Spirited Enterprise

* Where Magick Happens *

A

 

Abarta: His name means Performer of Feats. He was a member of the Irish Tuatha dé Danann.

 

Abhean: He was the harper of the Tuatha dé Danann.

 

Abundia: See Habonde

 

Ad-hene: These are the faeries of the Isle of Man of the United Kingdom. It means Themselves in Manx Gaelic. They were easily offended when called by the wrong name or by invoking them. They were extremely malicious when they thought themselves wronged by humans.

 

Aengus: A faerie in Irish lore who is one of the Sidh and a member of the Tuatha dé Danann.

 

Aillen Mac Midhna: A faerie musician in Ireland's Tuatha dé Danann. He is described as being dark with flaming breath, and usually carried with him a poisonous spear. He played such beautiful music with his magical tambourine or harp, that all who heard would fall to sleep. He would play to all gathered in the Celtic Samhain (Halloween), but annoyed when they fell asleep, he would take his spear and blast his fiery breath. After more than twenty years of Aillen's destruction, he was captured and died when forced to inhale the poison from his own spear.

 

Ainé (Aine): She is an Irish faerie queen, a member of the Tuatha dé Danann, and a woman of the Sidhe. There is much confusion as to who exactly fathered this royal faerie. One version accounts her as being the daughter of King Egogabal of the Tuatha dé Danann. Another states her as being the daughter Owel of Munster, and used her magic to kill the King of Munster, who had raped her. Legend tells that Gerald, the earl of Desmond, saw her brushing her hair by the banks of Lough Gur and instantly fell in love with her. He persuaded her to marry him after stealing her magical cloak, with the stipulation that Gerald never show surprise. They had a child named Gerald Fitzgerald, the fourth earl of Desmond, whose antics surprised his father, therefore breaking the promise. Ainé and her son were reclaimed by the Lough's waters and returned to their faerie world. Ainé's son is said to have a castle beneath the waters of the Lough, and emerges to our world on a white horse every seven years.

 

Ainsel: A child faerie in English (Northumberland) lore. She appeared to a young boy who refused to go to bed when his mother requested, preferring to stay by the fire. His mother warned that the faeries would come to him if he stayed up too long, and proceeded to go to bed herself. Just then, a faerie child flew down the chimney. When the boy asked for her name, her response was Ainsel, which means Ownself. Upon the fae child requesting his name, the boy teasingly answers as My Ainsel. Just then, he stoked the dying fire, inadvertently sending the embers flying at Ainsel. Upon her screams of pain, a voice, coming down the chimney, inquired as to who had hurt her. Scared, and remembering his mother's words, the child ran to bed just as the faerie mother appeared. The mother dragged her child back up the chimney in disgust after her daughter replied that My Ainsel, or My Ownself, had done it.

 

Alp

Aka : Mare, Trud

Origin : Germany

Element :  Air

Appearance : a rather invisible but demonic creature that can penetrate a house by sneaking into the smallest hole.

Friends/Foes : The Alp is an evil creature that may be attached to a witch who send it to cause mischief

Tricks : He presses upon sleeping people so that they cannot utter a sound. These attacks are called Alpdrücke (nightmares). Alps often ride your horses during the night, and the next morning you can see how exhausted they are. It is also believed that the alp crushes animals to death. When an alp is pressing against you, you can put your thumb in your hand, and he will have to retreat. In Zwickau they claim that the alp will go away if one invites him for coffee the following morning. They can also be repelled with horse heads. When a nurse diapers a child, she must make the sign of the cross and open up a corner, otherwise the alp will re-diaper the child. There are some witches who can send an alp to those they hate or are angry with merely their thoughts. He comes out of their eyebrows, looks like a small white butterfly, and sits on the breast of a sleeping person. If you say to an alp that is pressing upon you, "Trud, come tomorrow, and I will lend you something!" then he will immediately retreat and come the next day in the form of a human, in order to borrow something. Or you can call out to him, "Come tomorrow and drink with me," then the person who sent him will have to come.

 

Alven

Aka : Ottermaaner

Origin : Netherlands

Element : Water

Appearance : Alvens have bodies that are so light that they are almost invisible. They can travel through the air by becoming encased in a water bubble. Occasionally they will show themselves while wearing the skins of otters.

Friends/Foes : They cherish night-blooming plants and will harm any human who attempts to pick or destroy them. Fish is their only known enemies, and they prefer to live in water enclosures where there are none

Lore : They are water faeries who live in ponds, lakes, and rivers, but the River Elbe is their principal home.

 

Amadán (Stroke Lad, Amadán Mór, Amadán na bruidne): An Irish faerie that is known as the fool of the Sidhe. He is a vicious faerie that is said to live in a castle called Bruidean. He chooses his human pawns randomly, punishing them with his touch. His victims suffer through a lifetime of ridicule and shun because of their disfigurements of face, limb, or body. People are more likely to encounter him in the month of June than in any other month.

 

Ana: In Gypsy folklore, she is the Queen of the Faeries. She is utterly beautiful, pure of heart. She lived in an enchanted mountain castle. Unfortunately, she one day met with the king of the demons, and from then on, her children were born as demons as well.

 

Angus Og (Angus Óc, Ængus Mac Og, Angug Mac Og): In Ireland's Tuatha dé Danann, he was the son of Dagda and Boanna and he lived in what is know known as the New Grange mound in County Meath, Ireland. He had a magic cloak that he always wore about him, and had the power to control time and transform himself into a swan. One day, a swan maiden visited him in his sleep, and he fell instantly in love, pining away for her until he found her amongst 149 other swan maidens. Because she could only assume her human form every other year, he divulged his swan form to spend the time with her. Anyone who heard their music would fall asleep, only to awaken when Angus and his bride returned to his castle in New Grange mound.  

 

Ankou

Aka : Death, the Grim Reaper, Father Time

Race : Psychopump

Origin : Brittany, Ireland, Cornwall and Wales

Element : Fire

Appearance: He is male dark, wearing a black-robed costume pulled up high about his head and a large hat that conceals his face. He drives a black cart, though some say it is really a small coach or even a hearse, drawn by four black horses. When there are two many patrons, he is assisted by two skeletons who hurl the copses into the cart. He is always preceded by a cold gust of wind.

Function : collect the souls of passed-over humans

Friends/Foes : Ankou shows neither emotion nor personal interest in humans or their lives.

 

Aoibhinn: The Queen of the Faeries of North Munster and a woman of the Sidhe.

 

Ariel: A faerie said to live in the bell of a cowslip flower, and ride on the back of a bat. 

 

Arkan Sonney

Aka : Lucky Piggy

Race : Fairy pigs

Origin : Isle of Man

Element : Air

Appearance : pigs with long hairs

Friends/Foes : flee any human

Magic : are supposed to bring good luck if one is to capture it.

 

Ashrays

Aka : Water Lovers, Asrais.

Origin : Scotland.

Element : Water.

Time : completely nocturnal

Appearance : They have almost translucent bodies, and are often mistaken for sea ghosts. When captured or exposed to sunlight they melt away into a pool of water.

Lore : underwater

 

Asrai: A water faerie in England (Cheshire and Shropshire). They may sometimes appear as a very small humans. The Asrai are known to be exceptionally beautiful and gentle. They only rose from their depths once every hundred years and had to return to their homes before sunrise, else they would waste away. Legend tells of a fisherman that caught one, and despite its cries, was determined to bring it to land. By the time the fisherman made it to shore, the faeries cries had faded and all that was left was a pool of water and a welt on his hands where he had touched the Asrai to tie it up. 

 

Attorcroppe

Aka : Attocroppe literally means "little poison head"

Origin:  England

Element : Earth.

Appearance : a small serpent with arms and legs who walks upright

Friends/Foes : very malevolent

Lore : in woodlands

 

Aynia: A faerie queen of Ulster in northern Ireland.

 

B

Badhbh (Badhbh Chaointe): See Bean-sidhe

 

Ballybogs

Aka : Bogles, Peat Faeries, Mudbogs, Bog-a-boos, Boggies, Boggans

Origin : Ireland, England, Wales, Cornouailles

Element : Earth.

Function : guardian spirits of the bogs.

Appearance : solitary mud-covered creatures of very small size. Their bodies are almost completely round, and their long spindly arms and legs look too thin and weak to support the weight. They speak no known language and grunt and slobber instead of speaking.

Friends/Foes : harmless but unpleasant. The Bogle focuses the majority of its ill will upon those who are lazy, incontinent, or guilty of crimes. Like many of the fae kind, both manifestations enjoy leading unwary travelers astray.

Lore : found near peat bogs or mud holes.

 

Ban nighechain: See Bean Nighe

 

Barinthus: See Manannan Mac Lir

 

Banshee

Aka : Washer of the Shrouds, Washer at the Banks, Washer at the Ford, Cointeach, Cyhiraeth, Cyoerraeth, Gwrach y Rhibyn, Eur-Cunnere Noe, Beansidhe, Bean Chaointe, the Bean-nighe, Kannerez-Noz

Race : Washerwoman, death spirit.

Origin : Ireland, Scotland, Germany

Element : Water.

Origin: The bean-sidhe (woman of the fairy) may be an ancestral spirit appointed to forewarn members of certain ancient Irish families of their time of death. According to tradition, the banshee can only cry for five major Irish families: the O'Neills, the O'Briens, the O'Connors, the O'Gradys and the Kavanaghs. Intermarriage has since extended this select list.

Appearance : Whatever her origins, the banshee chiefly appears in one of three guises: a young woman, a stately matron or a raddled old hag. These represent the triple aspects of the Celtic goddess of war and death, namely Badhbh, Macha and Mor-Rioghain. She has very long, flowing hair and wear green dresses with grey cloaks. In Cornwall she is said to have long black teeth. At times she is seen in lonely places, beside a pool or stream, washing the linen of those soon to die, and folding and beating it with her hands on a stone in the middle of the water. She is then known as the Bean-nighe, or washing woman; and her being seen is a sure sign that death is near. The Beansidhe's keening (mourning wail) can also be heard at night prior to a death. In 1437, King James I of Scotland was approached by an Irish seeress or banshee who foretold his murder at the instigation of the Earl of Atholl. This is an example of the banshee in human form. There are records of several human banshees or prophetesses attending the great houses of Ireland and the courts of local Irish kings. In some parts of Leinster, she is referred to as the bean chaointe (keening woman) whose wail can be so piercing that it shatters glass. In Kerry, the keen is experienced as a "low, pleasant singing" in Tyrone as "the sound of two boards being struck together" and on Rathlin Island as "a thin, screeching sound somewhere between the wail of a woman and the moan of an owl". The banshee may also appear in a variety of other forms, such as that of a hooded crow, stoat, hare and weasel - animals associated in Ireland with witchcraft.

Lore : found in dark rivers around big cities

Magic : In Mull and Tiree islands in Scotland, she is said to have unnaturally long breasts, which get in the way as she stoops to do her washing. She throws them over her shoulders, and they hang down her back.

 

Bazaloshtsh: A type of faerie from eastern Germany. She is described as a small, long haired woman that only appears to wail beneath the window of someone who is about to die.

 

Bean-Fionn

Aka : Jenny Greentooth, the Greentoothed Woman, The Bean-Fionn, Ban-Shoan, Weisse Frau

Race : Water Woman

Origin : Ireland. Germany and England.

Element : Water.

Appearance : a white gown who lives beneath lakes and streams and reaches up to drag under and drown children at play or work near or in the water.

Lore : found in dark lakes or on the banks of muddy rivers

Magic : She is said to drown those who displease her or hurt children. It is also believed that she protects children and gives direction to lost travelers.

 

Bean Nighe (Ban nighechain, nigheag na h-ath) : This is the Scottish version of the Bean-Sidhe whose name means Washer at the Fords. They wander around deserted streams, washing out the grave clothes of those that are about to die. They are said to be women who died during childbirth, and are made to do this until the day when they would've normally died.

 

Bean-sidhe (Banshee, Ban shee, Badhbh, Badhbh Chaointe): A celtic Irish faerie whose name literally means Woman of the Hill. Her name derives from bean, or woman, and Sidhe, or faerie. She looks like an old woman with deep-set, glowing red eyes, and wears a cloak over a green dress. Another description places her with wild, long, red hair and in a long white dress. Another, still, described her as a beautiful woman, veiled, with a posture conveying great sadness. She attends the old Celtic families, and her wails under a family member's window foreboded their imminent death. Many have seen her as she goes wailing and clapping her hands. The caoine, or the Irish funeral cry, is said to be an imitation of her own cry. When more than one bean-sidhe wail and cry together, it is said to be for the death of some holy or great one. Unseen, banshees attend the funerals of the beloved dead, and sometimes she can be heard wailing along with the mournful cries of others. Each bean-sidhe attends her own mortal family. Her wails can be heard in either America or England, wherever the true Irish have settled. But, out of love or respect, she never forgets her blood ties.

 

Bean-Tighe

Aka : Our Housekeeper, Ban-tee or Ban-Teeg

Race : faery housekeeper

Origin : Ireland.

Element : Earth.

Time : from Samhain to Bealtaine

Appearance : small elderly women in old-fashioned peasant clothing, with kindly, dimpled faces

Friends/Foes : very friendly to humans

Lore : found in human homes of their choice

Magic : Protection of home, children, and pets, and aid in household chores. They love fresh strawberries and cream.

 

Bediadari (Bidadari): These were the faeries in the beliefs of the Malay people of Western Malaysia. Their name means "Good People."

 

Befana: An Italian faerie that is described as an ugly, old peasant. Lore tells that when the three wise kings came by their way to visit the child Christ, she was so busy doing housework that she postponed any offer of hospitality until they came back.

Other stories say that she was invited to go with the three kings, but was so busy she declined.

Others say that she accepted the offer and followed shortly thereafter, but got lost trying to follow them.

Every story however, claims that because she was not able to take the Child Christ a gift, she goes about, filling children's shoes with candy and toys.

 

Béfind: A Celtic and French faerie. She is one of the three faeries that were invited to bestow gifts upon a new child and make predictions of his/her future.

 

Bendith y Mamau

Aka : ben-dith uh momay or Mother's Blessing

Race : cross-breed of Goblin and Twlwwyth Tegs

Origin : Carmarthenshire country in Wales

Appearance : have the ill-disposition and ugly appearance of goblins, but the glamour of faeries

Friends/Foes : do not enjoy the company of humans

Lore : live in clans in underground caverns

Magic : make people's lives unpleasant.  

 

Ben Socia (Bensocia): This is a French euphemism for faerie. It means Good Neighbor.

 

Bidadari: See Bediadari

 

Black Angus 

Aka : CuSith, Barguest, Cwn Annw

Race : foretellers of death

Origin : England and Scotland.

Element : Water.

Time : seen only at night

Appearance : a large black dog with yellow eyes, horns on his head and sharp fangs showing himself to those who will die within a fortnight.

 

Blue Faerie: Although she is now known as tall and blonde due to Disney's rendition of her, the Italian people only know her as the Blue Faerie. She was the faerie that helped Pinnochio become a human boy.

 

Boanna (Bóann): Mother of Angus Og and Dagda's lover. Wanting to be with her, Dagda sent her husband, Elcmar, on an errand that took nine months but seemed to take only one day.

 

Boggarts

Aka : Hobgoblins, Bogans, Bauchans, Gobelins, the Boogey Man, Boogies, Padfoot, Hobbers, Gobs, Blobs.

Race : Goblins, cousins of the Brownies

Origin : Scotland.

Element : earth

Appearance : a male dwarf with a squat and distorted form.

Friends/Foes : cousin of the Brownie but ill-tempered and greedy

Lore : squats sometimes houses that he utterly destroys. He especially loves to eat smooth wood like a termite and to torment children. One of the best ways to get rid of him is to ask the boggart to leave the house and stay out as long as 'the hollies are green'. It will mostly likely take at least two seasons for him to remember that hollies are always green and that he has been tricked. His resulting anger most likely needn't be feared as he will never be able to enter the house again.

Quote :

One wee little Hobgoblin
All dressed up in red,
Was spying on a farmhouse
With mischief in his head.
"this place," said the little Hobgoblin,
"It could be lots of fun,
Everything's so clean and tidy,
And begging to be undone."
So the wee little Hobgoblin
He went to work with glee,
He let the cattle out the gate
And set the piglets free.
He spilled some milk in the kitchen,
And overturned the butterchurn.
He yanked the laundry off the line
And caused the soup to burn.
He pinched the baby and scared the cat
And had the mostest fun.
And when his spree was over
He said, "That's a job well done!"

  •  

      Mark Shapiro The Wee Little Hobgoblin

 

Bonnes Dames(Nos Bonnes Mères): In Brittany, France, this term was interchangeable with the word faerie. It means "Our Good Mothers."

 

Brother Mike: A faerie who makes his home in Suffolk, England.

 

Brown Men: Short thin male faeries that protect the wildlife in Cornwall, Scotland. They have copperish colored hair, long arms, and dress in withered foliage.

 

Brownies

Aka : House Brownie, Bogle, Hobs, Little Man, Nis, Domovoi, Dobie,  Killmoulis,Bookha, Bwca, the Highland Bodach, the Manx Fenodoree, Chin-Chin Kobakama, Yumboes, Tomtra, Tighe, Fenoderee,

Origin : Scotland, Denmark, Russia, Canada and the United States

Element : Earth.

Time : nocturnal

Appearance : tiny, shaggy-looking man with wrinkled brown skin about 25 inches in height. They wear little ragged suits of green, blue, or brown, and small caps made of felt. Their ears are slightly pointed and they have long, nimble finger.

Friends/Foes : their cousins are the Leprechauns. Roosters are the familiars of Brownies. They are extremely friendly.

Lore : Brownies like to adopt houses which they look after. They come out at night to finish small chores, look over the cattle. If there is a lazy servant in the home, he might choose to plague him for it. All Brownies expect in return is a bowl of cream or good milk and a honey cake. Never leave clothes and never leave too much food. They find this offensive and will leave. Care should be taken not to criticize their work.

Magic : All household tasks and protection of home, family, and animals. They can lend their energy to prosperity spells. As with other faeries, should a human mistakenly offer them clothes in return for their labors, brownies will cease their efforts and disappear forever

In the islet of Cara, on the west of Cantyre, the old house, once belonging to the Macdonalds, was haunted by a Brownie that drank milk, made a terrific outcry when hurt, and disliked the Campbell race. In the old castle of Largie, on the opposite coast of Cantyre, which belonged to the same Macdonalds, there was also a Brownie, supposed to be the same as the Cara one. Since the modern house was built Brownie has not been seen or heard. In Cara he is still occasionally heard. It is not known exactly what he is like, no one having ever seen more than a glimpse of him. Before the arrival of strangers he put the house in order. He disliked anything dirty being left in the house for the night. Dirty bed-clothes were put out by him before morning. Dogs had to be put outside at night, as he often killed those left in the house. He was much addicted to giving slaps in the dark to those who soiled the house; and there are some still alive who can testify to receiving a slap that left their faces black. He tumbled on the floor water-stoups left full over-night. A man was lifted out of bed by him, and found himself `bare naked', on awakening, at the fire. A woman, going late in the evening for her cows, found Brownie had been before her, and tied them securely in the barn.

 

Bugul-Noz: He is a shepherd faerie that dwells among the forests. He is very ugly and longs for human companionship.

 

Bukura e dheut: In Albanian folklore, she is a very powerful faerie. Her name means Beauty of the Earth, lives in a wonderful castle, and has magical creatures as her guards. At time she is very benevolent, but her violent temper can make her as vindictive and destructive as a demon.

C

Callicantzaroi: These Italian faeries are small, thin, and always nude. They are almost always completely blind and spend their time trooping together. Pork is their favorite thing to eat, and if encountered, one should always identify himself/herself as a friend.

 

Cailleac Bhuer

Aka : The Blue Hag, Black Annis, the Stone Woman.

Origin : Scotland (Caillech is used when referring to the Crone Goddess)

Element : Water.

Appearance : an old woman who walks by night, wearing either black or blue-white tattered garments. She carries a staff made of holly topped with the head of a carrion crow.

 

Callicantzaroi

Origin : Greece, Albania, and Italy.

Element : Air

Appearance : small, skinny, and nude trooping fearies who ride chickens. They wear elaborate headgear on their raids and have the feet of various animals. Some said they are partially or totally blind.

Lore : Yule

Magic : They like to foul fresh water, but a touch of hyssop is reputed to counteract this, burning an old show will drive them away. Pork is their favorite food.

 

Candelas: The Italian faeries appear as a group of tiny twinkling lights. They can be spotted just after sunset.

 

Cannered Noz: Cannered Noz means Washer Woman of the Night. Though they are more often than not invisible, they are a group of French faeries that look like elderly peasant women when they are visible. By the banks of streams, they can be heard washing the linen of those who will die without absolution. Local people tend to stay away when they are heard working.

 

Changelings

Aka : Callicanzaris, Kontsodaimonas, Hosentefel, Gremlins, Leurre

Origin : Greece, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, France

Appearance : an imbecilic or deformed offspring of dwarves, elves, or faeries

Function :The changeling is supposed to replace the human child abducted by the Faerie which explained why some babies were born unintelligent or with deformities.

Lore : in the houses victims of such abduction

Magic : The return of the original child "may be effected by making the changeling laugh or by torturing it; this latter belief was responsible for numerous cases of actual child abuse".

The changeling was converted into the stock of a tree by saying a powerful rhyme over him, or by sticking him with a knife. He could be driven away by running at him with a red-hot ploughshare; by getting between him and the bed and threatening him with a drawn sword; by leaving him out on the hillside, and paying no attention to his shrieking and screaming; by sitting him on a gridiron, or in a creel, with a fire below; by sprinkling him well out of the maistir tub; or by dropping him into the river.

 

Chin Chin Kobakama: These Japanese faeries appear to be elderly but are surpassingly spry and can be either male of female. They move into human homes and bless them as long as they keep their abode clean and tidy.

 

Churnmilk Peg: A nature faerie that hails from Yorkshire, England. She protected the hazelnuts growing from people that might be tempted to take them before they were fully ripe. If anyone ate the nuts before they were ready, she would give them severe stomach cramps.

 

Cliodna (Cleena, Cliona): An Irish faerie queen of the Tuatha dé Danann, and a woman of the Sidhe. She lived in Mananan's country, the Land of Youth beyond the sea. Escaping with a mortal lover, she landed on the southern coast of Ireland, and her lover went off to hunt in the woods. Cliodna, who remained on the beach, was lulled to sleep by faerie music, when a great wave swept up and carried her back to Mananan, leaving her lover desolate.

 

Cloan ny Moyrn: This term is used in the Isle of Man as a euphemism for faerie. It means Children of Pride.

 

Clurichauns

Aka : Monciello, His Nibs

Class : Leprechaun

Origin : Ireland. Italy.

Element : Earth

Appearance : The Clurichaun is always drunk, but is impeccably well-groomed and well-dressed. He also wears a red hat which may be made of plants.

Function : Guardian of the Cellar

Lore : a wine cellar

Magic : will prevent casks from leaking and wines from going bad, will chase away all those who come uninvited by the master of the house. Occasionally he can be heard singing Irish folk songs in the wine cellar. One of their favorite trick is to ride sheep and dogs like horses in the moonlight. If you ignore or mistreat him he will wreak havoc on your cellars and on your home, and he will most definitely spoil your wine stock.

 

Coblynau

Race : Welsh Mine Goblin, cousins to the Cornish Knockers

Origin : Wales

Element : Earth

Appearance : These creatures using mining tools, are seen working industriously at the seam faces.

Function : The knocking of their picks and hammers is lucky, a sign of heavy ore content.

 

Corrigan: A female faerie in Brittany's lore. She was especially malicious towards Christian priests. She had a fondness for beautiful children, and was blamed for all the changelings in the area.

 

Couril: The Couril are faeries that can be seen darting through the ancient stone's in Brittany and Cornwall. The appeared as little people with webbed feet.

 

Credné: In Irish myth, he helped forge the weapons for the Tuatha dé Danann. He was a worker in bronze.

 

Cyhyraeth: This is the Welsh form of the Bean-sidhe. She will start her keening to foretell a death or multiple deaths which will be caused by an epidemic or an accident.

D

Dagda: One of the most powerful faerie of the Irish Tuatha dé Danann. He was known throughout the land for his cruelty and greed, and celebrated for his skill in battle with magic harp, club, and cauldron.

 

Daoine Maite: This term was used in Ireland to avoid direct reference which can cause anger in certain faeries. It means Good People.

 

Daoine Sidhe: Legend recounts that when the Milesians defeated the Tuatha dé Danann, they followed one of their leaders, Dagda, down under these earth mounds and became the Daoine Sidhe. They are the Trooping faeries and have their own regional kings and queens and owe allegiance to Finvarra and Onagh.

 

Devas: These Persian faeries are tiny that appear as small spheres of light. They are nature faeries, living in lakes, plants, or trees.

 

Dian Cecht: He was Nuadha's brother, who fashioned him a hand made out of silver when Nuadha lost his own. He was also the healing physician of the Tuatha dé Dannan. With his magic, he made the water of the well Slane into healing water. The Tuatha's warriors would bathe in the water and their wounds would be healed instantly.

 

Dormette (La Dormette de Poitou): A sleep faerie in France. She assures that children will have pleasant dreams.

 

Dracs

Aka : Nix Dracae

Origin : France,Germany, England

Element : Water.

Appearance : In their natural state Dracs appear as great floating purple blobs in the surface of the water. But more often they are seen in the form of a golden chalice or in female humanoid form.

Function : Dracs appear as beautiful women to lure human males. But more often, when they play on the surface of water, they take the shape of a golden chalice which they know will be highly attractive to avaricious humans. When unsuspecting men reach down to grab the prize, they are dragged under to the Drac kingdom.

Lore : They are sometimes found in damp, mossy caves and rocky outcroppings near bodies of water. They are most populous in the English Channel, but their former home of the Seine River, which was, until humans took it over, their sacred kingdom.

 

Drakes

Race : house spirits

(A drake is also a western fire dragon)

Origin : England.

Element : Fire

Time : Night

Appearance : Benevolent and helpful, the only drawback to a Drake is that they do not smell good at all. The odor they produce has been described as a cross between rotten eggs and a dirty chicken coop.

Function : Take care of the fireplace

Lore : In Wood Piles, at hearthsides, and in deep woods with very old trees.

Magic : Aside from helping provide you with dry firewood, a Drake can lend energy to any spell done in the fireplace

 

Duende: These are faeries from the Iberian Peninsula, Mexico, Central and South America. They appear as middle-aged women dressed in green robes and with long icicle like fingers. They are extremely jealous of humans and are known to take over human houses, throwing things and moving furniture about.

 

Duergarrs

Origin : France, England

Element: Earth.

Appearance: malicious dwarf faeries under two feet tall who wear lambskin jackets, moleskin shoes and green hats.

Function: guard faery paths and steer humans away from them, sometimes prey on travellers and remove all directional signposts from a road.

E

Elaby Gathan: A faerie familiar often evoked in magical spells in England throughout the 1600s.

 

Ellyllons: This is the name of Welsh faeries. They are very tiny, smaller than the Tylwyth Teg, with light skin and hair. Their garments are silken and usually white in color. They love to eat fairy butter, fungus growing on the roots of certain plants, and toadstools. They love cleanliness and have been known to reward those who keep their houses especially immaculate.

 

Erdluitle

Aka : The males are called Hardmandlene, the females are called Erbiberli.

Origin : Switzerland. Northern Italy, Western Austria.

Element : Earth.

Appearance : These dwarf faeries have webbed feet. They wear hoods, smocks, and long cloaks which always drape over their feet.

Friends/Foes : They used to be helpful to farmers, but now seem to dislike humans.

Magic : control over the weather

 

Erlkonig

Aka : Ellerkonge

Race : Death spirit

Origin : Germany. Denmark.

Element : Air.

Appearance : an Elf with a huge golden crown and expensively tailored clothing

Function : he appears only to the one about to die.

Lore : Valhallah

Source : Erlkonig by J.W. von Goethe; Franz Schubert

F

The Fachan

Aka : Peg Leg Jack

Origin : Scotland.

Element : Air.

Appearance : He has only one head, one eye, one ear, one arm, one leg, one toe, all centered directly down the middle of his hairy and feathered body. In his one hand he carries a spiked club which he swings as he chases away visitors from his home atop the highest Highland mountains.

Friends/Foes : He hates all other living things and chases them away with his vicious-looking club.

Lore : Highland mountains

 

Farfadet

Aka : Follets

Origin : Britanny

Race : lutins

Function : Guardians of treasures, they also help at home.

Appearance : little and funny creature of 30 cm, aristocrats of Fayriland

Lore : in Brittany under the dolmens or in warm houses during winter

 

Fata Morgana: See Morgan le Fée

 

Fays

(also a balloon term for faeries)

Aka : Fee, Fada, Fae, Fata, and Fas.

Origin : Greece

Element : Air.

Appearance : tiny, winged seasonal faeries who are born teasers. These faeries have four guises, one for each season of the year. They also love to dance and play with the forest animals.

Function : aid plants through the seasons’ changes by doing little tasks like shaking trees in autumn to help work loose the dead leaves and opening blossoms on spring flowers.

Friends/Foes : capricious but never malicious.

Fear Dearc (Red Man, Far Darrig, Fir Darrig, Fir Dhearga): The Fear Dearc looks very much like a furry rat, with a short, stocky body. As is apt for his nickname, he dresses all in red  He is known to delight in mischief and mockery, and can be a vicious practical joker, and has been know to give evil dreams. Human terror amuses the him. It is advisable to say 'Na dean maggadh fum' or 'do not mock me' when you encounter a Fear Dearc, that way you cannot be used in his mischief. Despite all his pranks, the Fear Dearc desires only to show favor. He will actually bring luck to those whom he approves of, but cannot resist a his teasing and taunting. 

 

Fin Folk

Aka : Sea Gardeners, the Lady's Own.

Origin : Scotland, Cornwall and Wales.

Element : Water

Appearance : small human-like faeries

Function : gardening and taking care of the underwater world.

Friends/Foes : avoid humans

Lore : the lochs of Scotland

 

Finvarra (Finavara, Finn Bheara, Finbeara, Fionnbharr): He is known as the king of the Irish Sidhe. The other nobel Sidhe owe him and his consort, Onagh, allegiance. He is renowned for his benevolence and help towards the humans in Cnoc Meadha in Galway. For those humans that serve him, he repays them with fine horses, harvest, and other riches. He become the guardian of Lord Kirwan's family and possessions after stealing away his bride and returning her unharmed.

 

Fir Darrigs

Aka : Rat Boys, Fear Durgs

Race : sub-race of the Formorians

Origin : Ireland. Scotland

Element : Water.

Appearance : fat, ugly faeries with dark, hairy skin and long snouts and tails which give them a rat-like appearance. They wear torn and shabby costumes which look as if they date to the Middle Ages and carry a shillelagh (Irish walking stick), topped with a skull of unknown origin.

Friends/Foes : dangerous

Lore : Along polluted coastlines, swamps and in coastal ruins, damp areas or marshes near the sea. They also enjoy the heat near human fireplaces.

 

Fireesin

Aka : Farm Faeries, The Harvesters.

Origin : The Isle of Man.

Element : Earth.

Time : they hibernate through winter.

Appearance : nude, covered with patches of brown, coarse hair, and in general are not very physically appealing

Friends/Foes : help farmers, but they are not known for being very bright.

Lore : In fields that are either about to be cultivated or harvested.

 

Folletti

Aka : Wind Knots, Salvanelli, Sumascazzo and Grandinilli

Race : Weather faeries

Origin : Sicily (Italy)

Element : Air.

Appearance : so small and light that they are practically invisible.

Function : Change the weather. They like to whip up wind storms which they can ride on, or hail storms during which they can be heard laughing gleefully.

Friends/Foes : Folletti love to ride grasshoppers in a game which looks something like a polo match

Lore : hollow oak trees

 

Folletto: These are the male version of the Folleti. The only exception is that their feet point backwards and can change the weather at will.

 

Formorians

Aka : Formors.

Race : The Formorians were an early faery race which conquered Ireland and was later banished. They were driven into the sea by the Tuatha De Dannan, and condemned to live forever as sea monsters.

Origin : Ireland

Element : Water

Appearance : The bodies of these giant demons were composed of a diverse collection of twisted human and animal parts. Some had animal bodies and human heads, some had only one leg and other four lags and two wings. These Formori were believed to have existed before the Great Flood and were skilled in the magical arts.

Story : Their leader was King Conan and the most evil was Balor whose venomous single eye killed anybody instantly. The Formori were a warlike people which defeated most of their adversaries before they were conquered by a new brave race armed with golden spears and helmets, the Thuata de Danaan, who slaughtered the whole race or turned them into sea monsters.

 

Fossegrim

Origin : Norway.

Element : Water.

Appearance : smaller than humans, perfectly formed except for their feet, which tend to taper off into a misty nothingness. They are expert harpers and have beautiful singing voices. They appear as attractive, virile men and women, which makes them very alluring to young humans.

Function : guardian spirits of waterfalls

Friends/Foes : their mood and intent is often unpredictable.

Lore : In and near Norway's waterfalls and fjords.

Magic : change in a heartbeat from one sex to the other.

 

Frau Holle: See Holle

 

Fylgiar

Origin : Iceland.

Element : Air.

Appearance : A Fylgiar can only be seen by its human familiar just before the person dies.

Function : familiar

Friends/Foes : was said to be the shadow familiar of children born with a caul over their head. The Fylgiar serves this person, and it is believed that the person also serves the Fylgiar while asleep or when making deliberate astral projections. He also accompanies him to the Valhallah, the Nordic Land of the Dead, when he dies and remains until the human soul is comfortable and accepting of his demise.

 

G

Gan Ceanach (Gancanagh, Ganconer, Gan-Ceann, The Love Talker): This Irish faerie's name literally translates to "Love Talker". He would show up in glens, smoking his clay pipe. He had no shadow, birds stopped their singing in his presence, and there was an aura of mist surrounding him. Men who lost all their money by buying baubles for their ladies were said to have met the Gan Ceanach. He would also seduce young maidens with his enchanting voice and whispered nonsense then would promptly disappear, leaving the maiden to pine away for him.

 

Geancanach

Race : Pixie

Origin : Ireland. Scotland.

Element : Fire

Time : At night

Appearance : depicted as being very small (a few inches in height), with huge eyes that curve upward on the ends and large pointed ears. They also have small wings but prefer to move from place to place by dematerializing.

Function : guardians of home hearths.

Friends/Foes : They sometime help but have a tendency to play pranks. Enjoy drinking fresh milk

Lore : Around a blazing fire at your hearthside. 

Ghillie Dhu

Aka : Gillee Doo or Yoo

Race : guardian tree spirits

Origin : Scotland.

Element : Fire.

Time : At night.

Appearance : disguised as foliage

Friends/Foes : dislike human beings. People traversing enchanted woods must take care not to be grabbed by the long green arms of a Ghillie Dhu, or they could be enslaved into the service of the guardian forest spirit forever.

Lore : In trees, especially birch trees.

 

Gianes

Race : wood Elves

Origin : Italy.

Element : Earth.

Appearance : They wear old-fashioned peasant clothing and large, pointed hats made of animal skins. They are nearly always seen with small spinning wheel spindles in their back pockets.

Function : They are master cloth weavers

Friends/Foes : very shy and scared about humans machines

Lore : In woodlands, especially enchanted woods in the forests of northern Italy.

Magic : Foretell the future by scrying into their moving spinning wheels. Italian folklore says that possessing a small piece of their woven cloth is a powerful good luck talisman.

 

Girle Guairle: The name of an Irish faerie. Girle Guairle offered her help to a busy Irish wife who was worried about finishing her spinning, with the stipulation that the wife remember her name. As soon as the faerie left with flax, the wife forgot her name. The wife, panicking because she had no flax and worried about what her husband would say, walked to a faerie ring where Girle Guairle sang about herself and how proud she was of her new flax. The next morning, when the faerie came back, the wife greeted her by name. Girle was obligated to hand over the spun work as per their agreement and left in a rage. 

 

Gitto

Aka : Griffith, Griffin, Gryphon, Geetoe, Phookas

Origin : Wales, Ireland

Element : Air.

Time : In fields at harvest time after sundown

Appearance : have the heads of horses and the bodies of goats, but speak and laugh like humans. They have no wings but can fly for short distances.

Friends/Foes : Malevolent faeries

Magic : Gittos like to blight crops and claim for themselves all crops left in the field after sundown on Samhain

 

Glashtin

Aka : Hawlaa, Howlies, Howlers

Race : goblin

Origin : The Isle of Man, Scotland

Element : Air.

Time : During storms.

Appearance : half cow and half horse. If the head part is a cow his is stupid; if a horse, he is shrewd and cunning.

Function : appear during storms and probably raise them. Usually howl loudly just before storms hit.

 

Glaistig: A female faerie member of the fuaths, which were a group of malevolent water dwellers. She had the ability to change her shape from woman, to half goat and half woman, to full goat. She would wait by the banks of a stream and beg any passerby to carry her across the water, who she would then devour. She had another side to her though, that of helpful domestic faerie. She might clean and order house while the patrons slept, or herd their cattle at night. Much like the Bean-sidhe, would wail before the death of a family member, and seem to care for the sick, elderly, and infants.

 

Godda: The faerie in Shropshire, England lore who became wife of Wild Edric.

 

Gofannon: In Welsh lore, he is the blacksmith of the Tylwyth Teg.

 

Green Knight: A faerie knight in the legendary tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. He's aptly named the Green Knight because his skin, clothes, armor, and weapons were all green.

 

Green Ladies: They are usually found in elm, oak, willow, and yew trees. These tree faeries are easily offended if their trees were not treated with proper respect, so people used to ask permission from them before cutting a branch from it. In Derbyshire, farmers still plant primroses at the feet of such trees in order to be rewarded with wealth and longevity. In Scotland, the same name was given to a faerie who would haunt a family just before a death was imminent in the shape of trailing ivy.

 

Grim: A faerie whose wails foretell the death of the sick. At night, it would assume the form of a large black dog or owl and would settle itself  to howling below the window of the dying.

 

Gumnut Babies: These compromise Bib, Bub, Snugglepot, Cuddlepie, Ragged Blossom, Narnywo, Nittersing, and Chucklebud. They look like small, chubby elves or a flower faerie, each dressed with the flower they represent. They inhabit Gumnut Town in Australia Bush with the insects being their attendants. They love music, dancing, and any kind of revelry.

 

Gwyllion

Race : Goblins

Origin : Wales

Element : Earth

Appearance : small men-like mountain faeries

Friends/Foes : sit amongst the rocks along mountain paths and stare evilly at those passing by, creeping the travelers out.

 

Gwyn ap Knudd (Gwyn ap Nudd): He was the faerie king of the Plant Annwn, the Welsh subterranean faeries.

H

Habetrot (Habitrot, Habtrot): A kindly faerie who is the patron of spinsters and spinning. Though she appears to be very old and ugly, with deformed lips, she has been known to help women who have little skill weaving or spinning. She lives under a huge stone in a grassy knoll with her sisters, amongst who is Scantile Mab, who is even uglier. A garment woven by her was said to keep ailments from the wearer.

 

Hamadryadniks

Aka : Hamadryads

Race : Dryads

Origin : Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Greece

Element : Air

Time : Daytime

Appearance : tree spirits who appear as living foliage

Friends/Foes : hate humans

Lore : In trees

Magic : For them to touch the earth at night is to vanish forever.

 

Habonde (Abundia, Wandering Dame Abonde): A faerie of English origin. She appears to be a beautiful woman with dark braided hair. She wears a golden diadem or circlet with a star on her head, signifying that she is a faerie queen.

 

Heather Pixies

Aka : Moor Sprites

Race : Pixies

Origin : Scotland, England.

Element : Earth

Appearance : Pixies carrying golden auras and delicate translucent wings

Friends/Foes : attracted specifically to the moors and to the heather which covers them enjoy spinning flax.

 

Hobgoblin (Robgoblin, Hobgoblinet): A kind of nature faerie that is described as being like a very ugly little elf. It can be helpful and tolerant of humans, but, like all faeries, are capable of playing mischievous and spiteful pranks.

 

Holle (Frau Holle, Hollen, Hoide, Holda, Hulda, Huldra, Huldu, Hulla, Mistress Venus): A beautiful German faerie she live in the Thuringian Mountains with her attendants. She would try to lure men into her lair.

 

Huldrafolk

Aka : Huldras, Hulda, Dark Elves

Origin : Scandinavia.

Element : Earth.

Friends/Foes : hostile

Lore : in the burghs and damp caves in the many mountains of Scandinavia.

Magic : blight humans with deformities with a lick of their dark brown tongues. Baldness or a crooked nose are their favorite tricks.

Story : there was once a farm girl who came across a woman giving birth in a field. She helps her to deliver the baby and is rewarded with an apron full of woodchips. Disgusted, the girl dumps them out and returns home. Then a look at her skirt reveals that the chips still stuck to her apon had turned to gold. She went back in search of the rest of the woodchips but they had disappeared.

J

Jenny Greenteeth

Aka : Peg Powler, Lorelei with green tresses

Race: water nymphs

Origin : England

Element : Earth

Appearance : a green water Hag with long hair and sharp teeth.

Function : These tales were meant to scare young children away from the precarious banks of rivers and streams

Friends/Foes : She is fond of grabbing the ankles of those who stand too close to or wade into the water and pulling them underwater to drown.

Lore : the River Tees

 

Jili Ferwtan: She is the Welsh version of Girle Guairle. She came upon a woman who didn't have time to finish her spinning. She promised to do the work, and return it to the woman only if the woman could remember her name upon three days time. As soon as Jili Ferwtan left, the woman had forgotten her name. In a panic, she set about searching for the faerie and finally found her singing as she worked. The faerie revealed her name in the song, and the woman was able to state her name when the time came.

K

Kelpies

Aka : Uisges, Fuath, Shoney, Nickers, Nuggies, Goborchinu, Afanc, Endrop, Each Uisge, Anthropophagi

Race : Water horses. There are two kinds: the horses of the sea (Hippocamps) who serve Poseidon and the lake or river horses who are demonic creatures.

Origin : Scotland, Ireland, Germany

They are the steeds of the Goddess of the Sea (Sjofn) and the God of Night (Celtic) or have been created by Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea.

Element : Water and moon

Appearance : They are shapeshifters who can assume a number of forms. In horse form, it is a splendid young steed with backwards pointing hooves having the tuft on pastern reversed. As a monster, he has the head, foreparts and front legs of a horse  and the lower half nody and tail of a fish.  Sometimes, it appears in human form, usually with seductive body to lure its victim. In Ireland, the Kelpie becomes a woman after coming on land and shedding her seal skin.

Friends/Foes : A Kelpie will wait by the waterside until a unsuspecting traveler sees it and tries to mount it. Then, he dives suddenly in deep water, leaving its unfortunate rider to swim or drown. The Ech-Ushkya from Ireland is impossible to dismount and usually eat its victims after tearing them into pieces, except for the liver, which they leave on the shore.

Lore : North Sea ands the Lochs of Scotlands

Magic : Someone who knows the wiles of a Kelpie can overcome it. The trick is to exchange its own bridle for an ordinary one and the Kelpie will become tame and obedient to his new master. But it should not be kept for too long or it will curse its captor and descendants forever.

They can be detected in human form because they are unable to keep their hair from appearing like seaweed. Any mortal man who manages to steal the selkie's skin will have power over her to such an extent she has been known to marry and bear children to mortal men who manage the theft. Once she finds her skin, however, nothing, not even marital devotion, will keep the selkie from the sea. This tale bears a resemblance to the many tales of mermaids who may be controlled through the theft of their combs, their mirrors, their musical instruments, or their cloaks or caps.

 

Keshalyi: These are the benevolent faeries of the Romany Gypsies of Transylvania. The live in the remote yet beautiful forests and mountains. Their queen was Ana and they resembles beautiful, small, fragile humans.

 

Killmoulis

Race : Brownie

Origin : Germany, Belgium, Holland

Element : Earth

Appearance : He is characterized by an enormous nose and no mouth. To eat he presumably stuffs the food up his nose

Friends/Foes : Although a Killmoulis works hard for the miller, he delights in practical jokes and can therefore be a hindrance rather than a help.

Lore : mills

 

Klaboutermannikins

Aka : Water Mannikins

Origin : Germany, Belgium, Holland

Element : Water.

Appearance : invisible

Function : guarded the ship from sickness, rocks, storms, and dangerous winds. If a ship with one of these faeries aboard sank, the faery sank with it and then aided the souls of the sailors out of the waters and into the Land of the Dead. Dutch sailors once believed that to sink without a Klaboutermannikin meant your soul was condemned to the water for eternity.

Lore : in the figurehead of any ships which they chose to protect.

Klippie: A brown-faced elf or faerie in Scottish lore.

 

Knockers

Aka : Coblynaus, Wichlein Paras, Black Dwarves, Koblernigh

Origin : South Central Europe

Element : Earth.

Appearance : have a reputation for frightening the miners by showing up unexpectedly and making silly faces

Function : get their name from the knocking sound they make when directing miners to a rich vein or some trap. They announce the death of a miner by tapping three times. When a disaster is about to happen they are heard digging, pounding and imitating miners work.

Lore :  In caves and mines. Some mines in Cornwall have been closed doe to the Knockers who wish to keep a few of these underground places to themselves

Magic : they are treated with great respect, and food and drink are left for them regularly.

 

Kobolde

Aka : Kobauld, Cobald, Kobolde, Kolbalds, Hutchens, Heinzelmannchens, Nis, Niagruisar,Para

Race : Brownie

Origin : Northern Europe

Element : Earth.

Appearance : dwarf faeries wearing little brown knee pants and caps.

Friends/Foes : untrustworthy, can be very helpful but will turn abusive if ignored or belittled

Lore : when not in human homes, Kolbalds live in hollow trees, caves or mines

Magic : sometimes held responsible for  poltergeist activity when making noise and throwing things about.

 

Korrigans

Aka : Corrigans, Korils, Poulpikans,Teuz, Kornikaned

Races : Kornikaned dwelled in forests, Kornikaned on moors, Korils in swamps and Teuz prefer human houses whose inmates are human.

Origin : Brittany, Cornwall.

Element : Earth

Appearance : little and ugly men that are able to inflate to a huge size and shapeshift. They have two horns, the feet of a goat and claws like a cat. Despite their small size, they are stronger than 2 men.

Function : guardians of treasures

Tricks : Shapeshifters, thieves and villains, they rob humans and children and cast storms. Enjoy dancing all night around faerie circles and dolmen.

Lore : under Karnach and Plendren  and the cliffs along the Britanny shore.

 

Korreds

Aka : Korrs, Kores, Pyrenee

Origin : Brittany

Element : Earth.

Appearance : They have wild spiky hair and long pointed noses. Compares to the rest of their body, their facial features are huge. Their hairy bodies resemble those of monkeys, and they have cloven feet and loud hooting laughter.

Function : guardians of the dolmens (stone altars) and standing stones of Celtic Brittany.

Friends/Foes : Scaring humans is a big part of their life, and they take their task seriously.

Lore : In the standing stones of Brittany

L

La Dormette de Poitou: See Dormette

 

Lady of the Lake (see also Morgan le Fée): A mysterious faerie queen who inhabits the lake around the Isle of Avalon in the tales of King Arthur. Apart from the description of a graceful hand and arm extending from the water, little is known of her physical appearance. She is one of the four faerie queens to take Arthur to Avalon after his death. There are several other tales of the Lady of the Lake. One of them lives in Somerset, England. Another is Lady of Little Van Lake, a Welsh faerie known for her magical herb cures. In Austria, the Lady is described as a beautiful woman riding a horse that seems to have been lashed. She can be seen in the reflections of the Traunsee at noon or by the waterfall at night. To see her causes great misfortune, and many fishermen have disappeared without a trace.

 

Leanan-sidhe (Lhiannan-shee):  The Lhiannan Shee of the Isle of Man is said to be a vampirish faerie who attached herself to one man, to whom she appeared irresistibly beautiful, but invisible to everyone else. If he yielded to her, he was ruined body and soul. The Irish Leanan Sidhe is known as the inspiration of poets and minstrels. She would roam the night, searching for romantic men to inspire with eloquence of word and beautiful music while in her embrace, and would draw from their life force until he would die. Both names mean "Faerie Sweetheart". In Scotland, the Leannan Sith was a term used to denote a faerie lover of either sex. In fact, the translators of the Bible into Scots Gaelic used this term, and the Scots took this as Biblical proof of the existence of faeries. The Lhiannan Shee of Ballfletcher was the tutrelary faerie of the Fletchers, and gave them the faerie cup, which was drank from every Christmas in her honor. She is said to haunt wells and springs.

 

Leprechauns

Aka : The Gentry, Monaciello, Fir Darrig, Cluricaune, Logherima,

Race : treasure-hoarding faeries

Origin : Ireland. Originally coined by Thomas Keightley in The Fairy Mythology (1850) from the Irish "Leith bhroyan" or "Leith phroyan" meaning "one shoemaker," comes the name Leprechaun.

Element : Earth.

Appearance : solitary dwarf male faery wearing green clothing of a costly material and green tri-cornered hats.  Infamous hoarders, they are loathe to spend a single penny, which probably explains their poor appearance in spite of their great wealth.

Function : shoemakers by trade, but their clientele is limited to the faery world and they only work on one shoe

Friends/Foes : trickster who loves to play pranks

Lore : around springs in wild areas with large grassy hills, sometimes in cellars

Magic : Music, dancing, fox hunting, and drinking Irish whiskey are said to be the Leprechauns' favorite pastimes. Once a leprechaun begins dancing to a human's song, it is said that he cannot stop until the tune ceases. His exhausted state may cause him to make outlandish offers, including his crock of gold, if you will please only allow him to stop dancing. Other means of finding his gold include looking at the end of a rainbow, which may lead him offer 3 wishes in exchange for his treasure. His promises of gold always proves hollow, as the Leprechaun always employs clever tricks in his granting of wishes, often resulting in the embarrassment or injury to the one who expected a bounteous reward.

 

Lesidhe

Aka : Leshes, Zuibotshniks, Leshiye, Vodyaniye

Origin : Ireland.

Element : Air

Time : Spring and summer

Appearance : owl, a wolf, or disguised as foliage

Function : a guardian of the forests

Friends/Foes : like to mimic mockingbirds

Lore : deep woods

 

Licke: She is an English faerie whose duties are that of a cook. She appeared in The Life of Robin Goodfellow.

 

Little Fawn: See Oisin

 

Lob 

Race : goblin

Origin : Wales, Germany or England.

Element : Air.

Appearance : a small dark blob that looks rather like a rain cloud with arms

Function : enjoy raising quarrels and fights

Friends/Foes : The Lob is attracted to ugly, raw emotions and to arguments and fighting.

 

Loireag (Lorreag): In the Scottish myth of the Hebridean Islands, she is much similar to Hebetrot with the exception of the deformed lip. She dresses in white, and is an expert at spinning, more than willing to punish whoever is lax or careless at it. She also love music, therefore, will cause mischief upon anyone singing off key.

 

The Love Talker: See Gan Ceanach

 

Lugh: He came to their aid when the Tuatha dé Danaan were oppressed by the Fomorians. He was refused entrance to the hall of their king, Nuadha, but eventually was allowed in because of his many skills. He became the substitute king in place of Nuadha when he had lost his hand in battle. After Nuadha's death Lugh himself became the Tuatha's rightful king.

 

Lull: A female faerie nurse who cared for the fae babies and children.

 

Lunanti Sidhe

Origin : Ireland, Rome

Element : Air

Time : night

Appearance : small, bald, old men with pointed ears, long teeth, long arms and fingers which enable them to climb easily.

Function : guardians of the blackthorn tree

Friends/Foes : hate humans with a fervent passion

Lore : blackthorn trees

 

Lutins

Aka : Follet

Origin : France, Cornwall

Element : Air

Appearance : Lutins are expert shapeshifters who have not held one form long enough for any human to characterize their appearance. They shapeshift constantly into both animals and inanimate objects, but never into the form of humans. One of their favorite games is to shapeshift into a nugget of gold and watch humans chase after them. They move from place to place with a little flash of light.

Friends/Foes : extremely capricious

Lore : some live in human homes and others in trees near water, but they are believed to change homes as often as they change their outward forms.

 

Ly Erg

Origin : Scotland.

Element : Water

Appearance : He dresses like a soldier and can only be distinguished from a real one by his small size and his red right hand.

Function : It is reported that he will stop his mark on a road or path (especially if it is near water) and challenge you with a raising of his red right hand. The best thing to do in this instance is to retreat, because if you allow him to engage you in combat you will die within a fortnight. His red hand is said to be the result of many years of bloodstains from those he has killed in combat.

Lore : On lonely roadsides near water

M

Mab: She is traditionally known the Queen of the Faeries in English literature. She is describes as being tiny, about the size of an agate stone, and travels in a coach led by insects. She has also been described as a tiny flower fairy or as a trickster pixie like figure, robbing dairies and stealing babies.

 

Macha: An evil female faerie who represents death and battle. She is a member of the Tuatha dé Danann and would take the shape of a large crow to fly over the bodies of men who had died in battle.

 

Malekin (Malkin, Mawkin): The name of a faerie that inhabited a castle in Suffolk, England. She seemed to be very friendly and intelligent, able to converse with the lord of the castle in English, the servants in dialect, and the priest in Latin. She revealed herself to the servant girl that would leave her a plate of food nightly. The servant relays her as looking like a very small human child, dressed in a white tunic.

 

Mallebron: In France, he was a faerie servant of Oberon, the king of the faeries. He would travel with the knights to the Holy Land and would often save them from death.

 

Manannan Mac Lir (Manawydan ap Llyr, Barinthus): He has been known as the sea god of Ireland, the father of Niamh, and the King of Tir Nan Og (Land of the Young).

 

Mary Player

Aka : Merewipers, Meerweibers, Lorelei

Race : Siren

Origin : Greece, Germany, England.

Element : Water

Appearance : lovely young woman faery who sits on the cliffs and sings, luring sailors to their deaths in the rocks below

Lore : on islands or on the seashore

 

Mawkin: See Malekin

 

Mebd (Meadhbh): In Irish myth, she is queen of the Tuatha dé Danann and of the Sidhe. She had several husbands, never allowing one man to rule by her side. Queen Mab probably derived from her character.

 

Melusina

Aka : Melusine, Serpentine

Race : Dragoness, Fea, Water nymph

Origin : France, Germany, Switzerland

Melusina is a famous nymph that married the heir of the Lusignan family in France and gave birth to eight children with animal marks on their bodies.

Description Because of a curse placed upon her mother, Melusine is born to become half woman, half serpent on Saturday. The rest of the week, she can live as a normal human but has to conceal from any sights when taking her bath on saturday. When she left the castle of Lusignan, she was portrayed as a dragon with four heavily clawed legs, bat-like wings, doted serpent tail and a monstrous head.

She met  a husband who swears not to gaze upon her when she is locked in her bathing chamber. Eventually, he does sneak a peek, and sees her, as she steps into her bath, transformed into a hideous creature with a huge fish's tail. Melusine then escaped flying from the bathroom and never came back to Lusignan.

Element : Water

Story : Elinas, King of Albania, to divert his grief for the death of his wife, amused himself with hunting. One day, at the chase, he went to a fountain to quench his thirst. As he approached it he heard the voice of a woman singing, and on coming to it he found there the beautiful fay Pressina.

After some time the fay bestowed her hand upon him, on the condition that he should never visit her at the time of her lying-in. She had three daughters at a birth: Melusina, Melior, and Palatina. Nathas, the king's song by a former wife, hastened to convey the joyful tidings to his father, who, without reflection, flew to the chamber of the queen, and entered as she was bathing her daughters. Pressina, on seeing him, cried out that he had broken his word, and she must depart. And taking up her three daughters, she disappeared.

She retired to the Lost Island, so called because it was only by chance any, even those who had repeatedly visited it, could find it. Here she reared her children, taking them every morning to a high mountain, whence Albania might be seen, and telling them that but for their father's breach of promise they might have lived happily in the distant land which they beheld.

When they were fifteen years of age, Melusina asked her mother particularly of what their father had been guilty. On being informed of it, she conceived the design of being revenged on him. Engaging her sisters to join in her plans, they set out for Albania. Arrived there, they took the king and all his wealth, and, by a charm, enclosed him in a high mountain, called Brandelois. On telling their mother what they had done, she, to punish them for the unnatural action, condemned Melusina to become every Saturday a serpent, from the waist downwards, till she should meet a man who would marry her under the condition of never seeing her on a Saturday, and should keep his promise. She had more sever judgements on her two sisters. Melior is said to keep a hawk in a remote castle in Armenia until the Judgment Day. Palatina is enclosed on the Canigou mountain with her father’s treasure until a knight, strong and bold to kill the monstrous guardians come to reconquer “the land of promission”. Only a Lusignan was capable of such a fit, Geoffroy died before departing.

Melusina now went roaming through the world in search of the man who was to deliver her. She passed through the Black Forest, and that of Ardennes, and at last she arrived in the forest of Colombiers, in Poitou, where all the fays of the neighborhood came before her, telling her they had been waiting for her to reign in that place.

Raymond having accidentally killed the count, his uncle, by the glancing aside of his boar-spear, was wandering by night in the forest of Colombiers. He arrived at a fountain that rose at the foot of a high rock. This fountain was called by the people the Fountain of Thirst, or the Fountain of the Fays, on account of the many marvelous things which had happened at it.

At the time, when Raymond arrived at the fountain, three ladies were diverting themselves there by the light of the moon, the principal of which was Melusina. Her beauty and her amiable manners quickly won his love. She soothed him, concealed the deed he had done, and married him, he promising on his oath never to desire to see her on a Saturday. She assured him that a breach of his oath would forever deprive him of her whom he so much loved, and be followed by the unhappiness of both for life. Out of her great wealth she built for him, in the neighborhood of the Fountain of Thirst, where he first saw her, the castle of Lusignan. She also built La Rochelle, Cloitre Malliers, Mersent, and other places.

But destiny, that would have Melusina single, was incensed against her. The marriage was made unhappy by the deformity of the children born of one that was enchanted. But still Raymond's love for the beauty that ravished both heart and eyes remained unshaken. Destiny renewed her attacks. Raymond's cousin had excited him to jealousy and to secret concealment, by malicious suggestions of the purport of the Saturday retirement of the countess. He hid himself; and then saw how the lovely form of Melusina ended below in a snake, gray and sky-blue, mixed with white. But it was not horror that seized him at the sight, it was infinite anguish at the reflection that through his breach of faith he might lose his lovely wife forever.

Yet this misfortune had not speedily come on him, were it not that his son, Geoffroi with the Tooth [a boar's tusk projected from his mouth], had burned his brother Freimund, who would stay in the abbey of Malliers, with the abbot and a hundred monks. At which the afflicted father, Count Raymond, when his wife Melusina was entering his closet to comfort him, broke out into these words against her, before all the courtiers who attended her, "Out of my sight, thou pernicious snake and odious serpent! thou contaminator of my race!"

Melusina's former anxiety was now verified, and the evil that had lain so long in ambush had now fearfully sprung on him and her. At these reproaches she fainted away; and when at length she revived, full of the profoundest grief, she declared to him that she must now depart from him, and, in obedience to a decree of destiny, fleet about the earth in pain and suffering, as a specter, until the day of doom; and that only when one of her race was to die at Lusignan would she become visible.

Her words at parting were these, "But one thing will I say unto thee before I part, that thou, and those who for more than a hundred years shall succeed thee, shall know that whenever I am seen to hover over the fair castle of Lusignan, then will it be certain that in that very year the castle will get a new lord; and though people may not perceive me in the air, yet they will see me by the Fountain of Thirst; and thus shall it be so long as the castle stand in honor and flourishing -- especially on the Friday before the lord of the castle shall die."

Immediately, with wailing and loud lamentation, she left the castle of Lusignan, and has ever since existed as a specter of the night.

Raymond died as a hermit on Monserrat. The Lusignan prosperity ended and the once richest family  became a second-rank country nobles. Geoffroi who could have broke the malediction died before going to Canigou and deliver Paletina.

 

Merpeople

Aka : Fish-Folk, Mermaids, Mermen, Water Dancers, Blue Men, Merrows, Murduchu

Origin : Universal belief

Element : Water

Appearance : Mermen or Mermaids depending upon their gender. They have the lower bodies of fish and the upper bodies and heads of humans.

Lore : the vast caves of Atlantis and sometimes ghost ships and sunken wrecks where they party.

Friend/Foe : They are usually peaceful but their ire can be aroused by persons who desecrate and pollute the seas. Sailors have recorded many tales of Merpeople who have saved drowning people or who have steered their ships clear of disaster. Mermaids had a reputation for luring men to live with them beneath the sea and occasionally took human mates, such as in the popular faery tale "The Little Mermaid." They may have trouble reproducing themselves and need human males to further their race. In Welsh legend, the Gwragedd Annwn were "lake maidens" who married mortal men whom they chose. One malevolent race of Merpeople are the very strong Blue Men from the Muir from Scotland, who have been accused of causing storms in the North Sea and throwing boulders at ships. The best way to dispatch them is by reciting rhymes, which is said to confuse

Magic: A person soon to die by drowning is said to see a mermaid in the water in anticipation of fresh company. Mermaids can sometimes be captured and kept for the knowledge that they can give to humans, particularly their understanding of herbal lore and their ability to foretell the advent of catastrophes, tidal waves and storms. The greatest wish of a mermaid is to gain a human soul but only rarely can she achieve this, as the condition is to transform into an aerial spirit and cause no harm for 300 years.

Famous mergods : Oanes or Ea (Babylone), Nin-Mah (The Sumerian Mother of Universe), Decerto, Aphrodite, Triton, Proteus or Nereus (Greece)

 

Micol: The faerie evoked by medieval sorcerers in Europe, who claimed her to be the Faerie Queen of the trooping faeries.

 

Midar (Midhir, Midir): One of the kings of the Irish Tuatha dé Danann. There are two different accounts as to how he won the love of the mortal queen called Etain. One version is the he won her in a game of chess against her mortal husband, Eochaid of Munster. The other version states that Midar took Etain as a second wife, and his first wife, in a fit of jealousy turned her into a fly. She then went back to the human world, and united with Eochaid. When Midar found her, he challenged Eochaid to a game of chess, and won her back. Midar then changed them both to swans and flew back to his home, only to encounter Eochaid and his armies. After many long battles, Midar released Etain to go back to Eochaid.

 

Mistress Venus: See Holle

 

Monaciello: Monaciello means little monk in Italian, which describes their cloaked appearance. They are male faeries who live in wine cellars and are always drunk. They are a happy bunch, but are known to steal a human's clothing for fun.

 

Morgan Le Fay

Aka : Dame d'Avalon

Race : Fea

Morgan also gave her name to the mermaids of Brittany called Maries Morgan or Morganes and the mermaids of Wales called Morgen. The treachery of these aquatic females was so renowned that storytellers carried the fame of these demons as far as Italy, where mirages over the straights of Messina are to this day called Fata Morganas.

Element : Water, Fire and Air

Origin : Morgan Le Fay was a malign fairy or sorceress who appeared in many guises throughout Arthurian legend. A mysterious figure, she has been related to the Irish death queen, Badb, and to the Celtic mistress of death and war, Morrigan. She had eight sisters and mothered three children by Urien, an ancient Brettonic deity of war and minstrelsy. In British legend, Morgan le Fay was related to King Arthur.

Powers : Endowed with supernatural skills in the art of herbal medicine, and occult magic powers, Morgan was one of the most powerful sorceress of her time. The popular tales mentions the source of Morgan's magic knowledge. She was the mistress of Merlin, and had been trained by the great magician in her youth.

Appearance : Either beautiful or with a deformed face, Morgan can shapeshift into a variety of human and animal forms. If so, her beauty could be only a charm. In the legend of Sir Lancelot of the Lake, Morgan appears as a vicious hag, but in the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, she was an imposing crone and remained in the background until she was revealed as 'Morgan the goddess'.  In Ireland she assumed the shape of a wolf-bitch or a heifer, crowned with a silver crescent instead of horns. If she was insulted in any manner, she took on the form of a crow that swooped down and stole children.

Lore : Morgan is the ruler of an underwater paradise, the island Avalon but inhabited at times other places besides Avalon. Her chief fortress was Mongibel in England, and she was the mistress of a castle full of beautiful but wicked fairy servants near Edinburgh, called the castle of the Maidens. But her main home always remained Avalon, where she resided with her demon husband, Guingamar.

Story: In Malory's La Mort D'Arthur, Morgan plotted constantly against her half-brother, Arthur, and once succeeded in stealing his magic sword, Excalibur. Ironically, it was she who took Arthur to her island retreat to cure him of his wounds after the fatal battle of Camlan. Another medieval writer described Avalon, which meant the isle of apples, with the following words:

'Avalon, which men call the Fortunate Isle, is so named because it produces all things of itself. The fields there have no need of farmers to plow them, and nature alone provides all cultivation. Grains and grapes are produced without tending, and apple trees grow in the woods from the close-clipped grass...Thither after the battle of Camlan we took the wounded Arthur...with the Prince we arrived there and Morgan received us with becoming honour. In her own chamber she placed the King on a golden bed, with her own hand uncovered the wound, and gazed at it long. At last she said that health could return to him, if her were to stay with her for a long time and wished to make use of her healing art.'

In one account, Orlando, a great hero, went to rescue the many worthy men who had been imprisoned in Morgan's castle. After overcoming many obstacles, such as dazzling beauty which blinded him temporarily, Orlando gained the silver key to the prison. Morgan warned him to be sure not to break the key in the lock or he would 'involve himself and all, in inevitable destruction.' This made Orlando ponder how 'few amid the suitors who importune the dame, know how to turn the Keys of Fortuen.' On another occasion, Morgan hexed the heroic child, Ogier the Dane, compelling him to live with her for one hundred years.

 

Morgan le Fée (Fata Morgana, Morgaine, Morgana, Morgane, Morgan le Fay, Morganetta, and Morgue la Faye): In the legends of Arthur, she was the Lady of the Lake. Her magic is said to be responsible for the mirages in the Straights of Messina, which are aptly named Fata Morgana.

 

Moss People

Aka : Greenies

Origin : Germany and Switzerland.

Time : Late spring and summer

Appearance : both male and female, they have large butterfly wings attached to the little bodies that look mostly human.

Friends/Foes : shy and capricious

Lore : in remote gardens and woodlands

 

Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid and Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby: Both are faeries in Charles Kingsley's Water Babies, and are portrayed as elderly and strict tutors.

 

Muma Padura: A wood faerie in the Rumanian and Slav folklore. She is kindly and benevolent towards humans, helping children who become lost in the forest back home and to their parents.

 

Murdhuachas

Aka : Walrus People, Sea Cows

Race : similar to Formorians but not to be confused with Mermaids and Mermen

Origin : Ireland.

Element : Water

Time : Dawn and dusk

Appearance : fish-like lower bodies, but rather than having humanoid upper bodies, they have the upper bodies and heads of other mammals.

Lore : Sea

 

N

Nanny-Button-Cap: A nursery faerie in Yorkshire, England. She ensures that all children are safely and warmly tucked into bed for the night.

 

Niamh: There are two different accounts of the life of this faerie. One is that she was a member of of the Ireland's Tuatha dé Danann who went to live in the land of Tir Nan Og (Land of the Young) when she married Oisin. The other accounts her as being the daughter of Manannan, the king of the Land of the Young. She fell in love with Oisin and convinced him to move with her to her fathers land, where they lived happily together for 300 yrs.

 

Nibelungen

Origin : Germany, Norway, and Denmark

Element : Earth.

Appearance : dwarf faeries

Function : They have amassed a huge treasure over the millenaries which is guarded when they are not around by a dragon named Fafnir. They are mainly goldsmiths who make golden rings with magickal properties.

Friends/Foes : They are tricksters and quite capricious

Lore : a crystal palace underground

Source : Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.

 

Nigheag na h-ath: See Bean Nighe

 

Nixen

Aka : Urchins, Nis

Race : River and water sprites

Origin : Germany and Switzerland.

Element : Water

Appearance : beautiful human form. Men have green teeth.

Friends/Foes : mischievous and dangerous. Used to lure swimmers and sailors to their deaths on rocks and invoke storms in the rivers they inhabit.

Lore : in a palace underwater the Rhine River

 

Noggles

Origin : Italy

Element : Water.

Appearance : small gray horse with miniature tack

Function : guardian of streams and rivers

Friends/Foes : he does not appreciate humans building on his waterways. His two favorite pranks are jamming mill wheels and chasing people into the water.

Lore : near the edge of inland streams

 

Nos Bonnes Méres: See Bonnes Dames

 

Nuadha: He is the King of the Tuatha dé Danann who had to give up his reign when he lost his hand in battle. His successor to the thrown was Lugh.

 

Nuala: Although in most Irish tales Onagh is Finvarra's consort, some tales tell of Nuala being his High Queen and consort instead.

 

Nucklelavees

Aka : Nuchlavis.

Origin : Scotland.

Element : Water.

Appearance : A monstrous horse with legs that are part flipper, a huge mouth and one fiery eye and, rising from its back joined to it at the waist, a hideous torso with arms that nearly reach the ground, topped by a massive head that rolls from side to side as though its neck was too weak to hold it upright. Worse than this though is the horrible appearance of the creatures flesh, for it has no skin. Black blood coursing through yellow veins, white sinews and powerful red muscles are exposed. Their odor is very strong and can be easily smelled before he show up

Friends/Foes : ill-tempered and hostile to humans but also very clumsy

Lore : At seashores.

O

Oberon He is known as the Faerie King, and was introduced to English literature by William Shakespeare. He appears as a dwarf with a beautiful face and lofty behavior. He enjoys playing pranks on his fellow faerie subjects and on unsuspecting humans. He spends his days in the forest with Puck and other sprites. Humans are warned to not speak to him, for whoever does, will remain forever in his power.

 

Ogma: The son of Dagda, the great warrior. He, himself, was a faerie warrior who fought beside Nuadha. He was also known for his inspiration and learning.

 

Ogres

Aka : Orculli, Norrgens,

Race : Giants

Origin : They are born from a confusion between Orcus, the roman god of death and darkness, and Saturn who eats his own children and the Oïgours, Hungarian tribes which made havoc in northern Europe in the IX and Xth centuries.

Element : Earth

Appearance : Ogres look like humans but are much larger sometimes with deformed faces, excessive body hair and sometimes a hump in their backs. One can always tell when an ogre is around because of the smell they produce, said to be like that of a rotting carcass. Despite their size they are slow and clumsy, and humans can easily get away from them.

Friends/Foes : Perhaps because of their size and unappealing appearance ogres have been regarded as unfriendly, but some folklore exists which tells us this is not so. Ogres enjoy eating human children and young faeries. Ogres are pretty fearless, but Giants are terrified of cats.

Powers : They have a very good hear and smell,  thanks to their enchanted boots some are able to walk at great speed.

Lore : Ogres usually live on clouds just like the Giant in the fable "Jack and the Beanstalk" and descend to earth only to obtain food. They prefer to eat their own kind, but will settle for beef and human meat if they must. Their touch alone can sicken cattle to death, and they are adept thieves.

Famous : Giants and Ogres both figure largely in children's faery tales. The best known Giant is probably the one from the tale "Jack and the Beanstalk" where he is portrayed as evil, though in fact he is the victim of the story even though we are taught to identify Jack as the protagonist. Other popular faery tales from Yorkshire about giants are "The Brave Little Tailor" and "Jack the Giant Killer."

Other famous ogres include : Pacolet, Allewyn, Orlo, Orch, Saalah, Balardeu, Galaffre, Fine Oreille, Dents Rouge, Grand Colin, Raminagrobis, L’Homme Rouge, Babau, Babou, Pier Jan Claes, Pere Fouettard, Pere Lustucru, Croque-mitaine and Tartaro

 

Oisin (Little Fawn): Son of Sabdh and loved by Niamh. He spent 300 yrs in The Land of the Young or Tir Nan Og, in which time he became homesick. Niamh presented him with a horse and the warning not to step off from the horse, lest he wouldn't be able to find his way back. When he got to Ireland, he helped the mortals move a rock, upon which he changed before their eyes into an aged man.

 

Ole Luk Øj (Ole Luk Öie): A tiny Danish faerie dressed in a silk jacket which changes color according to the light and carries two magic umbrellas. His name means Ole Close Your Eyes. He tiptoes into the children's room and blows faerie dust into their eyes and necks, which makes them fall asleep. He will then open one of his umbrella over the good children, which have beautiful pictures painted on the underneath, and they'll have beautiful dreams. To the bad children, though, he will open the other umbrella, which has nothing on it, and they will have dreamless sleep.

 

Onagh: She is Queen of the Irish Sidhe and Finvarra's consort. She received alliance from tributary queens Aine, Aoibhinn, and Cliodna. She has long golden hair that reaches the ground and wears a silver spun dress. Despite her great beauty, her consort is unfaithful with the mortal women he seduces with his music.

 

Oosood: A female birth faerie in the belief of the Serbian people. She becomes visible only to the mother of the child on the seventh day after his/her birth. She then proceeds to  predict the child's fate.

 

Oreande la Fée: A benevolent faerie who made many appearances in romantic legends throughout the 1400s.

 

Ouphe: A mountain nymph, elf, or fairy in European folklore. They appeared to be slightly dim-witted compared to the Trooping Faeries, and hence were left as changelings. The term "Oaf" came from these beings.

P

 

Painajainen

Race : Shopiltees, Linchettos

Origin : Western Europe  

Appearance : small white horses

Friends/Foes : Painajainen like to tease and sometimes harm children. An effective Alpine remedy against them is to place a broom or some iron under a child's pillow.

Lore : in the Alps where they can live as long as 4000 years

 

Pease Blossom: The name of one of the flower faeries, she also made an appearance as an attendant to Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

 

Peerifool: A blonde male faerie who agrees to spin for a princess who was captured by an ogre. Because she does not know how to spin, she agrees, knowing that she will only get the completed work back if she remembers his name. As with all similar stories, she forgets his name almost immediately and becomes frantic. An old beggar happened by Peerifool as he was saying that there was no way she would ever guess his name, and she quickly went to the princess with his name, for which she was later rewarded.

 

Pigwidgeon (Pigwiggen): The faerie knight in Drayton's Nymphadia which fell in love with Queen Mab.

 

Pillywiggins

Aka : Flower Faeries, Spring Faeries.

Race : Flower Faeries

Origin : England and Wales.

Element : Air

Time : Spring and early summer

Appearance: small winged creatures who also ride bees from flower to flower.

Friends/Foes : playful but mostly indifferent to humans

Lore : among wildflowers which grow at the foot of large oaks.

Famous : Ariel the Pillywiggin Queen

 

Pixies

Aka : Urchins, Pisgies, Piskies, Pigseys, Pechts, Pechs, Pickers, Grigs or Dusters

Origin : Scotland,Cornwall

Element : Air

Appearance : small, winged creatures with pointed ears, noses and arched eyebrows. Their wings are shiny and translucent, and they are usually seen wearing seasonal colors and flora. The little caps they wear are the tops of foxglove or toadstool, plants they hold sacred. Their bells are often heard on the moor. They like to steal horses and torture them to get them to run faster.

Friends/Foes : friendly but capricious. Beware of doing pixies favors, for they have a tendency to backfire. Excessive contact with iron can kill Pixies.

Lore : In flower gardens. Pixies are trooping faeries who love playing, dancing, and music especially during large gatherings known in northern England as Pixie Fairs.

 

Portunes

Aka : Wish Makers.

Race : Leprechauns.

Origin : England.

Appearance : Portunes look like old men and are among the smallest of all faeries, less than an inch tall.

Function : They are superb horsemen, grant wishes if captured, and guard a treasure.

Friends/Foes : . It was their habit to labor on farms, and at night when the doors were shut they would blow up the fire, and, taking frogs from their bosoms, they would roast them on the coals and eat them.

Lore : In burghs and woodlands

 

Pressina: A French faerie, guardian of a fountain. She married to King Elinus of Albany, with the warning that he never see her during childbirth. The vow was broken as he walked in on the last of her births and Pressina and three daughters were compelled to return to the faerie court. When the daughters came upon their full power, the went back and took revenge on their father, forever entrapping him in a cave. When Pressina found out about it, she cursed all three of her daughters.

 

Puck (Pisca, Poake, Pouk, Pouke, Pucke, Puckle, Pug, Púka, Pukis, Pukje, Pwca): An extremely mischievous nature or household faerie in English lore. He is mostly known for his spiteful tricks on unsuspecting humans, which leads them to often embarrassing situations, but he has, in some cases, been known to champion the poor and oppressed. Descriptions of him range from a hobgoblin to a faerie, brownie, goblin, or an elf. Some say that this is a confirmation of his tricky personality and his shape shifting abilities. Most people, though, think of him as having a hairy body, with goat feet, like a satyr or faun. He was written about in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and in Kipling's Puck of Pooks Hill.

R

Raviyoyla Djins: A female Serbian faerie that could take on the appearance of a beautiful woman. She knew all things of healing and medicine with herbs. A legend attached to this faerie was that she caused the accidental death of a friend of the king's, but quickly brought him back to life with the use of her herbs.

 

Red Cap

Aka : Fir Larrig, Dunters

Race : Border Goblins

Origin : Scotland, Ireland

Element : Fire.

Appearance : an emaciated man with a leathery body and little or no hair, carries a sharp wooden scythe to strike down all who invade the area he has decided to guard for the time being. The Red Cap he wears, and for which he was named, is said to be made of dried human blood.

Friends/Foes : Solitary and hateful in nature

Lore : The Red Cap moves from place to place on a whim throughout the extreme lowlands of Scotland along the English border. He haunts the ruins of old castles and cairns which he guards with his life. 

 

Red Man: See Fear Dearc

 

Robgoblin: See Hobgoblin

 

Robin Goodfellow

Aka : Puck,Pwca, Phouka, Pooka, Puca, Pan, Jack Robinson ("Before you can say..."), Green Man, Owen

Race : satyr

Origin : Greece, Celtic Lands, and Germany.

Element : Earth

Appearance : the son of a faery father and a mortal mother, he has the head of a young male and the body of a goat.  He has small horns on his head, and he carries with him pan pipes which he loves to play while he dances. As a shape-shifter, he can also transform into several shapes such as a horse, eagle or ass.

Friends/Foes : He has a playful, lusty nature, and loves to play pranks on humans. Puck used his shape-shifting to make mischief. For example, the Phouka would turn into a horse and lead people on a wild ride, sometimes dumping them in water. The Welsh Pwca would lead travels with a lantern and then blow it out when they were at the edge of a cliff. Being misled by a Puck (sometimes the legends speak of Pucks, Pookas and Robin Goodfellows in the plural) was known in the Midlands as being "pouk-ledden." He is also a helpful domestic sprite much like the brownies. He would clean houses and such in exchange for some cream or milk

Famous : . In Shakespeare's play A Midsummers Night's Dream, Robin becomes Puck and again displays the frolicking nature of Pan. In  Kipling’s  Puck of Pook's Hill (1906) and Rewards and Fairies(1910), Puck delighted Dan and Una with tales, and visitors, from England's past.

Quote :

FAIRY
Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Called Robin Goodfellow. Are not you he
That frights the maidens of the villagery,
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern,
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn,
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm,
Mislead night-wanders, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck.
Are you not he?

PUCK
Thou speakest aright;
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon, and make him smile
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal;
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl
In very likeness of a roasted crab,
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob
And on her withered dewlap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear
A merrier hour was never wasted there.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, scene i

 

Rubezahl

Aka : Hey-Hey Men, Hoioimann, He-Manner, Ropenkerl, Huamann, Schlocherl, Rubheyzahl.

Origin : Germany, Eastern Europe.

Element : Air.

Appearance : male dwarf faeries in large black cloaks who carry a thin, spiky walking stick

Function : command to the wind and the rain

Friends/Foes : hostile to humans especially travelers, climbers and tourists

Lore : In the German and Eastern European mountains

 

Sabdh: An Irish faerie who is a woman of the Sidhe and the faerie mother of Oisin, the greatest poet of Gaul. She is the daughter of Queen Mebd. She was turned into a deer when she refused the love of another faerie and was made to leave her son, Oisin, to the elements. He was found seven years later and told the story of his deer mother.

 

Saleerandees

Origin : Wales.

Element : Fire.

Appearance : scaled faeries resembling bipedal lizards who enjoy warmth

Lore : Near fireplaces.

 

Santa Claus

Aka : St. Nicholas, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, Sinter Klass, The Holly King, King of the Waning Year, Sinter Klass

Origin : Durope, Turkey, Western Asia.

Appearance : portly old man with a red or green winter suit and a sprig of holly in his hat.

Function : Watch over children and bring them sweets and presents once in a year.

Friends/Foes : Deer are sacred to him, which may have been reason for the inclusion in the Santa Claus myth. Elves are said to be in his service, and this may have been the source of those famous little workhorses known as Santa's Elves.

Santa Claus has an evil double who follows him and punishes those who have not been good children during the year. His names are Hans Trapp, Pierre Le Noir, Krampus, Zwarte Piet, Ruppels or Père Fouettard.

Lore : in a huge palace above the sky or at the north pole 

 

Seelie Court: See The Courts

 

Selkies

Aka : Roanes

Origin : Scotland and the Orkney Islands.

Element : Water.

Appearance : They appear as seals with some human characteristics, but legend says that they can shed their sealskin and appear with perfect male or female forms which are very alluring to young men and women.

Function : It was once believed they could control the coastal storms, and they may have aided the magick which brought about the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

Friends/Foes : They cannot steal human mates as some sea faeries do, but must include them to come willingly. A female Selkie is able to discard her seal-skin and come ashore as a beautiful maiden. If a human can capture this skin, the Selkie can be forced to become a fine, if wistful, wife. However, should she ever find her skin she immediately returns to the sea, leaving the husband to pine and die. The males raise storms and upturn boats to avenge the indiscriminate slaughter of seals.

Lore : In the ocean and lochs of northern and western Scotland, and along the coast of the Hebrides Islands.

 

Shellycoats

Origin : Scotland.

Element : Water.

Appearance : fish-like in appearance but with huge mouths and huge eyes which enable them to see very well at night. They have very round bodies covered with shells which clink together when he moves and are usually dark red or purple in color. They bob near the surface like large beach balls, usually with only their big eyes showing.

Friends/Foes : take pleasure in tricking and bewildering travelers and leading them astray.

Lore : in pools of shallow fresh water and in woodland lakes.

 

Sidhe (Aes Sidhe, Shee, Sheehogue, Si, Sidh, Sídhe, Sith): This is the most common name for the Irish and Scottish Highlands faeries. Sidh is the Gaelic word for earth mounds, which is where they are said to live under.

 

Skilly Widden: This is the name of a faerie boy that was found and adopted by a farmer in Cornwall, England.

 

Snow Queen: In Danish folklore, she is a beautiful faerie who rides on the blizzards blown in from the Arctic. She lures men to join her, which means instant death for the men.

 

Spriggans

Element : Earth

Appearance : Although quite small, they have the ability to inflate themselves into monstrous forms which has led humans to believe them to be the ghosts of old giants.

Function : guardians of hill treasure

Friends/Foes : They are destructive, dangerous, skilled thieves. They have been known to kidnap babies and leave baby Spriggans instead, which are quite repulsive. They also have robbed houses and destroyed crops, causing whirlwinds to destroy fields of corn, blighting crops and all manner of other unpleasant mischief.

 

Stroke Lad: See Amadán

 

Sylph: A faerie of the air or wind. They are described as being taller and stronger than humans with a volatile temperament. They are similar to invisible angels whose voice could be heard in the wind. Sylphs defend the high mountain peaks and wilderness mountains that are home to them. They have also been described as the transformed souls of those who died chaste.

T

Tangotango: She is a fairy of the Maori lore. She heard of the handsome young god called Tawhaki, and searched for him so she could have a child with him. She found him while he was sleeping in the woods, and lay with him night after night until she became pregnant. She then left her handsome lover and had a daughter called Arahuta.

 

Tennin: To the Japanese Buddhist, she is a beautiful faerie who appeared on mountains. To encounter one, the person must climb to the highest summit.

 

Thrummy Cap: This particular faerie is credited with the high quality of wool in the northern counties of England. They wore caps made of thrums, which is excess wool clipped off when weaving is done. Some accounts state that they live in the cellars of old, abandoned houses and others state that they live in the Thrummy Hills of North Yorkshire.

 

Thussers

Aka : Vardogls

Origin : Norway.

Element : Earth.

Appearance : small human-like faeries who live in family communes headed by the eldest member of that family, whether that is a male or female.

Friends/Foes : peaceful and secretive

Lore : in earthen mounds near the fjords of Norway

 

Titania: This Faerie Queen has made appearances in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and earlier than that in Ovid's work as the goddess Diana. With her flower faeries as attendants, she appeared to be more regal and refined than Mab. In Scotland, she was said to have given the Clan MacLeod of Dunvegan Castle in the Isle of Skye a Faerie Flag. This flag was to be waved in times of danger, in which her magic would resolve the problem. They were warned, though, that it would be taken back at the third use.

 

Tokolosh: He is South African faerie. He is a sullen and grouchy, living beside streams and small rivers. He is well known for terrorizing lone travelers, usually by leaping on a small animal or bird and choking it so that the animal's cries alarm the traveler. He looks something like a small baboon, covered with black hair and tail less.

 

Tom Cockle: The name of a faerie or brownie that moved across the ocean from Ireland when the family he was attached to moved to America.

 

Tom Thumb: When an old English couple longed for a child, they went to Merlin to help them, asking for a child, even if it was the size of a thumb. So was born Tom Thumb, with all the powers of a fay child living amongst humans. He escaped many dangerous situation using said magic. In France, the female version was named Thumbelina, and the Danish tell of the tiny Tommelise.

 

Tooth Faerie (Toothy Faerie): This is the faerie in charge of making sure children lost their milk teeth and another grew in its place. Somewhere along the way, it became an integral part of tradition to place the tooth under the child's pillow, where the faerie would leave some sort of monetary compensation.

 

Trows

Aka : Night Stealers, Creepers

Origin : The Shetland and Orkney Islands, Scandinavia.

Element : Air.

Time : nocturnal

Appearance : squat, round, and misshapen faeries who have no legs. They are frequently observed performing a curious lop-sided dance called 'Henking'

Function : sneak around at night moving things around just for the fun of aggravating humans. A Shetland proverb says, "If it be moved by morrow, blame not hand but Trow."

 

Tuatha dé Danann: These are the faerie people of Ireland. They are known as the People of the Goddess Danu (Dana). They are renowned for their power, beauty, intellect, and grace. They could become visible or invisible and shape shift at will. They were mostly immortal, but could be killed in battle. They interacted often with humans, granting them fortune or disaster as they saw fit. They are the holders of what many now know as the four treasures: Dagda's cauldron, Lugh's spear, Nuadha's sword, and a the scared stone called Stone of Fal. When they were defeated by the Milesians they took refuge under boroughs called sidh, which is what they are now mostly known as (sidhe). From there, they still practice their magic, and split up their underground world by taking into account the areas of their previous kingdom, appointing kings and queens as they had done before. Many mortals are lead into their world, where time, the sights, food, and revelry are very different that ours.

 

Tündér: This is the Hungarian word for faerie. These faeries were both good and bad, and had the ability to enchant humans with things such as milk, tears, herbs, gems, etc. The love music and dancing in forest glades under the moonlight. They are given names according to the area they are said to reside. Some of these are: Dame Hirip, Dame Rampson (a faerie queen), Fairy Helen, Mika (a warrior faerie), and Tartód (queen of the malevolent faeries).

 

Twlwwyth Tegs

Aka : The Fair Family, Daoine Sidhe

Origin : Wales

Element : Earth.

Appearance : beautiful humanoids with long golden hairs

Friends/Foes : The fairy maidens are easily won as wives and will live with human husbands for a time.Twlwwyth Tegs have intermarried with other Welsh faeries, and their offspring are known as the Bendith y Mauman, the native elves of Wales. At one time the Twlwwyth Tegs were accused of stealing children, especially the fair-haired, fair-skinned ones, but this does not seem to be something which interests them anymore.

Lore : When the Milesians, ancestor cousins of the Celts, arrived to conquer the island somewhere between 3000 and 1000 BCE, the Tuatha were driven underground into the faery burghs which they still inhabit. The Tegs live off the Welsh coast on faery islands which are connected to the mainland by deep tunnels. On the mainland they have burghs which they stay in, rather like faery hotels, until they are ready to return to their islands.

Source : Legends about the Tuatha are recorded in many other early books of Ireland, and most books on Irish mythology and folklore give a great deal of space to the exploits of these faery creatures. The Book of Leinster, a seventh-century collection of Irish myths, records that the Tuatha de Danann were "faery" peoples, while The Book of the Dun Cow describes them as being "gods, but not gods." The early Celtic illuminated manuscript known as The Book of Invasions recounts their conquering and dividing of the island.

The Tuatha were the first to divide Ireland into four provinces and set up governments for each. The Tuatha then subdivided themselves into four groups, which were once the names of these cities. Each city corresponds to a different direction. The two principal groups of these sub-classification are the Gorias and the Finias. A number of the Tuatha's rulers have become pagan deities, including Etain, Midhir, Finvarra, and Daniel O'Donoghue of Connacht. Hurling, the national game of Ireland, is a popular sport among them, one which was said to need human participation to be successful. Finvarra, a Tuatha King, was very fond of it and chess and he had his favorite human opponents. Much folk music of the island was said to be composed by them.

Magic : The construction of the ancient stone megaliths of Ireland is sometimes credited to them, since their origins remain a mystery. Another stone in their possession was the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, on which the High Kings of Ireland stood as they took the crown. The stone was said to cry out in agony if a wrongful ruler stood upon it, while it roared with leonine pride when the rightful one stepped up. The current royal family of Britain is believed by many English to be descended from the Milesian kings who once stood on this stone.

The Tuatha also possessed the invincible sword of the Sun God Lugh and the cauldron of the God Dagda, which was taken from the Land of the Dead.

 

Tylwyth Teg (the Fair Family): In Wales, these are the larger version of the Ellyllon. They live in mountains, glades, islands in lakes, and even in flowers. They live in a society of sorts and their king is Gwyn Ap Knudd. Their heights may vary from a foot to taller than men, but they are always beautiful and light skinned and light haired. They dress in long silken garments, usually in the color green. Often, they are blamed for taking blonde human children and leaving changelings in their place. Some have been known to marry mortals, but vanish if some promise if broken. The Tylwyth Teg are benevolent in general, often bringing mortals good luck. They love music and dancing and once gave a generous mortal named Cader Idris a magic harp that would play for him when the strings were touched. Another name they were known by is Bendith y Mamau.

U

Unseelie Court: See The Courts

 

Urisks

Origin : Scotland

Element : Earth

Appearance : They are wrinkled, hairy in patches, and emaciated with duck feathers on their backs and necks and are topped with huge, misshapen heads.

Friends/Foes : Despite their appearance they are quite friendly and seem to crave human companionship.

Lore : in isolated woodlands

V

 

Vasily

Origin : Russia

Element : Earth.

Appearance : dwarf faeries

Function : care for horses. Hearing sleigh bells when there is no sleigh means they are looking after your horses.

Friends/Foes : love horses

Lore : In barns where horses live

 

Vily

Aka : Vilas, Vilishkis.

Race : mountain nymphs

Origin : European Alps and Poland.

Element : Earth.

Appearance : female faeries, beautiful mistresses of the forest

Friends/Foes : They do not like to get involved with humans, but they have rescued them from Alpine disasters by guiding rescue teams and dogs. Vilys love animals, especially dogs, and they are thought to watch over the famous rescue dogs of the St. Bernard Monastery. They speak every known animal language.

Lore : in the Alps mountains

 

Virginal: The name of the German Ice Queen. She was captured by a magician who kept her imprisoned in one of her ice castles. As each new moon rose, she would have to give one of her ice maidens to be consumed. She was rescued by the man she soon married, but unable to survive in his castle, returned to her own home in the ice.

W

Wandering Dame Abonde: See Habonde

 

Water Leaper

Origin : Wales.

Element : Water

Appearance : a small bat

Friends/Foes : They are quite vicious and have been credited with killing humans. The Water Leaper mostly preys on fishermen, whom they lure into rocks and coerce overboard to drown.

Lore : In the sea off Wales.

 

Well Spirits

Aka : Well Guardians

Race : water sprites

Origin : Throughout Europe

Element : Water

Appearance : shape-shifter, can appear as seductive

Function : well guardians

Friends/Foes : dangerous, can shapeshift and drag the curious in his watery cove

Lore : At the side of sacred wells or wishing wells, or at hot springs.

 

Wights

Aka : Vattaren,Wichtln

Origin : Throughout Europe

Element : Earth.

Appearance : tiny elves with long arms and legs all dressed in brown fur coats.

 

Friends/Foes : Like the Scottish Brownie they adopt a human home and can do many of the household tasks. However, they can quickly become a malediction as they never sleep and cannot resist playing tricks. Some of their favorite pranks are pinching, tripping, letting livestock loose, causing spills, and moving things about.

 

Wilkie: Little is known about this faerie except that it inhabits the Wilkie Mounds, which is a burial ground on the Orkney Islands. People would leave it offerings of milk at the mounds.

Y

Yallery Brown: The name of a malicious faerie in England. His appearance is that of the size of a year old child, extremely ugly and wrinkled, with long hair and a beard. According to legend, a farm worker named Tom Tiver heard a baby's cry from beneath a large rock. Upon lifting it, he discovered Yallery Brown caught and tangled by his long hair. As payment for helping him, Yallery Brown agreed to help Tom with his farm work, but warned never to thank him or the help would cease. Every day, when Tom would go to the farm, he would discover his work already done. Discovering that the work of all the other farmers had been destroyed at the same time, he went to Yallery Brown and kindly thanked him for his help, but preferred to do his own work from now on. Because he was an evil faerie, instead of being dismissed, he stayed on, causing Tom Tiver bad fortune for the rest of his years.

 

Yann-An-Od: These male faeries are from Brittany. They appear as kindly, old shepherds with a long robe, shepherd's staff, and white beard.

 

Zips: These tiny male faeries from Mexican lore wear helmets and carry spears. They are very shy, try to avoid people, and their sole purpose is to guard deer.

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