Product Code Database
A pixie (also called pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, piskie, or pigsie in parts of Cornwall and Devon) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are speculated to be particularly concentrated in the high Dartmoor areas around DevonR. Totnea: "Pixies", Once a Week, 25 May 1867, page 608, notes the prevalence of belief in Pixies in Devon. and Cornwall,"The Folk-Lore of Devon", Fraser's Magazine, December 1875, page 773ff. suggesting some Celts origin for the belief and name. However, the word 'pixie' (under various forms) also appears in Dorset, Somerset and to a lesser extent in Sussex, Wiltshire and Hampshire.
Similar to the Irish and Scottish Aos Sí (also spelled Aos Sidhe), pixies are believed to inhabit ancient underground sites such as , tumulus, , , or .Imagined Landscapes:Archaeology, Perception and Folklore in the Study of Medieval Devon, Lucy Franklin , 2006. In traditional regional lore, pixies are generally benign, mischievous, short of stature, and childlike; they are fond of country dance and wrestling outdoors, of which they perform through the night.
In the modern era, they are usually depicted with pointy ears, often wearing a green outfit and pointed hat. Traditional stories describe them as wearing dirty, ragged bundles of rags, which they discard for gifts containing new clothes.English forests and forest trees, historical, legendary, and descriptive, Ingram, Cooke, and co., 1853. In other depictions, their eyes are described as being pointed upwards at the outer end. These, however, are Victorian era conventions and not part of the older mythology.
Very similar analogues exist in closely related Irish (Aos Sí), Manx language (Mooinjer veggey), Welsh Tylwyth Teg ('Fair Family'), and Breton language (korrigan) culture. Although their common names are unrelated, there is a high degree of local variation of names. In west Penwith, the area of late survival of the Cornish language, are distinguished from pixies by their malevolent nature, while knockers are distinct for their association with tin mining in Cornwall.
Pixie mythology is believed to pre-date Christian presence in Britain. Romano-British Hooded Spirits genii cucullati are a possible ancient Celtic forebear—such dwarfish sprites wore traditional hooded cloaks associated with the British and concealed phallic daggers. In the Christian era, they were sometimes said to be the souls of children who had died unbaptised (similar to the belief in Limbo). These children would change their appearance to pixies once their clothing was placed in clay funeral pots used in their earthly lives as toys. A common idea in the Victorian era was that pixies were a folk memory of the Pictish people, but that has largely been disproven and is viewed in academia as Norse propaganda against the Picts"Scottish Fairy Belief" (2007) pp. 21–22. This suggestion is still referenced in contemporary writing, but there is no proven connection, and the etymology basis is considered ambiguous."South Coast Sunterings in England", in: Harpers New Monthly Magazine, (1869) pp. 29–41. Some 19th-century researchers made more general claims about pixie origins, or have connected them with the Puck (Cornish Bucca), a mythological creature sometimes described as a fairy; the name Puck (Irish: Púca, Welsh: Pwca) is also of uncertain origin.
The earliest published version of The Three Little Pigs story is from Dartmoor in 1853 and has three little pixies in place of the pigs.English Forests and Forest Trees: Historical, Legendary, and Descriptive (London: Ingram, Cooke, and Company, 1853), pp. 189–90 In older Westcountry dialect, modern Received Pronunciation letter pairs are sometimes transposed from the older Saxon spelling ( waps for wasp, aks for ask, etc.) resulting in piskies in place of piksies (pixies) as commonly found in Devon and Cornwall in modern times.
Until the advent of contemporary fiction, pixie mythology was mostly localised to Britain. Some have noted similarities to "northern fairies", Germanic and Scandinavian elves,e.g. John Thackray Bunce: Fairy Tales: Their Origin and Meaning 1878, page 133. or Nordic Tomte, but pixies are distinguished from them by the myths and stories of Devon and Cornwall.
In the legends associated with Dartmoor, pixies (or piskeys) are said to disguise themselves as a bundle of rags to lure children. The pixies of Dartmoor are fond of music, dancing, and riding on Dartmoor Pony. These pixies are generally said to be helpful for humans, sometimes helping needy widows and others with housework. They are not completely benign, however, as they have a reputation for misleading travellers known as being "pixy-led", and it can be cured by turning a coat inside-out.William Crossing, Tales of the Dartmoor Pixies, 1890, page 6.
In some of the legends and historical accounts, they are presented as having an Anthropomorphism stature. For instance, a member of the Elford family in Tavistock, Devon, successfully hid from Oliver Cromwell's troops in a pixie house. A Handbook for Travellers in Devon, 1887 edition, page 230. Though the entrance has narrowed with time, the pixie house, a natural cavern on Sheepstor, is still accessible.
At Buckland St. Mary, Somerset, pixies and fairies are said to have been in a war. The pixies were victorious and visit occasionally, whilst the fairies are said to have left after their loss.Katherine Mary Briggs: The Fairies in Tradition and Literature, page 179.
By the early 19th century, their contact with humans had diminished. In Samuel Drew's 1824 book Cornwall, Drew states: "The age of pixies, like that of chivalry, is gone. There is, perhaps, at present hardly a house they are reputed to visit. Even the fields and lanes which they formerly frequented seem to be nearly forsaken. Their music is rarely heard." The History of Cornwall From the Earliest Records & Traditions, to the Present Time, 2 vols. 1824.
The Pixie Day legend originates from the early days of Christianity, when a local bishop decided to build a church in Otteri (Ottery St. Mary), and commissioned a set of bells, or bell ringers, to come from Wales, of whom were escorted by monks on their journey.
The pixies were worried, as they knew that once the bells were installed it would be the death knell of their rule over the land. They cast a spell over the monks to redirect them from the road to Otteri to the road leading them to the cliff's edge at Sidmouth. Just as the monks were about to fall over the cliff, one of the monks stubbed his toe on a rock and said "God bless my soul", breaking the spell.
The bells were then brought to Otteri and installed. However, the pixies' spell was not completely broken; each year on a day in June, the "pixies" come out and capture the town's bell ringers, later imprisoning them in Pixies' Parlour to be rescued by the Vicar of Ottery St. Mary. This legend is re-enacted each year by the Cub Scouts and Brownie groups of Ottery St. Mary, with a specially constructed Pixies' Parlour in the Town Square—the original Pixie's Parlour can be found along the banks of the River Otter.
Some pixies are said to steal children or lead travellers astray. This seems to be a blend from fairy mythology not originally attached to pixies; in 1850, Thomas Keightley noted that much of Devon pixie mythology may have originated from fairy myth. Pixies are said to reward consideration and punish neglect on the part of larger humans, for which Keightley gives examples. By their presence, they bring blessings to those who are fond of them.
Pixies are said to have a spiritual connection to horses, riding them for pleasure and making tangled ringlets in the manes of those horses.Devon Pixies, Once A Week, 23 February 1867, pages 204–5.
In mythology, pixies are sometimes said to be of human origin or to "partake of human nature", in distinction to fairies whose mythology is traced to immaterial and malignant spirit forces. In some discussions, pixies are presented as wingless, pygmy-like creatures. However, this is probably a later accretion to the mythology.
One British scholar stated his belief that "Pixies were evidently a smaller race, and, from the greater obscurity of the ... tales about them, I believe them to have been an earlier race."C. Spence Bate: "Grimspound and Its Associated Relics", Annual Report of the Transactions of the Plymouth Institution, Vol. 5. part 1, 1873–4, page 46.
The late 19th-century English poet Nora Chesson summarised pixie mythology in a poem entitled "The Pixies".Nora Chesson: Aquamarines, London, 1902, page 81. She gathered all the speculations and myths into verse:
The Pixie Day tradition in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's hometown of Ottery St Mary in East Devon was the inspiration for his poem "Songs of the Pixies".Shed (editor): Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Vol. 7, 1854, page 24.
The Victorian-era writer Mary Elizabeth Whitcombe divided pixies into tribes according to personality and deeds. Bygone Days of Devon and Cornwall, 1874, page 45. The novelist Anna Eliza Bray suggested that pixies and fairies were distinct species. Legends, Superstitions and Sketches of Devonshire, 1844, page 169.
|
|
