Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Coffee Hour at Street Prophets. This is an open thread where we can discuss what’s happening in our lives, what we’ve been working on, and our opinions on current events. For those who have any Irish heritage, for those who have been to Ireland, for those who want to go to Ireland, and for those who love someone who is Irish, today’s topic is leprechauns.
Irish oral traditions often tell of leprechauns and other little people and consequently the leprechaun became an important feature of Irish literature. The leprechaun is often stereotyped today as a little old man, usually dressed in seventeenth or eighteenth century clothes, who guards some sort of treasure. The earliest written record mentioning what might be a leprechaun is found in an eighth century text. The little person mentioned in the text is a luchorpán which is a water sprite.
The Irish leprechaun is rather ugly and his face has been describe as looking like a dried up apricot. His occupation is that of a cobbler and the name leprechaun may come from leath bhrógan which means shoe maker.
With regard to the legendary gold, if the leprechaun is captured by a human and asked for the location of the gold, the gold becomes the human’s. However, if the leprechaun manages to distract the human, which is usually easy to do, the leprechaun can escape and keep his gold.
Sometimes confused with the leprechaun is the cluricaune who drinks, smokes, and lurks in cellars. Since he smokes, we know that this is a later tradition.
Also confused with the leprechaun is the fear dearg, the Red Man with a macabre sense of humor. Tradition says that he tells gruesome jokes and laughs in your ear like a dead man.
Have you encountered any leprechauns recently?
This is an open thread: comments about politics, religion, legends, Ireland, food, pets, and whatever is on your mind are welcome.