Faerie World

                                                               

1757, Wales: a well-known cleric, when a young child, was playing in a field with several other children. There at football-field distance away, were several dwarf/gnome-sized creatures, apparently in couples, all dressed in red and flourishing white kerchiefs. One of the males spotted the children and rushed at them, nearly catching them. The child described the gnome as having an "ancient, swarthy, and grim complexion". The other gnomes were shouting at the chaser the whole time in a language which none of the children could understand. Dr. Edward Williams, the cleric, summarized his encounter in a charming way: "I am forced to class it among my unknowables". One suspects that we will have to do the same as to this whole menagerie of beings.

 Mid-19th century, UK: The famous historian, Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, had an experience when he was very young in which he saw "legions of dwarves" two feet tall keeping pace beside the carriage in which he was riding and trying to climb up on the horses, laughing all the way. His parents saw nothing at all.

  

 Mid-19th century, Yorkshire: If that youth experience might be waved off as some oddity of the very young, S B-G's wife had an encounter when she was 15. She was walking down a lane when she came across "a little green man, perfectly made, who looked at her with beady black eyes". [I am almost certain that the phrase "little green man" refers to him being dressed in green in such stories]. This frightened her badly and she ran home.

 Late-19th century, UK. And S B-G had a further encounter in his family. One of his sons was fetching peas in their garden when he came across a member of the Good People wearing a green jacket, brown knee britches, and a red cap [just about our ideal garden gnome]. He had a weathered old face, gray beard and stark black eyes. His stare unnerved the son and he ran inside. Doubtless, Sabine Baring-Gould had little reason to disbelieve him.

Probably late 1800s, Wicklow Mountains, Ireland: This one will stretch you on how far you want to go. A farmer and his wife worked their farm just after their marriage and along came a winter's snow season. The man saw a Wee Folk outside and "brought him in and sat him on the dresser". [peculiar to say the least, but I'm not of the times....] . The farmer was telling this story to some folklore luminaries visiting him [including Lady Gregory and William Butler Yeats]. He said that the being stayed with them for about a week. His wife promptly interrupted him to remind him that it was two to three weeks. [!!!].The being was described as 15" high and very friendly. He was dressed almost entirely in red: cap to checked coat to skirt to stockings. The being had to be fed by spoon by the farmer himself. His meals consisted of bread in milk, it seems. His appearance was young and fresh at first, but rapidly he began to appear old and wrinkled [yep, I remember the Changeling legends]. He was no secret locally, and tipsy knuckleheads from the town pub would come over and they would laugh at him there on his dresser.One day the farmer saw another like being outside. That being was dressed in a grayish theme and looked more feminine. When the farmer remarked upon this to his wife, the Little Man who had never spoken, cried out: "That's Geoffrey-a-Wee that's coming for me!!". At that, he leapt down from his dresser and bounded out the door. If this story is true [two interviewed witnesses and several well-known interviewers], then just about anything goes as far as the typical historic folkloric fairy stories go. Encounters passing in the lane are one thing; stay-around family house gnomes are another. And the changeling-similar thing.... it is almost a line-in-the -sand over which the mind resists crossing.