1.
Fairy
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A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature in European folklore, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural, or preternatural. According to Thomas Keightley, the word derives from the Latin fata. Other forms are the Italian fata, and the Provençal fada, in old French romance, fee was a woman skilled in magic, and who knew the power and virtue of words, of stones, and of herbs. Faierie became fairy, but with that now almost exclusively referring to one of the legendary people. The word fairy was used to represent an illusion, or enchantment, to the word faie was added the suffix -erie, used to express either a place where something is found or a trade or typical activity engaged in. In later usage it applied to any kind of quality or activity associated with a particular type of person. In the sense land where fairies dwell, the distinctive and archaic spellings Faery, the latinate fay is not to be confused with the unrelated fey, meaning fated to die. Various folkloristic traditions refer to them euphemistically, by such as wee folk, good folk, people of peace, fair folk. Sometimes the term fairy is used to any magical creature, including goblins or gnomes, at other times. Fairies have their origin in the conflation of Celtic traditions in the Middle French medieval romances. Fairie was in origin used adjectivally, meaning enchanted, but was used as a name for enchanted creatures from as early as the Late Middle English period. In English literature of the Elizabethan era, elves became conflated with the fairies of Romance culture, the Victorian and Edwardian eras saw an increase in interest in fairies. The Celtic Revival viewed them as part of Irelands cultural heritage, carole Silvers and others suggest that the fascination of English antiquarians arose from a reaction to greater industrialization, and loss of folkways. Fairies are generally described as human in appearance and having magical powers, even with these small fairies, however, their small size may be magically assumed rather than constant. Some fairies though normally quite small were able to dilate their figures to imitate humans, on Orkney they were described as short in stature, dressed in dark grey, and sometimes seen in armour. Wings, while common in Victorian and later artwork of fairies, are rare in the folklore, even very small fairies flew with magic. Nowadays, fairies are depicted with ordinary insect wings or butterfly wings. In some folklore, fairies have green eyes, some depictions of fairies either have them wearing some sort of footwear and other depictions of fairies are always barefoot
2.
Irish mythology
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The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity. However, much of it was preserved in medieval Irish literature and this literature represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branches of Celtic mythology. There are also a number of extant mythological texts that do not fit any of the cycles. Additionally, there are a number of recorded folk tales that, while not strictly mythological. Despite the dates of these sources, most of the material they contain predates their composition, the earliest of the prose can be dated on linguistic grounds to the 8th century, and some of the verse may be as old as the 6th century. The first of these part of the earliest known version of the Táin Bó Cúailnge and is housed in Trinity College. The other three are in the Royal Academy, when using these sources, it is, as always, important to question the impact of the circumstances in which they were produced. There was also a tendency to rework Irish genealogies to fit into the known schema of Greek or Biblical genealogy and it was once unquestioned that medieval Irish literature preserved truly ancient traditions in a form virtually unchanged through centuries of oral tradition back to the ancient Celts of Europe. A consensus has emerged which encourages the critical reading of the material, the Mythological Cycle, comprising stories of the former gods and origins of the Irish, is the least well preserved of the four cycles. The most important sources are the Metrical Dindshenchas or Lore of Places, Other manuscripts preserve such mythological tales as The Dream of Aengus, The Wooing Of Étain and Cath Maige Tuireadh, The Battle of Magh Tuireadh. One of the best known of all Irish stories, Oidheadh Clainne Lir, Lebor Gabála Érenn is a pseudo-history of Ireland, tracing the ancestry of the Irish back to before Noah. They faced opposition from their enemies, the Fomorians, led by Balor of the Evil Eye, Balor was eventually slain by Lug Lámfada at the second battle of Magh Tuireadh. With the arrival of the Gaels, the Tuatha Dé Danann retired underground to become the people of later myth. The Metrical Dindshenchas is the great work of early Ireland. It includes a lot of important information on Mythological Cycle figures and stories, including the Battle of Tailtiu, in which the Tuatha Dé Danann were defeated by the Milesians. It is important to note that by the Middle Ages the Tuatha Dé Danann were not viewed so much as gods as the shape-shifting magician population of an earlier Golden Age Ireland. Texts such as Lebor Gabála Érenn and Cath Maige Tuireadh present them as kings and heroes of the distant past, however, there is considerable evidence, both in the texts and from the wider Celtic world, that they were once considered deities. Even after they are displaced as the rulers of Ireland, characters such as Lug, a poem in the Book of Leinster lists many of the Tuatha Dé, but ends Although enumerates them, he does not worship them
3.
Irish language
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Irish, also referred to as Gaelic or Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people. Irish enjoys constitutional status as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland and it is also among the official languages of the European Union. The public body Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island of Ireland and it has the oldest vernacular literature in Western Europe. The fate of the language was influenced by the power of the English state in Ireland. Elizabethan officials viewed the use of Irish unfavourably, as being a threat to all things English in Ireland and its decline began under English rule in the 17th century. In the latter part of the 19th century, there was a decrease in the number of speakers. Irish-speaking areas were hit especially hard, by the end of British rule, the language was spoken by less than 15% of the national population. Since then, Irish speakers have been in the minority, efforts have been made by the state, individuals and organisations to preserve, promote and revive the language, but with mixed results. Around the turn of the 21st century, estimates of native speakers ranged from 20,000 to 80,000 people. In the 2011 Census, these numbers had increased to 94,000 and 1.3 million, there are several thousand Irish speakers in Northern Ireland. It has been estimated that the active Irish-language scene probably comprises 5 to 10 per cent of Irelands population, there has been a significant increase in the number of urban Irish speakers, particularly in Dublin. In Gaeltacht areas, however, there has been a decline of the use of Irish. Údarás na Gaeltachta predicted that, by 2025, Irish will no longer be the language in any of the designated Gaeltacht areas. Survey data suggest that most Irish people think highly of Irish as a marker of identity. It has also argued that newer urban groups of Irish speakers are a disruptive force in this respect. In An Caighdeán Oifigiúil the name of the language is Gaeilge, before the spelling reform of 1948, this form was spelled Gaedhilge, originally this was the genitive of Gaedhealg, the form used in Classical Irish. Older spellings of this include Gaoidhealg in Classical Irish and Goídelc in Old Irish, the modern spelling results from the deletion of the silent dh in the middle of Gaedhilge, whereas Goidelic languages, used to refer to the language family including Irish, comes from Old Irish
4.
Leprechaun
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A leprechaun is a type of fairy in Irish folklore. They are usually depicted as bearded men, wearing a coat and hat. They are solitary creatures who spend their time making and mending shoes and have a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If captured by a human, they often grant three wishes in exchange for their freedom, like other Irish fairies, leprechauns may be derived from the Tuatha Dé Danann. Leprechaun-like creatures rarely appear in Irish mythology and only became prominent in later folklore, modern depictions of leprechauns are largely based on derogatory 19th-century caricatures and stereotypes of the Irish. The name leprechaun is derived from the Irish word leipreachán, defined by Patrick Dinneen as a pigmy, a sprite, or leprechaun. The further derivation is less certain, according to most sources, the word is thought to be a corruption of Middle Irish luchrupán, from the Old Irish luchorpán, a compound of the roots lú and corp. The root corp, which was borrowed from the Latin corpus, the alternative spelling leithbrágan stems from a folk etymology deriving the word from leith and bróg, because of the frequent portrayal of the leprechaun as working on a single shoe. Alternative spellings in English have included lubrican, leprehaun, and lepreehawn, Some modern Irish books use the spelling lioprachán. The earliest known reference to the leprechaun appears in the tale known as the Echtra Fergus mac Léti. The text contains an episode in which Fergus mac Léti, King of Ulster, falls asleep on the beach and he captures his abductors, who grant him three wishes in exchange for release. The leprechaun is said to be a creature, whose principal occupation is making and mending shoes. According to William Butler Yeats, the wealth of these fairies comes from the treasure-crocks, buried of old in war-time. According to David Russell McAnally the leprechaun is the son of an evil spirit, the leprechaun originally had a different appearance depending on where in Ireland he was found. Prior to the 20th century, it was held that the leprechaun wore red. Samuel Lover, writing in 1831, describes the leprechaun as, quite a beau in his dress, notwithstanding, for he wears a red square-cut coat, richly laced with gold, and inexpressible of the same, cocked hat, shoes and buckles. According to Yeats, the fairies, like the leprechaun, wear red jackets. The leprechauns jacket has seven rows of buttons with seven buttons to each row, round his neck is an Elizabethan ruff, and frills of lace are at his wrists
5.
Clurichaun
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The clurichaun or clúrachán, is an Irish fairy which resembles the leprechaun. Some folklorists describe the clurichaun as a form of the leprechaun. Others regard them as variations on the same creature. The folklorist Nicholas OKearney described the clurichaun in 1855 as follows, however, unlike their cousins, they are surly. Many fables conclude clurichauns enjoy riding sheep and dogs at night, if you treat them well they will protect your wine cellar, and if mistreated, they will wreak havoc on your home and spoil your wine stock. The clurichaun, Kweequel, is a prominent character found in the first story of the book Four Different Faces by C. J. Cala, the clurichaun appears as a regular character in Neil Gaimans acclaimed comic series The Sandman and its spin-off series The Dreaming. Cluracan continues the tradition of constant drunkenness but is portrayed as a tall, the clurichaun Naggeneen magically associates himself with Marys Place, the successor to Callahans Bar in Spider Robinsons stories. Naggeneen saves the bar from bankruptcy through his ability to drink tremendous quantities of alcohol—and to pay for it honestly
6.
Practical joke
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A practical joke is a mischievous trick played on someone, generally causing the victim to experience embarrassment, perplexity, confusion or discomfort. A person who performs a practical joke is called a practical joker, other terms for practical jokes include prank, gag, jape, or shenanigan. Practical jokes differ from confidence tricks or hoaxes in that the finds out, or is let in on the joke. Practical jokes are generally lighthearted and without lasting impact, their purpose is to make the victim feel humbled or foolish, in this fashion, most practical jokes are affectionate gestures of humour and designed to encourage laughter. However, practical jokes performed with cruelty can constitute bullying, whose intent is to harass or exclude rather than reinforce social bonds through ritual humbling, in Western culture, April Fools Day is a day traditionally dedicated to conducting practical jokes. A practical joke is practical because it consists of doing something physical. The joker would then wait for the victim to walk through the doorway, objects can also be used in practical jokes, like fake vomit, chewing gum bugs, exploding cigars, stink bombs, costumes and whoopee cushions. Practical jokes often occur inside offices, usually to surprise co-workers, covering the computer accessories with Jell-O, wrapping the desk with Christmas paper or aluminium foil or filling it with balloons are just some examples of office pranks. Practical jokes are also common occurrences during sleepovers, whereby teens will play pranks on their friends as they come into the home, American humorist H. Allen Smith wrote a 320-page book in 1953 called The Compleat Practical Joker that contains numerous examples of practical jokes. The book became a best seller not only in the United States, moira Marsh has written an entire volume about practical jokes. One of her findings is that in the USA they are often done by males than females. A practical joke recalled as his favorite by the playwright Charles MacArthur, concerns the American painter, while living in Paris in the 1920s, Peirce made a gift of a very big turtle to the woman who was the concierge of his building. The woman doted on the turtle and lavished care on it, a few days later Peirce substituted a somewhat larger turtle for the original one. This continued for some time, with larger and larger turtles being surreptitiously introduced into the womans apartment, the concierge was beside herself with happiness and displayed her miraculous turtle to the entire neighborhood. Peirce then began to sneak in and replace the turtle with smaller and smaller ones and this was the storyline behind Esio Trot, by Roald Dahl. Modern and successful pranks often take advantage of the modernization of tools, in Canada, engineering students have a reputation for annual pranks, at the University of British Columbia these usually involve leaving a Volkswagen beetle in an unexpected location. A similar prank was undertaken by engineering students at Cambridge University, England, pranks can also adapt to the political context of the era. Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are particularly known for their hacks, many practical jokers are comedians or entertainers, while others engage in pranks connected to social activism or to protest movements
7.
Changeling
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A changeling is a creature found in folklore and folk religion. A changeling child was believed to be a child that had been left in place of a human child stolen by the fairies. The theme of the child is common in medieval literature and reflects concern over infants thought to be afflicted with unexplained diseases, disorders. It is typically described as being the offspring of a fairy, Sometimes the term is also used to refer to the child who was taken. The apparent changeling could also be a stock or fetch, a piece of wood that would soon appear to grow sick. The theme of the child is common among medieval literature and reflects concern over infants thought to be afflicted with unexplained diseases, disorders. A human child might be due to many factors, to act as a servant. Most often it was thought that fairies exchanged the children, in rare cases, the very elderly of the Fairy people would be exchanged in the place of a human baby, and then the old fairy could live in comfort, being coddled by its human parents. Simple charms, such as a coat or open iron scissors left where the child sleeps, were thought to ward them off. D. L. Ashliman points out that changeling tales illustrate an aspect of survival in pre-industrial Europe. A peasant familys subsistence frequently depended upon the labor of each member. Changeling tales support other historical evidence in suggesting that infanticide was not infrequently the solution selected, one belief is that trolls thought that it was more respectable to be raised by humans and that they wanted to give their own children a human upbringing. Some people believed that trolls would take unbaptized children, once children had been baptized and therefore become part of the Church, the trolls could not take them. Beauty in human children and young women, particularly blond hair, was said to attract the fairies, in Scottish folklore, the children might be replacements for fairy children in the tithe to Hell, this is best known from the ballad of Tam Lin. According to common Scottish myths, a child born with a caul across his or her face is a changeling, other folklore say that human milk is necessary for fairy children to survive. It is also thought that human midwives were necessary to bring babies into the world. Some stories tell of changelings who forget they are not human, Changelings which do not forget, however, in some stories return to their fairy family, possibly leaving the human family without warning. The human child that was taken may often stay with the family forever
