he handed over his keys which he had held for forty days or more. When he left they questioned him closely and asked him who he really was. He said that he had been born to some rustic bedlam in the same parish, fathered on her by an incubus who had appeared in the shape of her husband. He gave the husband’s name and that of the man’s father-in-law, who was dead. Then he revealed who his mother was. She was still alive. They looked into the matter with some care. The mother said that it was all true.
– The Journey Through Wales, Gerald of Wales, 12th Century AD
