an eclectic set of articles
Thanks for posting that . . .
Classifying Gef with poltergeists seems sensible.
Reading an account of a classic - if suspiciously migratory - poltergeist tale attached to Boggart Hole Clough in Blackley, I traced it back through Edwin Waugh to Roby's Traditions of Lancashire, from which all later accounts derive. His much-reprinted volumes were a product of the 1830s and 40s but he is these days regarded as having compiled them rather than written them himself.
It is Thomas Crofton Croker who is usually credited with the cheeky poltergeist of the Clough. Like Gef, this mischievious spirit had a favourite place - under the stairs in this case. From here he would make cheeky observations about the family. They got so fed up with him that they used to stick a shoe-horn in the hole to block his view. This provided the opportunity for the Boggart, as it was called, to forcibly eject the obstruction. It all leads up to the famous scene in which the family decamps with all their possessions. A neighbour spots them and hears the sorry tale. "Aye, we're flitting!" comes the voice of the Boggart from inside a saddle-bag. At which they give up all hope of escaping their guest.
Now Crofton Croker was an Irishman and his books on fairy-lore have a distinct flavour. His account of the Boggart is filled with lively detail which cannot be traced to any other earlier account. He was a good spinner of yarns and the "We're flitting!" tale is also attributed to a Yorkshire poltergeist, several less certain locations and it has analogues worldwide. As a writer, he was happy, I think to supply the banker Roby with tales by the yard.
Anyone reading the tale of the Boggart will be reminded of Gef. I doubt if that establishes his literary origin so much as a shared oral tradition with the Isle of Man close to Ireland in every respect. His mongoose shape was exotic enough but his personality seems steeped in Irish Boggartry to me.
