Dictionary of Fairies

Jimmy Squarefoot. Статья из «Эльфийского словаря» К.Бриггс

Jimmy Squarefoot

This curious apparition is described at some length by Walter Gill in A Manx Scrapbook (pp.356-357). He haunted all round the Grenaby district of Man, and in later times he appeared as a man with a pig's head and two great tusks like a wild boar's. Formidable though he looked, he does not seem to have done great damage. In earlier times he was a giant pig, and was ridden over land and sea by a Foawr who lived on Cronk yn Irree Lhaa. Like most Foawr, he was himself a stone-thrower, and he seems usually to have thrown his stones at his wife, with whom he was on very bad terms. Gill suggests that she may have been the Caillagh Ny Groamagh, who lived in exactly that locality: one of the rocks was Greg yn Arran, and another, which was a wide miss, fell at Cloughur in the south. The wife left him, and he himself presumably followed her, but they left their steed behind. After that he assumed a semi-human form and roamed about the countryside, possibly as far as Glen Rushen, where a buggane appeared which changed its shape between that of a black pig and a man.

[Motifs: A963.5; F511.0.9; F531.4.11]

Foawr. Статья из «Эльфийского словаря» К.Бриггс

Foawr [fooar]

Фовар

Мэнская параллель шотландских фоморов. Как и они, Фовар — кидающиеся камнями великаны. Они отчаянно воруют скот, но при этом, похоже, не людоеды. Дора Брум в «Волшебных сказках с острова Мэн» рассказывает сказку, «Челс и Фовар», о веселом молодом скрипаче, которого Фовар поймал и утащил к себе домой. Можно было бы ожидать повторения истории с Полифемом, но Челс бежал от великана, поднявшись по дымоходу.

Frid. Статья из «Эльфийского словаря» К.Бриггс

Frid

A supernatural creature which lives under or inside rocks in the Highlands and which devours all milk or crumbs of bread spilt on the ground. Mackenzie, in Scottish Folk Lore and Folk Life (p.244), thinks it likely that the Fridean were the original beings to which the libations of milk were poured upon the hills of Gairloch, Ross and Cromarty. He suggests that the fairly widespread tale of a piper who, followed by his dog, explored the windings of an underground cavern and never returned from it, though the sound of his music was followed above ground for several miles, is related to the Fridean. The dog returned hairless, as dogs do from encounters with fairies, and died when it came out into the open.

[Motif: V12.9]

Farisees or Pharisees. Статья из «Эльфийского словаря» К.Бриггс

Farisees or Pharisees

Keightley in The Fairy Mythology (p.305) quotes Brand in confirmation of 'farisees' as the Suffolk name for fairies. The Suffolk children used to be confused between the farisees and the biblical mentions of the Pharisees. Brand in Popular Antiquities (Vol.II, p.503) says:

Not many years ago a butcher near Woodbridge went to a farmer's wife to buy a calf, and finding, as he expressed it, that 'the cratur was all o' a muck' he desired the farmer to hang a flint by a string in the crib, so as to be just clear of the calf's head. 'Becaze,' said he, 'the calf is rid every night by the farisees, and the stone will brush them off.'

Consumption (Чахотка). Статья из «Эльфийского словаря» К.Бриггс

Consumption

Чахотка

Народное название туберкулеза. Нередко это заболевание приписывали козням ведьм, которые, как считалось, превращают своих жертв в лошадей и ездят на них по ночам на свои шабаши, отчего те делаются «ягой заезженными». Чаще, однако, полагали, что эта болезнь — дело рук эльфов. Юношей и девушек зазывали ночь за ночью танцевать на эльфийских балах и пирах, и те чахли, не зная отдыха ни днем, ни ночью. Примечательно, что поверье это бытовало наиболее всего там, где прослеживается тесная связь между эльфами и мертвецами. Финварра, король ирландских эльфов, был ведь также царем мертвых. Леди Уайльд в своих «Древних легендах Ирландии» приводит несколько легенд об Иннис-Сарк, в которых эльфы и мертвецы подменяют друг друга.

См. также Порчи и хвори, вызываемые эльфами.

Nanny Button-cap. Статья из «Эльфийского словаря» К.Бриггс

Nanny Button-cap

A little West Yorkshire spirit. Not much is known about her, but she is a good fairy. Mrs Wright gives a nursery rhyme about her:

The moon shines bright,

The stars give light,

And little Nanny Button-cap

Will come to-morrow night.

[Motif: F403]

Нэнни-Помпончик

Маленький дух из западного Йоркшира. О ней известно мало, но это добрый дух. Миссис Райт приводит детский стишок про нее:

Светит луна,

Звезды горят,

Малютка Нэнни-Помпончик

Придет завтра ночью.

[Мотив: F403]

Fairy Godmothers. Статья из «Эльфийского словаря» К.Бриггс

Fairy Godmothers

Феи-крестные

Феи-крестные из изысканных сказок Перро, мадам Д'Онуа и последующих авторов «Кабинета фей» представляют собой некоторую аномалию. Дикие эльфы по природе своей не могли бы явиться на христианское таинство; но существует глубоко укоренившаяся традиция их присутствия при языческом обряде именования. Именно в такие моменты являлись норны, парки и фортуны — праматери наших фей.

Cross. Статья из «Эльфийского словаря» К.Бриггс

Cross

From the earliest days of Christianity the cross was believed to be a most potent protective symbol against fairies and all evil spirits. It is even possible that cross-roads had a pre-Christian significance, as sacred to the god of limits and a place of sacrifice. The cross in all its forms was protective — the 'saining' or crossing of one's own body or that of another, a cross scratched on the ground or formed by four roads meeting, a cross of wood, stone or metal set up by the roadside, a cross worn as a trinket round the neck, all these were believed to give substantial protection against devils, ghosts or fairies. Sometimes this protection was reinforced by carrying a cross of a particular material — of rowan wood, for instance, for this wood was a protection of itself — or for trinkets crosses of coral or amber, both of some potency.

An example of the efficacy of 'saining' as a means of rescuing a captive in fairyland is to be found in Walter Scott's 'Alice Brand', a ballad from The Lady of the Lake:

But wist I of a woman bold,

Who thrice my brows durst sign,

I might regain my mortal mould,

As fair a form as thine.

RSS-материал