Peg Powler is a hag, who dwells in the River Tees. Although the crown of green tresses is normally sybolic of a water deity, she is believed to be responsible for the deaths of a number of children. Sometimes known as the High Green Ghost by residents in Middleton in...
Folklore
Pooka
Variants: phouka, puca No fairy is more feared in Ireland than the pooka. This may be because it is always out and about after nightfall, creating harm and mischief, and because it can assume a variety of terrifying forms. The guise in which it most often appears,...
Oakmen
Oakmen are male dwarf faeries who are the guardians of sacred oak groves. They are not very friendly towards people, but no one has ever been harmed by one. They are described as having huge heads being squat, dwarfish people with red caps....
Fairies
Time and Age The passage of time for faeries is clearly not the same as it is for mortal men. Some legends say that faeries are born old and grow younger as they ‘age’, while many others hold that they are ageless and forever young. While in faerie lands,...
Will-o’-the-Wisp
Also called Fairy Lights, Elf-fire, Hobbedy’s Lantern or Night Whispers. No one is quite sure what these distant floating balls of flame are, but they are generally associated with and are sometimes thought of as faeries in the British Isles. Usually known as small...
Gentle Annis
The weather spirit responsible for the south-westerly gales on the Firth of Cromarty. The Firth is well protected from the north and east, but a gap in the hills allows the entry of spasmodic squally gales. These gives Gentle Annis a bad reputation for treachery. A...
Gentry
The most noble tribe of all the fairies in Ireland. A big race who came from the planets and usually appear in white. The Irish used to bless the Gentry for fear of harm otherwise. One of the many euphemistic names for the fairies, used in Ireland. As Kirk says,...
Wichtlein
Wichtlein behave in much the same way as goblins. They announce the death of a miner by tapping three times. When a disaster is about to happen they are heard digging, pounding and imitating miners work.
White Ladies
The use of White Ladies for both ghosts and fairies is an indication of the close connection between fairies and the dead. The White Ladies were direct descendants of the Tuatha De Danann.The name “Guinevere” means “white phantom”.They may be...
Tylwyth Teg
(terlooeth teig) . Tylwyth Teg is a general name for the fairies in Wales, it means the ‘fair folk’. Like the euphemistic Bendith y Mamau the flattering name was thought to appease them, in an attempt to avert their kidnapping activities. Fairies would...