1 Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bodies, and Other Supernatural Creatures KATHARINE BRIGGS From the Abbey Lubbers (minor devils who were detailed to tempt monks to drunken- ness, gluttony, and lasciviousness) to "Young Tam Lin" (the most important of the supernatural ballads). An Encyclopedia of Fairies is a wonderful companion to the world of make-believe. Spanning ten cen- turies, this guided tour will enthrall anyone who has ever believed or even half-believed in supernatural creatures. In recent years, there has been an aston- ishing growth of interest in fairy tales and the magic world they represent. For adults as well as children, fairy tales have had the same appeal—and created many of the same worlds—as modern science fiction. From the Tolkien fans to the readers of Pantheon's Grimm's Fairy Tales or the Opies' book of classical fairy tales, to the serious university students of folklore and authors like Bruno Bettelheim, we see an increasing fascination with this mythological world. As a reference work. An Encyclopedia of Fairies is the first and only one of its kind. But it is also a marvelous anthology, in which fairy tales are recounted as well as examined. In it one can not only learn about the appearance and customs of the varied inhabitants of the fairy world, but also read short essays on questions of the fairy econ- omy, their food, their sports, their varying sizes and powers. One learns how to distin- guish evil fairies from good ones (though even the good fairies can be formidable) ; the ways people traditionally protected themselves against the dangers of night travel—the piece of bread in the pocket, the ashen gad, the handful of salt, the turned (continued on back flap) o "CD "CvJ !C0 KATHARINE BRIGGS An lEurgrlnp^&m of HOBGOBLINS, BROWNIES, BOGIES, AND OTHER SUPERNATURAL CREATURES PANTHEON BOOKS, NEW YORK FIRST AMERICAN EDITION Copyright <© 1976 by Katharine Briggs All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in England as A Dictionary of Fairies by Allen Lane, Penguin Books Ltd., London. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Briggs, Katharine Mary. An Encyclopedia of Fairies. First ed. published under title: A Dictionary of Fairies. \. Fairies—Dictionaries. I. Title. GR549.B74 1977 398.2'1'03 76-12939 ISBN 0-394-40918-3 Manufactured in the United States of America TO JOSEPHINE THOMPSON who worked valiantly on this book from start to finish, with a zest and pleasure which would be an encouragement to any author ^tfenoUjIebgement^ In this dictionary I have quoted largely from earlier works, but I have obtained help and inspiration from many of my contemporaries. I have specially to thank the Editor of Folklore for permission to quote from many of the earlier numbers. I am most grateful for advice on the spelling and pronunciation of the Celtic fairies' names, to Alan Bruford, Robin Gwyndaf, Sean O Suilleabhain and Walter Clarke. I am also indebted to several folklorists for oral information. Chief among these are Marie Campbell, the famous collector of the traditions of the Appalachian Mountains, Miss Joan Eltenton, who recorded for me the fairy beliefs which had migrated to Australia, and Susan M. Stevens, an anthropologist married to a chief of the Passamaquoddy Indians, who provided unique information about the two kinds of Little People who bear a remarkable resemblance to the Little People of Europe. Ruth L. Tongue has made her published works available to me and has from time to time given me her unpublished material as well. I am much obliged to her. Contents; Acknowledgements vi List of Plates viii List of Text Figures ix Preface xi A Note on the Pronunciation of Celtic Names xiv Text of Dictionary I Book-list 455 Index of Types and Motifs 463 Hist of plates; BETWEEN PAGES I 1 4 AND I I 5. 1. Arthur Rackham: * Butter is made from the roots of old trees' (From J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens^ Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1907) 2. Arthur Rackham: *A band of workmen, who were sawing down a toadstool, rushed away, leaving their tools behind them* (From ibid.) 3. Henry Fuseli: Cobweb (Illustration to A Midsummer Night's Dream. Private collection, London) 4. Henry Fuseli: Oberon Squeezes a Flower on Titania's Eyelids (Illustration to A Midsummer Night^s Dream. Private collection, Switzer- land) 5. Richard Dadd: *Come unto these yellow sands' (Illustration to The Tempest. Private collection, London) 6. John Anster Fitzgerald : The Chase of the White Mice (Collection of K. J. Hewett Esq) 7. Richard Dadd: Bacchanalian Scene (Private collection) 8. John Anster Fitzgerald: Fairy Gifts (Illustrated London News^ c. 1865) 9. Richard Doyle: A Fairy Celebration (Private collection, London) 10. Richard Doyle: The Fairy Tree (Private collection, London) 11. J, Simmons: A Fairy (Private collection, London) 12. J. Simmons: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Private collection, London) BETWEEN PAGES 274 AND 275. 13. Sir John Everett Millais: Ferdinand Lured by Ariel (Private collection) 14. Sir Joseph Noel Paton: The Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania (National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh) 15. Sir Joseph Noel Paton: Thomas the Rhymer (Subject from *True Thomas and the Queen of Elfland'. Private collection) 16. Edward William Hopley: A Fairy and a Moth (Private collection) 17. R. Huskisson: Titania Asleep (Private collection) 18. Vernon Hill: Allison Gross (From R. J. Chope, Ballads Weird and Wonderful^ John Lane, London, 19 12) 19. Thomas Stothard: illustration to The Rape of the Lock (From Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, 1798 edition) 20. Cicely Mary Barker: Gorse (From The Flower Fairy Alphabet, Blackie, London) 21. Kay Nielsen: illustration (From Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, In Powder and Crinoline^ Hodder & Stoughton, London, 19 13) Hint of Cext fynxti AINSEL (From Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, illustrated by John D. Batten, David Nutt, London, 1894) 4 A BOGIE (From Amabel Williams-Ellis, Fairies and Enchanters, illustrated by Wilma Hickson, Nelson, Edinburgh, n.d.) 31 BOGLES (From Flora Annie Steel, English Fairy Tales, illustrated by Arthur Rackham, Macmillan, London, 19 18. This and other illustrations from the same book are reproduced by permission of Macmillan London and Basingstoke) 32 FRONTISPIECE TO Pandaemonium (From Richard Bovet, Pandaemonium, or the DeviVs Cloyster, London, 1684) 35 THE CAULD LAD OF HILTON (From Joseph Jacobs, English Fairy Tales, illustrated by John D. Batten, David Nutt, London, 1890) 68 THECLURICAUNE (From T. Crofton Croker, Fairy Legends and Tradi- tions of the South ofIreland, 3 vols., John Murray, London, 1826) 77 thedevil'sdandydogs (From Williams-Ellis, Fairies and Enchanters, op. cit.) 97 A DRAGON (From Steel, English Fairy Tales, op. cit.) 107 A DRAGON (From J. R. R. Tolkien, Farmer Giles ofHam, illustrated by Pauline Baynes, Allen & Unwin, London, 1954) 107 the fachan (From J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales ofthe West Highlands, vol. Ill, Alexander Gardner, London, 1893) 129 A giant (From Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, op. cit.) 187 A giant (From Steel, English Fairy Tales, op. cit.) 189 goblins (From George Macdonald, The Princess and the Goblin^ Blackie, London, n.d.) 194 habetrot (From Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, op. cit.) 215 the hedley kow (From ibid.) 218 HOByahs (From ibid.) 224 KATE CRACKERNUTS (From ibid.) 244 THE lamia (From Edward Topsell, The Historic ofFoure-footed Beastes, London, 1607) 260 List of Text Figures x LUTEY AND THE MERMAID (From Williams-EUis, Fairies and Enchanters^ op. cit.) 274 GEORGE MACDONALD (From Macdonald, The Princess and the Goblin^ op. cit.) 277 MERMAIDS (From Croker, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland^ op. cit.) 287 A MIDWIFE TO THE FAIRIES (From Jacobs, English Fairy Tales^ op. cit.) 296 MONSTER (From ibid.) 302 MONSTER (From Arthur Rackham's Fairy Book^ Harrap, London, 1933) 302 THEPHOUKA (From Croker, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland^ op. cit.) 326 THE PWCA (From ibid.) 338 THE SIZE OF THE FAIRIES (From ibid.) 368 TOM THUMB (From Steel, English Fairy TaleSy op. cit.) 403 TOM THUMB (From Jacobs, English Fairy Tales ^ op. cit.) 404 TOM TIT TOT (From ibid.) 408 AWILLo'thewisp (From Qoker, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland^ op. cit.) 438 A WORM (From Tolkien, Farmer Giles ofHam^ op. cit.) 443 A WORM (From Steel, English Fairy Tales^ op. cit.) 444 YALLERY BROWN (From Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, op. cit.) 446 YOUNG TAM LIN (From ibid.) 448 33refact The word * fairy' is used in various ways. There are a number of slang and cant usages of the word, varying from time to time, which are beside the point for this book. In fairy-lore, with which we are dealing here, there are two main general usages. The first is the narrow, exact use oif the word to express one species of those supernatural creatures *of a middle nature between man and angels' - as they were described in the seventeenth century - varying in size, in powers, in span of life and in moral attributes, but sharply differing from other species such as hob- goblins, monsters, hags, merpeople and so on. The second is the more general extension of the word to cover that whole area of the supernatural which is not claimed by angels, devils or ghosts. It is in this second, later and more generalized sense that I have often used the word in this book. Exception might be taken to this use. The word 'fairy' itself is a late one, not used before medieval times and sometimes then with the meaning of mortal women who had acquired magical powers, as Malory used it for Morgan le Fay. The French yJz/, of which * fairy' is an extension, came originally from the ltz\h.nfatae^ the fairy ladies who visited the household at births and pronounced on the future of the baby, as the Three Fates used to do. * Fairy' originally meant *fai-erie', a state of enchantment, and was transferred from the object to the agent. The fairies themselves are said to object to the word, and people often think it better to speak of them euphemistically as 'the Good Neighbours', 'the Good Folk', 'the Seelie Court', 'Them Ones', or, more distantly, as 'the Strangers'. Throughout these islands many names are used for the fairies, the 'Daoine Sidh' in Ireland, the 'Sith' in the Highlands, the 'pisgies' in Cornwall. In the Lowlands of Scotland the Anglo-Saxon 'elves' was long used for the fairies, and Fairyland was called 'Elfame', but these names had limited and local usage, whereas the name 'fairies', however dis- trusted by the believers and debased by nineteenth-century prettification, was recognized everywhere. At the inception of the book the idea had been to treat the whole area of fairy beliefs, as Thomas Keightley did in his Fairy Mythology; but to treat the fairies of the whole of Europe alone, even cursorily, would have been to produce a book ten times the size of this and founded on years of further research. I have occasionally mentioned a foreign fairy, for com- parison or elucidation, but only in passing. A complete work on the subject remains to be written, though the mammoth Encyclopddie des MdrchenSy Preface xii now in preparation under the general editorship of Professor Kurt Ranke, will probably cover the subject adequately in its universal sweep. How- ever, even within the range of our small islands and of some ten short centuries, enough matter will be found to enthral and horrify us. This book is meant for browsing rather than for formal reference. As you read you will find words marked in small capitals. This indicates that there is a separate article on the subject, so that you can turn from one article to another as you pursue your explorations of the terrain. The folklorist who specializes in fairy-lore is often asked if he believes in fairies - that is, in fairies as a subjective reality. Strictly speaking this is an irrelevant question. The business of the folklorist is to trace the growth and diffusion of tradition, possibly to advance theories of its origin or to examine those already put forward. When he speaks of *true* fairy beliefs, he ordinarily means those actually believed by people as opposed to the fancies of literary storytellers, who are sometimes imbued with folk tradition and sometimes spin their material out of their own heads or follow the current literary fashion. Nevertheless it is of interest to know whether folklorists believe in the subjective truth of the traditions they record, for this affects their whole treatment of the subject. For myself, I am an agnostic. Some of the fairy anecdotes have a curiously convincing air of truth, but at the same time we must make allowance for the con- structive power of the imagination in recalling old memories, and for the likelihood that people see what they expect to see. Various suggestions have been made in the past for the classification of folk-tales and folk beliefs, among them a practical and suggestive out- line by Professor Gomme in his Handbook of Folk-Lore (1890), but this was not taken up, and the pressure of newly collected tales became immense. The need was finally met by Antti Aarne's Types of the Folktale (1910), which, revised and supplemented by Professor Stith Thompson in 1928 and 1961, became the standard method of cataloguing folk-tales in all the archives of the world. So when a type number is given at the end of an article, it is to this work that I am referring. A type refers to a complete story, a cluster of motifs, while the motif later classified by Professor Stith Thompson in his Folk Motif-Index^ is the individual strand which makes up the tale. Cinderella, for instance, is Type 510 and is composed of motifs S31 : Cruel stepmother; L55 : Stepdaughter heroine; F311.1 : Fairy godmother; D1050.1 : Clothes produced by magic; F861.4.3: Carriage from pumpkin; N711.6: Prince sees heroine at ball and is enamoured; C761.3: Taboo: staying too long at ball. Must leave before certain hour; and H36.1 : Slipper test. At the end of this book there is a list of the types and motifs to be found in the various anecdotes and beliefs mentioned in it. True oral tradition is a great stimulus to creative imagination, and from time to time I have touched briefly on the creative writers who have been xiii Preface stimulated by fairy-lore and have in their turn influenced it. The rise of tradition into literature and the descent of literature into tradition is a fascinating study. The visual arts have also had their place here, and the small collection of fairy pictures in this book is an interesting conunent on the fluctuations of traditional fairy beliefs through the centuries. ^ J^ote on t^t ^pronunciation of Celtic Mumt^ The exact pronunciation of many of the Celtic names is hard to convey by English literation. A further difficulty is that the actual pronunciation varies in regional dialects, particularly in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Welsh is well standardized, but impossible for anyone of non- Cymric breeding to pronounce. We have consulted leading authorities on the Gaelic both of Ireland and Scotland, on Welsh and Manx, and they have kindly given us an approximation to the native pronunciations. These apply only to the titles of articles, but with the help of the speci- mens given the diligent reader may hope to pronounce the other names occurring in the text with some degree of accuracy. It seemed best to avoid peppering the articles with brackets.