LL-L "Folklore" 2001.12.08 (03) [E/S]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 08.DEC.2001 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Folklore"

> From: Lone Elisabeth Olesen <baxichedda at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Folklore
>
> Hello all,
>
> "Dawn Work" <dawn_work at uswest.net> wrote:
>
> > Thank you, Reinhard, for your translation. It has
> > rather the flavor of the
> > "Erlkonig," doesn't it?  Actually, it is quite
>
> impression I had reading the poem... There are many
> folk tales from Denmark about the illuminated hills
> were the "elle" people lived, and since the "Erlknig"
> is the same creature in German, it sounds to me like
> there must be a connection there as far as
> "illuminated knolls" are concearned. According to the
> tales I have heard, there are two kinds of these
> "illuminated knolls" or hills: 1. The "elle" or "erl"
> people have a party of some sort (that's why you can
> see the light) and humans are then lured there, but if
> they attend the party, they will either die or come
> back many years later, believing they have been there
> only for a short while. (Most often it happens to

There is a well known story from the Scottish Highlands
(so this is Gaelic rather than Scots) about a piper whom
the fairies ask to play for their party. He goes and plays
for an evening, but when he gets home he finds three hundred
years have passed. His life is completely shattered, which
is a matter of no importance to the fairies.

There may be an Erlkönig thread in Lowland Scots tradition
(if we mean the sort of character in Goethe's poem), as in
the following song from oral tradition:

A heard a coo low, a bonny coo low,
  An a coo low doon in yon glen;
Lang, lang will ma young son greet,
  Or his mither bid him come ben.

A heard a coo low, a bonny coo low,
  An a coo low doon in yon fauld;
Lang, lang will ma young son greet,
  Or his mither shield him fae cauld.

I think the idea behind this is that the lowing of the cow
is actually an Erlkönig character calling on the child, who
has disappeared and may not return for many years.

> young men or women about to get married. The words
> "erl" and "elle" are supposedly loans of "elf", but
> these ones are bigger than the English elves and
> definately evil).

Talking about the sizes of elves/fairies, Compton Mackenzie,
in his highland novel "Whisky Galore" describes the "fairy host"
- a cloud of millions of fairies, some no bigger than specks of
dust. On the other hand, the character who describes seeing this
also describes a fairy washerwoman who does his clothes for him,
so presumably fairies can be very variable in size in highland
lore. Unless this is purely Mackenzie's creation - has anyone
heard of a "fairy host" like this in traditional lore?

The traditional Lowland Scots story "The Forsaken Fairy" gives
an exact description of the size and appearance of a fairy:

"The creature was nae bigger than a three-year-auld lassie, but
feat an ticht, lithe o limb as ony grown wumman, an its face was
the doonricht perfection o beauty, only there was something wild
an unyirthly in its een that couldna be luikit at, faur less
describit."

Finally, the idea of fairies being evil. I rather think (as in
the story of the lost piper), they're not so much evil as just
unconcerned about human affairs. They may drown people and
steal children, but on the whole the stories seem to acknowledge
that fairies have their own laws and their own reasons.

A good example is found in Whuppity Stourie, a fairy who
contrives to run off with the "Guidwife o Kittlerumpit"'s only
child, but she's bound by certain fairy laws involving her true
name that in the end enable the wife to prevent it. However,
this and other stories do associate fairies with the devil, and
yet there are many stories of fairies returning favours, but
even then they can be dangerous to deal with, acting on fairy
rather than human ethical terms. Perhaps as humans we're being
politically incorrect associating fairies with the devil and
their actions are perfectly wholesome on their own terms!

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
A dinna dout him, for he says that he
On nae accoont wad ever tell a lee.
                          - C.W.Wade,
                    'The Adventures o McNab'

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