The Wily Leprechaun, --- [Yes, he is one of the Unseelie Court!!!]...

Now, the leprechaun is a very clever little faerie, a faerie shoemaker, actually.   But, he only works on one shoe, never two.  And, he likes to sit under the big leaves of the burdocks, humming or giggling to himself...  Which is exactly what he was doing when a young man from Limerick came upon him.  He grabbed the leprechaun by the back of his green coat and lifted him up while the little shoemaker struggled and tried to slug him.

"Lemme go!," the leprechaun screamed.

"No!," the young man, whose named was Billy, replied.  "I know you have a pot of gold hidden somewhere that you'll give to me to get your freedom!"

"No!  Ye can't have me gold, ye greedy fool!"

"I know if I take my eyes off you you'll disappear, so I'll keep looking at you and I'll hold onto you till you tell me where your gold is!"

"Never!  LEMME GO!"

Yet, although he wiggled and wiggled the leprechaun couldn't get free of Billy's strong grip.  Finally, he sighed.  "Okay.  Okay...  If ye let me go I'll tell ye where I keep me gold."

"No, you show me first, THEN I'll let you go."

"Yer a smart lad, Billy.  Alright, I'll take ye there."

And, the leprechaun told Billy where to carry him, to a field of daisies.  In the middle of the field the leprechaun told Billy to stop.  He pointed to the ground at Billy's feet.  "If ye dig down six feet you'll find me pot o' gold.  Now, lemme go!   And see, I'll tie me red garter around the stem of this daisy right over the spot so you'll know where to dig when ye come back with yer shovel.  Okay?"

Billy scratched his chin.  "Alright, I guess.  I'll let you go."

And, he did.  Quick as the blink of an eye, the leprechaun disappeared.  But, Billy looked down at the red garter and grinned.  He'd be rich.  He ran back to his shed to get a shovel.  When he returned to the field of daisies he threw down the shovel and started to swear mightily as he looked out over the vista of beautiful flowers.  Every one had a red garter around it's stem.  Billy thought he could hear the leprechaun laughing and laughing nearby.  "Uh-uh-UH!!...  Ye can't have me gold!"

Now, the leprechaun is a very clever little faerie, a faerie shoemaker, actually.   But, he only works on one shoe, never two.  And, he likes to sit under the big leaves of the burdocks, humming or giggling to himself...  Which is exactly what he was doing when a young man from Limerick came upon him.  He grabbed the leprechaun by the back of his green coat and lifted him up while the little shoemaker struggled and tried to slug him.

"Lemme go!," the leprechaun screamed.

"No!," the young man, whose named was Billy, replied.  "I know you have a pot of gold hidden somewhere that you'll give to me to get your freedom!"

"No!  Ye can't have me gold, ye greedy fool!"

"I know if I take my eyes off you you'll disappear, so I'll keep looking at you and I'll hold onto you till you tell me where your gold is!"

"Never!  LEMME GO!"

Yet, although he wiggled and wiggled the leprechaun couldn't get free of Billy's strong grip.  Finally, he sighed.  "Okay.  Okay...  If ye let me go I'll tell ye where I keep me gold."

"No, you show me first, THEN I'll let you go."

"Yer a smart lad, Billy.  Alright, I'll take ye there."

And, the leprechaun told Billy where to carry him, to a field of daisies.  In the middle of the field the leprechaun told Billy to stop.  He pointed to the ground at Billy's feet.  "If ye dig down six feet you'll find me pot o' gold.  Now, lemme go!   And see, I'll tie me red garter around the stem of this daisy right over the spot so you'll know where to dig when ye come back with yer shovel.  Okay?"

Billy scratched his chin.  "Alright, I guess.  I'll let you go."

And, he did.  Quick as the blink of an eye, the leprechaun disappeared.  But, Billy looked down at the red garter and grinned.  He'd be rich.  He ran back to his shed to get a shovel.  When he returned to the field of daisies he threw down the shovel and started to swear mightily as he looked out over the vista of beautiful flowers.  Every one had a red garter around it's stem.  Billy thought he could hear the leprechaun laughing and laughing nearby.  "Uh-uh-UH!!...  Ye can't have me gold!"

--- Copyright 2018 by Antoinette Beard.

The Leprechaun...

A leprechaun counts his gold in this engraving c. 1900

The earliest known reference to the leprechaun appears in the medieval tale known as the Echtra Fergus mac Léti (Adventure of Fergus son of Léti).^[8] The text contains an episode in which Fergus mac Léti, King of Ulster, falls asleep on the beach and wakes to find himself being dragged into the sea by three lúchorpáin. He captures his abductors, who grant him three wishes in exchange for release.

The leprechaun is said to be a solitary creature, whose principal occupation is making and mending shoes, and who enjoys practical jokes. According to William Butler Yeats, the great wealth of these fairies comes from the "treasure-crocks, buried of old in war-time", which they have uncovered and appropriated.^] According to David Russell McAnally the leprechaun is the son of an "evil spirit" and a "degenerate fairy" and is "not wholly good nor wholly evil".

Appearance

Tourists with a novelty oversized Leprechaun in Dublin

The leprechaun originally had a different appearance depending on where in Ireland he was found.  Prior to the 20th century, it was generally held that the leprechaun wore red, not green. Samuel Lover, writing in 1831, describes the leprechaun as,

... quite a beau in his dress, notwithstanding, for he wears a red square-cut coat, richly laced with gold, and inexpressible of the same, cocked hat, shoes and buckles.

According to Yeats, the solitary fairies, like the leprechaun, wear red jackets, whereas the "trooping fairies" wear green. The leprechaun's jacket has seven rows of buttons with seven buttons to each row. On the western coast, he writes, the red jacket is covered by a frieze one, and in Ulster the creature wears a cocked hat, and when he is up to anything unusually mischievous, he leaps on to a wall and spins, balancing himself on the point of the hat with his heels in the air."

According to McAnally,

"He is about three feet high, and is dressed in a little red jacket or roundabout, with red breeches buckled at the knee, gray or black stockings, and a hat, cocked in the style of a century ago, over a little, old, withered face. Round his neck is an Elizabethan ruff, and frills of lace are at his wrists. On the wild west coast, where the Atlantic winds bring almost constant rains, he dispenses with ruff and frills and wears a frieze overcoat over his pretty red suit, so that, unless on the lookout for the cocked hat, ye might pass a Leprechawn on the road and never know it's himself that's in it at all."

This dress could vary by region, however. In McAnally's account there were differences between leprechauns or Logherymans from different regions:

• The Northern Leprechaun or Logheryman wore a "military red coat and white breeches, with a broad-brimmed, high, pointed hat, on which he would sometimes stand upside down".
• The Lurigadawne of Tipperary wore an "antique slashed jacket of red, with peaks all round and a jockey cap, also sporting a sword, which he uses as a magic wand".
• The Luricawne of Kerry was a "fat, pursy little fellow whose jolly round face rivals in redness the cut-a-way jacket he wears, that always has seven rows of seven buttons in each row".
• The Cluricawne of Monaghan wore "a swallow-tailed evening coat of red with green vest, white breeches, black stockings," shiny shoes, and a "long cone hat without a brim," sometimes used as a weapon.

In a poem entitled The Lepracaun; or, Fairy Shoemaker, 18th century Irish poet William Allingham describes the appearance of the leprechaun as:

...A wrinkled, wizen'd, and bearded Elf,

Spectacles stuck on his pointed nose, Silver buckles to his hose,

Leather apron — shoe in his lap...

The modern image of the leprechaun sitting on a toadstool, red beard, green hat, etc., are clearly more modern inventions or borrowed from other European folklore.

Related creatures

The leprechaun is related to the clurichaun and the far darrig in that he is a solitary creature. Some writers even go as far as to substitute these second two less well-known spirits for the leprechaun in stories or tales to reach a wider audience. The clurichaun is considered by some to be merely a leprechaun on a drinking spree.

''The Wiles of the Leprechaun,'' by Evan Dollarhide | ST. PATRICK’S DAY C...

In Honor Of Saint Patrick's Day, --- The Gancanagh, The Faerie Seducer...

A gancanagh (/ɡænˈkænə/) (from Irish gean cánach, meaning 'love talker')^[1] is a male fairy in Irish mythology that is known for seducing human women.

W. B. Yeats described the gancanagh in 1888, as follows:

“

[Nicholas] O'Kearney, a Louthman, deeply versed in Irish lore, writes of the gean-cánach (love-talker) that he is "another diminutive being of the same tribe as the Lepracaun, but, unlike him, he personated love and idleness, and always appeared with a dudeen in his jaw in lonesome valleys, and it was his custom to make love to shepherdesses and milkmaids. It was considered very unlucky to meet him, and whoever was known to have ruined his fortune by devotion to the fair sex was said to have met a gean-cánach. The dudeen, or ancient Irish tobacco pipe, found in our raths, etc., is still popularly called a gean-cánach's pipe." The word is not to be found in dictionaries, nor does this spirit appear to be well known, if known at all, in Connacht. The word is pronounced gánconâgh. But, he isn't always little and like a leprechaun, as shown above in the pic.

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