Not every fairytale focuses on flowery fun and frolics - some portray the fae using mortals as toys to torment, resources to exploit or snacks to sate their hunger. Let's take a look at...
- The Bloodthirsty Baobhan-Sith
- The Demanding Dame Blanche
- The Dodgy-Deal of Gilitrutt
- The Baleful Boggart
- The Cuckoo-Like Changeling
- The Inspiring (and Terrible) Leannán Sidhe
- The Insidious Alp
- The Sinister Sluagh
1. The Bloodthirsty Baobhan-Sith
Scottish fairies can be surprisingly sinister (just take a look at the
soul-stealing cat-sith if you need convincing) but few match the
baobhan-sith for malice. These fairies always took the form of a beautiful woman, usually clad in green with a long skirt... which hid their goat legs.
The most likely individuals to encounter one of these fairies were hunters or soldiers (or more accurately, men smelling of fresh blood) because baobhan-sith were the fairy equivalent of vampires. They would read the mind of prey and take a form pleasing to their intended victim.
There's
a story of four hunters that had retired to a bothy (simple shelter) after a long day in the woods when they heard a soft tapping at the door - and who should it be but four beautiful women asking to share the fire's warmth. The green clad women soon enchanted three of the hunters and had them dancing - the fourth had a wife at home and a strong sense of loyalty. This loyal hunter suddenly understood the nature of his guests when their nails opened the throats of their dancing partners.
The loyal hunter had heard of the baobhan-sith and knew that their only weaknesses were iron and sunlight... but it was the middle of the night and the fairies were between him and his weapons. Instead, he leapt from the bothy and took refuge amongst the group's horses... and their iron shoes. Despite the blandishments and threats of the baobhan-sith, he stayed amidst the beasts until dawn banished his tormentors!
2. The Demanding Dame Blanche
Do you like impromptu dancing? If so, you'd probably be fine if you encountered one of France's
Dames Blanches or white ladies. These strange fairies were said to haunt pathways, bridges and ravines where a traveler would be forced to pass them... but would work mischief on any who didn't humor them.
Stories vary as to what these fairies would demand - the most common seems to be demanding that a traveler dance with them, after which the white lady would vanish. La Dame d' Aprigny of Rue Saint Quentin at Bayeux was said to fling those who spurned her request into a ditch filled with briars!
Another white lady was said to haunt Pont d' Angot in Falaise. She would sit upon a narrow wooden bridge over the River Dive and demand that travelers approach on their knees - refusal would result in her commanding the local wildlife to attack the impudent wanderer!
3. The Dodgy-Deal of Gilitrutt
Iceland has a fair number of pranksters (such as the mischievous yule lads) but this particular tale deals with a troll named Gilitrutt.
The story goes that the new wife of an Icelandic sheep farmer didn't want to pitch in with the wool spinning. One day, a strange woman arrived at the farm and the wife saw an opportunity - she made a bargain with the visitor: she would spin the wool and deliver it on the first day of summer... but in exchange, the wife would have to guess her name in three attempts when she returned.
It took a while, but the wife eventually realized that she had no hope of guessing the name. Out of options, she told her husband about the strange bargain she'd made... and he realized the woman was really a troll from the nearby Eyjafjallajökull volcano. His wife had been tricked, and the troll no doubt had a vile fate in store for her.
The farmer scaled the slopes and spied on the troll's cave - where he overheard the troll gloating that her name was Gilitrutt. He decided to let his wife worry for a while, only passing on the name a day before the troll was due to reappear. The troll was so surprised when her victim exclaimed Gilitrutt that she fled to her volcano home and troubled the farmers no more!
4. The Baleful Boggart
The boggart is an English (particularly from the north) fairy, but equivalents can be found throughout the folklore of Europe (and beyond.) It's often used as a catch all term for a goblin-like malevolent or mischievous spirit (though they sometimes took the forms of animals or were able to shapeshift.) Many otherwise helpful fairies could become a boggart if sufficiently maltreated.
There's a woodland in Manchester called Boggart Hole Clough - no prizes for guessing the subject of the local legend. The story goes that a boggart inhabits the foliage-choked ruin of a farmhouse in the ancient forest. It sallies forth to cause mischief, souring milk, laming dogs (who apparently can sense its presence) and kidnapping children.
Some tales suggest that giving a boggart a name solidified its power and made it even harder to get rid of, but plenty of English examples have a moniker. "Nut Nan" was another boggart from Manchester, taking the form of an old pipe-smoking woman with an ever-hot poker - which she used to burn children picking "her" hazelnuts!
5. The Cuckoo-Like Changeling
Less a trickster and more the trick itself, changelings were said to be fairies left in place of a stolen human child. Usually these were the twisted offspring of other fairies, but they could also be elderly fairies looking to end their days being cared for by an unsuspecting human family.
It was said that fairies took human children for several reasons. They could take them to act as servants or to eventually strengthen the fairy bloodlines... or they could be kidnapped as an act of revenge.
Children might fall under suspicion if they had any unusual features, whether physical or mental. The response to a suspected changeling varied from case to case. Some were abandoned, while other families focused on trying to make the child laugh (or suffer) in the belief that this would reverse the switch. In some cases a family would continue to care for the "changeling" in case the fairies took offense and harmed their stolen child in retaliation.
6. The Inspiring (and Terrible) Leannán Sidhe
A
leannán sidhe (or
leanan sidhe) was literally a fairy-lover, an otherworldly paramour that brought inspiration to Irish poets, musicians and artists... at the cost of a brief and tormented life.
This fairy was like a muse and though she lacked a face of her own, would take a form incredibly beautiful to those who encountered her (or him in rarer cases.) She could offer wisdom and inspiration to an aspiring artist, but such a gift was fraught with peril - those who experienced her embrace lived a brief (but bright-burning) life of obsession and madness before pining away or dying by their own hand. On the flip side of the coin, she would be bound to serve any human able to resist her supernatural allure.
Those who died after falling for a leannán sidhe would be doomed to sing and perform for her in the otherworld for eternity. Some versions of the tale also have her collecting the blood of her victims in a cauldron... from which she derived her occult powers!
7. The Insidious Alp
An alp was said to be able to enter the room of a sleeper by drifting through a keyhole or crack - stopping up said hole would prevent an alp from entering, or trap one inside the room if that was your preference - a trapped alp would bargain for freedom and could be convinced to trouble you no more.
Should an alp be given free reign,
it could become a real nuisance. It could inflict nightmares or sit on the chest of a sleeper (much like the idea of a sleep paralysis demon.) Some people would try placing an iron comb on their chest to ward of the alp, but would find the canny creature turned it to prick the dreamer.
Alps got up to other shenanigans as well - it might borrow a boat, muddle a human's mind, ride animals to exhaustion, tie knots in a horse's mane or even crush livestock to death. Some people were even said to be able to command an alp to do mischief, sending them forth in the form of a white butterfly to sit on the chest of a sleeping victim!
8. The Sinister Sluagh
The sluagh of
Ireland and
Scotland are a twisted fairy host (or in some tales, damned souls) that you really, really want to avoid.
This Celtic catastrophe usually approached from the west so (in times of ill-omen such as a wake or illness) west-facing windows were kept fastened shut but this was no guarantee of safety - if the sluagh wanted you, the best you could do was lock all the doors and windows, then cower in candlelight until the dawn.
So what happened if you encountered them? Well, you'd see a crescent of half-formed shadowy shapes (sometimes people, sometimes birds or other beasts) moving like an undulating cloud or murmuration of starlings. If the host caught up with you, they
might carry you through the air and drop you where they saw fit - and some tales speak of them "rescuing" stranded climbers, only to strand them somewhere equally precarious. The people who returned to report these encounters were the fortunate ones - other possible fates included the victims being forced to join the sluagh themselves... or simply being eaten alive!
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