Leprechauns Read online

  This particular baptism was used by midwives as far away as the Outer Hebrides of the coast of Scotland to protect newborn infants from the taran—a specific type of leprechaun-like creature. Two similar non-clerical protective baptisms reputedly come from the west of Ireland, although they are also found in various parts of Scotland:

  When the image of the God of Life is brought into the world, I put three little drops of water on the child’s forehead. I put the first little drop in the name of the Father (and the watching women say “Amen”); I put the second little drop in the name of the Son (and the watching women say “Amen”); I put the third little drop in the name of the Spirit (and the watching women say “Amen”). And I beseech the Holy Three to lave and to bathe the child and to preserve it to Themselves, protecting it from any evil thing—witch, goblin, or evil spirit. Let no dark thing come near to it or disturb its rest (and the watching women say “Amen”).

  The second baptism uses roughly similar language and imagery:

  The little drop of the Father

  On thy little forehead, beloved one.

  The little drop of the Son

  On thy little forehead, beloved one.

  The little drop of the Spirit

  On thy little forehead, beloved one.

  To aid thee from the fays,

  To guard thee from the host,

  To aid thee from the gnome,

  To shield thee from the specter.

  To keep thee for the Three,

  To shield thee, to surround thee.

  To save thee for the Three,

  To fill thee with the graces.

  The little drop of the Three,

  To lave thee with the graces.

  If any of the baptisms were performed by the midwife, then the crafty leprechauns (or any other fairy or witch, for that matter) had no power over the child. Of course, a full clerical baptism had to be performed as soon as possible, but the incantations had the power to restrain all members of the fairy kind until this could be achieved.

  If neither a cleric nor a midwife were present at the birth, all the father of the child had to do was throw his coat or an item of his clothing over the sleeping infant. This, presumably, was to remind the fairy world that the child had been claimed by the human world, until a cleric could arrive.

  Even then, it was believed that children still might not be safe from the leprechauns. Small children were strongly advised not to address a leprechaun directly or to give direct answers to any questions the creature might ask, since doing so would place the mortal in the fairy’s power; he or she could be whisked off in a magic wind, to be sold in a fairy market or at the door of some rath or mound.

  Far from being the jolly little fellow who appears on postcards and ornaments from Ireland, then, the leprechaun is a surly, miserly, mischievous, and antisocial being. Rather than being sought out by mortals, he was more likely to be feared.

  Nevertheless, he played a central role in the fairy world, and he deserves to be studied in a bit more depth.

  THE TUATHA DÉ DANANN

  The Tuatha dé Danann were a very ancient people in Ireland, deities of Irish mythology. Each of them represents a particular power. On the whole, they were benevolent. Their origins lay in four cities in the north of Ireland (Falias, Gorias, Murias, and Finias) and they first made their appearance in Connaught.

  CHAPTER 2

  * * *

  WHAT DO LEPRECHAUNS LOOK LIKE?

  Although the image of the “wee man” on Irish or Irish-related products is fairly consistent—a jolly little fellow all dressed in green (to symbolize the greenness and lushness of Ireland)—folkloric accounts of the leprechaun vary greatly.

  The first problem is that of size. Some tales describe him as extremely small—“a wee man, no bigger than a thumbnail,” small enough to hold in the palm of one’s hand. Other stories describe him as being about the size of a two-year-old child, which places him in an almost-human category. The size of the sprite frequently depends upon where he is seen. If he is glimpsed hidden under hedges or in sheughs (“gullies”) or ditches, then he tends to be much smaller, in order to increase his powers of concealment. If he lives in a cave, on the other hand, or in a ruined building, he may be slightly larger, since concealment is not absolutely necessary.

  Whatever his size, however, all accounts agree that the leprechaun is usually an untidy and disheveled being. His clothing, reflecting the rather haphazard dress of the nineteenth-century Irish peasantry, is not at all stylish. There is none of the coordination of freshly laundered green clothes that appears in stereotyped pictures of him. Instead, he will probably wear an old green (or bottle-blue) dress coat, red breeches buckled at the knee, thick woolen stockings, and a wide-brimmed hat, generally slightly askew. Sometimes he will wear a “claw-hammer” coat (an old type of formal dress coat, which sports a forked tail, typically worn by what was once known as the “down-at-heel gentry”). If he wears a shirt, it will be dirty and worn, tucked untidily into his broad belt, giving him an unkempt appearance. The overall impression made by his clothing is either that of the “reduced Catholic former aristocracy” during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when leprechaun mythology began to develop in Ireland, or that of the itinerant working classes that spread throughout the countryside during the same period—“not rich enough to be comfortable, nor poor enough to be destitute.”

  Keeping Warm and Comfortable

  Occasionally, the leprechaun will wear a red stocking cap like a nineteenth-century mariner’s. This is simply a piece of red material, drawn into a shape very much like a nightcap and crudely stitched together. Invariably, the stitching is very untidy, as the leprechaun has no skill with a needle and thread. The cap is then pulled well down over the ears for added warmth. Some leprechauns will wear an old tricorn hat, set at a jaunty angle. This gives them a slightly “roguish” air and makes them (they believe) more attractive to human women.

  LEPRECON

  Leprechauns as such do not feature in the Artemis Fowl novels written by Eoin Colfer. Nonetheless, they make an appearance—sort of. The novels are about Artemis Fowl, a twelve-year-old criminal genius. In the first book of the series, he kidnaps and holds for ransom a fairy. The Lower Elements Police send one of their best officers, Holly Short, to retrieve the fairy from Fowl. Short is a captain of a reconnaissance division of the LEP. Hence the name: LEPrecon.

  Curiously, Short and Fowl become close friends and join forces in other books to prevent various worldwide disasters.

  Given that leprechauns often live in damp, cold places, personal insulation is extremely important to them. Consequently, many wear several layers of clothing, as a protection against the chill of their dank habitats. Despite being encumbered with so much clothing, the sprite is still extremely agile and fleet of foot, and the fact that he is wearing several rather heavy coats does not appear to slow him down when he is being pursued by mortals.

  Footwear

  Although shoes are reputedly the leprechaun’s stock–in-trade and he is widely regarded (by humans) as the cobbler of the fairy world, his own footwear leaves a great deal to be desired. His shoes are usually badly worn and shabby, scuffed and muddied from long hours of crouching in gullies and drains.

  The boots are made of a more flexible leather and are ornamented with silver buckles like an eighteenth-century dandy’s. Many of these shoes also have slightly exaggerated heels built into them. This is to give the impression of height, because—although they very rarely mention it—leprechauns are extremely sensitive about their height.

  Favored Colors

  Greens and browns are the colors most favored by leprechauns—although the green is not the sharp Lincoln hue that appears in many artistic representations. These colors are favored for two reasons. First, they are the colors of concealment. To avoid capture by inquisitive mortals, the leprechaun has to dart through bushes and along muddy tracks, and these hues act as camouflage as he does so. He
can therefore pass unseen by mortal eyes. Second, the brown shade matches the color of the sprite’s skin, which is dusky and weatherbeaten from so many hours in the open air and sun. All these colors seem to merge to give a kind of invisibility to the sprite as he moves through the undergrowth around his home.

  The tints of the clothing are created using homemade dyes. The green and red dyes are extracted from lichens, which the leprechaun usually finds growing near his home, but he is also adept at using many other materials as they come to hand. This gives his clothing a kind of rough-and-ready appearance, and—especially as some leprechauns appear to vary in size at certain times of the year, thus making their clothing seem ill-fitting—it adds to his overall air of dishevelment.

  IRON BOOTS

  According to some traditions, in olden days leprechauns wore iron boots for durability; but as humans began to spread across the country, leprechauns were forced to abandon these, since the clanking and scraping of the metal frequently drew attention to their movements. The boots must also have been extremely heavy and uncomfortable to wear.

  Cleanliness—or Not

  Because leprechauns have a natural aversion to water, few of them wash with any sort of regularity. Furthermore, due to the heavy layers of clothing some of them wear, they tend to be extremely sweaty, especially in summer. Not being the most hygienic of creatures, they allow the sweat to dry on their skins, thus creating a personal stench that would make many of the strongest mortals flinch.

  This personal odor is greatly exacerbated by the fact that many leprechauns smoke dudeens, foul-smelling clay pipes. Though he very rarely smokes tobacco, the leprechaun usually finds enough leaves and other items to give off a pungent reek. According to one tradition, a certain West Clare leprechaun found dried bird-droppings extremely good for smoking. The smoke of the pipe only adds to his overall pungency and keeps the other, more hygienic fairies away from him.

  In some areas, leprechauns refuse to have their hair cut. Consequently, they are covered in long, thick, greasy strands of hair that stretch halfway down their backs. The lengremen of South Armagh actually use their hair as a covering while they sleep because it is so long. However, in other parts of the country—in Galway and Kerry, for example—the leprechaun’s hair seems to grow very slowly. Even so, it looks untidy and often leaves his hat reclining at a rather rakish angle—a fashion anomaly he seldom bothers to correct. The leprechaun’s hair is full of leaves, twigs, and branches from the ditches and sheughs through which he has traveled.

  The Lepracaun; or Fairy Shoemaker

  “Little Cowboy, what have you heard,

  Up on the lonely rath’s green mound?”

  “Only the plaintive yellow bird,

  Sighing in sultry fields around,

  Chary, chary, chary, chee-ee!—”

  “Only the grasshopper and the bee?—”

  “Tip tap, rip-rap,

  Tick-a-tack-too!

  Scarlet leather, sewn together,

  This will make a shoe.

  Left, right, pull it tight;

  Summer days are warm;

  Underground in winter,

  Laughing at the storm!”

  “Lay your ear close to the hill.

  Do you not catch the tiny clamour,

  Busy click of an elfin hammer,

  Voice of the Lepracaun singing shrill

  As he merrily plies his trade?

  He’s a span

  And a quarter in height.

  Get him in sight, hold him tight,

  And you’re a made

  Man!”

  —William Allingham (1824–1889), Irish poet, diarist, and editor

  CHAPTER 3

  * * *

  WHERE TO FIND LEPRECHAUNS

  Generally speaking, leprechauns prefer to adapt existing locations for accommodation purposes rather than to construct new dwellings from scratch. In many cases, they will use portions of extant human structures—ruined houses, old barns, even fallen church ruins. For example, a ruined church on the tiny Inner Hebridean island of Sanday was said to house one of these sprites, who was to be seen of an evening fishing from the cliffs and watching boats going to and from the Mull of Kintyre.

  These church- and monastery-dwelling fairies have their roots in Northern English traditions, where they are known as “abbey lubbers”: mischievous sprites who tormented lazy clergy and reminded lax and greedy monks of their vows of austerity. They also helped themselves to the abbey’s finest wines. When the abbeys and monasteries fell into neglect, the abbey lubbers stayed on, frightening away anyone who came near with terrifying shrieks and strange noises.

  Glaistigs

  Leprechauns also made their homes in ruined castles and ancient fortresses. A number of Scottish castles are inhabited by leprechaun-like creatures known as glaistigs. There is some dispute as to whether these entities are male (like the leprechaun) or female, but it is generally agreed that they come from the same stock as the Irish sprite. Glaistigs were supposed to inhabit grand houses and castles, long after the human inhabitants had left.

  In his book The Peat Fire’s Flame (1937), Alasdair Alpin MacGregor mentions a particular glaistig that lived on the holy island of Iona off Scotland’s west coast. Any shepherd who used the island shielings (“shelters”) was required to pay the sprite a fee for doing so. He had to take a can of ewe’s milk to “a common spot” known locally as the Glaistig’s Rock, and pour it into a long crack in the surface of the stone. Failure to do this would result in some sort of murrain (“sickness”) falling upon his flock, or in some nasty and mischievous trick being played upon the shepherd himself. No real description of this solitary fairy exists, although it is generally thought of in the same generic terms as the leprechaun and is frequently imagined to be female. Its home was believed to be within the rock, and consequently the stone could never be moved.

  Eilean Mor

  Similarly, on Eilean Mor, the major island in the Flannan Isles grouping west of Lewis, shepherds and wildfowlers who stayed on the island overnight had to perform a certain ritual so that a fairy force there would not torment them. According to Mary Harman, in her book on St. Kilda—An Isle Called Hirte (1997)—visitors to Eilean Mor had to make a circuit of the ruined chapel there on their knees, in the direction of the rising sun, praying all the while. Undoubtedly this was to protect them from a supernatural fairy creature who was said to have made his abode there and who had driven off the monks who originally built the holy site. Indeed, local shepherds who worked for MacLeod of Lewis (who owned the islands) frequently spoke of the unnatural creature who lived on Eilean Mor; they referred to the island as “the other country.” In 1900, three keepers vanished from the newly constructed lighthouse there—a mystery which has never been solved—and widely believed folklore recounts that they were carried off by the fairy in the middle of a storm. The creature is not known to have any particular habitation on the small island, but is believed to dwell in the ruins of the old church.

  Ruined Castles

  In Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (1900), the Reverend J.G. Campbell recounts how solitary, leprechaun-like creatures also inhabit ruined castles. He cites Dunstaffnage Castle, formerly the residence of Scottish kings, as the habitation of a stunted, rather ugly fairy creature, which he describes as being female—an ell-maid. She is particularly attentive to those who stay at the castle, mischievously stripping their beds or making off with items of clothing, which are then found in some other part of the building. These, of course, are also favorite leprechaun tricks.

  “The Fishermen and the Fairies”

  Other such fairies are said to reside in ruined castles and churches along the Irish coast. An old story from County Limerick recounts how Irish fishermen who passed by such ruins frequently had to share their catches with the creatures, for fear of having something happen to them on the way home:

  I used to hear that there was an old castle one time near Killgobban and that its
stones were badly tumbled [the place lay in ruins]. A fairy had come to lodge in the place and was a great torment to all the people who lived round about. There was a fisherman called Niall Hogan who lived quite close to the place, and he used to fish every day from the rocks below the headland on which the fallen castle stood. The road down to and up from these rocks always led him past the castle, and if he had a particularly good day at the fishing, the fairy would always call out to him whenever he passed by, “Give us a wee one, Niall!” And he would have to leave a fish beside a big stone for the fairy to lift.

  He noticed that the more he acceded to the fairy’s requests, the more frequent and troublesome it became, sometimes demanding two or three fishes from the day’s catch. He never saw the fairy, but he knew that it was there, and he could never tell whether it was male or female, for the voice sounded like both genders. The local people said it was a leprechaun and he should pay it no heed, but Niall wasn’t so sure. It was better, he said, to give it the fish, in case some harm should befall him or the fish from the sea should suddenly dry up and leave him with nothing. So he left as many fish as the fairy asked for. Sometimes it pestered him so much on his way home from fishing that, by the time he had reached his own front door, he had scarcely a single fish left.

  At last, a local farmer decided to destroy the old castle entirely—there’s not a trace of it to be seen now—and the fairy’s demands stopped. Niall was left in peace.