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What this episode is about
Part 1 of the Ireland special is a double-length story hour. I retell the oldest leprechaun stories the way they have come down to us, without commentary. Forget the green suit and the rainbow. In these stories the little man is lonely, cunning and sometimes deadly.
I. Fergus, son of Léte
The oldest story comes from early medieval Ireland. King Fergus of Ulster falls asleep on the beach, and small creatures from the sea, the lúchorpáin, carry him into the water. He wakes up, grabs them and forces them to grant him a wish: the power to walk underwater. There is just one lake he must never enter. What he meets there disfigures him, and a king of Ulster with a bodily blemish loses his throne.
II. The wine cellar of Ballinacarthy
Justin Mac Carthy can’t find a butler willing to go down into his wine cellar. When he goes down himself, he finds Naggeneen sitting on the barrel with a tap over his shoulder, asking whether they really meant to leave him behind when they move.
III. The field of boliauns
On a holiday, Tom Fitzpatrick catches a little shoemaker in the hedge. You must never take your eyes off him, or he gets away. Tom doesn’t let up until the little man tells him which weed the treasure is buried under. Then all Tom has to do is go and get a spade.
IV. Moirna Hogaune and the bees
In a tavern, Felix O’Driscoll makes fun of the cluricauns. Old Moirna Hogaune takes the pipe out of her mouth and tells how she once saw one herself. Seeing is believing.
V. The little shoe
Molly Cogan tells of her grandfather, who once had the little man in his fist.
VI. Regional variants
To finish, I go around Ireland: from the leprechaun in the north to the lurigadawne in Tipperary, the luricawne in Kerry and the cluricawne in Monaghan, each with his own clothes and his own character, as D. R. McAnally described them in 1888.
Who wrote these stories down and what they have to do with today’s leprechaun is the subject of Part 2. One note up front: the common translation of the name as “small body” is probably wrong according to more recent research. I explain why in Part 2.
Frequently asked questions
What is the oldest leprechaun story?
The tale of King Fergus mac Léti, in which the lúchorpáin carry the sleeping king into the sea. D. A. Binchy edited it in 1952.
Where do the old leprechaun stories come from?
Most come from Thomas Crofton Croker’s Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1825), and the regional variants from D. R. McAnally’s Irish Wonders (1888).
More in the lexicon: Leprechaun.
About this episode
Forget the green suit. Forget the rainbow.
In his oldest stories the leprechaun isn’t a mascot. He’s a solitary, cunning and occasionally murderous creature. He comes out of the sea to drown sleeping kings. He lives in the wine cellar and refuses to move out. And he wins every single time, not through strength, but because he knows exactly where a human being looks when you distract them.
Part 1 of the Ireland Special is an extended story hour. No analysis, no context, just the tales, the way people in Ireland told them. The analysis comes in Part 2.
Sources
— D. A. Binchy, “The Saga of Fergus mac Léti”, Ériu 16 (1952), pp. 33–48. The standard edition and translation of the Old Irish tale in which the lúchorpáin appear. Binchy’s translation underlies the retelling in chapter I, including the bellows comparison, the seven years of concealment, and Fergus’s last words.
— Thomas Crofton Croker, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, London 1825. The earliest major collection of Irish fairy legends. Three of tonight’s stories come from it: “The Haunted Cellar” (Ballinacarthy and Naggeneen), “The Field of Boliauns” (Tom Fitzpatrick) and “The Little Shoe” (Molly Cogan). Croker uses the word Cluricaune throughout for all of these beings.
— Thomas Crofton Croker, “Seeing is Believing”, ibid. Source for Moirna Hogaune’s account, and for the notes on the spré na skillenagh and the trick with the two purses.
— Lady Morgan, O’Donnel: A National Tale, London 1814. Quoted by Croker in his notes; contains the description of the creature as a guardian of treasure buried “in the troubles”, and the explanation of why any marker you leave behind multiplies overnight.
— D. R. McAnally Jr., Irish Wonders, Boston 1888. Source for the regional variants in chapter VI: the northern Irish leprechaun, the Lurigadawne of Tipperary, the Luricawne of Kerry, the Cluricawne of Monaghan, and the frieze-coated west coast version.
— W. B. Yeats (ed.), Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, London 1888. Groups the Lepracaun together with the Cluricaun and the Far Darrig among the “solitary fairies” — a classification we’ll return to in Part 2.