Фэйри

Bean-Nighe. Статья из «Эльфийского словаря» К.Бриггс

Bean-Nighe [ben-neeyeh], or 'the Washing Woman'

She occurs both in Highland and Irish tradition as one of the variants of the banshee. A good account of her is given in L. Spence's book The Fairy Tradition in Britain (p.54-55). The name and characteristics vary in different localities. She is to be seen by desolate streams washing the blood-stained clothing of those about to die. She is small and generally dressed in green, and has red webbed feet. She portends evil, but if anyone who sees her before she sees him gets between her and the water she will grant him three wishes. She will answer three questions, but she asks three questions again, which must be answered truly. Anyone bold enough to seize one of her hanging breasts and suck it may claim that he is her foster-child and she will be favourable to him. But the Caointeach of Islay, which is the same as the Bean-Nighe, is fiercer and more formidable. If anyone interrupts her she strikes at his legs with her wet linen and often he loses the use of his limbs. It is said that the bean-nighe are the ghosts of women who have died in childbirth and must perform their task until the natural destined time of their death comes.

The bean-nighe, sometimes called the Little-Washer-by-the-Ford, chiefly haunt the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, but Peter Buchan collected a washer story in Banffshire.

[Motifs: F232.2; M301.6.1]

Banshee. Статья из «Эльфийского словаря» К.Бриггс

Banshee

Банши

Ирландский дух смерти, призрачная женщина (правильнее — Bean si), оплакивающая кончину членов старинных родов. Там, где несколько банши плачут вместе, уйдет из жизни великий или святой человек. У банши длинные волосы ручьем и серый плащ на зеленом платье. Глаза ее красны, как угли, от вечного плача. В Шотландских горах банши называют бен-нийе или Маленькой Прачкой с брода, и там она стирает саваны тех, кому предстоит умереть.

«Мемуары леди Феншоу», жившей в 1625-1676 годы, содержат собственноручное описание банши, с которой автор встретилась в гостях у леди Онор О’Брайен:

Bean Si. Статья из «Эльфийского словаря» К.Бриггс

Bean Si [banshee]

Bean Si is the Gaelic for 'fairy woman', and is commonly written banshee, as it is pronounced, because it is one of the best-known of the Celtic fairies. In the Highlands of Scotland she is also called bean-nighe, or the little-washer-by-the-ford, because she is seen by the side of a burn or river washing the bloodstained clothes of those about to die.

[Motif: M301.6.1]

Бан Ши

Бан Ши — по-гэльски «волшебная женщина», это слово часто пишется, как слышится — banshee, потому что это одна из самых широко известных кельтских эльфов. В шотландских Горах ее называют также бен-нийе или Маленькой Прачкой у Брода, потому что ее видят на берегу ручья или речки стирающей одежду тех, кому суждено умереть.

[Мотив: M301.6.1]

Phouka. Статья из «Эльфийского словаря» К.Бриггс

Pwca. Статья из «Эльфийского словаря» К.Бриггс

Pwca [pooka]

The Welsh version of the English puck. His actions and character are so like those of Shakespeare's Puck that some Welsh people have claimed that Shakespeare borrowed him from stories told him by his friend Richard Price of Brecon who lived near Cwm Pwca, one of the Pwca's favourite haunts.

Sikes in British Goblins reproduces a rather pleasing drawing of the Pwca, done with a piece of coal by a Welsh peasant. The Pwca in this picture has a head rather like a fledgeling bird's and a figure not unlike a tadpole's. No arms are shown, but the figure is in silhouette.

One story about the Pwca shows that a tribute of milk was left for him. This may possibly have been in payment for his services as a cowherd, though that is not expressly mentioned. A milkmaid at Trwyn Farm near Abergwyddon used to leave a bowl of milk and a piece of white bread for Pwca in a lonely place on the pastures every day. One day, out of mischief, she drank the milk herself and ate most of the bread, so that Pwca only got cold water and a crust that day. Next day, as she went near the place, she was suddenly seized by very sharp but invisible hands and given a sound whipping, while the Pwca warned her that if she did that again she would get worse treatment.

Pwca is best known, however, as a Will o' the Wisp. He will lead a benighted wanderer up a narrow path to the edge of a ravine, then leap over it, laughing loudly, blow out his candle, and leave the poor traveller to grope his way back as best he can. In this behaviour he is like the Scottish Shellycoat as well as the English Puck.

[Motif: F402.1.1]

Puck. Статья из «Эльфийского словаря» К.Бриггс

Puck

Shakespeare in his Midsummer Night's Dream has given Puck an individual character, and it no longer seems natural to talk, as Robert Burton does in The Anatomie of Melancholy, of a puck instead of 'Puck', nor, like Langland, equate Puck with the Devil and call Hell 'Pouk's Pinfold'.

Shakespeare's Puck is the epitome of the hobgoblin, with the by-name of Robin Goodfellow. In folk tradition emphasis is perhaps most laid on Puck as a misleader, and 'Pouk-ledden' is a commoner phrase than 'Hobberdy's Lantern'. Shakespeare's Puck plays all the pranks described in the Life of Robin Goodfellow. His selfdescriptive speech to Titania's fairy could not be bettered as the description of a hobgoblin:

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 wither'd 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;

Barguest. Статья из «Эльфийского словаря» К.Бриггс

Barguest

A kind of Bogy or Bogey-beast. It has horns, teeth and claws and fiery eyes. Henderson describes the Barguest as closely allied to Padfoot and the Hedley Kow. Like them it can take various forms, but usually appears as a shaggy black dog with huge fiery eyes. It is generally regarded as a death portent. William Henderson in Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties (p.274-275) said tnat it used to haunt a piece of wasteland between Wreghorn and Headingley Hill near Leeds. At the death of any notable person in the district it would appear, followed by all the dogs in the district, howling and baying. Henderson reports that he met an old man who claimed to have seen the procession as a child. Hone's Everyday Book (vol.III, p.655) gives a lively report of an encounter with a barguest:

You see, sir, as how I'd been a clock dressing at Gurston (Grassington), and I'd staid rather lat, and maybe getten a lile sup o' spirit; but I war far from being drunk, and knowed everything that passed.

Billy Blind. Статья из «Эльфийского словаря» К.Бриггс

Billy Blind

A household spirit of the hobgoblin kind, who only seems to appear in the ballads. His speciality was giving good advice, but in 'Young Bekie' (No.53 of the Child collection of ballads), which is a variant of the story of a Becket's father, Burd Isabel, the French princess who has helped young Bekie to escape and plighted her troth with him, is warned by the billy blind that young Bekie is on the point of marrying someone else, and assists in a magical journey to England in time to prevent the celebration of the nuptials, hailing a magic ship which the billy blind himself steered across the sea.

Another ballad in which he appears is No.6 in the Child collection, 'Willie's Lady', in which Willie's mother, a rank witch, is preventing the birth of his child by various cantrips. The billy blind advises them to announce the birth of a child and summon the mother-in-law to the christening of a dummy. The mother-in-law expresses her surprise in a soliloquy which gives away the methods by which she has been preventing the birth and enables them to counteract them, as, for instance, by killing the master kid beneath her bed. It is rather strange that this spirit only occurs in the ballads. 'Billy' means a companion or a warrior.

[Motif: F482.5.4]

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