There is some cross-over in Irish tradition with dangerous spirits-of-place, which may be either Land Spirits or human ghosts bound to locations. These dangerous spirits have names that reflect the places they are tied to or their inherent nature such as Sprid na Charraig an Eidhin (spirit of Carriganine), Sprid na Bearnan (spirit of the gap), and Sprid an Tobac (spirit of the tobacco), each with their own story (O Suilleabhain, 1967). Because these spirits were believed to be malevolent they were protected against using things like an iron chain or black handled knife, or holy water (O Suilleabhain, 1967). Often these spirits were driven out of their locations because of the threat they represented, but it is difficult to know whether they were simply territorial, dangerous by nature, or if their antagonism towards humans was rooted in something else.
This type of fairy is the one that many modern pagans commonly associate with fairies generally; however, they represent only a small amount of actual fairies, and of a very specific type.
Lutins
Lutins are a type of fairy from Brittany described as a shapeshifter somewhat akin to the Kelpie, but whose true form is more similar to a Dwarf, clad in green. Lutins are solitary beings who prefer to live in ponds or lakes and enjoy playing tricks on humans, sometimes assuming the shape of a black horse or goat (Evans-Wentz, 1911). It may be safe to assume these tricks, while terrifying, are generally harmless though as the other main type of fairy in Brittany, the Corrigan, is said to be at war with the Lutins for the Lutins’ friendly attitude towards humans (Evans-Wentz, 1911).
Merrows
The Irish version of Mermaids, Merrows are sea-dwelling fairies. The females are much like traditional Mermaids, beautiful and alluring, but the males are said to be hideously ugly. Unlike other kinds of Mermaids, Merrows wear red feather hats in the water and can take the form of hornless cows on land; if their hat is stolen they cannot return to the water (Briggs, 1976). Although sometimes feared as portents of bad weather at sea, generally Merrows are viewed as helpful and friendly beings. Like other types of fairies they will sometimes marry and reproduce with humans and the children of such unions are born looking human, but with some scales (Briggs, 1976).
Pixies
Pixies are one of the most well-known types of fairies; the name is also seen as Pisgies, Piskies, Pisky, Pixy, or Pigseys.
Like most fairies, Pixies can assume different shapes and sizes, from tiny to human-sized. There was an account of two strange fey children found near a village who were described as having a green tint to their skin and dark hair, clothed in pale green, who claimed to have come from a land of perpetual twilight (Briggs, 1976). Although not explicitly identified as Pixies these green children are sometimes thought to have been such7. Pixies are usually described as wearing green, red-headed, and bearing the pointed ears we so often associate with all fairies (Briggs, 1976).
One of the most well known of faeries, Pixies are also the most mischievous. They delight in playing tricks on humans and domestic animals, but are generally harmless, although like all fairies if angered they can be deadly. Pixies were known to tangle the manes of horses at night, as well as people’s hair while they slept. In Cornwall and western England, Pixies are known to inhabit groves, hills, and river areas, where they are pictured as old men clad in green (MacKillop, 1998).
Another well-known Pixie trick is leading travelers astray in familiar territory. Referred to as being Pixy-led, it is an extremely disconcerting feeling. You could be walking along a section of woodland you’ve walked a hundred times before, but find yourself totally lost despite being surrounded by well-known landmarks. The effect can last for minutes or hours, and can be broken by turning an item of clothing inside out, pulling some bread from a pocket and leaving it, or showing a wooden cross if you have one on your person. Pixies create fairy rings by riding horses they’ve stolen in circles; to step fully into such a circle is to be lost to Fairy, while setting only one foot inside grants the ability to see the Pixies (Briggs, 1976).
A lot of our experiences with Pixies revolve around our entertainment value to them, as they like nothing better than to see us running around in annoyed circles. A favorite trick for them in the modern world is to steal car keys – usually when we are already late or in a hurry. They will take the keys, which were left out in plain sight, then watch as we tear our house apart looking for the missing item. Often as soon as we give up looking the keys will reappear sitting out in the open on a table where we would have easily seen them before. They will also borrow or temporarily move other small items, such as jewelry. Like Brownies, Pixies will leave a house if offered clothing.
The Púca
[A]n pucadh da ngairir an spioraid phriobhaideach
Lucerna Fidelium
(The púca he was called the secret spirit)
The Púca – also called by a wide array of variant names including Phooka, Pooka, Pwca (Welsh), Bucca (Cornish) and Puck (English) – is a type of being found in folklore across hundreds of years. Some even connect Shakespeare’s character Puck to the folkloric Púca, although Shakespeare naturally took a lot of literary liberties. Puca was used in early Middle English as a name for the Devil (Williams, 1991). The old Irish Púca is given as ‘a Goblin, sprite’ and similarly the modern Irish is given as Hobgoblin (eDIL, n.d.; O Donaill, 1977). These translations give a clue to the Púca’s nature, which may be described as mischievous, but can in folklore be either helpful or harmful. In some sources the Púca was seen as purely evil and dangerous, while others described it as potentially helpful and willing to do work around the home if treated well (McKillop, 1998).
The Púca is known to take on many forms, most often appearing as a dark horse, but also as an eagle, bat, bull, goat, a human man, or a more typical Goblin-like small fairy; in the 1950 movie ‘Harvey’ there is a Púca that is said to take the form of giant rabbit (Briggs, 1976; Yeats, 1888; McKillop, 1998). The form I am most personally familiar with is the black goat. In the form of a horse the Púca will lure riders onto its back and then take them on a wild ride only to dump them in a ditch. This is a reasonably harmless trick though given that the Kelpies and Each Uisge when pulling the same trick end it by drowning and eating their riders. The Púca has also been known to work on farms and in mills, both in human form and in horse form (Briggs, 1976). This, perhaps, best encapsulates the Púca’s personality, using the horse form to both trick and cause minor harm as well as to work and help. In other stories the Púca will sometimes trick a person, even cruelly, and reward them later. In one case a Púca gave a piper a ride, forcing him to play as they went, only to have the piper find the next day that the gold he thought he’d been paid had turned to leaves and his pipes would play nothing but the noises of geese; but when he tried to tell the priest later and demonstrate, he found that his playing had become the best of any piper in the area (Yeats, 1888). Perhaps that is the best summary of the Púca after all.
The Púca is a mysterious being, if indeed there is only one of him as some claim, or a complicated type if there are more than one. Generally all of the above named beings – the Púca, Pwca, Bucca and Puck – are considered together to be the same. However, while it may be that they are different cultural iterations of one being, it might also be that they are simply similar enough to be classed together. The Welsh Bucca is said to be a single being who was once a God, while the English Puck is thought by some to perhaps be a type of Pixie (Evans-Wentz, 1911). In contrast some older Irish folklore would clearly indicate the Púca was not solitary, but a group of beings. It was said by one person interviewed in Ireland at the turn of the 20th century that the ‘Pookas’ were men who went invisibly to racecourses mounted on ‘good horses’ (Evans-Wentz, 1911). In Welsh and British folklore the Pwca and Puck were both said to mislead travelers and the British Puck stole clothes (Briggs, 1976; Purkiss, 2000).
The Púca also had a special association with autumn and with the turning of the year from summer to winter. In some areas it was said that any berries th
at remained on the bushes after Michealmas (September 29) belonged to the Púca, who would spoil them for human consumption (Briggs, 1976). In other areas it is said that it is after Samhain (October 31) that all the remaining berries belong to the Púca, and that he would urinate or spit on them to claim them. In either case it is clear that he was entitled to a portion of the wild harvest, the food that grew without being cultivated. The Púca was also associated more generally with roaming on and around Samhain and it was said that Samhain was sacred to him (Yeats, 1888).
Although generally helpful the Púca can play pranks that can be malicious and if it’s necessary to convince one to leave a home or area, folklore would suggest the same method used (albeit less intentionally) that rids a home of a Brownie – the gift of clothes (Briggs, 1976; Yeats, 1888). In particular the gift of fine quality clothes, as the Púca seems to have high standards. If, however, you feel you have a Púca around that you enjoy you might try offering it the traditional cream or the less common offering of fish, as some say they enjoy that (Evans-Wentz, 1911).
Red Caps
One of the most dangerous types of Goblins. Although there are some stories of the occasional more benevolent Red Cap these seem to be rare exceptions to a general rule of malevolence. These fairies appear as wizened old men, bucktoothed, talon fingered, bearing a pike, and clad in iron boots and a grisly Red Cap that is dyed in human blood (Briggs, 1976). Red Caps are known to haunt ruins where murders have happened, apparently either drawn by that energy or preferring it. They are all-but impervious to injury and iron does not ward them off, but it is said they will flee from a cross or recited scripture (Briggs, 1976). This may perhaps indicate that they were once humans, I might surmise wicked men, brought over to Fairy who still fear their old faith. In at least one case a human lord was known to have a Red Cap as a fairy familiar and it protected him from all harm done by weapons (Briggs, 1976).
The Selkie
The Seal Folk, called Roan, Roane or Rón in Ireland and Selkies or Silkies in Scotland, are shapechangers who can appear as humans or as seals. Stories of these beings appear on the coasts of Ireland, Scotland, the Orkneys, and Shetland and persist today in these areas. They are primarily associated with the sea and beaches, and their stories often originate with fisherman and people whose livelihood is tied to the ocean. Roan are creatures of the Between, existing between land and sea, between human and seal form. Although I will discuss the Roan and Selkies here as a single group it is worth noting that they are not entirely interchangeable and the Roan are noted to be more gentle and forgiving while the Selkies are more vengeful against those who harm them (Briggs, 1976).
Roan can be either male or female, and appear in either seal or human form, as they are true shape-shifters. They appear in the form of seals unless they remove their seal skin, at which point they appear human, but their stories make it clear this is not an innate magic, but a power invested in the seal skin itself (Briggs, 1976). It is a point of interest that the magic does not seem to lie within the Roan themselves, but rather is invested in their seal skin, which is part of them, but which they do not seem to have an awareness of; if the skin is taken or stolen they cannot automatically find it or sense where it is. In Orcadian lore they were said to be limited in when or how often they could transform, either only taking human form on midsummer night, or once every seven or nine days (Towrie, 2016). In Scottish lore it was sometimes said that their true form was human, but they used the magic seal skin to take the form of seals (Briggs, 1976). As seals they are indistinguishable from ordinary seals, but with human intelligence, and they are more prone to follow boats and aid fisherman. Some interpretations of stories cast the male Selkies as more noble while the females seem more animalistic although both are unreliable in their interactions and fidelity with humans (Silver, 1999; Monaghan, 2009).
In folklore Roan will sometimes appear in seal form and aid fisherman during storms and they have been known to help drowning sailors by supporting them and helping them safely to shore. In other tales they will herd fish towards the sailors’ nets to help them get a big catch, particularly if the fisher’s family is tied to the Roan. Selkies who are angry with humans for harming them are known to raise storms against fisherman, although the Roan are more likely to try to teach the person a lesson and gain a promise from them to stop harming seals (Briggs, 1976). For example, in one story a seal hunter injures a large seal, dropping his knife in the process, and is later taken out into the sea by a male Roan where he is asked if the knife is his and then told that only he can heal the wound he caused. He does this and then is pressed to swear an oath to never hunt another seal (Briggs, 1976). Upon being returned safely to his family he finds that he has been rewarded with gold, despite the fact that he had previously killed many seals and that the entire incident was predicated on his attack of a seal.
Most stories about them involve amorous interactions between Roan and humans. Where human women are involved, the Seal Man will emerge from the sea to court her. Sometimes this is a simple encounter, other times he may convince her to run away with him to his kingdom beneath the waves, where she will be lost to the mortal world. In Orkney it is said that the Selkie men are drawn particularly to unhappy women, both single and married, and there is even a folkloric method for a woman to conjure a Selkie lover if she desires one (Towrie, 2016). The stories involving human men and Seal Women, however, are much different; they generally involve a man who stumbles upon a group of Roan on the beach, and watches them change shape from a hiding place. Once in human form they leave their seal skins to go dance along the shore and the human sneaks down and steals one of the skins. When the Roan return to the ocean the one whose skin was stolen is trapped in her human form, and the man emerges and claims her as his bride. They will live peacefully together, with the Seal Woman as a faithful wife, so long as she never reclaims her seal skin. In most lore the couple will live happily for years, raising a family until one of the children discovers the hidden seal skin and tells the mother. Once she regains her skin she returns to the ocean, and no bonds – not even love of her children – can keep her on land; in some stories she will abandon her children while in others she will take them with her into the ocean (Briggs, 1976; Towrie, 2016). In at least one story, however, the seal-wife simply asked for her sealskin back and was given it, after which she left her husband and three sons to return to the sea; this incident reflecting the normal procedure for divorce at the time (Silver, 1999). Half-Selkie/half-human children were known to have webbed hands or feet, a trait that was passed down family lines, and several families claim such ancestry (Briggs, 1976).
Roan and the closely related Selkies are fascinating beings, perhaps the most human-seeming and acting of all the Other Crowd. Their interactions with humans are usually benign and sometimes even show genuine caring, although they are as prone to be tragic as any human-fey interaction can be. They are also noteworthy because when they have children with humans the children usually remain in the human world rather than becoming part of Fairy, as we see in most stories of human/fairy mixing. Ultimately, perhaps, the great appeal of the Roan is their very humanness, embedded as it is within an inherently nonhuman being.
Further Resources on Selkies
Black, G., (1903), County Folklore Volume 3: Orkney and Shetlands
Williamson, Duncan (1992), Tales of the Seal People: Scottish Folk Tales www.educationscotland.gov.uk/scotlandsstories/aselkiestory/echoes.devin.com/selkie/selkie.html
Movies
The Secret of Roan Inish
Song of the Sea
Slua Sí
I have already mentioned that some fairies are more naturally kindly inclined towards us than others, and some are generally more malicious. Those that fall under the auspices of the Unseelie Court are generally feared, but one type that is especially feared is the Slua Sí (Fairy Host). In Scottish folklore the most daunting fairies are those of the Sluagh (Briggs, 1976). The Slua travels in whirlwinds, or on th
e wind more generally and because of this the whirlwind is called the Séideán Sídhe (fairy blast) or Sitheadh Gaoithe (thrust of wind) and sometimes by the similar sounding name of Sí Gaoithe (fairy wind) (O hOgain, 1995; MacKillop, 1998). Usually invisible to mortal eyes while traveling in the form of a wind, in Scotland the Slua is also said to appear in the form of clouds (Carmichael, 1900). The Slua is most likely to be active at midnight and most often appears at night in general, but can show up at any time, sometimes startling farmers working in the fields (Evans Wentz, 1911). Anyone who had reason to be out at night, and more so if they were out alone, needed to be careful to avoid the Fairy Host.
The Slua Sí were known to force humans to go along with them while they engaged in their malicious endeavors, making the unlucky people aid them in their activities (O Suilleabhain, 1967). These endeavors often included kidnapping other people including brides, a common theme in many different types of fairy stories, and doing the new victim mischief. Anyone caught out alone, especially at night, or in a place they shouldn’t be in could be swept up by the Slua with little choice but to go along with the Fairy Host until they were released. People taken this way might be said to be ‘in the fairies’ (O Suilleabhain, 1967). In folklore people taken by the Slua Sí could be taken and left far away, sometimes in foreign countries with no option but to find their way slowly home, or else may be returned to the place where they were taken mostly unharmed. The Slua is utterly capricious in how they treat those they take.
Fairies Page 11
