Nordic Skraeling, Tiny people of the north pole

                                        The Skraeling

 

 The first written accounts of Arctic elves come from Viking Sagas- texts written by medieval Norsemen in ancient Nordic and Germanic history. 

Among the most famous of these is the saga of Erik the Red.

Erik the Red, a  Norse farmer who lived in Iceland in the late 10^th Century. 

In 982 A.D., he was banished from Iceland for committing a murder. 

Accompanied by a handful of  friends and relatives, he left his home and headed out to sea, bound for a mysterious land to the west which had been spotted by Icelandic sailors blown off course.

Erik the Red and his crew spent three years exploring this new land, and discovered that it had areas which were suitable for farming. 

In 985, he returned to Iceland and told  tales of what he dubbed “Groenland”, or “Greenland”. Having convinced a number of Norsemen to help him settle this new territory, Erik the Red returned to Greenland that year and established a colony there.

In 999 A.D., one of Erik the Red’s sons, called Leif Eriksson, traveled to Norway, his father’s birthplace, where he converted from Norse paganism to Christianity. 

 

Determined to bring the Christian religion to Greenland, he headed out into the North Atlantic. During his voyage, he was blown off course, and landed on a strange shore where wild grapes grew in abundance. 

He called this New World “Vinland”, or “Wineland”, and later returned there to establish a colony of his own. Some historians believe that Leif Eriksson’s Vinlandic colony was what we know today as L’Anse aux Meadows, a cluster of Viking ruins discovered on the northern tip of Newfoundland.

 

 

Icelanders  told of Erik the Red and Leif Eriksson’s adventure in New World.

 

This collection of story's would later become the Icelandic Sagas.

Many of the Sagas mention the Norsemen's  encounter with small humans in the New World, in both Vinland and Greenland. 

 

The Vikings called these people “Skraeling”. According to the 13^th Century Saga of Erik the Red, the Skraeling “were short in height with threatening features and tangled hair on their heads. Their eyes were large and their cheeks broad.”

Many historians believe that the Skraeling were the Thule people, the ancestors of the modern Inuit. , Inuit folklore even contains some references to bearded, sword-wielding giants called “Kavdlunait”, believed by many to be Viking explorers. 

Others claim that the Skraeling were the ancient Dorset people, whom the Inuit eventually displaced.

Though some maintain that the Sagas’ references to Skraeling constitute the first written records describing a lost tribe of Arctic dwarfs, remnants of which, some say, still inhabit the Northland to this very day.(see captain foxes discovery in previous post)

..............................

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

next weeks post will be the last one for 2021...

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

.......

 So what do you think, is it possible there is still a hidden race of small people living the arctic to this day?

Captain Luke Foxe and the Norther Elves..

 

 

 Elves Dwarves Skraeling faý little people fairy's gnomes and the list goes on it seems every culture has at least one legend or myth evolving small human like beings sometimes only a few inchs tall others 3-4 feet in height

During an arctic expedition in the 16  hundreds one captain and his crew may have discovered an "eleven" burial sight.

elf by tess eisinger
 https://www.deviantart.com/tess-eisinger/art/Elf-859514719

🎄🎄🎄🎆🎇✨🎄🎄🎄

Captain Luke Foxe and the Norther Elf's

 

Captain Luke Foxe, was  a 17th Century English explorer and adventurer who followed in the footsteps of Martin Frobisher and Henry Hudson, and set sail on the icy waters of Northern Canada in search of the Northwest Passage. 

Captain Foxe's first and only Arctic expedition was during  the spring of 1631. 

Beginning in  Kirkwall, Orkney, he and his crew sailed west across the Atlantic to Frobisher Bay, situated near the northern lip of Hudson’s Bay. 

 

He sailed through the Hudson Strait and, after visiting the crew of Welsh Captain Thomas James, who was also searching for the Northwest Passage, headed west

 

 On July 27, 1631, Foxe and his crew disembarked at Southampton Island, a large island located at the northern end of Hudson’s Bay. There, they discovered a strange above-ground cemetery the final resting place of a number of small coffins made from wood and stone. 

 

Inside these coffins were “tiny" human skeletons only four feet in length, surrounded by bows, arrows, and bone lances. They were all adults, and there is some implication that not all of them were skeletons, but might have been whole frozen bodies.”

 

 

 

The first part of Foxe’s report, which he included in his personal journal, went as follows:

“The newes from land was that this Island was a Sepulchre, for the Savages had laid their dead (I cannot say interred), for it is all stone, as they cannot dig therein, but lay the Corpses on the stones, and wall them about with the same, coffining them also by laying the sides of old sleddes about which have been artificially made. The boards are some 9 or 10 foot long, 4 inches thicke. In what manner the tree they have bin made out of what cloven or sawen, it was so smooth that we could not discerne, the burials had been so old.

“And, as in other places in those countries, they bury all their Vtensils, as bows, arrows, strings, darts, lances, and other implements carved in bone. The longest Corpses was not above 4 foot long, 2 with their heads laid to the West. It may be that they travell, as the Tartars and the Samoides; for, if they had remained here, there would have been some newer burials. There was one place walled 4 square, and seated within the earth; each side was 4 or 5 yards in length’ in the middle was 3 stones, laid one above another, man’s height. We tooke this to be some place of Ceremony at the buriall of the dead.”

In a footnote, Foxe added, “They seem to be people of small stature. God send me better for my adventures than these.”.....

 

Another  winter/Christmas post next week🎄🎇🎆✨🎄

American Cryptid: Evil Gnomes

                              ==========Evil Gnomes===============



Today we take a trip to sunny California, beach's sun tans and surfing.

But California is also home to some odd and sometimes not so friendly cryptids, we all know of Bigfoot and a lot of you have probably heard of the Fresno Night Walkers(strange alien like cryptids with very small body's and really long legs - post on them soon)

But what's the first thing you think of when you hear the word Gnome?

For most of us it's those strange little men on your neighbors front lawn keeping a watchful eye on the garden.

But what if that creepy little figure wasn't so inanimate, what if by some slim chance, you happen too see it move....or even worst it tries to attack you.

Gnome's much like fairy's have been seen all over the world in some form or another, there were a few videos from Mexico that appear to show a gnome (duende) or at least a diminutive human like creature, You can still find them on  youtube.

                                                                   ---Duende---


....................................................................

Gnome's are thought to dwell deep within the forests and mountains, making there homes underground or in caves and abandon mine shafts.

Though they have been known to frequent old abandon homes and buildings.

Most are thought of as kind or at least reclusive enough not to be a threat to humans, but just like humans there are good and bad gnomes.

==========================================================================================English Legend's about a vicious and even murderous gnome called a red cap, (They are Very similar to Goblins) this is a gnome you definitely don't want too meet!In the midelages  they would make there homes in old abandon castles and towers and would kill anyone that entered there territory.

They look like a little old man. Are short in stature like all gnomes, have red eyes, sharp teeth and long finger nails and of course a long pointy red hat. the hat's are red because this  vicious  little creature has a nasty habit of dyeing there hats with the blood of there victims.American Indianans speak of legends involving a small and fierce tribe of little people.

                                                ===The Redcaps Gnome-===
===========================================


A burial site unearthed in Tennessee was said too contain at least 100,000, yes -- One Hundred Thousand, full grown body's no more the 3 feet or so in height.

                                            ===Tennessee Fairy Remains===

----------------------------------------------------------------------------


There have been several sightings along the Tully river in California.

These creatures for the most part seem too be some what foul tempered or even malevolent.

One California family experienced this terror first hand.

In 1999 a woman named Tammy Thomas and her family moved into an old farm house with an old unused shed in the back,at one point she began to notice a few of her duck's and other small animals go missing.

She believed there was something in the old shed, but never approached it out of fear of what was possibly inside.

Then one night after returning home from  a trip to the store with her grandson, she was terrified too see what she describes as an "Evil Garden Gnome" cackling in the dark.she grabbed her grandson and and ran to the house, once inside she could still hear noises on the porch and when she opened the curtains and to her horror the creature was staring back at her.

This incident frightened her, and fearing for the safety of herself and her grandchildren she eventually moved to a new home.

However people in that area still claim too see this odd little man from time to time, he is sometimes spotted moving lawn ornaments around in peoples yards, or catching and eating fish from the river or local ponds.

Some even say they hear him singing late at night. Another evil gnome like creature in California is called a Water Baby, it's a water dwelling creature, gnome like in appearance and if angered will sneak into your home and smother you.

They are said to live in the Tully river.California also has sightings of small hairy human like creatures that have been seen running across the road at night, So the next time you take a scenic hike through the forest of the golden state just remember Bigfoot may not be the only cryptid roaming the woods


........................................................................................................

On a side note California has one of the largest clusters of missing people in the country, Yosemite national park seems to be a real active location for disappearance, stay safe and hike/camp responsibly and always ALWAY's let some one know were you are planning on going. For more information on the strange disappearance check out The Missing 411 series by David Palides, very informative and well researched
 .---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fairy Lore: The Moss People

                                                 Fairy Lore: The Moss People

Fairy, Faerie, Fay, Wee Folk Sprit, Pixie or whatever you choose too call them
The little people seem too  come in all shapes and sizes and just as numerous as the stars
above us.

Today's post is about the Moss People..


Deep in forest's of Germany and Switzerland live tiny butterfly like beings

Throughout  history  people have claimed to see small winged creatures human like in appearance but
minuscule and sporting  a pair of small butterfly like wings, these are the Moss People. a similar
creature has also been seen in  Africa and Polynesia.

They are beings of nature not elemental, but still very close too the land in which they inhabit
there favorite season's, or at least the one's they seem too be most active are spring and summer.





They are very curious, but also cautious and tend to shy away from people for the most part, but

 this was not always the case.



According to legend, these little people would occasionally borrow items from people or ask for help but would always compensate the owners generously, often with either good advice or bread. It was, however, easy to anger such wood-sprites, either by spurning their gifts (which might be the compensations named above) or by giving them caraway bread – of which they had a particular hatred, often being heard to utter the doggerel rhyme "Kümmelbrot, unser Tod!" ("Caraway bread, our death!").

In certain myths, the moss people  would ask humans for breast milk to feed their young,  or steal  human children This also ties into some myths surrounding Changelings (Where a Fairy kidnaps a human child and leave s an infant fay in its place....


Moss people, especially the females, are said too posses the ability to send plagues with one hand, and  too cure someone of the plague with the other hand.

During out breaks the Holzfräulein ("Wood ladies") would emerge from the forest to show the people which medicinal herbs could cure or ward off the plague.


They were often but not always the target of the "Wild Hunt ".

 According to folklore, in order to escape the hunt they would enter the trees that woodsmen have marked with a cross, the one's slated to be cute down



The moss people are similar to Hamadryads

Their lives are linked with trees; if  the inner bark of a tree is  loosened or damaged  a Wood-woman dies.


====================================================================
According to Jacob Grimm co author of "Grimm's Fairy Tails"  aka The Brothers Grimm...

"Between Leidhecken and Dauernheim in the Wetterau stands the high mountain, and on it a stone, der welle fra gestoil (the wild woman's chairs); there is an impression on the rock, as of the limbs of human sitters. The people say the wild folk lived there 'wei di schtan noch mell warn,' while the stones were still soft; afterwards, being persecuted, the man ran away, the wife and child remained in custody at Dauernheim until they died."

===================================================================



According to writer  Ludwig Bechstein....

The female Moss people, or in German the  Moosfräulein ("Moss ladies"), have a queen named  the  (Buschgrossmutter; "Shrub Grandmother").   Ludwig Bechstein describes her in his folktale 551:
"According to certain tales of the peasantry, a demonic creature dwells near Leutenburg and on the left bank of river Saale, called the Buschgroßmutter ("Shrub Grandmother").


She has many daughters, called Moosfräuleins ("Moss ladies"), with whom she roves around the country at certain times and upon certain holy nights. It is not good to meet her, for she has wild, staring eyes and crazy, unkempt hair. Often she drives around in a little cart or waggon, and at such times it is wise to stay out of her way. Children, in particular, are afraid of this Putzmommel (hooded, female bogey  and delight in whispering tales of her to frighten each other. She is essentially the same spirit as Hulda or Bertha, the Wild Huntress – to whom local tales ascribe a following of children under the guise of the Heimchen (dwarves, pixies or hobgoblins) who constitute her attendants in the area she frequents."



 =======================================================================










For the people that respect nature and the environment around them, the moss people well bring good luck.

So the next time you go hiking or camping in the summer, be mindful of your surroundings and keep an eye out... you may just see one of them, but keep in mind they seem to prefer hiding in  moss or the darker foliage of nearby tree's. watch for there wings (Very Similar to that of a Monarch Butterfly)

..............................................................................................................................................................
They are thought to live  mostly in Germany and Switzerland, but these small butterfly like fairys have been seen  in other country's as well.

They are sometimes referred to as Flying Leaves, Greenies, or just Butterly Faeries.


In German  the words Schrat and Waldschrat are also used for a moss person. Old Norsewold be  skratti, or "goblin".)

In some area's they are sometimes described as being similar to Dwarves, or being the same size as children, but "grey and old-looking, hairy, and covered in moss sometimes, they can be seen as bigger. (child size) or as small as butterfly's depending of the region and which version of the story's you hear.