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A spriggan is a
legendary creature A legendary creature (also mythical or mythological creature) is a type of fictional entity, typically a hybrid, that has not been proven and that is described in folklore (including myths and legends), but may be featured in historical accou ...
from
Cornish folklore Cornish mythology is the folk tradition and mythology of the Cornish people. It consists partly of folk traditions developed in Cornwall and partly of traditions developed by Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium, often sh ...
. Spriggans are particularly associated with West Penwith in
Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlan ...
.


Etymology

''Spriggan'' is a dialect word, pronounced with the grapheme as /d͡ʒ/, sprid-jan, and not sprigg-an, borrowed from the Cornish
plural The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the ...
'' spyrysyon'' 'spirits'.


In folklore

Spriggans have often been depicted as grotesquely ugly, wizened old men with large childlike heads. They were said to be found at old ruins, cairns, and barrows guarding buried treasure. Although small in stature, they have often been considered to be the ghosts of giants and retained gigantic strength, and in one story collected by Robert Hunt, they showed the ability to swell to enormous size. Hunt associated these spirits with the hillfort known as Trencrom Hill in Cornwall. Spriggans were notorious for their unpleasant dispositions, and delighted in working mischief against those who offended them. They raised sudden whirlwinds to terrify travellers, sent storms to blight crops, and sometimes stole away mortal children, leaving their ugly
changeling A changeling, also historically referred to as an auf or oaf, is a human-like creature found in folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This in ...
s in their place. They were blamed if a house was robbed or a building collapsed, or if cattle were stolen. In one story, an old woman got the better of a band of spriggans by turning her clothing inside-out (turning clothing supposedly being as effective as holy water or iron in repelling fairies) to gain their loot. On Christmas Eve, spriggans met for a midnight Mass at the bottom of deep mines, and passersby could hear them singing. However, it was not spriggans but the buccas or knockers who were associated with tin mining, and who played a protective role towards the miners. Based on the collections of Robert Hunt and William Bottrell, Katharine Briggs characterized the spriggans as
fairy A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spiri ...
bodyguards. '' The English Dialect Dictionary'' (1905) compared them to the
troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human be ...
s of Scandinavia.


Sculpture

A sculpture of a spriggan by
Marilyn Collins Marilyn Collins is a London-based sculptor, known internationally, who has exhibited in many parts of the world. She has several installations on display in public gardens in the UK, a notable example being the Spriggan set in a wall on the Pa ...
can be seen in
Crouch End Crouch End is an area of North London, approximately from the City of London in the western half of the borough of Haringey. It is within the Hornsey postal district (N8). It has been described by the BBC as one of "a new breed of urban villa ...
,
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, in some arches lining a section of the Parkland Walk (a disused railway line). The sculpture was installed in 1993. If walking along the Parkland Walk from
Finsbury Park Finsbury Park is a public park in the London neighbourhood of Harringay. It is in the area formerly covered by the historic parish of Hornsey, succeeded by the Municipal Borough of Hornsey. It was one of the first of the great London park ...
to
Highgate station Highgate is a London Underground station and former railway station in Archway Road, in the London Borough of Haringey in north London. The station takes its name from nearby Highgate Village. It is on the High Barnet branch of the Northern ...
, the ''Spriggan'' is to the right just before the disused railway platforms of the former Crouch End station. To the left, on the southside of the Parkland Walk is Crouch Hill Park where
Ashmount School This is a list of schools in the London Borough of Islington, England In 2000, CEA, a private firm, took over the running of Islington's state schools. The education service returned to the Council in 2011. Islington schools have improved rapid ...
has been located since January 2013. The sculpture is sometimes mistaken for the
Green Man The Green Man is a legendary being primarily interpreted as a symbol of rebirth, representing the cycle of new growth that occurs every spring. The Green Man is most commonly depicted in a sculpture, or other representation of a face which is ...
or Pan.


In popular culture

Spriggans have been featured as fey creatures in the
Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (T ...
roleplaying game since the 1980s. Additionally, Spriggans - in the style of the Parkland Walk sculpture - can be found in ''
The Elder Scrolls ''The Elder Scrolls'' is a series of action role-playing video games primarily developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The series focuses on free-form gameplay in an open world. '' Morrowind'', '' Oblivion' ...
'' series of video games and they are portrayed as females.


See also

*


Citations


General sources

* Briggs, Katharine. ''A Dictionary of Fairies''. Penguin, 1976,
Underground History: "The Northern Heights"
Hywel Williams. Accessed 8 July 2007. {{Fairies Cornish culture Cornish legendary creatures