Legendary Creatures

(botuchan so-will) ‘The Little Old Man of the Barn’. A barn Brownie who took pity on old men, and treshed for them. D. A. Mackenzie gives us a verse about him in his Scottish Folk Lore and Folk Life: When the peat will turn grey and shadows fall deep And...

‘Bogies, ‘Bogles’, ‘Bugs’, or ‘bug-a-boos’ are names given to a whole class of mischievous, frightening and even dangerous spirits. Their temperments can range the spectrum from benign to malevolent. They can be a male...

Generally evil-natured Goblins although they are more disposed to do harm to liars and murderers. On the whole, these are evil Goblins, but according to William Henderson in FOLK LORE OF THE NORTHERN COUNTIES, who quotes from Hoog’s WOOLGATHERER, the bogles on...

The Welsh name for the Brownie. Often mischevious and fond of playing pranks on humans. He is known to act as a Will o the Wisp, leading a traveller up a narrow path to edge of a cliff. The Bwca will then blow out his candle and jump over, laughing loudly and leaving...

The Manx version of the Highland Cailleach Bheur and the Irish Cailleach Bera. The Manx Cailleagh, as Gill tells us in A MANX SCRAPBOOK, seems to be particularly unlucky, for she fell into the crevise called after her in trying to step from the top of Barrule to the...

Spring-Heeled Jack, a high-jumping man-like creature first seen in the 1840’s near London. Jack would attack women or cause carriages to run off the road, then run off with a high-pitched, mocking laugh. According to those who encountered him, Spring-Heeled Jack...

The Water Leaper, also known as Llamhigyn Y Dwr, is a creature from Welsh folklore that lived in swamps, lakes and ponds. It is described as a giant frog with a bat’s wings instead of forelegs, no hind legs, and a long, lizard-like tail. It jumps across the...

The Knocker, Knacker, Bwca (Welsh), Bucca (Cornish) or Tommyknocker (US) is the Welsh and Cornish equivalent of Irish leprechauns and English and Scottish brownies. About two feet tall and grizzled, but not misshapen, they live beneath the ground. Here they wear tiny...

(Anglo-Celtic) Since, if you “speak of the Devil” he will appear, Puck’s euphemistic “disguised” name is “Robin Goodfellow” or “Hobgoblin”,in which “Hob” may substitute for “Rob” or may...

A creature of frequent association with the Moon and darkness. In China, bats were symbols of good fortune and happiness; in Europe, a companion creature of the Goddess Hel. Christians made the bat evil and demonic in order to disengage people from the Goddess.