Leprechaun
A leprechaun is a diminutive supernatural being in Irish folklore, classed by some as a type of solitary fairy. They are usually depicted as little bearded men, wearing a coat and hat, who partake in mischief. In later times, they have been depicted as shoe-makers who have a hidden pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Leprechaun-like creatures rarely appear in Irish mythology and only became prominent in later folklore.
Etymology
The Anglo-Irish word leprechaun is descended from Old Irish luchorpán, via various forms such as luchrapán, lupraccán,.Modern forms
The current spelling leipreachán is used throughout Ireland, but there are numerous regional variants.John O'Donovan's supplement to O'Reilly's Irish-English Dictionary defines lugharcán, lugracán, lupracán as "a sprite, a pigmy; a fairy of a diminutive size, who always carries a purse containing a shilling".
The Irish term leithbrágan in O'Reilly's Dictionary has also been recognized as an alternative spelling.
Other variant spellings in English have included lubrican, leprehaun, and lepreehawn. Some modern Irish books use the spelling lioprachán. The first recorded instance of the word in the English language was in Dekker's comedy The Honest Whore, Part 2 : "As for your Irish lubrican, that spirit / Whom by preposterous charms thy lust hath rais'd / In a wrong circle."
Meanings
The word may have been coined as a compound of the roots lú or laghu and corp, or so it had been suggested by Whitley Stokes. However, research published in 2019 suggests that the word derives from the Luperci and the associated Roman festival of Lupercalia.Folk etymology derives the word from leith and bróg, because of the frequent portrayal of the leprechaun as working on a single shoe, as evident in the alternative spelling leithbrágan.
Early attestations
The earliest known reference to the leprechaun appears in the medieval 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 wakes to find himself being dragged into the sea by three lúchorpáin. He captures his abductors, who grant him three wishes in exchange for release.The saga and Disney
The Disney film "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" which features a leprechaun king, is a work in which Fergus mac Léti was "featured parenthetically". It might be pointed out that in the film, the captured leprechaun king grants three wishes, like Fergus in the saga.While the film project was in development, Walt Disney was in contact with, and consulting Séamus Delargy and the Irish Folklore Commission, but never asked for leprechaun material, even though a large folkloric repository on such subject was housed by the commission.
Folklore
The leprechaun is said to be a solitary creature, whose principal occupation is making and cobbling shoes, and who enjoys practical jokes.Classification
The leprechaun has been classed as a "solitary fairy" by the writer and amateur folklorist William Butler Yeats.Appearance
The leprechaun originally had a different appearance depending on where in Ireland he was found. Prior to the 20th century, it was generally held that the leprechaun wore red, not green. 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 solitary fairies, like the leprechaun, wear red jackets, whereas the "trooping fairies" wear green. The leprechaun's jacket has seven rows of buttons with seven buttons to each row. On the western coast, he writes, the red jacket is covered by a frieze one, and in Ulster the creature wears a cocked hat, and when he is up to anything unusually mischievous, he leaps onto a wall and spins, balancing himself on the point of the hat with his heels in the air."
According to McAnally
This dress could vary by region, however. In McAnally's account there were differences between leprechauns or Logherymans from different regions:
- The Northern Leprechaun or Logheryman wore a "military red coat and white breeches, with a broad-brimmed, high, pointed hat, on which he would sometimes stand upside down".
- The Lurigadawne of Tipperary wore an "antique slashed jacket of red, with peaks all round and a jockey cap, also sporting a sword, which he uses as a magic wand".
- The Luricawne of Kerry was a "fat, pursy little fellow whose jolly round face rivals in redness the cut-a-way jacket he wears, that always has seven rows of seven buttons in each row".
- The Cluricawne of Monaghan wore "a swallow-tailed evening coat of red with green vest, white breeches, black stockings," shiny shoes, and a "long cone hat without a brim," sometimes used as a weapon.
...A wrinkled, wizen'd, and bearded Elf,
Spectacles stuck on his pointed nose,
Silver buckles to his hose,
Leather apron — shoe in his lap...
The modern image of the leprechaun sitting on a toadstool, having a red beard and green hat, etc. is clearly more modern invention or borrowed from other strands of European folklore.
Related creatures
The leprechaun is related to the clurichaun and the far darrig in that he is a solitary creature. Some writers even go as far as to substitute these second two less well-known spirits for the leprechaun in stories or tales to reach a wider audience. The clurichaun is considered by some to be merely a leprechaun on a drinking spree.In politics
In the politics of the Republic of Ireland, leprechauns have been used to refer to the aspects of the tourist industry in Ireland. This can be seen from this example of John A. Costello addressing the Oireachtas in 1963: "For many years, we were afflicted with the miserable trivialities of our tourist advertising. Sometimes it descended to the lowest depths, to the caubeen and the shillelagh, not to speak of the leprechaun.Popular culture
Films, television cartoons and advertising have popularised a specific image of leprechauns which bears little resemblance to anything found in the cycles of Irish folklore. It can be considered that the popularised image of a leprechaun is little more than a series of stereotypes based on derogatory 19th-century caricatures. Many Celtic Music groups have used the term Leprechaun LeperKhanz as part of their naming convention or as an album title. Even popular forms of American music have used the mythological character, including heavy metal celtic metal, punk rock and jazz.- Possibly the most notable of all is Lucky the mascot of Lucky Charms of General Mills.
- The Notre Dame Leprechaun is the official mascot of the Fighting Irish sports teams at the University of Notre Dame
- Boston Celtics logo features the mascot of the team, Lucky the Leprechaun
- Professional wrestler Dylan Mark Postl competed and appeared as Hornswoggle, a leprechaun who lived under the ring, for the majority of his WWE tenure.
- The 1993 American horror slasher-film Leprechaun and its sequels.
In America, Leprechauns are often associated with St. Patrick's Day along with the color green and shamrocks.