Tell me, what does not a single more or less popular fairy tale or fantasy novel currently do without? That's right, without the presence of representatives of the so-called "little people", that is, elves, fairies, gnomes.
These small creatures appeared in the arsenal of modern science fiction writers, coming from distant antiquity, from legends and traditions.
And here's what's interesting: there are places where the mention of a strange people is taken very seriously and even with caution.
What is it? Superstition? Or an echo of something dangerous enough, although remote from us in time? Naturally, any mention of "short" in the vast majority of people causes only a slight smile, but, nevertheless, some archaeologists advise to wait with an expression of skepticism, recalling the saying: "A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it."
If you visit the north of Ireland, you will hear how adults, sane people, respectable fathers and mothers of families, respectable experts say that once upon a time a small people lived on their land. And this, they say, is not at all fairy tales. Then, you will be offered a couple of dozen stories about how one of the ancestors of your interlocutor encountered dwarfs or himself learned about such a meeting from one of his friends.
But at the end of the conversation, the phrase is usually heard: "These strange creatures have long been extinct or left Ireland." However, sometimes local residents still add: "But who knows, maybe one of the little people in the local hills still remained." So, the owner of one of the cottages in the north of the country, Mrs. Barnham, claims that she herself saw one of the dwarfs. And it was relatively recently - about 15 years ago.
On that day, a 15-year-old girl, along with her younger brother, was cutting peat near her parents' house. When the boy was tired, he went to rest, leaving his sister alone. A few minutes later she suddenly felt very uncomfortable: the Irish woman literally felt someone's gaze on her skin.
Looking up, the future Mrs. Barnham was numb with surprise: an unusual creature was standing right in front of her at some distance. It was a little man in green clothes and a crimson pointed cap. The girl screamed and began to call her brother, but then the man stepped back and disappeared.
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It should be said that stories of this type are almost ubiquitous not only in Northern Ireland, but also in Scotland, Wales and the Orkney Islands, that is, where, according to traditional ideas, the small people lived. What can I say! In Britain, legends and tales are very rare in which little people are absent.
Even in English ballads, there are enough references to these creatures (for example, in "Heather Honey" it speaks of "little mead brewers" who were engaged in production activities exclusively in "caves underground").
The inhabitants of these places know from the cradle: in the hills - the main attraction of the local landscape - there were once mysterious creatures who owned magic, who could suddenly appear and disappear both at night and in daylight.
Scientists who study myths explain that this is the residual memory of our contemporaries about ancient cults associated with worshiping the spirits of the earth. Sometimes the stories about dwarfs are attributed to the excessively raging fantasy of the "eyewitness". But is it all that simple?
A serious blow to the positions of the skeptics was struck by the hurricane of 1850, which "walked" along the coast of the Orkney Islands. The storm did a lot of mischief and, in addition, in passing, carelessly demolished the top of one of the hills near the town of Skara Bray. There are many such hills, covered with green grass, on the coast. But, as it turned out, they are not only an earthen embankment.
When the wind died down, the inhabitants of the town discovered that the storm had opened for viewing … a dwelling hidden in a hill, the interior of which was in perfect order! The astonished people looked in amazement at the masonry of the walls, beds, tables, shelves for utensils.
But the inside of the hill did not resemble a human dwelling suddenly abandoned by the owners, but a dollhouse, since the height of the ceilings, the size of the doorways and furniture said: creatures no more than one meter tall could use all this. Nobody knows who the owners of the “house in the hill” were, what happened to them. But through their efforts, Skara-Bray became one of the greatest mysteries of modern archeology, a "headache" that has haunted researchers for many decades.
And they have something to be surprised at: the rooms of the strange dwelling are clearly not intended for people, although they have quite a decent area - from 24 to 36 m2. And the ceilings at the level of 1.5 meters or more confirm this assumption. It is noteworthy that the "mansions" in the hills were originally built exactly as underground structures: first, walls of stone slabs were erected, then it was the turn of creating a flooring on them from logs and stones.
The finished structure was covered with earth and peat, and at the very end of the "finishing works" someone was diligently covering the newly created hill with turf. As a result, only one detail could help to distinguish an artificial structure from a natural one - a carefully camouflaged entrance hole.
Inside the hill, His Majesty was a stone. Each room of this dwelling, which may indeed belong to a small people, had a hearth located in the middle of the room and lined with stones. Along the walls were small lockers for household items and knickknacks, also made of stone slabs, and stone beds. By the way, even the remains of canopies have been preserved over the latter.
Having pretty much dug in the mutilated hill, archaeologists have established that in this case there is no question of any kind of rally. The discovered dwelling was built during the late Neolithic period, and its creators had no idea about metal and metal products, and therefore used exclusively stone tools.
It was immediately suggested that the Celts, who once came to the British Isles, forced the small people, the original inhabitants of the conquered territories, to abandon their homes and go to the northern lands. But five centuries later, the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain from the east. They, in turn, pushed the "offenders" of the small people, the Celts, from the center to the periphery, and the two races turned out to be neighbors, having lived side by side for a long time.
Naturally, people periodically saw unusual creatures and made them heroes of fairy tales and myths. This means that the legends about the dwarf creatures that live inside the hills - and this is an integral part of English folklore - were created by the Celts.
It is interesting that the small people, despite their insignificant "dimensions", were considered a powerful and dangerous neighbor. Dwarfs allegedly possessed power over the forces of nature, ruled over the wind, and therefore could both pacify the storm and force a terrible storm to play out.
Very often in folk legends it was said that they lured people to their underground dwellings. When the abducted, after a few days, found an opportunity to return back, they were horrified to discover that years had already passed on earth. It is not surprising that the inhabitants of those places where the small people allegedly settled, were wary of their unpredictable neighbors and tried to stay away from them.
And the little people themselves were not particularly eager to communicate with people. Its representatives, it seems, lacked a society of their own kind. In the same Skara Bray, archaeologists discovered that the crippled hill is far from the only abandoned abode of unknown creatures in the local area. From the “house”, helpfully demonstrated by the storm, underground passages led to several other hills, “apartments”. Apparently, the little men did not like to walk in front of people, preferring to go to their neighbors in underground corridors.
And yet, what happened to the mysterious inhabitants of the Skara Brae hills? Almost perfect order reigns in their abandoned houses, there are not even the slightest signs of damage on things. There are no traces of battle, no riot of the elements, no feverish hasty gatherings. To this day, neatly arranged dishes and carefully folded jewelry are kept in stone cabinets.
Only on the floor, at the exit from the dwelling opened by the hurricane, was the necklace dropped in a hurry. No, it seems that no one and nothing intruded into the measured life of the "hill people". They just left our world forever, disappearing overnight. Why? There is no answer to this question.
Interestingly, archaeologists have found rather neat piles of sand on the floor in the passages and rooms of underground dwellings. One can, of course, assume that the wind brought him here. This statement might seem the only true, if not for one moment. The fact is that sand particles could have been brought into the corridors by the flow of air, but in the rooms it would in this case be only near the threshold, no further.
In addition, one can hardly imagine a wind that will diligently carry away grains of sand into neat piles, without covering the floor with them. But in connection with the strange find, ancient beliefs involuntarily come to mind: anyone who dares to climb into the dwelling of the "hill people" without asking, will turn into sand, and the witnesses will forget about everything they saw, forget their own name and relatives and go to wander around the world.
The Irish people living in the north of the country are sure: until recently, the remnants of the once large tribe of little people lived next to people and even made desperate attempts to preserve their family. For this purpose, they allegedly even sometimes kidnap human babies from cradles.
Evidence of the appearance of such children after many years in the human world has also been preserved. However, none of the "returnees" have already found happiness. First, their fellow tribesmen were openly afraid of them. Secondly, they immediately began to get seriously ill and rarely survived. And those who managed to overcome the ailments did not take root well among the people.
At the beginning of the XX century, one of the girls, who claimed that she was kidnapped by a small nation, after a long serious illness lived for a relatively long time, while, according to relatives and friends, remaining "out of this world." So can the inhabitants of North Britain be blamed for the fact that they still quietly put pieces of iron into the bed of babies to this day? After all, according to legend, metal has magical power over the inhabitants of the hills.
And now let's "walk" to the Don forest-steppe. And you thought that the small people chose only Britain, Scotland and Ireland for their habitation ?! Not at all! There are plenty of mounds on the banks of the Don, but archaeologists believed that these were either burials of the Bronze Age, or Sarmatian graves, or burials of medieval nomads.
However, during the excavations in the area of the Second Vlasovsky burial ground (Voronezh region), which were carried out about 30 years ago, a surprise awaited archaeologists. After removing the embankment during the cleaning of the mainland clay, a strange picture emerged: instead of dark, strictly contoured spots from the burial, an underground branched labyrinth was discovered.
Vlasov labyrinth
Map of the labyrinth in the Gribanovka Museum of Local Lore
Smooth floors and walls spoke of the artificial origin of the voids; during their work, the diggers obviously used torches, since numerous blotches of coals remained on the floor of the tunnels. Soon a slender system of tunnels with vertical wells (apparently for ventilation) began to be seen.
But the most surprising thing is that even Irina Pisareva, the smallest member of the expedition, whose height was one meter forty-eight centimeters and weighing forty-two kilograms, could hardly squeeze through these passages, and even then crawling. The researchers tried to describe a creature that could make these passages. So, his height had to be no higher than 80 centimeters, and his weight - about 25 kilograms!
Finally, it became clear that all the tunnels lead to a single rectangular pit, in the middle of which the researchers found a deep hole covered with rubble. It turned out that this is the remnant of a structure that was once covered with an earthen domed vault. In the center of the "hill", apparently, there was once a large stone or wooden object.
After the human skeleton was discovered deeper (by the way, it had a normal height - about 1.6 meters) with a triangular hole in the parietal region of the skull, archaeologists considered that an idol was hidden in the "hill", to which sacrifices were made. Moreover, quite a few altars with animal remains were soon discovered along the periphery of the labyrinth. For some reason, most of them were the heads of horses. One of the deceased horses was adorned with perfectly preserved iron bits from the 8th century A. D.
Forgive me, but the pantheon of peoples inhabiting the Don basin at that time has been thoroughly studied! Neither the Slavs, nor the Turks, nor the Alano-Bulgarians, nor the Ugric, built underground temples! And the inhabitants of this area did not differ in their small stature. It turns out that a race of dwarfs lived on the Don unnoticed? Or was the temple built by mysterious Burtases, which were described by Arab geographers during the adventures of Sinbad the sailor?
The incredible find had to be left alone, since there were no funds for further work. However, a few years later, seven former students - members of the expedition, who managed to become teachers or entrepreneurs, met again. They were haunted by the mystery of the ancient mound.
One of those present, Nikolai Prokhorov, suggested an interesting version: the temple was built by children. And they did it in imitation of adults. This means that somewhere nearby there must be another hollow mound "with a secret", only of a larger size. Prokhorov even managed to get photographs of the excavation area taken from space. It turned out that there are even three such hills in the area.
The new expedition arrived at its destination on July 6, 2001 and set up a temporary camp, since the nearest village was about nine kilometers away. The mound that interested enthusiasts turned out to be a small hill in the middle of the forest.
The oddities began immediately. It turned out that the local residents, who were going to be hired as laborers, although they needed money, categorically refused to go to the forest - it was "unclean", "bad", and in general, it is better "to look for antiquities elsewhere." Prokhorov was wary. At one time, he wrote a work on the connection between superstitions and reality and knew that there is no smoke without fire. Most likely, the forest was once a forbidden zone and the memory of this turned out to be very tenacious.
Archaeologists have checked the mound with metal detectors: before taking up the spade, you need to be sure that you will not run into a mine, of which the Voronezh land is full to this day. The next morning they decided to start the actual excavation, and bring the laborers to the site from remote villages.
The morning began with a fresh horse's head at Prokhorov's bedside. At the same time, the camp duty officer did not hear anything, and the initiator of the work himself, too, although he was distinguished by a very sensitive sleep, and the walls and canopy of the tent remained intact. Then it turned out that absolutely all the accumulators and batteries in the camp were suddenly discharged. Therefore, the "Niva" and the "UAZ" truck did not start, the flashlights, the receiver and the clock did not work, and the archaeologists lost the opportunity to call anyone.
Prokhorov did not begin to find out who was joking so evil about him and his people, he gave the command to turn the camp down. They started the UAZ using the old grandfather's method, took the second car in tow and departed for the city.
The expedition reached Voronezh at six in the evening; its members went home to rest, but instead five out of seven people ended up at night … in the intensive care unit of the toxicology department of the city hospital.
Ritual objects found in the Vlasov labyrinth
Despite all efforts, resuscitators managed to save only two - Prokhorov and Irina Pisareva. It was the worst poisoning. The next morning it became known that the other two members of the expedition also died at home: due to the lack of telephones and neighbors, they could not call an ambulance.
The doctors swore that the archaeologists were poisoned by the mushrooms. However, the survivors kept repeating: nothing of the kind, they not only didn’t eat mushrooms, but didn’t even pick them.
Later, those who tried to study what this mystical story was based on asked Arsen Tigranovich Sinyuk, a professor at Voronezh Pedagogical University. According to Sinyuk, after the excavation of the Vlasov labyrinth, an article was indeed published about the death of archaeological students from the "witchcraft of dwarfs", but it was ordered to sabotage his research work in these places. In fact, according to him, there were no problems during the excavation.
Valery Berezutsky, candidate of historical sciences, archaeologist, organizer and participant of excavations near the village. Vlasovka from 1985 to 1996 and the researcher of the Vlasov labyrinth is also perplexed by these stories. He said that initially this whole story about dwarfs and anomalies appeared in the newspaper "Anomalous Chernozemye" in 2008 in an article by local historian Alexander Eletskikh. Berezutsky also denies the discovery of a skeleton with a skull with traces of trepanation and the very existence of student Irina Pisareva.
So to believe or not to believe this story is a private matter for everyone.
Nevertheless, many mysteries are still associated with the Vlasov labyrinth, including what rituals were performed there. But they cannot be revealed to anyone. Today, through the efforts of the ignorant, the labyrinth was practically destroyed, plowed up, and the earth again buried the secrets of a thousand years ago.
Cheberiaichiki - small hare-like creatures from Ukrainian folklore
Were these really the buildings of an ancient little people, secretly arranged in the hills like in Skara Bray? Official science connects the labyrinth and the sanctuary with the Turkic ethnocultural world, believing that it fully corresponds to the structure of sanctuaries according to the “square in square” principle, adopted among the early Bulgarians.
However, there is a curious coincidence. In Ukrainian folklore (the Voronezh region borders on Ukraine in the south), there were stories about some "cheberyaichiks" - either little people, or strange-looking hares who possessed speech, who avoided communication with people, owned witchcraft and lived underground.
Cheberyaichiks were described as kind, cute creatures from forests and fields. Favorite hobby - singing songs, sitting on pebbles and waving their legs to the beat - cheber.