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Púca
The púca ( Irish for ''spirit/ghost''; plural púcaí), puca (Old English for ''goblin''), also pwca, pookah, phouka, and puck, is a creature of Celtic, English, and Channel Islands folklore. Considered to be bringers both of good and bad fortune, they could help or hinder rural and marine communities. Púcaí can have dark or white fur or hair. The creatures were said to be shape-changers that could take the appearance of horses, goats, cats, dogs, and hares. They may also take a human guise, which includes various animal features, such as animal ears or a tail. Etymology and analogues The origin of the name is debated, with some theorising that it originated in the Irish language, but with a different spelling as there was no ''p'' sound in Primitive Irish. It appears, from place name evidence, to have been in use as early as the 8th century. Since it is a 'cultural' rather than a practical word that might be used in trading, it is thought to reflect greater cultural con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goblin
A goblin is a small, grotesque, monster, monstrous humanoid creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearances depending on the story and country of origin, ranging from mischievous Household deity, household spirits to malicious, bestial thieves. They often have magical abilities similar to a fairy or demon, such as the ability to Shapeshifting, shapeshift. Similar creatures include brownie (folklore), brownies, dwarf (mythology), dwarves, duendes, gnomes, imps, leprechauns, and kobolds, but it is also commonly used as a blanket term for all small, fay creatures. The term is sometimes expanded to include goblin-like creatures of other cultures, such as the pukwudgie, dokkaebi, or ifrit. Etymology Alternative spellings include ''gobblin'', ''gobeline'', ''gobling'', ''goblyn'', ''goblino'', and ''gobbelin''. The term "goblette" has been used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Welsh Mythology
Welsh mythology (also commonly known as ''Y Chwedlau'', meaning "The Legends") consists of both folk traditions developed in Wales, and traditions developed by the Celtic Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium. As in most of the predominantly oral societies Celtic mythology and history were recorded orally by specialists such as druids (). This oral record has been lost or altered as a result of outside contact and invasion over the years. Much of this altered mythology and history is preserved in Medieval Welsh literature, medieval Welsh manuscripts, which include the Red Book of Hergest, the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin. Other works connected to Welsh mythology include the ninth-century Latin historical compilation ''Historia Brittonum'' ("History of the Britons") and Geoffrey of Monmouth's twelfth-century Latin chronicle ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' ("History of the Kings of Britain"), as well as later Welsh folklore, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aos Sí
' (; English approximation: ; older form: ) is the Irish name for a supernatural race in Gaelic folklore, similar to elves. They are said to descend from the Tuatha Dé Danann or the gods of Irish mythology. The name ''aos sí'' means "folk of the ''sí''"; these are the burial mounds in which they are said to dwell, which are seen as portals to an Otherworld. Such abodes are referred to in English as 'shee', 'fairy mounds', 'elf mounds' or 'hollow hills'. The ''aos sí'' interact with humans and the human world. They are variously said to be the ancestors, the spirits of nature, or goddesses and gods. Evans Wentz, W. Y. (1966, 1990The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe Humanities Press In modern Irish, they are also called ''daoine sí''; in Scottish Gaelic ''daoine sìth'' ('folk of the fairy mounds'). Etymology In the Irish language, ''aos sí'', earlier ''aes sídhe'', means "folk of the fairy mounds". In Old Irish, it was ''áes síde'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shapeshifting
In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shapeshifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through unnatural means. The idea of shapeshifting is found in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism, as well as the oldest existent literature and Epic poetry, epic poems such as the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' and the ''Iliad''. The concept remains a common literary device in modern fantasy, children's literature and popular culture. Examples of shapeshifters are vampires and werewolves. Folklore and mythology Popular shapeshifting creatures in folklore are werewolf, werewolves and vampires (mostly of European, Canadian, and Native American/early American origin), ichchhadhari naag (shape-shifting cobra) of India, shapeshifting fox spirits of East Asia such as the huli jing of China, the obake of Japan, the Navajo skin-walkers, and gods, goddesses and demons and demonesses such as the Norse mythology, Norse Loki or the Greek mythology, Greek Proteus. Shapeshifting to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Human Guise
A human disguise (also human guise and sometimes human form) is a concept in fantasy, folklore, mythology, religion, literature, iconography, and science fiction whereby non-human beings such as deity, gods, angels, monsters, Extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrials, or artificial intelligence, robots are able to shapeshift or be disguised to seem human. Stories have depicted the deception as a means used to blend in with people, and science fiction has used the dichotomy to raise questions about what it means to be human. In religion, mythology, and folklore In pagan religions, deities very often took on the form of a human disguise for various tasks. The gods "of whom the minstrels sang" in Homer's Iliad watched the "human spectacle" as partisans, and came down to Earth invisible or in human disguise to interfere, sometimes to protect their favorites from harm (compare ''deus ex machina''). Their human disguises sometimes extended to their getting hurt in conflicts. Zeus's huma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bucca (mythological Creature)
Bucca ( Cornish, SWF: ''bocka'', pl. ''bockas'','' bockyas'' ) is a male sea-spirit in Cornish folklore, a merman, that inhabited mines and coastal communities as a hobgoblin during storms. The mythological creature is a type of water spirit likely related to the Púca from Irish, the Pwca from Welsh folklore, and the female mari-morgans, a type of mermaid from Welsh and Breton mythology. Rev W. S. Lach-Szyrma, one 19th-century writer on Cornish antiquities, suggested the Bucca had originally been an ancient pagan deity of the sea such as Irish Nechtan or British Nodens, though his claims are mainly conjecture. Folklore however records votive food offerings made on the beach similar to those made to the subterranean Knockers and may represent some form of continuity with early or pre-Christian Brittonic belief practices. Etymology In 1611, in the Cornish language book the ''Creation of the World'' the Bucca is mentioned and some believe that the word is a borrowing in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lady Wilde
Jane Francesca Agnes Wilde, Lady Wilde (née Elgee; 27 December 1821 – 3 February 1896) was an Irish poet who wrote under the pen name Speranza and supporter of the nationalist movement. Lady Wilde had a special interest in Irish folktales, which she helped to gather and was the mother of Oscar Wilde and Willie Wilde. Life Early life Jane was the last of the four children of Charles Elgee (1783–1824), the son of Archdeacon John Elgee, a Wexford solicitor, and his wife Sarah (née Kingsbury, d. 1851). Her mother came from a prosperous Protestant family in Dublin and was considered a great beauty. Jane was the youngest of four children of the couple, her older siblings being Emily, John, and Frances (who died as an infant) She claimed that her great-grandfather was an Italian surnamed Algiati which was said to be a derived from Alighieri thus inferring a relationship with the famous poet. This ancestor was said to have had come to Wexford in the 18th century; in fac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Crofton Croker
Thomas Crofton Croker (15 January 1798 – 8 August 1854) was an Irish antiquary, best known for his ''Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland'' (1825–1828), and who also showed considerable interest in Irish song and music. Although ''Fairy Legends'' purported to be an anthology of tales Croker had collected on his field trips, he had lost his manuscript notes and the work had to be reconstructed with the help of friends. He did not acknowledge his debt satisfactorily in the estimation of Thomas Keightley, who voiced his complaint publicly, and soon published his own rival work. The other collaborators generally allowed Croker to take credit, notably William Maginn, though after his death his kinsmen insisted Maginn had written four or more of the tales. Croker retracted ten tales in his third edition of (1834), and after his death, a fourth edition (1859) appeared which was prefaced with a memoir written by his son. William Butler Yeats, who appropriat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Keightley (historian)
Thomas Keightley (17 October 1789 – 4 November 1872) was an Irish writer known for his works on mythology and folklore, particularly ''Fairy Mythology'' (1828), later reprinted as ''The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People'' (1978, 2000, etc.). Keightley was as an important pioneer in the study of folklore by modern scholars in the field. He was a "comparativist" folklore collector, drawing parallels between tales and traditions across cultures. A circumspect scholar, he did not automatically assume similar tales indicated transmission, allowing for the possibility that similar tales arose independently. At the request of the educator Thomas Arnold, he authored a series of textbooks on English, Greek, and other histories, which were adopted at Arnold's Rugby School as well as other public schools. Life and travels Keightley, born in October 1789, was the son of Thomas Keightley of Newtown, County Kildare, and claimed to be related to Thomas Keigh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brittany
Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duchy of Brittany, duchy before being Union of Brittany and France, united with the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a provinces of France, province governed as a separate nation under the crown. Brittany is the traditional homeland of the Breton people and is one of the six Celtic nations, retaining Culture of Brittany, a distinct cultural identity that reflects History of Brittany, its history. Brittany has also been referred to as Little Britain (as opposed to Great Britain, with which it shares an etymology). It is bordered by the English Channel to the north, Normandy to the northeast, eastern Pays de la Loire to the southeast, the Bay of Biscay to the south, and the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its land area is 34,023 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cromlech
A cromlech (sometimes also spelled "cromleh" or "cromlêh"; cf Welsh ''crom'', "bent"; ''llech'', "slate") is a megalithic construction made of large stone blocks. The word applies to two different megalithic forms in English, the first being an altar tomb (frequently called a "dolmen"), as William Borlase first denoted in 1769. A good example is at . The second meaning of the name "cromlech" in English refers to large stone circles such as those found among the Carnac stones in Brittany, France. Unlike in English, the word "cromlech" in many other languages (such as Azerbaijani, Armenian, French, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Romanian, and Spanish) exclusively denotes a megalithic stone circle, whereas the word "dolmen A dolmen, () or portal tomb, is a type of single-chamber Megalith#Tombs, megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the Late Neolithic period (4000 ..." ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jèrriais
( ; also known as the Jersey language, Jersey French and Jersey Norman French in English) is a Romance languages, Romance language and the traditional language of the Jersey people. It is a form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, an island in the Channel Islands archipelago off the coast of France. Its closest relatives are the other Norman languages, such as , spoken in neighbouring Guernsey, and the other . Use of has been in decline over the past century, as English language, English has increasingly become the language of education, commerce and administration on Jersey. There are very few people who speak Jèrriais as a mother tongue and, owing to the age of the remaining speakers, their numbers decrease annually. Despite this, efforts are being made to keep the language alive. The language of Sark, Sercquiais, is a descendant of the Jèrriais brought by the Jersey colonists who settled Sark in the 16th century, with mutual intelligibility with the Norman language ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
