Fairy Lore: The Fairy shoe of the Beara Peninsula.

                    





Every now and then a strange  artifacts comes to light thats makes you ask maybe there is some truth to all those old fairy sightings maybe the little people really do exist

one such item is this incredible little shoe....
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There are many strange and fascinating stories of little people from every corner of the  world but some of the most well know come from the United Kingdom Ireland, Scotland and England… 

However many other cultures seem to have very similar story's that would suggest  the existence of a possible  hidden race of tiny people… and although they were presumably wingless, judging by the relics found so far, they would be so small, they could indeed look just like modern representations of fairies!... 

One such artifact a  very tine worn-in, shoe made of mouse leather … found by a sheep farmer on an ancient trail within the Beara Peninsula in Ireland in 1824. 

Could this really be a leprechauns shoe or maybe a fairy ?

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Crofton Croker wrote (84, 1824): A paragraph recently appeared in a Kilkenny paper stating, that a labourer, returning home in the dusk of the evening, discovered a Leprehaune at work, from whom he bore away the shoe which he was mending; as a proof of the veracity of his story it was further stated, that the shoe lay for the inspection of the curious at the newspaper office. The most prominent feature in the vulgar creed.

Are you aware that, on this side of the channel  we have so little doubt of the existence of fairies, that it is no uncommon occurrence to see shoes of fairy manufacture publicly advertised in the newspapers? If I tell you, that while crossing a field, in the purple light of the morning, the attention of a peasant was arrested by the sound of a shoemaker’s hammer; and that, upon leaving the path to discover the cause, he disturbed an elfin cobbler, who it seems was at his trade betimes, and mending his brogues by the side of the ditch; that the spirit of the air, anxious to escape from the prying eyes of mortal wight, leapt from the bank, and, in his haste, dropped both shoe and hammer: if I go on to tell you, that this story is most gravely related, and that the editor informs the public, that both shoe and hammer were carried to such a house, in such a street, in a certain town, in the county of Roscommon, and may there be viewed by any curious or incredulous persons; you will, I think, acknowledge that my tale has at least a better foundation than many which are related to our disadvantage, and but too readily swallowed by the credulity of our English friends (Blake 1825 118-119).
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 The amount of work it would take to create this tiny shoe,  especially with the size of our hands would have been very difficult especially in the early 1800's, the farmer was amazed to find that the shoe clearly shows signs of wear, particularly at the heel, in fact, although tiny, this shoe had indeed been well worn-in by someone no bigger than an average pencil... 

The farmer eventually gave the shoe to the local doctor, and from there it was passed to the Somerville family, the current whereabouts of the shoe is unknown, although it is rumored to be in Munster, in Ireland. 

At one point it was even  examined by scientists at Harvard University, they found it was indeed hand stitched, using tiny stitches, and well-crafted tiny eyelets, it was also  shown to be made from mouse skin. 

The belief in fairies, or tiny humans, is known as the “fairy faith” it is still found throughout Europe and the UK to this day.
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 In some parts of the world,  Iceland for instance fairy faith is still very strong, artifacts left or given by these tiny people have been documented on several occasions. 
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The fairy woman’s cloth of Bursta-fijall, is but one example of a gift from these tiny beings, According to the legend attached to the tiny, unique relic, the wife of the district police superintendent and public prosecutor at the farm of Bursta-fijall in Vopnaf-jordur, in the east of Iceland, received this cloth as payment from a fairy woman whom she had midwifed. 

The cloth is now in the National Museum in Rekjavik. Thor Magnusson, who is the president’s Custodian of Antiquities says, ‘Certainly it’s a unique cloth, There are some other ‘gifts’ too up and down the Atlantic coast of Europe including the flag of MacLeod, kept today at Dunvegan Castle… Stolen from a group of tiny warriors… 

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the flag was believed to bring luck to the clan, MacLeod even brought a picture of the flag on bombing raids in the Second World War… 

Arguably the  most famous object is known as the “Luck of Eden Hall,” a cup that was won fairly from fairies, by a member of the Musgrove family. 

                                    
                                   
                                                          Luck of Eden Hall

Today the cup stands, in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The cup, which is astoundingly beautiful, is surprisingly, of “eastern origins.” Although many of the things mentioned could, and have been put down to elaborate, yet entertaining hoaxes… 

The fairy or Leprechaun shoe found in the remotes of Ireland, is one of those extremely rare artifacts, that does indeed seem authentic… 

keep your eyes peeled you never know what may turn up next .....

Fairy Lore The Leprechaun ..

                                                         
    

-----------Happy (Early) St Patrick's Day -------


From  advertising schemes to cartoons and movies the Leprechaun has been a pop-culture image for many many years now in fact the image of the leprechauns is now one of  the most recognizable images from  Irish folklore.

Among  the Fairy courts the Leprechaun is perhaps the most well know  fay second only too the Fairy's..(Tinkerbell etc )


 A leprechaun is a type of fairy and a member of the Aos Sí in Irish mythology. 

They are most often depicted as small bearded men, wearing a coat and hat, and are said to be found of pranks and mischief. 

They are usually  solitary creatures who spend their time making and mending shoes and have a hidden pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

                                                    


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Leprechaun myth's and folklore------

 
The earliest known reference to the leprechaun appears in the medieval tale known as the Echtra  Fergus mac Leti (Adventure of Fergus son of Léti).

 The text contains an episode in which Fergus mac Leti the  King of Ulster, falls asleep on the beach and wakes to find himself being dragged into the sea by three lúchorpáin. He captures his abductors, who grant him three wishes in exchange for release.

The leprechaun is said to be a solitary creature, whose principal occupation is making and mending shoes, and who enjoys practical jokes. According to William Butler Yeats  the great wealth of these fairies comes from the "treasure - crocks, buried of old in war-time", which they have uncovered and appropriated.

 According to David Russell McAnally the leprechaun is the son of an "evil spirit" and a "degenerate fairy" and is "not wholly good nor wholly evil".

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Some researchers say that the word leprechaun may have be derived from the Irish leath bhrogan, which means shoemaker.  they are cobblers, or shoemakers. Shoemaking.



                                                             Image by JB Monge
            

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According to Irish legends, people lucky enough to find a leprechaun and capture him (or, in some stories, steal his magical ring, coin or amulet) can barter his freedom for his treasure. Leprechauns are usually said to be able to grant the person three wishes. But dealing with leprechauns can be a tricky proposition.

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Very small shoe made of mouse leather found by a sheep farmer on an ancient trail within the Beara Peninsula in Ireland.1824... (Post about this coming soon)
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 Leprechauns.....

The name leprechaun is derived from the Irish word leipreachán, defined by Patrick Dinneen  as "a pigmy, a sprite, or leprechaun". The further derivation is less certain; according to most sources, the word is thought to be a corruption of Middle Irish  luchrupán, from the Old Irish   luchorpán, a compound of the roots lú ("small") and corp ("body").

 The root corp, which was borrowed from the Latin   corpus, attests to the early influence of   Ecclesiastical  Latin on the Irish language.

 However, further research published in 2019 suggests that the word derives from the Luperci and the associated Roman festival of Lupercalia.

The alternative spelling leithbrágan deriving the word from leith (half) and bróg (brogue), because of the frequent portrayal of the leprechaun as working on a single shoe.

Alternative spellings in English have included lubrican, leprehaun, and lepreehawn. Some modern Irish books use the spelling lioprachán. The first recorded instance of the word in the English language was in Dekker's comedy The Honest Whore, Part 2 (1604): "As for your Irish lubrican, that spirit / Whom by preposterous charms thy lust hath rais'd / In a wrong circle.

 Some believe  that leprechauns are descended from the Tuatha de Danann. When the Milesians came to Ireland (according to the Book of Invasions) they conquered the Tuatha de Danann and forced them to live under ground (this connects them to the aes-sidhe).



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 The cluricaun is often confused with the leprechaun. The leprechaun is related to the clurichaun and the far darrig in that he is a solitary creature. Some writers even go as far as to substitute these second two less well-known spirits for the leprechaun in stories or tales to reach a wider audience. The cluricaun is considered by some to be merely a leprechaun on a spree.
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Leprchuans love music, dancing, fox hunting, and drinking Irish whiskey these are said to be the his ' favorite pastimes.

Once a leprachaun begins dancing to a human's song, it is said that he cannot stop until the tune ceases.

 His exhausted state may cause him to make outlandish offers, including his crock (pot)of gold, if you will please only allow him to stop dancing. Other means of finding his gold include looking at the end of a rainbow, which may lead him to offer 3 wishes in exchange for his treasure. However his promises of gold or wealth  are nothing more the  hollow words, as the Leprechaun employs clever trickery when granting his  wishes, usually resulting in the embarrassment or even  injury to the one making the wishes.

According to some legends, If caught by a human, he will promise great wealth if set  free.

He carries two leather pouches. In one there is a silver shilling, a magical coin that returns to the purse each time it is paid out. In the other he carries a gold coin which he uses to try and bribe his way out of difficult situations. This coin usually turns into leaves or ashes once the leprechaun has parted with it. However, you must never take your eye off him, for he can vanish in an instant.
According to legend, if anyone keeps an eye fixed upon one, he cannot escape, but the moment the eye is withdrawn he will vanish.


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--Other Media---


As with many old legends and traditions, the image and nature of the leprechaun has changed over time and has been updated for a modern audience. Lucky the Leprechaun, mascot of the General Mills breakfast cereal Lucky Charms, is probably the best-known fairy of his type.

The 1959 Disney movie Darby O'Gill and the little people also played  an prominent role  how people see the wee folk today.
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Then there's  homicidal leprechaun Lubdan in the "Leprechaun" horror/comedy film series played by "Willow" actor Warwick Davis.
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One of the most well know Leprechauns in the world is Lucky the General Mills cereal mascot for Lucky Charms.

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                                     -----Lucky the Leprechaun -----



        

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                                                        Hornswaggle
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Professional wrestler Dylan Mark Postl competed and appeared as Hornswoggle the little leprechaun that lived under the ring, for most of his WWE career 


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The University Notre Dame- Fighting  Irish Leprechaun mascot 







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The Boston Celtics logo has a leprechaun mascot of the team named  Lucky the Leprechaun...no relation to General Mills or Lucky Charms...

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                                          Cute female Leprechaun ...

                           Leprechaun Fairy Goth Girl with Shamrocks

                            


Leprechaun in anime
                                          


 
 Chtholly Nota Seniorious  from Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii Desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii Desu ka?
  
 WorldEnd: What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us?



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Leprechaun and Politics....
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Paul Krugman  a Nobel Prize-winning economist, first coined the term "Leprechaun economics" to describe distorted or unsound economic data, which he first used in a tweet on 12 July 2016 in response to the publication by the Irish Central Statistics Office or CSO..that Irish GDP had grown by 26.3%, and Irish GNP had grown by 18.7%, in the 2015 Irish national accounts. The growth was subsequently shown to be due to Apple restructuring its double Irish  tax scheme which the EU Commission had fined €13bn in 2004–2014 Irish unpaid taxes, the largest corporate tax fine in history. The term has been used many times since.


 In the Irish politics the  leprechauns has been used to refer to the twee (a childish pronunciation of sweet).  aspects of the tourist industry in Ireland This can be seen from this example of  John A Costello addressing the Oireachtas   in 1963: "For many years, we were afflicted with the miserable trivialities of our tourist advertising. Sometimes it descended to the lowest depths, to the caubeen and the shillelagh  not to speak of the leprechaun

         

              

Fairy Lore: Knockers's OR Tommyknockers

                                
 Fairy Lore: The Knockers...

They are often said to live within the mines and can be dangerous or benevolent depending on who you ask..

The Cornish described the creature as a little person two feet tall, with a disproportionately large head, long arms, wrinkled skin, and white whiskers. It wears a tiny version of standard miner's garb and commits random mischief, such as stealing miners' unattended tools and food.


 Other Names
The Knocker, Knacker, Bwca/bucca or Tommyknocker  is a mythical creature in Welsh, Devon and  Cornish mythology . It's closely related to the Kentish Kloker or the Irish Leprechaun .

In the 1820s, immigrant Welsh and Cornish miners brought tales of the tommyknockers and their theft of unwatched items and warning knocks to western Pennsylvania   when they relocated there to work in the mines.

The American gold rush brought people from all over the new world in search for gold , silver and untold wealth with there arrival is  California, Nevada and Colorado  tales of these subteranian dwelling little creatures soon began to rise.

 When asked if they had relatives who would come to work the mines, the Cornish miners always said something along the lines of "Well, me cousin Jack over in Cornwall wouldst come, could ye pay ’is boat ride", and so came to be called Cousin Jack.

The Cousin Jacks, as notorious for losing tools as they were for diving out of shafts just before they collapsed, attributed this to their diminutive friends and refused to enter new mines until assured by the management that the knockers were already on duty. Even non-Cornish miners, who worked deep in the earth where the noisy support timbers creaked and groaned, came to believe in the Tommyknockers. 

The American interpretation of knockers is somewhat  more ethereal or ghost like  than elvish.

                                           



Belief in the knockers in America remained well into the 20th century. When one large mine closed in 1956 and the owners sealed the entrance, fourth, fifth, and sixth generation Cousin Jacks circulated a petition calling on the mineowners to set the knockers free so that they could move on to other mines.


The owners complied. Belief among Nevadan miners persisted among its miners as late as the 1930s. 

 Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs  Colorado..owes its name to the mythical creature, and began serving in 1859 to meet the needs of the large number of prospectors, as part of the Colorado Sliver Boom. The brewery continues to operate and distributes nationally^.
Knocker also appeared as a name for the same phenomena, in the folklore of Staffordshire miners.
 







 Cornish Myth...
The Knockers  get there name  from the knocking sounds the make on the mine walls that happens just before cave-ins. (actually the creaking of earth and timbers before giving way.)

 To some miners, knockers were malevolent spirits and the knocking was the sound of them hammering at walls and supports to cause the cave-in. Other's  saw them as essentially well-meaning jocksters .

Some believed the knocking was their way of warning the miners that a life-threatening collapse was about to happen.

According to some Cornish folklore, the Knockers were the helpful spirits of people who had died in previous accidents in the tine mines,  and this was there way of warning the miners of impending danger. To give thanks for the warnings, and to avoid future danger  the miners would throw the last bite of their pastries into the mines for the Knockers.


 Some described the knockers as human like in appearance other's say the are more goblin like...

                         

                                                   Chaddar cave demon

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One of the more well know iterations of this tale come from American Horror writer Stephen King and is story The Tommyknockers, later adapted into a movie.....Though they were depicted as aliens instead of supernatural beings




                                   

Fairy Lore: Wind Sylph

                                                            The Sylph..

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//////St Patrick's day is March 17th so March is going to be all  about the Little People, Pixie's, Fairy's, Spirits,.. Leprechauns ect ...
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The Sylph...

 A Wind Sylph is a type of Elemental being associated with Air/ wind.

The Sylph  has appeared in many  classic and modern forms of  literature, Theater, TV  and Games.

Some examples are the board game  Dungeons and Dragons . and a Japanese Anime and Manga called The Ancient Magus Bride.  even the Ariel from William Shakespeare: The Tempest.


The word sylph  is possibly a portmanteau (Blend of Words)  derived  from the Latin sylvestris and nympha  sylvestris being a common synonym for sylph in Paracelsus. Anthon and Trollope note a similar usage in the Aeneid  where silvestris is taken as an elliptical form of nympha silvestris ("forest nymph").Jacob Grimm (Of the Brothers Grimm )  uses this phrase as a gloss for the Anglo-Saxon wudu-mær (roughly equivalent to "woodmare"), which he also takes as a metaphorical name for an echo

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Sylph's in DnD lore ..
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 Sylphs are beautiful, humanoid women with wings like dragonflies. Their wings are 4-5 feet long and translucent, clear, or spotted with iridescent color. Their long, bright, hair may be any “normal” color, or blue, purple, or green. They wear flowing, diaphanous robes which accent their wings or hair. Sylphs are related to air elementals and nymphs, possibly even originating as a cross-breed between nymphs and aerial servants. They speak Common and their own musical language.
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Image from pintrist art by Paizo's Pathfinder. Corel Painter. (c) Paizo. Sylph

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 In the 1778 British novel (The Sylph)  a sylph appears as a guardian spirit for the female lead
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The  famous ballet La Sylphide  "The (Female) Sylph", Paris, 1832) is a prominent example of sylph lore in classic theater during the 19th century.

It appeared in a second version in Denmark in 1836.

Other famous opera's of the 18th and early 19th century are The Mountain Sylph from 1834. Sylphs and  the 1909 ballet  Les Sylphides.

                                      


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The Paracelsian concept of elementals is  draws from several much older traditions in mythology and religion. Common themes can be found in folklore all over the world.

Some examples of elemental creatures such as the Pygmy were taken from Greek Mythology.

The four main types of spirit elementals or earth, water, air, and fire, they are  classed as the fundamental building blocks of nature.





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This system  was highly influential in the development of medieval nature philosophy . Although Paracelsus uses these foundations and the popular preexisting names of elemental creatures, he is doing so to present new ideas which expand on his own philosophical system. The homunculus  is another example of a Paracelsian idea with roots in earlier alchemical, scientific, and folklore traditions.

                                              The Alchemist  Paracelsus

                                            

In his 16th-century  alchemical work Liber de Nymphis, sylphis, pygmaeis et salamandris et de caeteris spiritibus Paracelsus  identified the mythological beings as belonging to one of the four elements. Part of the Philosophia Magna, this book was first printed in 1566 after Paracelsus' death.  He wrote the book to "describe the creatures that are outside the cognizance of the light of nature, how they are to be understood, what marvelous works God has created".

                      

He states that there is more bliss in describing these "divine objects" than in describing fencing, court etiquette, cavalry, and other worldly pursuits.  The following is his archetypal being for each of the four elements: Earth, Water, Air and Fire..



                                                           Other Alchemist symbols 
            




                          


The concept of elementals seems to have been conceived by Paracelsus in the 16th century, though he did not in fact use the term "elemental" or a German equivalent.

 He regarded them not so much as spirits but as beings between creatures and spirits, generally being invisible to mankind but having physical and commonly humanoid bodies, as well as eating, sleeping, and wearing clothes like humans. Paracelsus gave common names for the elemental types, as well as correct names, which he seems to have considered somewhat more proper, "recht namen".

He also referred to them by purely German terms which are roughly equivalent to "water people," "mountain people," and so on, using all the different forms interchangeably. His fundamental classification scheme on the first page of Tractatus II of the Liber de Nymphis is based on where the elementals live, and he gives the following names:

• Gnomes being of earth
• Undine  being of water
• Sylph being of air 
• Salamander  being of fire

Gnomus, Undina and Sylph   are all thought to have appeared first in Paracelsus' works, though undina is a fairly obvious Latin derivative from the word unda meaning "wave."
In De Meteoris he referred to the elementals collectively as Sagani.

He noted that undines are similar to humans in size, while sylphs are rougher, coarser, longer, and stronger. Gnomes are short, while salamanders are long, narrow, and lean. The elementals are said to be able to move through their own elements as human beings move through air. Gnomes, for example, can move through rocks, walls, and soil. Sylphs are the closest to humans in his conception because they move through air like we do, while in fire they burn, in water they drown, and in earth, they get stuck. Paracelsus states that each one stays healthy in its particular Chaos  as he terms it, but dies in the others.

Paracelsus conceived human beings to be composed of three parts, an elemental body, a sidereal spirit, and an immortal divine soul. Elementals lacked this last part, the immortal soul. However, by marriage with a human being, the elemental and its offspring could gain a soul.
Because of their association with the ballet La Sylphide, where sylphs are linked with fairies  along with  the medieval legends of fairyland, as well as a confusion with other "airy spirits" (e.g., in William Shakespeare's  A Midsummer Nights Dream were a petite  girl may be referred to as a sylph.




The word Sylph  made it's way into general language as a term for minor spirits, elementals, or faeries of the air.

Some Sci-Fi and Fantasy authors will sometimes employ sylphs in their fiction, for example creating giant artistic clouds in the skies with fairy wings.


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These month my post's will be regarding the wee folk, fairy's, gnomes, elf's and the like...  hope you all enjoy :)

and

Thank you to those of you who share my posts much appreciated !