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Fairies, Pixies, Elves, Sprites & Other Little Folk

A Senegalese friend at our house for dinner and herb one night recounted how his family would never camp out in the jungle due to what he called 'pikmin'. I thought he was talking about pygmies, but he was aware of them and assured us these 'pikmin' were tiny flying people who dwelt in the trees and would circumcise the unwary with a tiny knife fashioned from a seashell.

He also refused to look through my telescope at Jupiter, stating that he wanted nothing to do with what's out there. He wouldn't elaborate when pressed as to what he was afraid of, simply ending the topic with a statement something like "nobody needs to know what the people up there are about". He obviously believed that these 'people' were real. I was fascinated, but didn't get any further with him on those subsequent occasions I asked him to elaborate. He remained adamant that it was dangerous to mess with that side of existence - very sincere in his reluctance. I was impressed.


Worked with a guy who was from Zimbabwe who said who common it was for people to see their ancestors as little clouds of white hovering around the countryside.
 
Elves Troubled by New Airport Proposal
Seeress and elf expert Ragnhildur Jónsdóttir at the Hellisgerði Elf Garden says that elves are horrified at the idea of a new airport at Hvassahraun which a steering committee has concluded is the best candidate.. Jóndóttir adds that the elves of Hvassahraun work both in agriculture and fishing in the area and that most of them live there for the whole year round. She says that the Hvassahraun lava field is the home of many different kinds of elves, dwarves and hidden people. "They have farms there and many of them keep sheep in between the rocks. Others live by the coastline and have boats which they use for fishing." Full story
I wonder what elves make of the Heathrow/Gatwick expansion debate?
 
No, I haven't seen any fairies, but...

When I was about 3 years old (I think), I woke up early one morning and looked out of the window onto the front lawn.
It was a very cold morning, and there was a bit of mist rolling over the lawn. The entire lawn was covered in cobwebs covered in dew that was just starting to freeze. A magical sight to a 3 year old!
I remember hearing little voices and giggling, urging me to open the window and go out. So I climbed out of the window, and danced about on the lawn. I remember hearing the little voices around me as I ran about on the fairy-tale grass.
Unfortunately, it was at that point that my Dad came out of the house, and hauled me back inside.
Amazingly, although I was only 3, I remember it quite clearly. I didn't see them, but I heard them.

Also, completely incidentally, I have one pointy ear, and one normal ear...
...does this make me a fairy? :eek:
WOW. I heard many stories of about humans, specially young children being hauled away by Fairie, because they were drawn into the Fairie Ring. According to Folklore being called to join in on a Fairie Hurl, or Ring Dance is quit dangerous. In my opinion your father got there just in time.
 
Nowt really, dont they use fairies for air travel? But then again, all those immigrant gnomes landing on our soil may stir up trouble so look out for legit garden gnomes standing along the runway in protest.
I'm sure the Fairie would be most disappointed in our constant drive to destroy all things natural.
 
I want the book!

It's U.S. fairy stories you want specifically, T7? Here's one (guaranteed true!) which took place in Queens, NY: http://paranormal.about.com/library/bls ... r04_05.htm

Also, there are the Tommy-Knockers who are American descendents of the British Knockers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommyknockers
G'day Bannik. I'm from a Geordie family that's been down the pit for the last 8 generations, bar the last two. One of my delights was when my Grandad Jack would speak of things that were spoken about when he was a lad (late 1880's). His take on the Tommyknockers was that if you could hear them working, then things were fine, but if they stopped working - get out fast.

My Dads interpretation a few decades later was more credible; the earth moves constantly, as it should, and what the old pit men were hearing was not the 'Tommyknockers', but natural earth movement. When it settled and stopped moving, a natural tension built up (time to go!) - the longer it was quiet, the more tension built up - then, when the tension built up to an intolerable strain, the seams would go with a bang, producing cave ins and roof drops.

My Dad explained that up until the 20's, there were 11 year old kids down the pit, along with, at earlier times young girls (called Rosies). Kids hearing is far better than some 30 year old pitman, who's got cloth ears, and so the young'ns were like the miners canary.The tale of the Tommyknockers would awe those kids into taking notice of what was happening within the Earth around them and alert the old'ns when the seams stopped moving.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knocker_(folklore)

The Knocker, Knacker, Bwca (Welsh), Bucca (Cornish) or Tommyknocker (US) is a mythical creature in Welsh, Cornish and Devon folklore. They are the equivalent of Irish leprechauns and English and Scottish brownies. About two feet tall and grizzled, but not misshapen, they live beneath the ground. Here they wear tiny versions of standard miner's garb and commit random mischief, such as stealing miners' unattended tools and food.
Their name comes from the knocking on the mine walls that happens just before cave-ins – actually the creaking of earth and timbers before giving way. etc...


http://darylburkhard.com/tommyknockers.html

Tommyknockers

When the Cornish miners came to America in the 1800s to dig the hardrock mines of copper, gold and silver, they brought with them their belief in the tommyknocker. Called knockers in Cornwall, tommyknockers were small dwarf-like creatures who worked in the mines, tapping away and making strange noises deep in the rocks. They were often heard, but rarely seen. Exactly what their origins are is unclear. Some folks believed that the knockers were the ghosts of Jews who had been brought by the Romans as slaves to work in the Cornish mines. Others felt the knockers were the spirits of miners in general who had died in the mines or they were the spirits of souls who hadn’t been good enough to make it to heaven but hadn’t been bad enough to go to hell. etc...


They'll probably be in the next series of Poldark! ;)
 
Aah Faries.

When I was a kid I had a tooth pulled out. I put it under my pillow and went to sleep. It was still there when I woke up in the middle of the night. Back then, hoping the tooth fairy was real, I decided to stay awake and wait for a while. Now I never remember falling asleep and as a kid I truly believed the fairy took me with her to another place/world where I met her friends. To date it is still the most beautiful dream I ever had. When I was young I was adamant that it was real and refused to accept it had been a dream, that I must have fallen asleep and not realised. And I held on to that belief for many years.
 
Fascinating account!
Brings up lots of questions...brrr.
 
Indeed, quite quite creepy. Not at all like the mostly genteel accounts in "Seeing Fairies".
 
I'm sure I've read something similar just can't seem to remember where.

Edit - yes good account btw.
 
I'm sure I've read something similar just can't seem to remember where.

Edit - yes good account btw.

Yes, I've read it too, same story in a slightly different version, no doubt by the same writer. Even before I clicked the link, I thought "is it the woman in Australia who was just returning from a business trip?" so I know my memory isn't playing tricks!

It may very well have been here on FTMB where we saw it, because I recall the writer answering questions raised by other posters about her experience.
 
Yes, I've read it too, same story in a slightly different version, no doubt by the same writer. Even before I clicked the link, I thought "is it the woman in Australia who was just returning from a business trip?" so I know my memory isn't playing tricks!

It may very well have been here on FTMB where we saw it, because I recall the writer answering questions raised by other posters about her experience.
Yes, I thought it must be on here as well. Not this thread though..She says that she went on various internet forums to discuss it.
 
A very well written account of what happened to her. It sounds like it was an absolutely terrifying experience and I hope neither she or any other members of her family ever experienced any thing like that again.

There might be an explanation in a delayed reaction to her sleeping/relaxation tablets that she took when she was flying as I've heard of people reacting very strangely on those and I can imagine that night hag/sleep paralysis hallucinations could be affected by taking them. I am also not sure that her daughter might not have been rewriting history as memories can be very unreliable.

But all the same, I am not an expert and I wasn't there so I shall keep my mind open. It would be interesting to know if indigenous Australians have any myths and stories about little people. It's clear from the myths in the UK that the little people are very far from being wafty ethereal Victorian sweeties.
 
Her description of their faces for some reason reminded me of those bedroom visiting creatures from the movie called Communion.

sanford10-communion-2.jpg
 
Her description of their faces for some reason reminded me of those bedroom visiting creatures from the movie called Communion.

sanford10-communion-2.jpg
Good find.
Yes, that's what I thought of too when I read that account.
What she described may have been an alien abduction experience.
 
Good find.
Yes, that's what I thought of too when I read that account.
What she described may have been an alien abduction experience.

My thoughts too. But who knows, the alien aspect may have been multi dimensional - another realm sharing the earth with our own?
 
My thoughts too. But who knows, the alien aspect may have been multi dimensional - another realm sharing the earth with our own?
That is also not impossible, yes.
 
This thread makes me want to read 'Jonathan Strange' again!

Dianne Purkiss's book 'Troublesome Things' is an interesting read. Fairy abduction stories share a lot of motifs with the 20thC alien abduction stories, it seems.

I have a friend who used to walk a lot in the Lake District and she swears to me she once found something in a really remote place, well off the tourist track, that she thought was a fairy house... Next time I see her, will ask her to tell me the details again. But I know she was utterly convinced there was 'something' in the wilder, more remote areas.
 
This thread makes me want to read 'Jonathan Strange' again!

Dianne Purkiss's book 'Troublesome Things' is an interesting read. Fairy abduction stories share a lot of motifs with the 20thC alien abduction stories, it seems.

I have a friend who used to walk a lot in the Lake District and she swears to me she once found something in a really remote place, well off the tourist track, that she thought was a fairy house... Next time I see her, will ask her to tell me the details again. But I know she was utterly convinced there was 'something' in the wilder, more remote areas.
It could be a 'fairy door' that some child had nailed to a tree. Some of them look quite good.
fairy-door.jpg

Or...was it a lot more than that?
 
It could be a 'fairy door' that some child had nailed to a tree. Some of them look quite good.
fairy-door.jpg

Or...was it a lot more than that?
That is brilliant! I want one! (But can't cos my dog would eat it). But no, I seem to recall her describing a small, free-standing structure. She did tell me where it was, well roughly, as well so next time I see her I will ask her. She worked in a tourist trap so spent her days off walking to the remotest places she could find, where she could get away from every last tourist.
 
In the Horror Film thread I mentioned the movie - Cats Eye. I also briefly discussed something from my childhood that involved finding a tiny hand print in my nans house - behind the wardrobe. The bedroom was getting an overdue makeover and some wallpaper if my memory serves me well. The hand print was approximately slightly bigger than the bowl area of a dessert spoon. Three long thin fingers (the middle one was the longest) that were slightly outstretched and a plump looking thumb. It was less than 12inches above the floor and was very distinct. It was black in colour and well formed on the plaster. It was wiped away with some elbow grease which left a clean looking hand shaped area of plaster. Years later I brought the subject up with my Nan who wasn't surprised by that find. She grew up in a house that had similar oddness and strangeness connected with it.
 
A very well written account of what happened to her. It sounds like it was an absolutely terrifying experience and I hope neither she or any other members of her family ever experienced any thing like that again.

There might be an explanation in a delayed reaction to her sleeping/relaxation tablets that she took when she was flying as I've heard of people reacting very strangely on those and I can imagine that night hag/sleep paralysis hallucinations could be affected by taking them. I am also not sure that her daughter might not have been rewriting history as memories can be very unreliable.

But all the same, I am not an expert and I wasn't there so I shall keep my mind open. It would be interesting to know if indigenous Australians have any myths and stories about little people. It's clear from the myths in the UK that the little people are very far from being wafty ethereal Victorian sweeties.


G'day staticgirl, there are many incidences of small spirit-world beings in Australian Aboriginal Mythology. Some are good folks, others, quite malignant.

There is a 'Balyet' who lives in the gullies and gorges and is associated with mists. She once was a young girl who was punished for a transgression by being turned into this lost spirit - she takes young children.

There are Potkorok's who live in water - they are small spirits and need to be warned before you come down to drink. chucking a stone ahead of you into the water is a good idea.

There are the Turong's, spirits who live in trees and will chuck gum nuts and twigs at you as you walk under the trees.

After dark, is not a good time to be wandering the Australian bush, needless to say.
 
In a recent issue of FT there was a piece about someone doing research into a possible link with ghost sightings and mould spores. They were looking into the possibility that certain types of spores found in old (and not so old) buildings could produce a reaction in certain people, giving them hallucinations.
Just started reading Fairies: Real Encounters With The Little People, Janet Bord and remembered the link between 'Little People' sightings and Fairy Rings, the circular marks on grass caused by a species of mushroom.
 
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