Barbegazi: Frozen Beards

 

❄️🏔️ Barbegazi 🏔️❄️

The Skiing gnomes of the Alps.

The Barbegazi is type of gnome from Swiss and French folklore, they live deep in the mountainous areas between France and Switzerland; the Alps. 

They make their homes in a large networks of caves and tunnels  near the peaks of mountains through hidden entrances .

They spend most of the year in their underground home, and sleep all summer(like a summer hibernation). Only going out in the winter, because of these habits human interaction is rare.

The name comes from  barbes glacées roughly meaning 'frozen beards'. They get this name because they appear to have icicles growing from their chins instead of a beard, but this is just a result of the freezing temperatures they live in underneath the ice is just a normal beard.

Appearance wise they look similar to a mini yeti, they are covered in white fur like a snowsuit and have large feet, though unlike a yeti this guy's are no larger then an average gnome and nowhere near as violent as a yeti.

 They have been known to help or at least warn skiers and travelers of danger and even aid people.  The most well known form of  warnings they give to humans in possible dangerous areas or circumstances  is the whistling noises they make that sounds similar to a marmots or an eerie hooting noise, that  may be mistaken for gusts of wind, to warn hikers of avalanches. They may also attempt to dig out people trapped by snowfall or herd lost sheep back to their owners. Despite these beneficial activities their attitudes towards humans are still uncertain so if you encounter one do so with caution.

They have disproportionately large bigfoot like feet for their size , they use these oversized feet as snowshoes and ski's to travel across their frozen mountain homes.

They are never encountered in weather above zero degrees or below the tree line on the mountains they live in  they prefer the cold frozen climate the more snow the better.

One of their favorite activities is riding on top of avalanche 

They also have the ability to dig at a rapid pace, they can quickly bury themselves in snow to hide in a matter of seconds as well as dig themselves out of a snow drift no matter how deep .

Last post for the year, have a great New Year

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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: Pukwudgie

                                                                Pukwudgie


Many American Indian myth's have stories of little people.

The Wampanoag of Massachusetts’ legend is of the Pukwudgie. A small humanoid creature that was said to be jealous of the affection the Wampanoag showed the giant Maushop ( according to another myth the giant created Cape Cod for them), the Pukwudgie began to torment the Wampanoag Indians, playing tricks on them, stealing their children, and burning their villages. Pukudgies are described as humanlike, two to three feet tall with large noses, and ears. Their skin is grey.







 A Pukwudgie, also spelled Puk-Wudjie, is sometimes said to be as tall 4-to-5-feet.

The Pukwudgie can become invisible, use magic, and create fire at the snap of their fingers, but their most dangerous antics involve shooting poison arrows (with which legend says they used to kill Maushop and his five sons), and turning into a half-porcupine/half-troll.

These small human-like monsters have been known to lure humans to their deaths either by poison arrow, or pushing the human off a cliff. Afterward, the Pukwudgie can control the souls of their victims.

In modern times, people have reported encountering Pukwudgies in Freetown-Fall River State Forest, which includes a reservation in the Wampanoag Nation.

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: 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