Wee Folk and Their Friends

All cultures have their stories of the wee folk, the nature entities, that appear so often to be a mirror-image of humankind and somehow indicate that humans are part of a larger community of intelligences—both physical and nonphysical. Since the beginning of time, the human race and the wee folk have shared this planet, experiencing a strange, symbiotic relationship. In such cultures as ancient Rome, the household spirits were called "Lares," and the tradition of each home having its own guardian of the hearth survived throughout most of Europe. Although the great majority of modern people stereotypically envision fairies, elves, brownies, and so forth gamboling about only in the woodlands, there are long traditions of friendly spirits who guard the home and look after the barn, stables, and farm animals.

In many traditions, especially in the British Isles and Scandinavia, the fairy folk were supernormal entities who inhabited a magical kingdom beneath the surface of the earth. In all traditions, the wee people are depicted as possessing many more powers and abilities than humans, but somehow they are strongly dependent on human beings and from time to time they seek to reinforce their own kind by kidnapping both human children and adults.

While the wee people and their associated entites—elves, gnomes, and leprechauns—are most often depicted as sweet, little winged "Tinkerbells" and jolly forest creatures in bright costumes and pointed hats, each of the fairy folk and their kin have a dark side. Some of the nursery tales throughout the centuries have depicted a certain mischievous nature to the wee people, but the creatures can become downright nasty—even dangerous—if provoked.

Medieval theologians seemed to favor three possibilities to explain the origin of these beings:

1. they are a special class of demoted angels,
2. they are spirits of the dead or a special class of the dead, or
3. they are fallen angels.

Most of the ancient texts declare that these entities are of a middle nature, "between humans and angels." Although they are of a nature between spirits and humans, they can intermarry with humans and bear half-human children. One factor has been consistent in all traditions: the "middle folk" continually meddle in affairs of humans, sometimes to do them good, sometimes to do them ill.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963), author of many books on spiritual matters, once suggested that the wee folk are a third rational species. The angels are the highest, having perfect goodness and whatever knowledge is necessary for them to do God's will; humans, somewhat less perfect, are the second; fairies, having certain powers of the angels but no souls, are the third.

Because the folklore of the wee people is so multicultural and worldwide, some theorists have suggested that the fairy folk may actually have been the surviving remnants of a past civilization populated by a species of early humans or humanoids that were of diminutive stature compared to evolving Homo sapiens. These little people may have been quite advanced and possessed a technology that seemed to be magical compared to the primitive tools of the primitive hunter-gatherer humans who later became the established residents of the area. The little people may have died out, they may have been assimilated into the encroaching culture by interbreeding, or they may largely have gone underground, emerging topside often enough to be perpetuated in folklore and legend.

Delving Deeper

bord, janet. fairies: real encounters with little people. new york: dell publishing, 1998.

dubois, pierre, with roland sabatier and claudine sabatier, illustrators. the great encyclopedia of fairies. new york: simon & schuster, 2000.

jones, alison, ed. larousse dictionary of world lore. new york: larousse, 1995.

keightley, thomas. the world guide to gnomes, fairies, elves, and other little people. new york: random house, 2000.

mack, carol k., and dinah mack. a field guide to demons, fairies, fallen angels, and other subver sive spirits. new york: henry holt, 1999.

rose, carol. spirits, fairies, leprechauns, and goblins: an encyclopedia. new york: w. w. norton, 1998.

spence, lewis. the fairy tradition in britain. london: rider, 1948.

Elves

In old Germany, "elf" was a name applied to any kind of supernatural spirit, especially one that inhabited fields or forests. The Germans also blamed elves for sitting on their chests while they slept and causing them to have a nightmare.

In Scotland, England, and Scandinavia, "elf" was another name for a member of the fairy folk. Then, as fairy lore developed and became more intricate and complex, with levels and classes within their supernatural ranks, the English designated elves as smaller members of the fairy population and the Scots gave the title of elf to those beings who were generally of human size. Things changed a bit in Scandinavia, as well, when the people there began to distinguish two categories of elves— the benign light ones and the dastardly dark ones. Scottish lore developed to perceive the kindly elves as the "seelie court" and the nasty spirits as the "unseelie court."

Scandinavians also called the elves the "huldre folk" and envisioned two principle divisions of the beings. There were the lovely, charming elves, who easily passed for humans and who loved to join in folk dances and in village parties. These elves, especially the females of the bunch, could easily seduce any human male into obeying their will. The male elves, though appearing handsome and dashing in the firelight of a village festival, would usually be exposed as ugly when moonlight struck them in the forests. The Danes also noticed that even the attractive elves occasionally betrayed themselves with a long cowlike tail that popped out of their dress or trousers.

In contemporary presentations, elves are usually portrayed as jolly creatures, humanlike in appearance, but extremely diminutive in size, who love teasing humans and playing pranks on them.

Delving Deeper

Bord, Janet. Fairies: Real Encounters with Little People. New York: Dell Publishing, 1998.

DuBois, Pierre, with Roland Sabatier and Claudine Sabatier, illustrators. The Great Encyclopedia of Fairies. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Froud, Brian. Good Faeries, Bad Faeries. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.

Jones, Alison, ed. Larousse Dictionary of World Lore. New York: Larousse, 1995.

Keightley, Thomas. The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People. New York: Random House, 2000.

Mack, Carol K., and Dinah Mack. A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subver sive Spirits. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.

Rose, Carol. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.

Spence, Lewis. The Fairy Tradition in Britain. London: Rider, 1948.

Fairies

According to those who speak the Gaelic tongue of Scotland and Ireland, the wee folk prefer to be known as "sidhe" (also spelled sidh, sith, sithche) and pronounced "shee." There is disagreement as to the exact meaning of sidhe. Some say that it refers to the mounds or hills in which the supernatural folk abide. Others say that it means "the people of peace," and that is how the sidhe generally behave toward humans unless the topside dwellers offend them in some way.

Traditionally, the fairies are a race of beings who are the counterparts of humankind in physical appearance but, at the same time, are nonphysical or multidimensional. They are mortal, but lead longer lives than their human cousins. Fairies have always been considered very much akin to humans, but also as something other than mortal.

The fairies are said to be able to enchant humans, to take advantage of them in numerous ways, and even cast a spell on likely young men or women and marry them. They often seem intent upon kidnapping children and adults and whisking them off to their underground kingdom. Those who return from the magical kingdom have experienced missing hours, days, weeks—even years.

On the plus side, fairies have also been reported to help farmers harvest their crops or assist housemaids in cleaning a kitchen. There are accounts of fairy folk guiding humans to achieve material successes, and stories are told of fairy midwives who stand by to assist at the births of favored human children and who remain to guide and tutor them for the rest of their lives.

Some scholars and researchers of the considerable body of worldwide fairylore maintain that fairies are entities who belong solely to the realm of spirit. Many of the ancient texts declare that the fairies are somehow of a "middle nature betwixt Man and Angel." Some biblically inspired authorities have sought to cast fairies as an earthly incarnation assumed by the rebellious angels who were driven out of heaven during the celestial uprising led by Lucifer. These fallen angels, cast from their heavenly abode, took up new residences in the forests, mountains, and lakes of Earth. As fallen angels, they now existed in a much-diminished capacity, but still possessed more than enough power to be deemed supernatural by the human inhabitants of the planet.

In a variation of that account of the fairies' origin, other scholars contend that after the war in heaven, the dispossessed angels materialized on Earth and assumed physical bodies similar to those of humans—those beings declared "a little lower than the angels." Eventually, these paraphysical beings took humans as mates, thereby breeding a hybrid species of entities "betwixt Man and Angel."

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) made fairies famous in a number of his masterworks. He is largely responsible for the concept of the wee folk as mostly benign—mischievous, perhaps, but never evil. Alexander Pope (1688–1744) wrote lovely passages idealizing fairies, but once satirically remarked that he believed many of the woodland sprites were possessed by the souls of deceased socialites who even after death refused to give up earthly amusements. Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) emphasized the beauty of the fairy realm and the struggle of the fairies to achieve humanlike souls. The famed poet William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) had a nearly obsessive interest in the supernatural and strongly believed in fairies.

It was the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), who came to the defense of Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, the two little girls who allegedly photographed fairies in the famous Case of the Cottingley Fairies in 1917. Doyle became convinced that fairies are genuine psychic phenomena and that just as some people can act as mediums and others have unusual powers of extrasensory perception, so do others—especially certain children—have the ability to see fairies. Concerning fairies themselves, Doyle theorized that they are constructed of material that emits vibrations either shorter or longer than the normal spectrum visible to the human eye.

Although in the 1980s it was revealed that the two girls had quite likely faked the photographs of the fairies, in 1997 a motion picture entitled Fairy Tale: A True Story chose to emphasize the magical qualities of the Cottingley incident. Charles Sturridge, the director, was quoted in Premiere, November 1997, as saying that he didn't want to make a film about whether or not the two young girls had faked the fairy photographs. Sturridge emphasized that his film was really all about, "The need to believe beyond what you can see." Interestingly, yet another film about the Cottingley fairies, Photographing Fairies, appeared in 1998, and director Nick Willing chose to depict the elemental beings primarily as spirits.

Delving Deeper

Bord, Janet. Fairies: Real Encounters with Little People. New York: Dell Publishing, 1998.

Chollet, Laurence. "Under the Fairy Influence." The Record, March 14, 2001. [Online] http://www.bergen.com/yourtime/lc14200103146.htm.

DuBois, Pierre, with Roland Sabatier and Claudine Sabatier, illustrators. The Great Encyclopedia of Fairies. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Froud, Brian. Good Faeries, Bad Faeries. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.

Jones, Alison, ed. Larousse Dictionary of World Lore.

New York: Larousse, 1995.

Keightley, Thomas. The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People. New York: Random House, 2000.

Mack, Carol K., and Dinah Mack. A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subver sive Spirits. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.

"More Than Just a Fairy Story." The Kingston Guardian, February 12, 2001. [Online] http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/local_london/news/weird/2001/february12/ed01120201.htm.

Rose, Carol. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.

Gnomes

Traditionally, gnomes are most often represented as gnarled, wrinkled, hunched old men who have been assigned to guard some ancient treasure. Over the years, the entities have been confused with images of mischievous elves, fun-loving fairies, or dwarves working in diamond mines, but classically, the role of the gnome is that of a supernatural guardian who can release the treasures of the earth to the earnest alchemist or magician. The gnome, according to the alchemists of the Renaissance, had the ability to move through the earth in a manner similar to a human moving through air or a fish through water. The alchemist would seek to invoke the energy of the salamander, a lizardlike entity whose element was fire, and the gnome, whose element was earth, and combine their energies with air and water to create gold from base metals.

The name applied to the guardian of the earth's treasures is thought to be derived from the Greek "genomos," earth-dweller. Popular images of little men and women with pointed hats who inhabit flower gardens and forests have most likely confused gnomes with elves.

Delving Deeper

Bord, Janet. Fairies: Real Encounters with Little People. New York: Dell Publishing, 1998.

DuBois, Pierre, with Roland Sabatier and Claudine Sabatier, illustrators. The Great Encyclopedia of Fairies. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Froud, Brian. Good Faeries, Bad Faeries. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.

Jones, Alison, ed. Larousse Dictionary of World Lore. New York: Larousse, 1995.

Keightley, Thomas. The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People. New York: Random House, 2000.

Mack, Carol K., and Dinah Mack. A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subver sive Spirits. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.

Rose, Carol. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.

Spence, Lewis. The Fairy Tradition in Britain. London: Rider, 1948.

Goblins

Goblins are closely related to demonic entities. Although some Europeans recognize a gentler variety known as a "hobgoblin," goblins seem never to be satisfied with creating mischief. Their specialty is wreaking havoc and malicious acts of harm. Usually portrayed as small, grotesque beings, the basic nature of goblins is as foul as their appearance.

The spunkie is a Scottish goblin that particularly has it in for those travelers who venture out after dark. The spunkie is considered so nasty that tradition claims it to be a direct agent of Satan. It hovers about in the darkness, just waiting for a traveler to become lost in the night, perhaps during a rainstorm when visibility is especially bad. The goblin manifests a light that appears to the desperate wayfarer like illumination shining through a windowpane, thus signaling shelter and a dry place to spend the inclement evening. But as the hopeful traveler approaches the light, it keeps moving just a bit farther away. Since the poor, drenched pilgrim has no choice in the darkness but to keep pursuing the light source, the spunkie keeps moving it just a bit farther on—until the evil goblin has lured the unfortunate traveler over a cliff.

Delving Deeper

Bord, Janet. Fairies: Real Encounters with Little People. New York: Dell Publishing, 1998.

DuBois, Pierre, with Roland Sabatier and Claudine Sabatier, illustrators. The Great Encyclopedia of Fairies. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Froud, Brian. Good Faeries, Bad Faeries. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.

Jones, Alison, ed. Larousse Dictionary of World Lore. New York: Larousse, 1995.

Keightley, Thomas. The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People. New York: Random House, 2000.

Mack, Carol K., and Dinah Mack. A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subver sive Spirits. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.

Rose, Carol. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.

Spence, Lewis. The Fairy Tradition in Britain. London: Rider, 1948.

Gremlins

Although gremlins are a recent addition to the folklore of the wee folk, it would seem that their antecedents are the goblins of old. The term "gremlin" was derived from the Old English word greme, which means to vex and annoy. And that is certainly what the gremlins did to the pilots and their aircraft in World War II (1939–45) when the pesky entities were routinely blamed for engine troubles, electronic failures, and any other thing that might go wrong with an airplane.

Although the tales of gremlins received their greatest notoriety annoying the pilots of Great Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) in the period 1940–45, Dave Stern, an aerospace, aviation, and history writer, says that the legend began in 1923 when a British navy pilot crashed into the sea. Once he was rescued, he blamed the accident on some little people who had jumped out of a beer bottle and had tormented him all night. It was these wee trouble-makers who had followed him into the airplane, entered into the engine, messed with the flight controls, and caused him to crash. Not long after this reported gremlin attack, some pilots and mechanics stationed at an overseas RAF aerodrome complained of being bothered by the annoying entities, and by 1925, British pilots were cussing the little monsters and blaming gremlins for almost anything that might possibly go wrong with their aircraft.

According to airmen who swore that they had survived close encounters with the mischief makers, the gremlins dressed in red or green double-breasted frock coats, old-fashioned tricorn hats with a feather (or sometimes stocking caps with tassels at high altitudes), tights, and pointed footwear. Some of the gremlins loved to suck the high octane gas out of the tanks; others messed with the landing gears; and still others specialized in jamming the radio frequencies. Just as the pilots and mechanics were learning to respect the gremlin crowd, it wasn't long before they also began to be annoyed by the gremlins' girl-friends, the finellas, nicknamed the widgets.

When the U.S. Army Air Force pilots were stationed in Great Britain after the United States entered World War II in December 1941, they found the gremlins waiting for them. The men may have scoffed at their allies at first, but they were soon suffering unexplained attacks on their instrument panels, their bombing sights, and the de-icer mechanisms. The Yanks found that they had also fallen victims to the annoying antics of the gremlins.

Although the most intense activity of the gremlin throng occurred during World War II, one stills hears on occasion a pilot cussing a mechanical failure in his aircraft as having been caused by a gremlin attack.

Delving Deeper

Froud, Brian. Good Faeries, Bad Faeries. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.

Jones, Alison, ed. Larousse Dictionary of World Lore. New York: Larousse, 1995.

Keightley, Thomas. The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People. New York: Random House, 2000.

Stern, Dave. "The Great Gremlin Caper." Fate (December 2001): 8–13.

Leprechauns

The classic tale of the leprechaun is that of the Irishman catching one of the wee folk and demanding to be given the little fellow's crock of gold. In these stories, the sly leprechaun always manages to trick the greedy lout who has grabbed him by causing the human to glance away from him for even a moment. Once a human takes his or her eyes off the leprechaun he or she has somehow managed to glimpse in the first place, the wee one has the power to vanish in a flash.

The origin of the leprechaun derives from a tale much like the old story of the shoemaker and the elves. The leprechaun, dressed in his bright green clothing with a red cap and a leather apron, was originally known as the cheerful cobbler, a wee person who takes delight in repairing humans' shoes for a reward of a bowl of porridge.

The countryfolk of Ireland take their wee folk seriously, and they know better than to disturb the mounds or raths in which the leprechauns dwell. Those who would wantonly violate the wee one's domicile is to invite severe supernatural consequences upon oneself.

The trouble at the rath outside the village of Wexford began on a morning in 1960 when the workmen from the state electricity board began digging a hole for the erection of a light pole within the parameters of a rath. The villagers warned the workmen that the pole would never stay put, because no self-respecting community of wee folk could abide a disturbance on their mound.

The big city electrical workmen had a laugh at the expense of the villagers and said some uncomplimentary things about the level of intelligence of the townsfolk of Wexford. They finished digging the hole to the depth that experience had taught them was adequate; then they placed the post within the freshly dug opening and stamped the black earth firmly around its base. The satisfied foreman pronounced for all within earshot to hear that no fairy folk or leprechaun would move the pole from where it had been anchored.

However, the next morning the pole tilted at a sharp angle in loose earth. The villagers shrugged that the wee folk had done it, but the foreman of the crew voiced his suspicions that the leprechauns had received some help from some humans bent on mischief. Glaring his resentment at any villagers who would meet his accusative eyes, the foreman ordered his men to reset the pole.

The next morning that one particular pole was once again conspicuous in the long line of newly placed electrical posts by its weird tilt in the loose soil at its base. While the other poles in the line stood straight and firmly upright, that one woebegone post was tilted askew.

The foreman had endured enough of such rustic humor at his expense. He ordered the crew to dig a hole six feet wide, place the pole precisely in the middle, and pack the earth so firmly around the base that nothing short of a bomb could budge it.

But the next morning the intrusive pole had once again been pushed loose of the little people's rath. The foreman and his crew from the electricity board finally knew when they were licked. Without another word to the grinning villagers, the workmen dug a second hole four feet outside of the mound and dropped the pole in there. And that was where it stood as solid as the Emerald Isle for many years to come.

Delving Deeper

Froud, Brian. Good Faeries, Bad Faeries. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.

Jones, Alison, ed. Larousse Dictionary of World Lore. New York: Larousse, 1995.

Keightley, Thomas. The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People. New York: Random House, 2000.

Mack, Carol K., and Dinah Mack. A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subver sive Spirits. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.

Rose, Carol. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.

Spence, Lewis. The Fairy Tradition in Britain. London: Rider, 1948.

Menehune

The Menehune are the wee people of the Hawaiian Islands; and just as there are folk legends and beliefs that the fairies of the British Isles were originally an early diminutive people, so do some traditions in Polynesia maintain that the Menehunes were an ancestral pygmy race that averaged about two feet in height. There are ancient sites in the Hawaiian Islands that some inhabitants still believe are the ruins of temples built by the Menehunes.

For most Polynesians, however, the prevailing accounts of the Menehune are told as if the beings have always been members of a spirit race that coexists with humans. The Menehune often serve as guardians and guides for the people, and the help of the "little vanishing ones" is sought in all tasks, from erecting a home to building a canoe. Much like the old European traditions of setting out food for the elves to come at night and assist the farmer or shoemaker, workers in Hawaii will sometimes set out sweets to insure the cooperation of the Menehune in the completion for their work project. The Menehune are highly regarded as engineers, and very often construction workers in Hawaii will ask a traditional priest, a Kahuna, to ask the blessing of the Menehune before any major building has begun. To neglect to do so may bring dire consequences if the work has been scheduled on a site that the Menehune regard as sacred. In this case, the Kahuna must offer prayers and gifts to pacify the spirit beings and win their cooperation.

From time to time, native inhabitants and tourists to the islands claim to caught a glimpse of the Menehune as they scurry from bush to bush in the forested regions. Most people describe the little people with light or slightly reddish-colored skin and large fuzzy mops of hair.

Delving Deeper

Beckwith, Martha. Hawaiian Mythology. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1970, 1989.

Grant, Glen. Obake Files: Ghostly Encounters in Supernatural Hawaii. Honolulu: Mutual Publishing, 1996.

Westervelt, William D. Hawaiian Legends of Ghosts and Ghost-Gods. Rutland, Vt.; Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1963, 1971.

Mermaids

There are few tales of the fairy folks' friends that are as captivating as those that deal with the mermaid, those ocean-dwelling divinities that are half-human and half-fish. Although there are mermen, the greater fascination has always been on the mermaid with her top half a beautiful woman and her bottom half that of a fish. Traditionally, the mermaid is also gifted with a lovely singing voice, which can be used to warn sailors of approaching storms or jagged rocks ahead. Or, in many of the ancient stories, the seductive siren song of the mermaids lure the seamen onto the jagged rocks and to their deaths. As with all of the "middle-folk," mermaids can be agents of good or of destruction.

As in the folklore of the selkie, sometimes mermaids fall in love with humans and are able to come ashore in human shape and to live on land for many years. They may even have children with their human husbands. But in all of these tales of mercreatures and human mates, the mermaid longs to return to the sea, and one day she will leave her human family and do so.

The Ceasg is a type of mermaid that haunts the lakes of the Scottish highlands. Her upper body and facial features are those of a beautiful, well-endowed woman, but her lower half is that of a large salmon. Like most supernatural beings, the Ceasg is of a dual nature. If a handsome young man should capture her attention and treat her well, she may assume human shape and marry him, at the same time granting him three wishes that may make them wealthy. If she feels that she has been disrespected or treated badly, she may use her beauty to lure a fisherman to the deepest part of the lake and drown him.

In Lake Tanganyika in the small East African country of Burundi, the Mambu-mutu is very much the classical mermaid, half attractive woman and half large fish. In her case, however, she does not fancy humans, and her only intention is to drag them under the lake's surface and suck their blood.

In Estonian folklore, the Nakh are shape-shifting water demons who walk freely on land as handsome young men or beautiful women who lure their victims with the sound of their sweet, seductive singing. Once they have enchanted their victims, they lead them to river, lake, or ocean and entice them to watery graves.

The Nix is a particularly nasty shape-shifting entity who, like all the fairy folk, loves to dance. According to German folklore, the Nix are attracted to the sound of music at fairs, carnivals, or outdoor concerts, and they appear as attractive men or women who enthrall the human audience with their skill and grace on the dance floor. Once they have lured a charmed human to join them at water's edge with the promise of romantic dalliance, they reveal themselves to be ugly, green-skinned fairies who drag their victims into the water and death by drowning.

Delving Deeper

Jones, Alison, ed. Larousse Dictionary of World Lore. New York: Larousse, 1995.

Mack, Carol K., and Dinah Mack. A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subver sive Spirits. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.

Shuker, Karl P. N. "Menagerie of Mystery." Strange (spring 1995): 20–23; 54–56.

Nisse

In the Scandinavian tradition, the nisse is a household entity that looks after hearth and home, a kind of guardian entity—but with an attitude. Nisse can be extremely volatile if provoked, and they are often mischievous little pranksters. Naughty children sometimes have their hair pulled and their toys hidden by the nisse, who is always watching with disapproving eyes any sign of misbehavior or disobedience. And a cat that becomes too curious will likely have its tail yanked good and proper by the annoyed nisse.

The nisse is also the farmer's friend, and it often sleeps in the barn to keep watch over the animals. If a hired hand should be slow in feeding the cattle or other livestock, the nisse will be certain to give them their grain—and to mete out punishment to the sluggish hired man who was tardy in his duties. The nisse might trip him as he walks up the stairs to his bedroom or spill his hot soup on his lap at the evening meal. If treated with respect, the nisse remains an effective guardian over hearth and outbuildings. He does demand payment for the performance of his duties, and the wise householder will be certain to leave hot porridge on the step at night and to make it known that the nisse is free to take whatever grain from the bin that he might require for his own needs.

Closely related to the nisse are the huldrefolk, the hidden people, the fairy folk of Scandinavia, who are generally quite benign if treated with respect. If one should be foolish enough to anger them or violate their territory, they can become extremely malicious. Generally, though, as the following story illustrates, the hidden people are quite reasonable.

In 1962, the new owners of a herring-processing plant in Iceland decided to enlarge their work area. According to Icelandic tradition, no landowner must fail to reserve a small plot of his or her property for the hidden folk, and a number of the rural residents earnestly pointed out to the new proprieters that any extension of the plant would encroach upon the plot of ground that the original owners had set aside for the little people who lived under the ground.

The businessmen laughed. For one thing, they didn't harbor those old folk superstitions. For another, they had employed a top-notch, highly qualified construction crew who possessed modern, unbreakable drill bits and plenty of explosives.

But the bits of the "unbreakable" drills began to shatter one after another. An old farmer came forward to repeat the warning that the crew was trespassing on land that belonged to the hidden folk. At first the workmen laughed at the old man and marveled that such primitive superstitions could still exist in modern Iceland. But the drill bits kept breaking.

Finally, the manager of the plant, although professing disbelief in such superstitions, agreed to the old farmer's recommendation that he consult a local seer to establish contact with the hidden folk and attempt to make peace with them. After going into a brief trance-state, the seer returned to waking consciousness to inform the manager that there was one particularly powerful member of the hidden folk who had selected this plot as his dwelling place. He was not an unreasonable being, however. If the processing plant really needed the plot for its expansion, he would agree to find another place to live. The hidden one asked only for five days without any drilling, so that he could make his arrangements to move.

The manager felt a bit strange bargaining with a being that was invisible—and as far as he had previously been concerned, imaginary. But he looked over at the pile of broken drill bits and told the seer that the hidden one had a deal. Work on the site would be shut down for five days to give him a chance to move.

After five days had passed and the workmen resumed drilling, the work proceeded smoothly and efficiently until the addition to the plant was completed. There were no more shattered bits on the unbreakable drill.

Delving Deeper

Booss, Claire, ed. Scandinavian Folk & Fairy Tales . New York: Gramercy Books, 1984.

Jones, Alison, ed. Larousse Dictionary of World Lore. New York: Larousse, 1995.

Mack, Carol K., and Dinah Mack. A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subver sive Spirits. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.

Rose, Carol. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.

Simek, Rudolf. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Trans. by Angela Hall. Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 1993.

Selkies

Selkies, the seal people of the Orkney and Shetland Islands, wish to live harmoniously with those humans who love the sea as much as they do. They have sometimes been confused with the sirens of Greek lore that have no interest in creating anything but death and chaos for seafarers. The selkies can shape-shift and appear in human form, resuming their true forms only when they wish to travel through the sea.

The selkies are among a small number of gentle and supernatural beings. They often take human spouses and produce children who occasionally have webbed hands and feet and who are always born with a love for the sea. But one day the selkie's desire for the sea will overwhelm her, and she will reclaim her discarded seal skin and return to the ocean, where she will keep in touch with her human family only by her song and an occasional appearance near the shore. John Sayles wrote and directed an enchanting film about the selkies in The Secret of Roan Inish (1994), adapted from Rosalie Frye's novella The Secret of Ron Mor Skerry.

Delving Deeper

Benwell, Gwen, and Arthur Waugh. Sea Enchantress: The Tale of the Mermaid and Her Kin. New York: Citadel Press, 1965.

Jones, Alison, ed. Larousse Dictionary of World Lore. New York: Larousse, 1995.

Spence, Lewis. The Fairy Tradition in Britain. London: Rider, 1948.

Trolls

Trolls bear no resemblance to the cute little dolls with big bug-eyes, dolphin grins, and bushy red hair. Rather, trolls are nasty monsters who can assume gigantic proportions and wreak havoc wherever they choose. They are fiendish giants, often associated with dark-side sorcerers.

To the old Norse, the term "troll" was applied only to hostile giants. By the time of the high Middle Ages, trolls had become a bit smaller and more fiendish, but they had also become capable of working black magic and sorcery. Regardless of their size, trolls are unrelenting enemies of humankind. Those occasional Scandinavian folk heroes who dared to engage them in mortal combat were able to defeat the trolls with their superior intelligence, rather than might of arm or sword. Trolls are most often quite slow-witted, and they become confused and weak if they can be somehow tricked into stepping out of their darkened caves into direct sunlight.

In more contemporary times, the troll is regarded as a denizen of mountain caves, larger than the average human, and exceedingly ugly, who often crouches under bridges waiting for unsuspecting victims.

Delving Deeper

Booss, Claire, ed. Scandinavian Folk & Fairy Tales. New York: Gramercy Books, 1984.

Jones, Alison, ed. Larousse Dictionary of World Lore. New York: Larousse, 1995.

Simek, Rudolf. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Translated by Angela Hall. Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 1993.