When they appear in folklore, Goblins are generally described as wizened or smaller than the average human and unattractive in their features, ranging from grotesque to animalistic. In Rossetti’s poem Goblin Market the depiction of the Goblins directly relates them to animals describing them with whiskers, tails, and with fur (Rossetti, 1862). Dickens described them as small, with long arms and legs, and rounded bodies (Silver, 1999). These descriptions are typical of those found in older folklore as well where Goblins are usually referred to as grotesque and ugly. Generally Goblins are male and their physical descriptions reflect ideas closer to imps or devils than the usual fairies who appear fair on the outside no matter how dangerous they may be on the inside. This may reflect a belief that Goblins, although a type or kind of fairy, were closer to or on the border of being demonic; this is muddy water at best as there was often a fine line between the fey and demons in the medieval period, particularly among the literati. Briggs suggests that it was particularly the influence of Protestant belief, which edged the Goblins into the category of the demonic as they directly equated them to ‘imps from Hell’ (Briggs, 1967). In fact imp is often given as a synonym for Goblin, further confusing the issue. Specific types of Goblins, such as the Bogies, were known as shapeshifters as well and could alter their appearance at will in order to more easily deceive people. Because of their fearsome reputation, many people were afraid of Goblins and even the generally more benevolent Hobgoblins (Evans-Wentz, 1911).
Goblins were known to favor specific locations and might set up residence in a home; in one story a Bogey takes over a farmer’s field and had to be tricked into leaving (Evans-Wentz, 1911; Briggs, 1976). In Rossetti’s poem they have their own market and a well-worn path that is taken to and from it each dawn and dusk. Like many fey, Goblins are usually considered nocturnal and are most likely to be encountered at night (Evans-Wentz, 1911). Goblins of various sorts might also be associated with wilder locations and with the ruins of former human habitations and were known to lead people astray, either as part of a frustrating, but ultimately harmless, joke or to the person’s eventual death (Briggs, 1967). By modern reckoning Goblins fall under the dominion of the Unseelie Court and may be either solitary or trooping fairies, depending on what kind of Goblin is being discussed (Briggs, 1976). Hobgoblins, however, are harder to be certain of as they are usually seen as more benign and can be associated with helpful spirits like Brownies.
There is at least one well known piece of more modern literature that refers to Goblins, Rossetti’s poem Goblin Market, which I will discuss in more depth in a later chapter. In the poem the Goblins appear in a fairly typical form, being deceptive, malicious, and grotesque in appearance. They play the usual role of a group of fairies trying to trick mortals, in this case by getting them to eat dangerous fruit. In the poem when the person the Goblins are seeking to trick resists they become violent, which is also in line with the general temperament normally seen with them. Goblins play a prominent role in the film Labyrinth where they are depicted more as Hobgoblins, being somewhat dangerous and set against the story’s heroine, but overall more mischievous than actually malicious. Goblins also feature in the Harry Potter novels and movies, and while they physical resemble the Goblins of folklore in those fictitious depictions they are very different in character from the traditional ones, being more similar to common depictions of Dwarves with their focus on money and metalsmithing than folkloric Goblins.
Ultimately Goblins are a difficult group of fairies to define, being both a specific type of being and also a class of being. The word itself is just as ambiguous, the etymology uncertain beyond the 12th century, and the ultimate root unknown. The term Goblin can be used to indicate a specific being that is small, grotesque and malicious or a broader category of beings that were generally described as ‘imps’ and ran a gamut from devilish to mischievous. When the prefix ‘hob’ is added it indicates a more benign nature to the creature being discussed; Shakespeare’s Puck is referred to as a Hobgoblin in the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. However, Protestant influence did add a darker reputation even to the Hobgoblins, who were considered outright demonic in some places. The only way to be certain of the usage of Goblin or Hobgoblin is to look at the context of the reference. However, one can safely say that Goblins were generally viewed as dangerous and to be feared, whatever sort of Goblin was being discussed.
The Gruagach
The Gruagach is a type of fairy similar in nature to a Brownie, but who favors living in barns and helping farmers with cattle. A solitary fairy, the Gruagach is sometimes envisioned as giant or a type of ogre, but usually appears as only human sized (MacKillop, 1998). The male can be either attractive and dressed in green and red or extremely hairy, shunning clothing, and industrious, while the female is said to have long blonde hair and wear a green dress (Briggs, 1976). Donald MacKenzie suggests that some Scottish legends of the Gruagach that depict her as a woman who appears, always wet and dripping, asking to warm herself by a household’s fire are actually describing the Glaistig, not the more domestic Gruagach.
The word grúacach in Old Irish means ‘hairy, long haired’, ‘a Goblin’ and ‘very wise’. It is likely from the meaning of ‘hairy’ that this particular fairy derived its name. A farm that had a Gruagach present would offer it milk once a week for its labor (Briggs, 1976).
Gwragedd Annwn
The famous Lake Maidens of Wales, their name means ‘Otherwordly women’. While many fairies who make their homes in bodies of water are at best mercurial and at worst murderous, the Gwragedd Annwn have a good reputation for kindness and gentle ways. They appear as beautiful young women and are known to make good wives when they marry human men, although like many fairy wives they usually leave if the man violates a taboo relating to them (Briggs, 1976). In many stories of these Lake Maidens this taboo has to do with the husband striking the wife three times. Even if they are forced to leave their family such fairy women stay involved with their children, and one Welsh family renowned for their medical knowledge claimed it had come from a long-distant Gwragedd Annwn ancestor (Briggs, 1976). The Gwragedd Annwn are strongly associated with cattle, both Earthly cows and Otherworldy ones, which may be seen as symbols of abundance and blessing.
Hags
A variety of monstrous female fairies fall into this category all sharing common characteristics and habits. Usually known by specific names such as Black Annis, Jenny Greenteeth, and Peg Powler, these fairies often lurk in rivers and reach out to pull in and drown unwary or misbehaving children (Cox, 1904; Briggs, 1976). Most Hags are specific to a location and are known in that area’s folklore. Black Annis lived in the hills of Leicestershire and was said to have a blue face and iron claws, as well as an association with a gigantic cat (Briggs, 1976). Jenny Greenteeth was local to Lancashire and favored stagnant pools, while Peg Powler haunted the river Tees (Briggs, 1976).
The Leannán Sí3
Of all the beings in Irish – and more generally Celtic – folklore, one of the most interesting may be the Leannán Sí. The name literally means ‘fairy lover’4 and we see two distinct pictures emerge in mythology and folklore of this type of being, very different in nature although both perhaps equally hazardous in various ways.
The most well-known Leannán Sí is a figure from folklore and is perhaps the more obviously dangerous. The name is often Anglicized to its more phonetic form of ‘Leanan Shee’. Yeats described this spirit as one that sought to seduce mortals, and if successful would feed on their life energy while inspiring their creativity; the only escape according to him was to find another to replace yourself in her affections, or else you would be bound to her even beyond death (Yeats, 1888). This Leannán Sí was fond of poets and musicians and other naturally creative people, but her presence meant a short, if intensely productive, life. According to Yeats if a person could resist her allure then she would become bound to their service instead, although one may assume this was the more rare occurrence (Yeats, 1888). The
Manx version of this spirit, the Lhiannan-Shee, was more blatantly vampiric in nature; said to haunt springs and wells, invisible to everyone except the man she seduced, she would drain his life until he wasted away (Briggs, 1976). Generally when we hear stories of the Leannán Sí they feature a supernatural female of great beauty who seduces a man and once she has him as her lover she draws his vitality from him causing him to slowly die. In the Irish stories this is done in exchange for extraordinary inspiration, while in the Manx the only thing given is the Lhiannan-Shee’s company to the man. However, there are equivalent beings by different names that are more literally vampiric. In Scotland we find the Baobhan Sith, literally ‘wicked fairy woman’, who seduces a young man into dancing with her and then drains him of blood leaving him dead by morning (Briggs, 1976).
Although usually described as female there is a version of the dangerously seductive Leannán Sí that is male – the Gean-Cánach, or ‘Love Talker’. He appears as an attractive young man smoking a pipe, walking in the untamed places, and is quick to seduce women when he can, after which they lose the will to live (Briggs, 1967). There are some clear parallels between these two spirits as both seek to seduce mortals and this seduction results in the person’s wasting and eventual death. The biggest difference between the Leannán Sí and the Gean-Cánach is that the Love Talker only lays once with his victim then departs never to be seen again, leaving her to waste away for want of him (or perhaps because he has stolen some vital life energy from her) while the Leannán Sí is a regular visitor to her victim throughout his life and possibly afterwards.
The second, and less discussed, Leannán Sí is a more straightforward one, a person of the sí of either gender who takes a human lover. Katherine Briggs in her book Fairies in Tradition and Literature devotes an entire chapter to this type of Leannán Sí and their place in fairylore. The most famous by far example of this type of Leannán Sí is the story of Niamh and Oisin in the Fenian Cycle. In this tale Fionn’s son Oisin is captivated by a fairy woman, Niamh. He chooses to go to Tir na nOg with her, where they live happily together and she bears him a son and daughter. However, as time passes, he begins to miss his friends and wishes to visit Ireland again; Niamh warns him that if he goes he must not dismount his horse because if he touches the ground he will die. Of course while he is there he finds that hundreds of years have passed and all the people he knew have died, and through mischance his saddle slips and he falls, instantly aging when he hits the ground.
With this type of fairy lover they may or may not seek to take the human partner out of the mortal world, and may or may not produce offspring with the human partner in stories. In most cases if a child is produced the family will later trace its lineage back to that spirit, such as the Fitzgeralds tracing their ancestry to the Fairy Queen Áine who was a lover of the Earl of Desmond. Some versions of the story of clan MacLeod’s Fairy Flag say that it was a gift from a fairy lover. It is not infrequent in stories for a fairy lover to give a family line they are part of a special item or token as a sign of favor. The Lhiannan-Shee of Ballafletcher was connected to the Fletcher family who had a custom once a year of drinking from a fairy cup, which she had given them (Briggs, 1976).
In some stories the mortal remains in our world, but regularly sees her fairy lover, shunning any human love in turn. In one tale from Scotland a girl had such a fairy lover and made the mistake of trusting her secret to her sister who then spread the tale; in anger the girl’s Leannán Sí abandoned her and she went mad from his loss (Briggs, 1967). In a tale from Ireland a young man had a fairy lover who took him into the sí on Bealtaine; a fairy doctor was called for and for nine days and nights sought to get the young man back until finally he appeared and begged to be allowed to remain with his new wife (Briggs, 1967). In many cases like this the human partner is simply taken into Fairy and removed from the human world entirely, often under the guise of having apparently died in our world. In the stories where the human partner stays in our world, but sees her Leannán Sí regularly, she is often required to keep him a secret or lose him. As with all things, however, there are various versions and exceptions to be found5.
Several folk songs immortalize attempts by mortals to win the heart of a fairy lover, including Scarborough Fair, which is based on older folk ballads including The Fairy Knight; and the ballad of Tam Lin, which also survives as a song today. In the first example the girl wishes for an Elfin knight as a lover or husband and he responds with a list of seemingly impossible tasks she must first accomplish. In the second example a girl takes a fairy lover (Tam Lin who was a mortal taken into Fairy as a child) and only after they have been lovers for a time and she seeks to abort the child she is carrying does he tell her the quite difficult way she must win him free of the Fairy Queen so he can be her husband. Some versions of ballads of fairy lovers are decidedly grim, such as Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight, which tells the story of a woman who wishes for an Elf knight on Bealtaine morning only to have him appear and kidnap her to a greenwood where he tells her that he is going to kill her as he has seven other king’s daughters before her; she tricks him into falling asleep, binds him with his own sword belt, and kills him with his own dagger then escapes. Similar ballads exist that begin the same way, but where the Elfin knight tries to drown the girl who must outwit him to escape. These represent a clear warning to be careful before wishing for a fairy lover, although most other tales are far less murderous and when they end badly do so because of a failure on the human partner’s end to keep their lover a secret resulting in abandonment. We may see echoes of this theme in Keats’ poem La Belle Dame sans Merci, which tells the story of a knight who loved a fairy maiden who took him ‘to her elfin grotto’ and enchanted him only to abandon him. The knight was then left to waste away, pining for what he could not have, although this could also perhaps be an example of the more directly harmful kind of Leannán Sí as well. Looking at these stories and ballads we can see the challenges and difficulties this sort of Leannán Sí presents, as they may not always be as overtly dangerous as the first sort, but they can often lead a person to the same eventual end.
Not all instances of humans with fairy lovers end badly for the human though, as some tales do make it clear that the nonhuman half of the pairing genuinely cares for the human partner. There is at least one story recorded by Evans Wentz of a man with a fairy lover who immigrated to America and his Otherwordly lover followed him there (Briggs, 1967). A male Leannán Sí who took a human lover was generally concerned for her care and if any children were produced seemed to genuinely care about their welfare (Capmbell; 1900). There are two stories I know about featuring Kelpies who fall in love with mortal women and go against their own nature for the sake of their human partner. In one Irish tale a Kelpie loves a girl, but is tricked into becoming a beast of burden on her father’s farm after she finds out his true nature. After a year of such work the girl and her family consult a fairy doctor who asks the Kelpie if he would choose to be a mortal man so he in turn asks the girl if she still wants to marry him6; she says yes and he chooses to become mortal so the two are married (McNeill, 2001). In a less cheerful story from Scotland a Kelpie falls in love with a mortal woman and courts her. They wed and she bears him a son, but one day she realizes his true nature and flees. Heartbroken, the Kelpie remains in their small home, raising their child, and waiting futilely for her to return.
Some Bean Feasa were also known to have Leannán Sí, as in the case of Eibhlin Ni Ghuinniola, about whom it was said: ‘A ‘fairy lover’, a leannán sí, was often seen with [her] as she gathered plants.’ (O Crualaoich, 2003, p. 191) It was believed in such cases that it was through this connection to the Otherworld that these women gained their knowledge of magic and cures, although a Leannán Sí was not always involved with the wise women. Some then could maintain a relationship with a fairy lover and also remain at least for a time in our world and would benefit from the knowledge gained from their fairy associations.
As we can se
e the threads of myth and folklore provide two distinct, but perhaps intertwined, views of the Leannán Sí. The Leannán Sí as a distinct being seduces and inspires, gives creativity, but drains away life. The related beings like the Gean-cánach and Baobhan Sith similarly use their beauty and appeal to gain lovers who they destroy in the taking, feeding on either their life force or blood. In contrast the more general fairy lovers may bless or ruin their human lover, may steal them from this world, abandon them to it, or be constant companions. One is a more overtly malevolent, seductive figure, which is a distinct type of being in its own right; the other a more ambiguous term applied to different beings, which in its own way embodies all that Fairy itself is – alluring, sometimes dangerous, sometimes generous.
Land Spirits
Considered to be fairies, Land Spirits are unique because they are not Otherworldly spirits, but spirits that are bound entirely to this world. A Land Spirit may be the embodiment of a river, tree, rock, or other physical object in our world, for example. Unlike a fairy who makes a home in a river, a Land Spirit is the actual soul of that river and it is bound to the health and physical existence of that river. If a fairy who lives in an oak loses the oak it can find another home; if the Land Spirit of an oak loses its oak it loses its existence just as we would if we lose our physical body. The physical item in our world acts as anchor for that spirit. In folklore, Land Spirits are bound to the immediate area around the object they are tied to and unlike Otherworldly fairies they cannot travel. In Ireland Land Spirits are known to appear in the form of birds or animals (O Suilleabhain, 1967).
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