(re)visionLAND
Alejandra & Aeron

ooooeeeeeeeaaaahhhhhhfffFFreeedom!!!

The Elizabethans struck a new note in literature there, though it was not new in tradition. Her general appearance is terrible and hideous, but in some stories she changes at times into a beautiful maiden. The south was the past center, but now it is the west. Their lives are long, but when they die they perish utterly. In many old established mining areas throughout the world, there was a long tradition of mine spirits, in Cornwall these were known as the Knockers. They frequented the tin mines that formed much of local economy in 18th and 19th century Cornwall. Knockers was not the only name given to mine spirits others being Knackers, Buccas, and Spriggans to name a few. As well as the mines, the knockers were thought to haunt some wells and other natural features, which along with the other names for them, suggests a wider use of the term to describe supernatural creatures. According to descriptions, the Knockers took the form of small thin-limbed entities with large hooked noses. Scotish BP officials live in lush surroundings, while the employees do not. They inhabited the deepest darkest parts of the mine, and could sometimes be heard knocking and working their own lodes in the darkness. No doubt that any distant creak or rock fall would be amplified in the claustrophobic darkness of the mines. It is no wonder spirits were thought to inhabit these dangerous work places, where thoughts of the supernatural could cause an instant shiver down the spine. The Knockers generally kept to their own company and were thought to be benevolent, knocking at the richest of the lodes and showing themselves only to those that they favoured. But as with all fairies they needed to be treated with respect, whistling could offend them, as could intentional spying on their activity, and making the sign of the cross. The fairies of the Medieval Romances grew out of the Celtic tradition of the Heroic Separate but Equal Fairies, the knights and ladies of the MABINOGION, the Daoine Sidh who encountered the Milesians in love or battle; but the poets and dramatists of the Elizabethan age brought a different strand of fairy tradition into prominence. This was partly because the rise of the yeoman class, as the 16th century went on, had brought a spread of literacy and produced a new class of writers, drawn from the country up to town as Shakespeare was drawn, and bringing with them their own country traditions, The fairy ladies of the romances had become more humanized and sophisticated as time went on, and though Spencer clung to them still, they were perhaps slightly out of date. Classical mythology was a perennial source of allusions familiar to every lettered man, even if he only came from a small-town grammar school. Still, there had been a good deal said and sung about Mars and Venus and naiads and dryads and nymphs; a new source of reference would be a welcome change, and it was at hand in the English countryside. There are two main types of fairies which were novelties in literature: the hobgoblins, with which we may rate the brownie and the puck, and the small, flower-loving fairies such as we find pre-eminently in MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and which became all the fashion for the Jacobean Fairies. Dog-like obedience, but forced, and whisky fed. These fairy writings came in towards the end of the century, in the hey-day of the drama. Among the prose writers, Nashe in his TERRORS OF THE NIGHT gives us a characteristic picture of the hobgoblin type: The Robin-good-fellowes, Elfes, Fairies, Hobgoblins of our latter age, which idolatrous former daies and the fantastic all world of Greece ycleaped FAWNES, SATYRES, DRYADES, & Hamadryades, did most of their merry prankes in the Night. Then ground they malt, and had hempen shirts for their labours, daunst in rounds greene meadowes, pincht maids in their sleep that swept not their houses cleane, and led poore Travellers out of their way notoriously. Here Nashe, with a journalist's eye, lights on most of the things which became most noteworthy in his period, the brownie labours and the gift of a shirt that brought them to an end, the Dancing in fairy rings, the love of order and neatness and the punishment for untidy ways and the misleading of night wanderers. Shakespeare puts in all of these, except the pinching, which is being forever mentioned in the masques and poems , but he adds the fairy smallness and their love of flowers, which were to become so characteristic of the Jacobean fairies. It is to be found in Gervase of Tilbury and Giraldus Cambrensis. # 100-246-247-493 Cailleach Bheur - (The Blue Hag.) (Highland. D. Mackenzie, Scottish Folk Lore and Folk Life.) A giant hag who seems to typify winter, for she goes about smiting the earth with her staff so that it grows hard. When spring comes and she is conquered, she flings her staff in disgust into a whin bush or under a holly tree, where grass never grows. She is the patroness of deer and wild boars. Many hills are associated with her, particularly Ben Nevis and Schiehallion. Her general appearance is terrible and hideous, but in some stories she changes at times into a beautiful maiden. There is a version of the Wife of Bath's Tale told of her, and she is also the villainess of a story rather like Nix Nought Nothing. At times she turns into a sea serpent. Particulars are given of her Mackenzie's Scottish Folk Lore and Folk Life and she is mentioned in Campbell's Tales of the Western Highlands. Nuckelavee - (Scottish. Scottish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales.) A horrible monster who came out of the sea, half-man and half-horse, with a breath like pestilence and no skin on its body. The only security from it was that it could not face running water. Trooping Fairies: Scottish elves who dance in groups The Nuckelavee is the most horrible of all the Scottish elves. He lives mainly in the sea, but was also held responsible for ruined crops, epidemics, and drought. His breath could wilt the crops and sicken the livestock. He looks like a horse whose legs are part fin; he has an enormous snout-like mouth, and a single, fiery eye. His arms reach to the ground, his body is distorted and his huge head sways on a small neck, as if it is to weak to hold the head. The most gruesome about his appearance is the fact that he has no skin. Black blood courses through yellow veins and the pale sinews and powerful muscles are clear to see. He has an aversion of running water and those who are chased by him have only to cross a stream to get rid of him. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Niffler - Nogtail - Norbert - Nundu - Occamy - owls Phoenix - Pixie - Plimpy - Pogrebin - Porlock - Puffskein - Quintaped rabbit - Ramora - rat - raven - Red Cap - Re'em - Runespoor - Salamander Scabbers - Sea Serpent - Shrake - snails - snakes - Snidget Sphinx - spiders - squid, giant - Streeler ------------------------------------------------------------------------   Niffler XXX The Niffler is a black fluffy creature which burrows in dirt as if it were water. Nifflers are strongly attracted to anything shiny and they can be very useful for finding treasure. (GF28, FB) Red Cap XXX Small, goblin-like creatures, Red Caps love bloodshed; they bludgeon those lost in dungeons or battlefields (PA8).  According to A Field Guide To The Little People (Nancy Arrowsmith with George Moorse, New York: Hill and Wang, 1977): Some of the most bloodthirsty Scottish elves are the Lowland castle spirits. They are called Red Caps...and by some accounts are said to live only in castles with a history of violence. Others say they live in all Lowland peel-towers [fortified houses or towers]. It may well be that both accounts are true...The Red Caps' main occupation is colouring their red caps, which they dye with human blood. They throw boulders on to travellers from their towers, then catch the blood in their caps. As soon as the blood dries and the colour fades, the Red Caps look for new victims. They also foretell disasters by making a loud noise like the beating of flax. The only things that discourage them are crosses, cross-handled swords, and words from the Bible. (p. 47) These Red Caps are described as short, old elves with a sturdy build and long grey hair. They are about four feet tall and have red eyes.  FRIDEANS These Scottish Elves live beside roadways and travellers should offer them bread and milk before starting on a journey. Banshee - The banshee is known both in Ireland and Scotland. In Scotland she is sometimes called the Little Washer at the Ford, or the Little Washer of Sorrow. She can be heard wailing by the riverside as she washes the clothes of the man destined for death. If a mortal can seize and hold her, she must tell the name of the doomed man, and also grant three wishes. She is no beauty, for she has only one nostril, a large, starting out front tooth and web feet. The Irish banshee only wails for the members of the death of someone very great or holy. The banshee has long, streaming hair and a grey cloak over a green dress. Her eyes are fiery red from continually weeping. In the Highlands of Scotland the word Banshi means only a fairy Woman and is chiefly used for the fairies who marry mortals. Baobhan Sith - (Highland. D. Mackenzie, Scottish Folk Lore and Folk Life.) Malignant, blood-sucking spirits, who sometimes appeared as hoodie crows or ravens, but generally as beautiful girls, with long. trailing, green dresses hiding their deer's hooves. Billy Blind  - (F. Child, English and Scottish Ballads (New York, 1957), Vol. l.) A friendly domestic spirit of the Border Country, chiefly mentioned in ballads. He wears a bandage over his eyes. Auld Hoodie and Robin Hood are perhaps only different names for the same spirit. Billy Blind's chief function seems to be to give good advice. (freedom!!) It was he who advised and helped Burd Isobel in the Ballad of Young Bekie, and it was the Billy Blind whose advice cured the young wife bewitched by her mother-in-law. Blue Men of the Minch - (Highland. D. Mackenzie, Scottish Folk Lore and Folk Life.) These men belong to the Minch, and particularly haunt the strait between Long Island and the Shiant Islands. They are a malignant kind of mermen, but they are blue all over. They come swimming out to seize and wreck ships that enter the strait; but a ready tongue, and particularly a facility inrhyming, will baffle them. They have no power over the captain who can answer them quickly and keep the last word. Beyond their activities as wreckers they conjure up storms by their restlessness. The weather is only fine when they are asleep. The islanders think they are fallen angels like the fairies and the Merry Dancers, as the Aurora Borealis is called there. Brownie - The best known of the industrious domestic hobgoblins. The brownie's land is over all the North of England and up into the highlands of Scotland. The brownie is small, ragged and shaggy. Some say he has a nose so small as to be hardly more than two nostrils. He is willing to do all odd jobs about a house, but sometimes he untidies what he has been left to tidy. There are several stories of brownies riding to fetch the nurse for their mistress. The brownie can accept no payment, and the surest way to drive him away is to leave him a suit of clothes. Bread and milk and other dainties can be left unobtrusively, but even they must not be openly offered. The Cornish Browney is of the same nature. His special office is to get the bees to settle. When the bees swarm the housewife beats a tin, and calls out: 'Browney! Browney!' until the brownie comes invisibly to take charge.  Cailleach Bheur - (The Blue Hag.) (Highland. D. Mackenzie, Scottish Folk Lore and Folk Life.) A giant hag who seems to typify winter, for she goes about smiting the earth with her staff so that it grows hard. When spring comes and she is conquered, she flings her staff in disgust into a whin bush or under a holly tree, where grass never grows. She is the patroness of deer and wild boars. Many hills are associated with her, particularly Ben Nevis and Schiehallion. Her general appearance is terrible and hideous, but in some stories she changes at times into a beautiful maiden. There is a version of the Wife of Bath's Tale told of her, and she is also the villainess of a story rather like Nix Nought Nothing. At times she turns into a sea serpent. Particulars are given of her Mackenzie's Scottish Folk Lore and Folk Life and she is mentioned in Campbell's Tales of the Western Highlands. Glaistig - (Highland. D. Mackenzie, Scottish Folk-Lore and Folk Life.) The Glaistig is a female fairy, generally half-woman, half-goat, but sometimes described as a little, stout woman, clothed ion green. She is a spirit of mixed characteristics, and seems, indeed, to be all fairies in little. She is supposed to be fond of children and the guardian of domestic animals. Milk is poured out to her, and she does something of a brownie's work about the house. She is specially kind, too, to old people and the feeble-minded. On the other hand she has darker qualities; there are stories of her misleading and slaying travellers. If the traveller named the weapon he had against her she could make it powerless; but if he only described it he could overcome her. The Glaistig seems partly a water spirit. She might often be seen sitting by a stream, where she would beg to be carried across. She could be caught and set to work something like a kelpie. Kelpie - (Scottish.) A malignant water spirit, which is generally seen in the form of a young horse, but sometimes appears like a handsome young man. A kelpie's great object is to induce mortals to mount on its back and plunge with them into deep water, where it devours them. A man who can throw a bridle over the kelpie's head, however, has it in his power, and can force it to work for him. Mermaid - The mermaid is a much more sinister character than the mild roane, though harmless mermaids have been known. Her appearance and habits are well known to everyone from Scotland to Cornwall. It was considered a certain type of omen of shipwreck for a ship to sight a mermaid. The mermaids sometimes penetrated into rivers  and sea lochs as the story of the Mermaid of Knockdolian shows. In Suffolk, indeed, they are said to haunt ponds as well as rivers. Oh, perhaps they were only talking about the BP slicks. Like many other fairies the mermaids have a great desire for human children. (to work in the coal pits) In the folk-lore of a good many countries the mermaids and other water fairies are supposed to be very anxious to gain a human soul. Their lives are long, but when they die they perish utterly. Seely Court - (Lowland Scots.) Seely means blessed, and this name stands for the comparatively virtuous heroic fairies. The malignant fairies and demons were sometimes called the Unseely Court. Urisk - (Highland. Grahame, Picturesque Descriptions of Perthshire, G. Henderson, The Norse Influence in Celtic Scotland, etc.) A kind of rough brownie, half-human and half-goat, very lucky to have about the house, who herded cattle and worked on farms. He haunted lonely waterfalls, but would often crave human company, and follow terrified travellers at night, with out, however, doing them any harm. The Urisks lived solitary in recesses of the hills, but they would meet at stated times for solemn assemblies; a corrie near Loch Katrine was their favorite meeting place. Whuppity Stoorie - (Scottish. Chambers, Popular Rhymes of Scotland.) The name is apparently taken from the circular scud of dust upon which fairies are supposed to ride. It was the name of a Scottish Tom Tit Tot fairy, and also of the fairy on one .