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When Elsie’s father developed the photographs in his darkroom, he dismissed the initial picture—of Frances watching four fairies dancing on a bush—as the girls fooling around with paper cut-outs. However, a couple of months later the girls went on to produce a second photograph, of Elsie sitting on the lawn with a gnome.
In 1919 Elsie’s mother showed the photographs at a meeting of the Theosophical Society at a lecture on “Fairy Life.” A few months later, the photos were displayed at the Society’s annual conference, where they caught the eye of Edward Gardner, an eminent member. His interest was piqued and he sent the images and the glass-plate negatives to a photography expert, who was of the opinion that the photographs were genuine. Gardner then used enhanced negatives to reproduce the images, which he used to deliver illustrated lectures around the country.
The editor of the Spiritualist magazine Light drew the photos to the attention of renowned author and Spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He had been commissioned to write an article on fairies for the Christmas edition of the Strand magazine. He contacted Gardner to find out who had taken the photos and subsequently got in touch with the Wrights to ask for permission to use the two photos to illustrate his article. Impressed that such an eminent figure as Conan Doyle was interested, Elsie’s father agreed that the photos could be used, but refused to accept any money for them, stating that if they were in fact genuine, then they shouldn’t be sullied by the exchange of money.
Conan Doyle was preoccupied preparing for a lecture tour of Australia, so Gardner went to meet with the Wright family. Elsie’s father told him that he been convinced there was some trick involved in the photographs, but when he had searched the girls’ room for evidence—scraps of pictures or cut-outs—he had found nothing incriminating. As further verification of the photographs’ authenticity, Gardner returned to Cottingley with two cameras and some photographic plates, which had secretly been marked to reveal any tampering. Frances was invited to stay to see if the girls could repeat their feat and again take pictures of the fairies.
Insisting that the fairies would not show themselves if other people were watching, the two girls set off alone to the stream, where they took several photos, three of which appeared to show fairies. “Frances and the Leaping Fairy” showed Frances in profile looking at a winged fairy sitting on branch; in “Fairy Offering a Posy of Harebells to Elsie,” a fairy is offering Elsie flowers. The final photo, “Fairies and their Sun Bath,” showed the fairies, without either of the girls, frolicking in the sunshine.
Packed in cotton wool, the plates were sent back to Gardner, who wrote to Conan Doyle in Australia expressing his joy that the experiment seemed to have worked.
The Christmas edition of the Strand in which the original photos were published sold out in two days. Elsie and Frances’ names were changed to protect their privacy and they were referred to as Iris and Alice Carpenter. Conan Doyle concluded his article by writing he hoped that if the photographs helped to convince people of the existence of fairies it would jolt the materialistic twentieth-century mindset out of its rut and into acknowledging the glamor and mystery of life. It was his hope that the images would encourage people to open up to other psychic phenomena too.
Initial reactions to the images were mixed. Skeptics noted that the fairies conformed to the images in traditional nursery tales and sported suspiciously fashionable hairstyles, while others took the girls and their photos at face value, welcoming the images as evidence of the existence of supernatural beings.
Conan Doyle used the second batch of photographs to illustrate another article in the Strand in 1921. This article went on to form the basis of his book, The Coming of the Fairies, published in 1922.
In 1921 Gardner made a final visit to Cottingley, this time accompanied by a clairvoyant named Geoffrey Hodson. On this occasion neither Frances or Elsie claimed to see fairies; however, Hodson professed to observe many of the winged creatures. Frances and Elsie later denounced him as a fake.
Public interest in the Cottingley Fairies phenomenon gradually died down after 1921. Elsie and Frances married and lived abroad for many years. It was not until 1966 that the fairies—and Frances and Elsie—found themselves once again in the limelight, when a reporter for the Daily Express tracked down Elsie, now living back in England. In an interview, she admitted that the fairies might have been figments of her imagination, but said that what she saw in her mind had somehow been captured on the photographic plate. The article triggered more media interest and scientific investigations into the photographs, most of which concluded that they were fakes.
In 1983, in an article in the Unexplained magazine, the cousins admitted that the photos had been fabricated. However, they maintained that the fairies were real and they had genuinely seen them. Elsie, a skilled artist from a young age, had copied out illustrations of fairies from Princess Mary’s Gift Book (1914), a popular children’s book, which they had then made into cardboard cut-outs, being careful to dispose of all traces of anything that could be used as evidence. However, a question mark remains over the fifth and final photograph, “Fairies and their Sun Bath.” Both girls claimed to have taken it, and Frances always maintained that it was genuine.
In an interview on Arthur C. Clarke’s World of Strange Powers, Elsie explained that she and Frances had been too embarrassed to say anything after the highly esteemed Arthur Conan Doyle had championed the pictures as genuine evidence of fairies. What had started out as an attempt to prove their parents wrong had taken an unexpected turn that they could never have predicted. They had never thought of it as fraud, Elsie said, just two cousins having a bit of fun. She couldn’t understand how so many people—and very highly regarded figures at that—were taken in. She believed they had wanted to be taken in.
Prints of the photographs, two of the cameras the girls used, and watercolors of fairies painted by Elsie are displayed at the National Media Museum in Bradford.
Co-walker
An apparition of one’s double or doppelgänger. In the north of England it is known as a waff and portends death. In The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies (1691), Robert Kirk believes it to be a type of fairy that can be seen by those with second sight. This double resembles a person in every way, like a twin or shadow, and can be seen before and after that person is dead. It is often sighted eating at funeral banquets or bearing the coffin to the grave.
See alsoFetch (#litres_trial_promo), Swarth (#litres_trial_promo).
Cowlug Sprites
In the villages of Bowden and Gateside, on the border between England and Scotland, the cowlug sprites haunt the villages on Cowlug Night. These strange sprites are aptly named, with ears said to be shaped like the ears of cows.
Crimbil
Welsh for changeling.
Crodh Mara
Scottish sea-dwelling fairy cattle. These hornless cattle sometimes bestow the gift of their milk on humans.
One story tells of the Hero of Clanranald, who lived with his wife and their cow. The cow gave very little milk. One day the hero’s wife saw three crodh mara and went to milk them. That night she heard a voice that told her to spill some milk on the fairy hill. She did, and from that day on the cows appeared for her to milk every day. When she died, they never returned.
In another tale, a couple spotted crodh mara on an island at Lochmaddy. The milk from the fairy cattle supplied the couple with butter and cheese for half a year.
Croker, Thomas Crofton (1798–1854)
The antiquarian and folktale collector Thomas Crofton Croker was born in Cork, Ireland. After a sporadic local education, he joined a mercantile firm in 1813, but soon became more interested in artistic pursuits and developed an interest in the folk and fairy traditions of Ireland. In 1819 he obtained the position of clerk at the Admiralty in London, where he continued to work until his retirement.
His writings were influenced by visits to the province of Munster in the south of Ireland where he collected legends, folk songs, and tales. He wrote the first volume of Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland in 1825. The book proved to be very successful; it garnered praise from Sir Walter Scott and was translated into German by Jakob Grimm. The second and third volumes were published in 1828. Croker’s wife, Marianne, was a painter and provided the illustrations for the books. Croker himself is regarded as the first field-collector of folk tales in Ireland.
Croquemitaine
French bogeyman, literally, the “cruncher of mittens.” When French children misbehave, their parents threaten to send them to the croquemitaine, who will gobble them up.
Cú Chulainn
SeeCuchullin (#ulink_837cf44f-1338-5477-87c0-f7d34d270a66).
Cú Cuchaind
SeeCuchullin (#ulink_837cf44f-1338-5477-87c0-f7d34d270a66).
Cù Sith
(Pronouced coo-shee.) Scottish fairy dog. His dark green color marks him out as distinct from other Celtic fairy hounds. Other fairy dogs are generally described as either white with red ears, or black; the most common type in England are black dogs. As described by J. G. Campbell in Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (1900), the cù sith is the size of a young bull, with a shaggy coat and a long tail coiled or plaited on his back; his huge footprints can often be seen in the mud or the snow. He runs silently, gliding along in a straight line. Three loud barks, which can be heard by sailors far out at sea, are the signal that the cú sith is out hunting.
See alsoYeth Hound (#litres_trial_promo).
Cuachag
(Pronounced cooachack.) A Scottish river sprite or fuath. It haunted Glen Cuaich and takes its name from this place. Like all fuathan, it is a pernicious spirit.
Cúchulainn
SeeCuchullin (#ulink_837cf44f-1338-5477-87c0-f7d34d270a66).
Cuchullin
(Also Cú Chulainn, Cú Cuchaind, or Cúchulainn.) Hero of the Ulster Cycle, one of the first collections of Irish heroic legends, he also appears in Manx and Scottish folklore.
Cuchullin was born a mortal, his name was Sétanta, but he was the son of the god Lugh of the Long Arm and even as a child he displayed great strength. When he was seven years old he killed Culain the Smith’s fierce hound, who guarded the King of Ulster’s court. To make amends he offered to guard Ulster until his death. He was given the name Cuchullin, “Culain’s Hound.”
From the outset, Cuchullin’s striking appearance set him apart as different. He had seven toes on each foot, seven fingers on each hand and seven pupils in each eye. His red shock of hair was dark brown at the roots, light blond at the tips. He wore 100 strings of gems on his head, his chest glittered with a hundred brooches, and he had many admirers. However, he was prone to fits of battle frenzy. During such fits, he transformed into a monster, turning himself around inside his skin, so that his feet and knees faced backward and his calves and heels faced forward. Each strand of his hair stood up on his scalp with rage, a flame leapt from his mouth, and a jet of black blood spouted from the top of his head. His eyes displaced themselves, one to his cheek, the other the back of his skull. He fought from his chariot, driven by Laég, his faithful charioteer, drawn by his gray and black horses Liath Macha and Dub Sainglend. In this fevered, crazed state, he had to be dipped into three vats of ice-cold water to return him to normal temperature.
When he was 17 years old, he single-handedly defended Ulster against Queen Medhb in the epic battle of the Cattle Raid of Cuailane. Eventually it was Queen Medhb who brought about his demise. Cuchullin bound himself to a pillar or standing stone so that he might stand up and fight his enemies to the very end and thus he died a hero.
See alsoLug (#litres_trial_promo), Raven (#litres_trial_promo).
Curupira
Brazilian guardian spirit of the forest. In Brazilian mythology he is most often depicted as a red-headed boy, with the distinguishing feature of backward-facing feet. The name comes from curu, meaning “boy,” and pira, meaning “body,” in the language of the Tupi people of the Brazilian rainforest. Curupira safeguards trees, plants, and animals from the destructive activities of humans, using his backward feet to confound hunters who try to follow his tracks.
Cutty Soams
A mischievous coal-pit bogle from the north of England, also known as Old Cutty Soams. Putters were mine workers—sometimes girls—responsible for pushing the wooden wagons that transported coal or ore out of the mine. “Soams” were the ropes that attached the putter to the wagon. Cutty Soams was known for severing these ropes. According to an account in the Monthly Chronicle (1887), when the men went down to work in the morning, it was not uncommon for them to find that Cutty Soams had been busy during the night, and every pair of soams in the colliery had been cut to pieces. Though fond of causing mischief, Cutty Soams was also known to bring about good, at times pouncing upon an unpopular overseer to give him a sound thrashing, much to the delight of the miners.
Cwn Annwn
(Pronounced koon anoon.) Welsh hell hounds. Similar to the Gabriel Ratchets, the wish hounds, and the Seven Whistlers, they are harbingers of death. To hear them is a sure sign that someone’s time is up. Their howls are said to grow softer as they approach; close by, their yelping sounds like the cries of small beagles, yet far away their growling is a loud wild lament.
See alsoYeth Hound (#litres_trial_promo).
Cyhyraeth
(Pronounced kerherrighth.) Welsh form of the Scottish caoineag, the “weeper.” She is rarely seen, most often manifesting as an invisible, disembodied voice. Her groaning is an omen of death, especially multiple deaths that are the result of a disaster or an epidemic. Like the Irish banshee, she wails for locals who have died in foreign lands away from home. Accompanied by a corpse light or will o’ the wisp, her cries have been heard on the sea off the Welsh Glamorganshire coast before shipwrecks, foretelling the path a corpse would take to the churchyard.
In Wirt or W. Sikes’ British Goblins (1880), her wailing is described as doleful and disagreeable, like the groaning of a dying person. As well as foretelling death, it is often a portent of foul weather. First it is heard at a distance, then closer, then near at hand, offering three warnings of death. “It begins strong, and louder than a sick man can make; the second cry is lower, but not less doleful, but rather more so; the third yet lower and soft, like the groaning of a sick man almost spent and dying.”
D’Aulnoy, Marie-Catherine (c.1650–1705)
French countess and writer who published Les Contes de Fées (Fairy Tales) in 1697 and Contes Nouveaux ou les Fées à la Mode (New Tales or Fairies in Fashion) in 1698. She was one of the most influential writers in the French salons, fashionable gatherings of literary and artistic figures popular in the seventeenth century.
Like many of her contemporaries, such as Charles Perrault, Madame d’Aulnoy drew on tales from oral folk tradition and retold them in a literary style. Her tales include “Le Prince Lutin,” translated into English as “The Imp Prince,” “Yellow Dwarf,” and “The White Cat” among others.
Dagda
King of the Tuatha de Danann, the immortal fairy people of Ireland.
Human invaders known as Milesians forced the Dananns to hide under “hollow hills” or mounds. However, they still controlled the natural growth of wheat and grass, essential for bread and milk, and so persuaded the Milesians to make a treaty with their king, Dagda.
Dagda had four great palaces underground and he gave two of these to his sons Lug and Ogme, keeping the other two for himself, the greater of these being Brugh na Boinne. A third son, Angus Mac Og, returned from his travels and was angry to find he had been left out. He asked Dagda if he could have the Brugh for a day and a night, and this was agreed. But at the end of that time Angus claimed the Brugh forever, as a day and a night following on from one another represented all time. Although a great warrior, Dagda wasn’t the sharpest knife in the box and could be conquered by cunning, and he allowed Angus his claim.
Dagda then took his fourth son, Aedh, to his last palace, near Tara. There they were visited by Corrgenn of Connacht and his wife. Corrgenn suspected Aedh of adultery with his wife, and promptly killed him. In turn it was expected that Dagda would kill him. However, feeling that he had been to some extent justified in his actions, instead he laid upon him a geasa, or curse: Corrgenn had to carry the body of Aedh with him until he found a stone of the exact size to cover it.
After many miles, eventually Corrgenn found a suitable stone on the shore of Loch Feabhail. He dug a grave on a hill and laid the body in it before carrying the stone up to cover it. All this was too much for him, however: his heart burst and he died. Dagda had a wall built around the tomb and this place has been called the Hill of Aileac, or Hill of Sighs, ever since.
Daji
SeeHuli Jing (#litres_trial_promo).
Dame Hirip
A child-stealing fairy woman of Hungarian folklore, one of the tündér, the Hungarian fairies.
According to an account in The Folk Tales of the Magyars (1889), Dame Hirip lived in a castle on the Varoldal mountain in Gyergyószentmiklós. She had two sons whom she sent down the mountain to rob travelers passing through of their gold and silver, and to kidnap human girls. She herself would stand on the tower of the castle, clutching a wreath in anticipation of her sons’ return.
One day, the sons encountered the sweethearts of two of the girls they had kidnapped. The two heroes, clad in mourning for their brides-to-be, fought the sons and were victorious, whereupon Dame Hirip, stationed at her lookout on the castle tower clutching her wreath, faded away.
Dame Rapson
A fairy woman of the tündér, the Hungarian fairies. The tündér were said to dwell in mountain castles that they inherited from giants or constructed themselves, often with the assistance of magical helpers. The Folk Tales of the Maygars (1889) relates how Dame Rapson enlisted the help of a magical cat and cock to construct her mountain abode.
The cat and cock carried materials to dizzying heights up a sheer-sided mountain face with which to build Dame Rapson’s castle.
To construct the road leading to the castle, the fairy enlisted the help of the Devil, who demanded as payment a valley of silver and a mountain of gold.
After the road had been built, the Devil demanded his wages. The cunning fairy presented him with a gold coin, which she held between her fingertips, and a silver coin, which she placed on her palm, explaining that the gold coin was the mountain and the coin was the valley.
The Devil flew into a rage at being outwitted and destroyed the road. It is said that remnants of it are still visible in the snow-clad Gorgeny mountains near Paraja where it is still known as Dame Rapson’s Road.
Dana
(Pronounced thana. Also Danu.) One of the great mother goddesses in Irish mythology. Particularly associated with the Tuatha de Danann, she was also worshiped in other countries under different names. As mother of the gods, she has similarities with the mother figure Don, who features in the Welsh Mabinogion stories. In Lady Gregory’s account of how the Tuatha de Danann came to Ireland, in Gods and Fighting Men (1904), special mention goes to Dana, whose power goes beyond that of all the other great queens.
Danu
SeeDana (#ulink_0f7e50c5-c62c-54f9-9a64-bcb755d1ca2d).
Daoine Mainne
SeeDaoine Sidh (#ulink_d0d73498-73ad-5e4a-b6a4-060a19d15c8c).
Daoine Sidh
(Pronounced theena shee or deeny shee.) (Also Daoine Mainne.) The fairy people of Ireland. They are said to dwell in hollow hills and the name literally means “people of the mounds.” They are often referred to by euphemistic names such as the Little People, the Gentry, the Wee Folk, the Good People, or the People of that Town, so as not to cause offense. They are generally supposed to be the diminished gods of the Tuatha de Danann, the early inhabitants of Ireland. Celtic legends tell of fairy ladies and heroic fairy knights who spent their time hunting, fishing, riding, and dancing.
Daphne
According to Greek myth, she was a beautiful mountain nymph who attracted the attention of the great god Apollo. But she rejected him and so that she could escape his pursuit, her mother, Gaea, the Earth Goddess, transformed her into a laurel tree.
At the Pythian Games, held every four years at Delphi in honor of Apollo, a wreath of laurel gathered from the Vale of Tempe in Thessaly was given as a prize. The laurel wreath is still regarded as a symbol of success.
Nay, Lady, sit. If I but wave this wand,
Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster,
And you a statue, or, as Daphne was,
Root-bound, that fled Apollo.
Milton, Comus (678–681)
Deevs
SeeDivs (#ulink_0961b60f-91cc-581a-90a2-5d3b5ac3c2ab).
Dennison, Walter Traill (1826–1894)
Walter Traill Dennison was a farmer, antiquarian, and folklorist. He was a native of the Orkney island of Sanday, where he collected local folk tales. He published these, many in the Orcadian dialect, in 1880, under the title The Orcadian Sketch-Book. His collection of Oracadian tales includes an account of an encounter with the fearsome Nuckelavee.
Derrick
Fairies in the folklore of Devon and Hampshire. In Devon they are considered to be ill-tempered, while in Hampshire they are regarded as friendly. In one account a farmer’s wife described how she had lost her way on the Berkshire Downs when a little man dressed in green with a round smiling face appeared and told her which path to take; a local of Hampshire suggested he was a derrick.
