Do you believe in the existence of magical creatures? Most of us are very emphatic in their no. The idea of them is so absurd that we even use the expression "fairy tales" when talking about something that we consider to be a blatant lie.
Nevertheless, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, a master of logic, felt confident enough to publicly declare his belief in magical creatures. And Conan Doyle was not alone. Air Marshal Lord Dowding believed in the existence of magical creatures, during the Second World War, one of the major military leaders of the British Air Force. This stern, strong man of a rational mind showed visitors a book with photographs of magical creatures and spoke about them with the same seriousness as about military tactics. Many prudent and level-headed people, including priests, professors and doctors, have proven the existence of such creatures, with some claiming to have seen them. However, according to their testimony, these creatures only occasionally resembled the small, graceful creatures with transparent wings, photographed by Francis Griffiths and Elsie Wright. Usually,they were hideous, sinister, and sometimes complete monsters.
Once upon a time, belief in magical creatures was widespread, and supernatural beings were revered as formidable forces to be reckoned with. Evans Wentz, author of the book "Mystical Beliefs in Celtic Countries", competent in this matter, wrote: "Apparently, there were no such tribes, such races and civilized nations, in whose religions there was no belief in the existence of the invisible world inhabited by invisible creatures. " Wentz argued that "magical creatures are indeed invisible, possibly intelligent," and their world is "an invisible world, in which the visible world is immersed like islands in an unexplored ocean, and the creatures that inhabit it are much more diverse in nature than the inhabitants of this world. because their possibilities are incomparably more diverse and wider."
The population of the wizarding world is truly "wide and varied." Magical creatures manifest themselves in him in all shapes and sizes. They usually appear tiny, but they can also be about two and a half meters tall. They often have a human appearance and love to interfere in human affairs. With the help of magic, they can kidnap or bewitch a mortal, spoil crops, kill livestock with an arrow, confuse a person, or bring misfortune.
The appearance of some creatures portends a quick death to a person. Others, on the other hand, are generous and provide help, bring gifts and clean the house. But in a relationship, even with such magical creatures, care is required. There is no such thing as an absolutely kind magical creature. Even the most beautiful fairy can become vicious if provoked into it. The creatures are extremely moody and most often downright malevolent. In addition to the elves from romantic legends, they also include dwarfs, brownies, banshees, goblins, ghosts, devils, spirits of the forces of nature and many others. Their power is of a different nature, but most are not disposed to people and tend to harm rather than help a person.
Fairy tales are told all over the world, but belief is strongest in the British Isles. However, even here in different areas there are different creatures. The most beautiful - the elves - live in Ireland: slender, graceful little creatures known as Dana 0′Shi. They live in the Kingdom of eternal beauty and always remain young. Dana 0′Shi are similar to medieval knights and ladies, they have their own king, queen and royal court. They wear jeweled clothes and love melodic music, dancing and hunting. The mortal can see them when, as usual, they ride out in a magnificent procession led by the king and queen.
However, even the friendliest elves are dangerous, and some people believe that they came from the Kingdom of the Dead. Those who are fascinated by their music or seduced by their beauty can perish. An Irish tale tells of a man whose wife was kidnapped by elves. He tracked them down on All Saints' Day, Halloween, as they rode on horseback with his wife, and he threw a jug of milk on her. But he did not know that a few drops of water accidentally got into the milk, and therefore the ritual of liberation lost its power. His wife fell from her horse, the elves rushed to her - and since then her husband never saw her again. The next morning, the entire road was covered with the blood of the unfortunate woman. So the elves avenged the attempt to interfere in their affairs.
Even in Ireland, the so-called small people live, whose representatives are far from being so sinister, and sometimes truly comical. Although these mischievous warriors of a magical land sometimes love to play a joke with a person, it happens that they turn out to be very useful and hardworking. The most famous of them are dwarfs, they make shoes for fairies and guard piles of magic gold, long sought by mortals. Some representatives of the small people help people with housework, others, on the contrary, ask people to help them fix their tiny furniture and agricultural tools, and for this they often give gifts that bring happiness.
Promotional video:
Brownies in South West England are also generous, but they save their gifts for the most zealous owners, and their silver coins go to those who have neater and cleaner kitchens. Carefree brownies, little red-haired and snub-nosed men, are always ready to play a trick - blow out a candle, knock on the walls, kiss an unexpectedly young girl. They love to confuse people, and there are many stories told in Cornwall about how dangerous it is. A person walking at dusk may suddenly feel dizzy and hear frightening laughter all around. If he does not resort to a sure remedy against the witchcraft of brownies and turns his cloak or pockets inside out, then for long hours he will dance between hedges and ditches. In such cases, they say that he was bewitched by brownies. They are also famous forthat in search of a wine warehouse they can tirelessly travel great distances, therefore, drunkards are also sometimes said to have been bewitched by a brownie.
Some brownies constantly help people in household chores and household chores. They are known to be loyal and caring home keepers because they prefer to stay with the same family or in the same place. But if you treat them badly, they will leave the house. Like most magical creatures, brownies can't stand anything church-related. There is a Scottish tale about a brownie who was devoted to a young woman. He helped her in love, arranged her wedding and brought a midwife to her when she gave birth to her first child. Although the midwife was very afraid of the brownies, he carefully carried her across the stormy waters of the enchanted lake. Hearing about this, the local priest decided that such a good and devoted servant should certainly be baptized. The priest hid in the stable, and when the brownie was about to work there,doused him with holy water and began to pronounce the words of baptism. With a loud cry of horror, the brownie disappeared and was never seen again.
This story highlights the vague and sinister aura of fear that surrounds even the friendliest of magical creatures. An offended brownie can become very dangerous. However, brownies will never be as dangerous as other magical creatures from Ireland and Scotland called banshees. The horrible moans of the banshee, from which the blood runs cold, are a warning of imminent death. The word "banshee" comes from the Irish expression "Ganuotap" (magical woman), although a banshee is more of a ghost of a woman who is a member of a family or clan when one of them must die. If a person manages to catch her, then she will have to tell him the name of the doomed man or woman. The banshee has one nostril, protruding fangs, webbing between the toes and eyes red from constant crying. The cry of several banshees immediately foreshadows the death of the priest.
Of all the magical creatures, the most disgusting and cunning are goblins, devils, and ghosts. The devils, apparently, came straight from hell. On an engraving of the 16th - 17th centuries, one of them is depicted as a little devil in a round hat, pointed shoes, with a long shaggy tail and bare feet instead of hands. In her book Inhabitants of the Fairyland, Catherine M. Briggs describes a particularly hideous breed of devils called the Nukelawi, an animate creature that manifests itself in the valleys of Scotland. It lives in the sea, and rides to the ground on a horse as disgusting as himself, since many believe that the Nukelawi and the horse are a single whole. His head is similar to a human, only ten times larger, his mouth is like a pig's, and his body has no hair at all, because he also has no skin. Nukelawi breath is deadly for plants and weak animals, therefore it is often accused of killing crops or an animal being torn off a cliff. One elderly man, who claimed to have met a Nukelawi once, describes him as a huge creature without legs, with his hands dragging along the ground and a head that spun so strongly in all the stbrones that it threatened to come off. Worst of all, it was as if his skin had been ripped off, and yellow veins with clots of black blood coiled across his naked flesh.that it was as if his skin had been ripped off, and yellow veins with clots of black blood were wriggling along the naked flesh.that it was as if his skin had been ripped off, and yellow veins with clots of black blood were wriggling along the naked flesh.
Equally awful are the Red Caps, a type of ghost on the Scotland border. Their appearance is always accompanied by crimes, they kill travelers and rinse their red caps in the blood of victims. High in the mountains live glastigs, or vampires, who take the form of beautiful women who dance with men and suck their blood. The aquatic in the form of horses carry the unwary riders to the bottom of dark lakes and devour them there.
The exact opposite of this evil spirits are the spirits of the forces of nature that live in streams, lakes, forests and mountains. Their job is to take care of the plants. True, among them there are also those who can be frightened. This is especially true for those spirits who deal with the primordial and formidable forces of nature, such as wind, storms and earthquakes. Clairvoyant Jeffrey Hodson, who received many messages from magical creatures, whom, according to his testimony, he saw, in his book "Fairies at Work and Play" describes the supreme spirit - the guardian of the mountain. “The first impression was that I saw a huge shining scarlet figure, reminiscent of a bat, staring at me with burning eyes,” he writes. “He had human eyes and wings that extended over the mountainside. At first it seemed to methat this radiance occupies several hundred meters of space, but later, when he appeared to me again, I, looking closely, could see that his height is 3-3.6 meters."
Appearing magical creatures can take on a wide variety of forms, from white-clad angels to dark and terrible monsters. Most of the costumes of magical creatures, from the little simple costumes of dwarfs and brownies to the sparkling cloaks of the most beautiful fairies, are green. There are also those whose clothes are multi-colored, and some brownies do without clothes at all. Fairies are usually light, graceful and so tiny they can fit in a flower, while their males are small and repulsive in appearance. Brownies are generally ugly and shaggy, with large open nostrils instead of a nose, and ghosts constantly change their shape, showing a tendency to take on the most unpleasant appearance.
As you can see from the stories that tell about magical creatures, they have some common features. All fairies have a special interest in procreation, and they are usually very supportive of lovers. They themselves are described as dissolute and promiscuous in relationships. Be that as it may, in the few known cases where children were born to fairies, they were frail and weak. Therefore, fairies have a nasty habit of stealing human babies from their cradles, and instead leaving their changelings - ugly and stupid children. Fairies only occasionally rewarded the parents who had their child stolen, and, according to legend, they usually humiliated and beat the magic child. Such cruelty towards the changeling is explained by the fact that they tried to drive him away and get their own child back. But, however, if he did return,then only after many years. Fairies are probably immortal, but despite this, they are always preoccupied with replenishing their kind. Therefore, not only babies are kidnapped, but also nursing mothers to feed their own stunted offspring. They choose their brides from young girls and steal them, and they also take away strong or skillful young people and make them work for themselves. There are many versions of one of the most famous fairy tales, which tells of a midwife who was followed one night by a strange elderly couple. They took her to a house where a lovely young woman was giving birth. When the child was born, the old men gave the midwife some kind of ointment and ordered to smear the eyes of the baby and at the same time take care of their own. Either by accident, or out of negligence, the midwife ignored the warning and touched her eyes with the ointment. At that very moment, a terrible picture appeared before her: a dead mother was lying in bed, surrounded by a crowd of horrible monsters, and the ugliest of all was the same old couple. The midwife hid her fear and made it safely to her home. After a while, she again met these old men, when they, along with the rest of the werewolves, stole goods from the stalls at the fair. She called out to them, and the werewolves asked her which eye she saw them with. She replied: both, and then they blew right into her eyes, after which the woman was completely blind. Fairies dislike people who eavesdrop and spy on them and often punish them with blindness. Not paying attention to the thieves of the tribe, they are very harsh with those envious people who are haunted by their magical good. They treat well those who are free, open and generous,and sometimes secretly visit mortals to test their character. Therefore, if the family wants to please the fairies, they sometimes have to leave a jug of milk or a plate of beans on the windowsill for them, or put a bucket of clean water in the kitchen so that the fairies can redeem their babies in it. Those who neglect such things can be punished with painful convulsions.
In order to thank the fairies, one must show immoderate generosity, even if it turns out to be ruinous. This does not apply to brownies who help people disinterestedly. There are many stories told of how a man repaid the fairies for their services with new clothes, which they love very much, and they disappeared forever. Sometimes they fly like witches, only instead of a broom they have a leaf or a twig.
Some famous people are praised in fairy tales, such as Queen Mob. It is believed that she sends dreams; and her height is no more than three-quarters of an inch. In a book published in England in 1588 and called "The Amazing Adventures and Careless Jokes of Robin Goodfellow," the image of the wizard, the son of a mortal woman and the magic king Oberon, is displayed. Some associate Goodfellow's personality with the illustrious hero of legends, Robin Hood, who wore the color of green, beloved by the fairies. William Shakespeare used images of Robin Goodfellow and other famous magical characters in his plays. Thanks to many writers and poets, magic legends have survived through the centuries.