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Fairies, Pixies, Elves, Sprites & Other Little Folk

My apologies Mytho - I read your comment as 'impossible' and not 'not impossible' - I. need. to. read. more. slowly.
 
I’m fascinated by these accounts. There’s little doubt there are ‘occurrences’ of several types, and when you’ve read enough of these stories you can even categorise types of ‘occurrences’. I’ve no doubt they happen, but my feeling is that the brain interprets these ‘events’ according to its own experience, which are in turn are shaped by the current ‘zeitgeist’. So for a period and for a lot of folk ‘fairies’ in (say) the middle of this century in the UK, but for others, in the 70s and 80s ‘alien abductions’ and so on.

Something does happen that’s for sure, but I think we’d do well to look at situations and circumstances, rather than the interpretation the brain puts on the ‘event’.
 
My mum came from an unbroken line of farmers on the borders of the East/West Ridings. I read somewhere that in the nineteenth century this community was regarded as the most superstitious people in the UK - specifically, the farming families.

She always left a bowl of bread and milk - she called 'pobs' - "out for the fairies". And it would be gone in the morning. Of course if you looked out of the kitchen window, you'd see hedgehogs eating it at night... Cat food is what you're meant to leave out for them! - and she must have known this as well as we did, but it was always "for the fairies". Maybe in some Mrs Tiggywinkle kinda way, the hedgehogs were somehow the fae? Or they were in her head.

My husband's mate bought a Welsh hill farm in the 1980s. I don't think it was great arable - he was a romantic townie trying to live The Good Life. Apparently, there was this stream on his land that he was told never to damage or pollute or change the course of, in any way, or the fairies would make Bad Things happen. At one point, he claimed, he messed with it in some way and the Bad Things ensued quickly. And carried on til he reversed his messing about - forget what he said he did. But when he put it right the Bad Things stopped happening. I have Irish friends who have told me about roads not going in a straight line as a blackthorn, elder, or similar is bang in its path and it was thought to be terrible bad luck to grub up a tree the fairies liked.
 
My mum came from an unbroken line of farmers on the borders of the East/West Ridings. I read somewhere that in the nineteenth century this community was regarded as the most superstitious people in the UK - specifically, the farming families.

She always left a bowl of bread and milk - she called 'pobs' - "out for the fairies". And it would be gone in the morning. Of course if you looked out of the kitchen window, you'd see hedgehogs eating it at night... Cat food is what you're meant to leave out for them! - and she must have known this as well as we did, but it was always "for the fairies". Maybe in some Mrs Tiggywinkle kinda way, the hedgehogs were somehow the fae? Or they were in her head.

My husband's mate bought a Welsh hill farm in the 1980s. I don't think it was great arable - he was a romantic townie trying to live The Good Life. Apparently, there was this stream on his land that he was told never to damage or pollute or change the course of, in any way, or the fairies would make Bad Things happen. At one point, he claimed, he messed with it in some way and the Bad Things ensued quickly. And carried on til he reversed his messing about - forget what he said he did. But when he put it right the Bad Things stopped happening. I have Irish friends who have told me about roads not going in a straight line as a blackthorn, elder, or similar is bang in its path and it was thought to be terrible bad luck to grub up a tree the fairies liked.

I love tales like that, they just make you want to visit such places.
 
This is from 2014 but I don't remember seeing it posted before now o_O

This Irish cottage may be haunted by violent fairies
Corinne Purtill, GlobalPost 3:46 p.m. EST November 22, 2014

LIXNAW, Ireland — All is not well in the cottage at the edge of the Ballynageragh bog.
The simple home lies on the outskirts of this blink-and-you'll-miss-it village in west Ireland's County Kerry.
During the last two decades, no fewer than five inhabitants of the tiny white building used for public housing died suddenly in tragic and unusual circumstances.
The unsettling events have tapped into a culture of legend and supernatural belief that continues to color life here.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...lpost-irish-cottage-violent-fairies/18170933/
 
It sounds familiar to me - I think it has been posted before.
Interesting case.
 
This is from 2014 but I don't remember seeing it posted before now o_O



http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...lpost-irish-cottage-violent-fairies/18170933/

Yes, it was posted somewhere on the forum previously, but I haven't the foggiest idea where now. IIRC, one former resident of the house posted here on FTMB that the house had an extreme problem with damp and mold. Nothing was able to fix it, or was not satisfactorily fixed, or something along those lines. IIRC, the former resident believed that people who'd died had succumbed to toxic mold.
 
I came across this interesting tale today. Its from a women who woke up in her bed and found Gnomes trying to drag her into the wardrobe.

http://malcolmsanomalies.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/attempted-abduction-by-gnomes.html

This account was indeed posted in FTMB way back in 2004 by a poster known as Finehair. I have always considered it one of the creepiest stories I've ever read.

http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/finehair-again6s-gnomes-caution-may-be-tripe.35297/
 
Yeah thats what I'm saying. I'm responding to the set of posts about it from last August.

That's how long it took me to find it....
 
Remains of the most recently discovered early human species, Homo floresiensis (nicknamed ‘Hobbit’), have been found between 95,000 and 12,000 years ago on the Island of Flores, Indonesia. H. floresiensis individuals stood approximately 3 feet 6 inches tall had tiny brains, large teeth for their small size, shrugged-forward shoulders, no chins, receding foreheads, and relatively large feet due to their short legs. Despite their small body and brain size, H. floresiensis made and used stone tools, hunted small elephants and large rodents, coped with predators such as giant Komodo dragons, and may have used fire.

Tales of little, hairy people, whom they called Ebu Gogo - Ebu meaning grandmother and Gogo meaning 'he who eats anything'. The tales contained the most fabulous details - so detailed that you'd imagine there had to be a grain of truth in them.

One of the village elders told us that the Ebu Gogo ate everything raw, including vegetables, fruits, meat and, if they got the chance, even human meat. When food was served to them they also ate the plates, made of pumpkin - the original guests from hell (or heaven, if you don't like washing up and don't mind replacing your dinner set every week).
The villagers say that the Ebu Gogo raided their crops, which they tolerated, but decided to chase them away when the Ebu Gogo stole - and ate - one of their babies.

They ran away with the baby to their cave which was at the foot of the local volcano, some tens of meters up a cliff face. The villagers offered them bales of dry grass as fodder, which they gratefully accepted. A few days later, the villagers went back with a burning bale of grass which they tossed into the cave. Out ran the Ebu Gogo, singed but not fried, and were last seen heading west, in the direction of Liang Bua, where we found the Hobbit, as it happens.
When my colleague Gert van den Bergh first heard these stories a decade ago, which several of the villages around the volcano recount with only very minor changes in detail, he thought them no better than leprechaun tales until we unearthed the Hobbit. (I much prefer Ebu as the name of our find but my colleague Mike Morwood was insistent on Hobbit.)

The anatomical details in the legends are equally fascinating. They are described as about a meter tall, with long hair, pot bellies, ears that slightly stick out, a slightly awkward gait, and longish arms and fingers - both confirmed by our further finds this year, very similar to fossil finds.

They [the Ebu Gogo] murmured at each other and could repeat words [spoken by villagers] verbatim. For example, to 'here's some food', they would reply 'here's some food'. They could climb slender-girthed trees but, here's the rub, were never seen holding stone tools or anything similar, whereas we have lots of sophisticated artifacts in the H. floresiensis levels at Liang Bua. That's the only inconsistency with the Liang Bua evidence.

Do the Ebu Gogo still exist? It would be a hoot to search the last pockets of rainforest on the island. Not many such pockets exist, but who knows. At the very least, searching again for that lava cave, or others like it, should be done, because remains of hair only a few hundred years old, would surely survive, snagged on the cave walls or incorporated in deposits, and would be ideal for ancient DNA analyses.

Interestingly, we did find lumps of dirt with black hair in them this year in the Hobbit levels, but don't know yet if they're human or something else. We're getting DNA testing done, which we hope will be instructive.

short video w a few shots of the Ebu Gobu crpytid

another video with some anthropology and folklore
 
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Indonesian islands are also the home to the 2 possible humanoid cryptids the Hobbit "Ebu Gogo" from Flores and the Orang Pendek from Sumatra. This video briefly cover both.

 
Request for help regarding the 'attercroppe'.
Attercroppe
A curious and malicious fairy creature from Saxon folklore. Its name means 'Little Poison Head', and it resembles a small snake with human arms and legs.
John and Caitlin Matthews The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures

So I came across this curious little beast in this book, and it fascinated me. A species of humanoid snake fairies from Saxon lore which infest English forest? Sounds cool! And I needed to know more. how do we know of this creature? Does it appear in legends? Is it mentioned in bestiaries? There must be more detail. But the book lacks sources. It has a bibliography, but doesn't state which books informed which entries. But I have other books, including books about fairies, dragons, folklore and cryptozoology. The only other mention I could find of this fascinating little ophidianthrope was this one:
Attorcroppe
Variations: Attercroppe ("spider")
The attorcroppe ("little poison head") were a species of injurious fay from Saxon lore; as curious as they were ill-natured, they were described as looking like a small snake with human arms and legs. Walking upright through the forests of England, the attorcroppe were best avoided.
Theresa Bane Encyclopedia of Fairies in World Folklore and Mythology

There's actually quite a lot of cool information to be found in this book if one can ignore its lack of proofreading and editing and some very peculiar omissions and inclusions, and for the 'Attorcroppe' entry it gives three sources. One is A Faerie Treasury by Jacky Newcomb and Alicen Geddes-Ward. So I downloaded that on Kindle, and found one reference to my quarry. In chapter three, in an A-Z of faerie names, 'Attorcroppe' is described simply as a 'Poisonous serpent-like creature'. Though, curiously, just below this, the 'Basilisk' carries this description; 'The basilisk has the head and body of a snake with human-type arms. Considered very deadly.' Again, I can find no sources for the attercroppe in this book.

Another source mentioned in Bane's Encyclopedia of Fairies in World Folklore and Mythology is Judika Illes Encyclopedia of Spirits. This book sounded pretty interesting in its own right, so I ordered it from Amazon and looked forward to receiving it. I shouldn't have; in my personal system of classification, it falls into the 'new age drivel' category, seemingly being more concerned with the author's opinion about the uses different spirits have in magical workings than with mythology and folklore. Anyway, there was no entry for my elusive attercroppe, nor was there an index. I struggled through the much of the magical stuff preceding the encyclopedia portion of the book for a while, but, ultimately, ended up flicking through and scanning rather than actually reading. Without wishing to be too disparaging, it's the kind of thing I find extremely hard work.

The final source from Bane's Encyclopedia of Fairies... was Henry Cunliffe's A Glossary of Rochdale-with-Rossendale Words and Phrases. This old book is pretty much just a list of words and phrases from Rochdale. It was expensive for a book I'd probably have little use for, but by this point I was too intrigued to let it go so I ordered a copy. And sure enough, it had an entry for 'attecrop'.
Attercrop, n. A spider
This hardly seems likely to be a source from which Theresa Bane obtained any knowledge of snake fairies. So, another dead end. However, some online sources also give this definition of the 'little poison head', as well as those that describe the fairy beast. Many of those online sources directly copy those books quoted above, and those with more detailed descriptions are usually aimed at role playing game campaign designers, many of which include some great (unfortunately modern) illustrations of the creature. I can find none that give an origin for this strange little creature.

Two things strike me as odd. Firstly, the three sources given by Theresa Bane in her book lack the detail she herself has given, so I suspect she missed a source or two. However, the whole book is so replete with mistakes, that shouldn't surprise.

Secondly, the only references I can find to this word in any form appearing in earlier literature is as an archaic word for 'spider'. At the moment, I'm considering the possibility that the attercroppe, attorcroppe or attercrop is just an old word for spider that has in modern times been given a mythical persona, with one source feeding off another, its origin long since lost.

Anyway, I shall continue to search for this beast when I can. It must have its origins somewhere. Does the attercroppe really hail from Saxon folklore? Is there any source for it other than as an ancient arachnid? Is there any truth in its derivation of 'little poison head'? It seems possible (as is suggested on a couple of websites) that the first portion of its name comes from the same source as the word 'adder', but that word is usually described as originating simply as another word for 'snake'.

Since the patrons of this forum are among the cleverest of people I know, and we must have a phenomenal collective library, I'd be interested in any help that can be offered to lure this bizarre little monster from the forests of myth and into public view.
 
Secondly, the only references I can find to this word in any form appearing in earlier literature is as an archaic word for 'spider'

I'm not actually being very helpful I'm afraid, but I've heard it in reference to a spider before and am pretty sure it was in Shakespeare somewhere.
But which play? Sorry.
 
Following the Germanic linguistic route, the name literally means "poison head".

e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attercopus

Its name is taken from the English dialect word attercop ("spider"), which came from Old English attorcoppa ("poison-head"), from ator ("poison"), itself drawn from the Proto-Germanic *aitra- ("poisonous ulcer") and cop ("head").

Modern German has eiter kopf (lit. "pus head"), Norwegian has edderkopp (spider), Danish has edderkop (also spider).

Amptes & attircoppes & suche oþer þat ben euere bisy ben maide to schewe man ensaumple of stodye & labour. [Elucidarium of Honorius of Autun (Wycliffite version) c. 1400]

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=attercop
 
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Prepare for ramblings so it seems to be a Norwegian word so although not strictly Anglo Saxon but what does that mean as they people where interacting for thousands of years.

Seems to be from Tolkein taken from a Norwegian as you probably know.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=attercop

attercop
n. A spider's web; from 'atter' (poison) and 'coppe' (cup). Often used to refer to the spider itself (as from Norwegian "edderkopp", meaning spider).
Old fat spider spinning in a tree!
Old fat spider can't see me!
Attercop! Attercop!
Won't you stop,
Stop your spinning and look for me?
Old Tomnoddy, all big body,
Old Tomnoddy can't spy me!
Attercop! Attercop!
Down you drop!
You'll never catch me up your tree!

- J. R. Tolkein's "The Hobbit", Ch. VIII
by Markus Melarkus September 29, 2005

can I find my bloody copy of the book when I need it???


Attor is the Old English and Saxon word for venom though and I can see how it would lead to adder.

With Croppe I just get crop as in the plant - saying that plant is also wyrt in Saxon - bit of a dead end.

It's weird as all the old words for spider, english, saxon, norse, etc seem to sound like "spider" so god knows why the Norwegians came up with this term, (damn swedes - swifty will get the reference).

Interesting the Basilisk, (small venomous serpent), is often associated with the weasel as snakes and weasels are natural enemies. "Snake like creature with legs"?

I wonder if someone got mixed up?

Lizard - Middle English liserd, from Anglo-French lesarde, from Latin lacerta it's quite late 14th century - dead end.
 
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can anyone grab their copy of the hobbit to see the context?

Biblo sings it when trying to free the dwarves from the spiders and he made it up on the spot. Just found my copy.
 
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Wow, thanks folks!:) It seems clear enough now that the word is most commonly associated with the spider. Interesting that the Glossary of Rochdale entry spells it 'attercrop', with an 'r' after the 'c', which doesn't appear to be the word's original or most usual form. Good point about the basilisk and weasel, NF.

The 'attercroppe' as fairy creature with a Saxon origin still eludes us, though. Does anyone have access to more books about the little people that may enlighten us further?
 
From "The Vasculum", July 1918 :

I was once trying to talk to a Norwegian of the beauties of Nature, among them, spiders; but the name I used brought a vacant look to his face. I got it from a Swedish scientific paper and it meant nothing to him. I tried German with no better result. So on the back of an old envelope I hastily sketched Epeira diademata “Aah !" said he, "atterkop !"- just as a Tynesider might have done some 800 years ago. I looked the word up afterwards in a Dano-Norwegian dictionary and found it there in the form "edderkop," though my friend (he was a ship captain) pronounced it exactly as it appears in Middle English before it was ousted by the word "spither" or "spider." "Edder" I found was venom, the equivalent in Anglo-Saxon, according to Skeat, being “ator." "Kop" (in English generally softened into “cob") is a lump or clump or bunch or head: so apparently our far-off forefathers regarded a spider as a lumpy little venomous thing.

A little while ago I had a dragon-fly (Aeschna juncea or cyanea-I forget which) brought to me by a dalesman asa "fleein' ether." Many Danish words linger in the dales, and without doubt "ether" is the local version of the Danish "edder," dragon-flies being commonly regarded as venomous. The same man would have spoken of an adder as an "ether;" which raises a threefold problem-Is a " fleein' ether" a flying 23 adder or a flying spider, or simply a venomous thing that flies? One day I was asked to go and look at a "fine ether" that had be.en killed in the churchyard. It was a lizard, also commonly supposed to be venomous. I conclude, therefore, that "edder" or “ether” is or was applied to anything of venomous reputation.


http://www.the-vasculum.com/definitive_vasculum_archive/1918/1918.pdf

(Miscellany : the Adder-bell or ather-bell is a old term for the dragonfly - http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/ether_n2 , http://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/ias/article/viewFile/7615/7609 .)
 
Can't help with the fairy link PB. But Rochdale and Rossendale as a name is a mix of Celtic and Norse and was settled by Celts, Saxons and Norse so it's not unsurprising that this odd little word morphed into something else over the years.
 
From "The Vasculum", July 1918 :

I was once trying to talk to a Norwegian of the beauties of Nature, among them, spiders; but the name I used brought a vacant look to his face. I got it from a Swedish scientific paper and it meant nothing to him. I tried German with no better result. So on the back of an old envelope I hastily sketched Epeira diademata “Aah !" said he, "atterkop !"- just as a Tynesider might have done some 800 years ago. I looked the word up afterwards in a Dano-Norwegian dictionary and found it there in the form "edderkop," though my friend (he was a ship captain) pronounced it exactly as it appears in Middle English before it was ousted by the word "spither" or "spider." "Edder" I found was venom, the equivalent in Anglo-Saxon, according to Skeat, being “ator." "Kop" (in English generally softened into “cob") is a lump or clump or bunch or head: so apparently our far-off forefathers regarded a spider as a lumpy little venomous thing.

A little while ago I had a dragon-fly (Aeschna juncea or cyanea-I forget which) brought to me by a dalesman asa "fleein' ether." Many Danish words linger in the dales, and without doubt "ether" is the local version of the Danish "edder," dragon-flies being commonly regarded as venomous. The same man would have spoken of an adder as an "ether;" which raises a threefold problem-Is a " fleein' ether" a flying 23 adder or a flying spider, or simply a venomous thing that flies? One day I was asked to go and look at a "fine ether" that had be.en killed in the churchyard. It was a lizard, also commonly supposed to be venomous. I conclude, therefore, that "edder" or “ether” is or was applied to anything of venomous reputation.


http://www.the-vasculum.com/definitive_vasculum_archive/1918/1918.pdf

(Miscellany : the Adder-bell or ather-bell is a old term for the dragonfly - http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/ether_n2 , http://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/ias/article/viewFile/7615/7609 .)

that figures then so it was superseded by "spither" - good find Tribble and I agree on the venom term
 
I love the word 'spither' for 'spider'. I'm bringing it back. This shed is infested with spithers.:creepy:
 
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