Folklore: Female leprechauns?

Subject: Female leprechauns?
From: Paul Reade
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 01:11 PM

If you ever go across the sea to Ireland ... the tourist shops are full of leprechauns with their green coats, tall hats and beards.

But:-

Where are the female leprechauns?
Does their absence point to why they are extinct?
Is a female leprechaun a leprecolleen?

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 01:44 PM

The 'experts' say a leprechaun is a type of fairy, so any female fairy might do.

But Google the term and click 'images', you'll see that folks can draw 'em...

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: gnu
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 01:55 PM

Oh dear... I am SOOOOO tempted. Sommat to do with a pot of honey.

But, it's vulgar and we all know I am a gentleman who does not post vulgarities.

Sooooo... females do exist. They must. Right? The little ones must come from somewhere.

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 02:03 PM

Hell hath no fury like a woman leper's corns!

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Cuilionn
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 03:11 PM

To the best of my knowledge, there are no female leprechauns. Neither are there are any male bean-sidhes (Banshees). Aiblins they get together sometimes... what their kids look like is anyone's guess.

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Big Mick
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 03:24 PM

Of course there are no female leprechuans,..... nor are there any female clurachuans that I am aware of. You amateur Irish folks need to be a bit careful. Needling the wee folk is not a wise move. My Gran used to tell me that if you didn't believe in them, just ignore them. You will soon believe.........

All the best,

Mick who knows better than to mess with little folks

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 03:36 PM

No, there ARE Leprechuan Lassies, Mick...they're simply crossdressers, so you think they're all the Laddies, but they ain't.
The Lassies smell of Chanel No 5.

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 03:46 PM

I expect the lady leprechauns are home doing the leprechousework as they should be; as of course I know you will agree, Lizzie — Chanel#5 or not...

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: GUEST,Learaí na Láibe
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 08:12 AM

'leprechaunettes' you are all referring to, I assume.

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 08:52 AM

Surely 'leprechauneens' - as in 'colleens'?

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 09:03 AM

Male banshees- are they banhees? Or fearshees?

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 09:11 AM

"I expect the lady leprechauns are home doing the leprechousework as they should be; as of course I know you will agree, Lizzie — Chanel#5 or not..."

Oh, fook the housework, but I hope they're raising the Leprechaunbabbies OK, and not spending hours out boozing on the Guiness or the Irish Whiskey...

Hic!

Ooops, pardon me...

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: gnomad
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 09:24 AM

Leprechousework indeed, do you mean leprechores?

But surely being magic beings an all, they will only need to supervise.

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Lighter
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 11:12 AM

Let's get serious. Are there any actual folktales involving female leprechauns?

If not....

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: GUEST,Suibhne (Astray)
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 03:31 PM

You need to do some serious research - starting HERE

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 04:37 PM

As I've said several times in other threads, they all---male, female e-mail, or transgender-----they all live in huge leprecolonies!!

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Tim Leaning
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 04:56 PM

Hmmmmmm awa wi the faeries the lot o ye...

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 02:19 AM

If certain mortals can invent male leprechaunns, then other mortals can invent female leprechauns.

So the answer to the question, "Are there female leprechauns?" is "There are now."
====
Note: when I wish to type 'leprechauns' my fingers produce 'leprechaunts' and I have to go back and correct. Is this mere accident or is it magical forces at work?

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Bert
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 04:29 AM

invent!!! INVENT!!!

They are real!!! Both the Mikes and the Maureens

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 05:58 AM

Yes, thank you, Bert — I certainly am. Don't know about Maureen, mind.

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 08:18 AM

Are there female leprechauns?

YES! Read any of the Artimis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Elijah Browning
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 08:47 AM

Mind your tounges, naysayers...
With first-hand accounts from the British Isles to Nova Scotia including some dubitable claims of the past, this was a pretty cool documentary on fairy folk...
Yes, my dearies...a documentary...
All kidding aside, what's most chilling about this film was not the stories so much as the level heads of the people telling them...
Ain't sayin' there are. Ain't sayin' there ain't. Ain't sayin' nothin' more.

http://www.thefairyfaith.com/

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 08:58 AM

I am not discounting anything to do with fairy folk after my stay in a 200 year old fisherman's cottage in Mevagissey Cornwall a few years ago.

3 very peculiar and unlikely accident injuries (burned arm on frying pan, stabbed my leg with freakish flying knife, and bad fall off last but one step into storage heater -bashed knee) within 15 minutes of each other on the first day. Yes I put out water for the piskies (Cornish pixies) every day until we left.

Uhn uhn! Not wise to ignore!

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 11:37 AM

I am not discounting anything to do with fairy folk after my stay in a 200 year old fisherman's cottage
A 200 year old fisherman?

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 02:02 PM

LOL.... Now that is the stuff of fairy tales. Good call!

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 02:10 PM

They'd need to come in both genders IF they need to procreate (i.e., if they're mortal and need to replace themselves before they die).

If the wee folks are truly all-male, they must be immortal, or at least VERY long-lived.

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 10:45 PM

I know Elijah Browning, and he is a champion of unseen realities from way back. I trust him to, if not actually know the truth of a given quandary, to make up one on the spot. And then he will audaciously proceed to believe it so thoroughly that, within a fortnight, he will have founded his own new religion complete with all the necessary trappings.

You cannot go wrong following this man. But stay away from his kool aid.

Art

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 11:48 PM

All right, all right, everybody's pussyfooting around it, so I'll say it: Leprecunts.
There! Are you all happy now?

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: mousethief
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 11:54 PM

No.

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Jeri
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 09:22 AM

Seamus, if I didn't know you, I'd think there was a possibility you had no taste at all. Fortunately, I know you well enough to be sure of it.

(It sounds more like a medical condition, anyway.)

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Paul Reade
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 11:50 AM

How about leprechauns' dogs? This piece of tourist tat was spotted in a gift shop in Killarney: http://www.gradelydesigns.co.uk/leprecanine.jpg

I would have bought it for a dog-owning friend, but not at 10 euros a time!

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 12:23 PM

Jeri - thank you Ma'am.

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Jeri
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 12:32 PM

You're welcome, Seamus. Anytime.

So Paul... you wouldn't have paid in leprecoins?

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 03:01 PM

Virginia, I believe you erred in putting out water for the piskies. Next time, try something chocolate.

Subject: RE: Female leprechauns?
From: Tinker
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 03:23 PM

"There isn't any mention of female leprechauns in traditional Irish legend, so there are different theories as to how they come about. Perhaps they are defective offspring of other fairies, or maybe they're the products of unions between fairies & humans."

"In addition to cobblery, their other trade is "banking" ...."

www.holidayinsights.com/stpat/leprechaun.html

Subject: RE: Folklore: Female leprechauns?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 01:07 PM

There, there Henryetta. Maybe where Seamus comes from the word doesn't convey vicious contempt ...

Subject: RE: Folklore: Female leprechauns?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 01:17 PM

Nope, I read book in the house about Cornish Piskies. Supposed to put out water by the hearth.

I put a biscuit first night with water but they didn't touch it.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Female leprechauns?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 01:19 PM

Why thank you, Henryetta. Manhood but not maturity.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Female leprechauns?
From: Big Mick
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 01:52 PM

Heathens...... the lot of you!! Keep takin' the piss wi' the wee cobblers...... but give me a minute to put some distance between us, right? Don't want to be collateral damage.

Mick

Subject: RE: Folklore: Female leprechauns?
From: semi-submersible
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 05:46 PM

I heard once that the standard modern image of the leprechaun appears pretty recently (19th century, or 18th? I forget) in England, at a time when desperate poverty was driving numerous Irish to emigrate to England. The features of that caricature (stunted growth, exaggerated ears, foolish grin, impulsive behaviour and lack of empathy) are chillingly reminiscent of the stigmata of children afflicted by severe fetal alcohol syndrome.

English cartoonists and public appear to have identified symptoms of alcohol poisoning as a stereotype of Irish in general, just as the American public later identified the various developmental effects of chronic iodine deficiency as the "hillbilly" stereotype.

How old is the legend of leprechauns, anyway?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Female leprechauns?
From: Jeri
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 05:50 PM

I think he reaches his manhood more often than typically necess...
Sorry. That was terrible.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Female leprechauns?
From: glueman
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 05:50 PM

Richard Dawkins banned them.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Female leprechauns?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 05:54 PM

Not me Mick... I do believe with good reason. See my first post on this thread.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Female leprechauns?
From: glueman
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 06:21 PM

Here's a tale; rationalists go and make a cup of tea and I'll give you a shout when I'm done.

As a running dog capitalist lacky I had a couple of rental properties which I let to students. Being more of a running whippet I was forever letting the tenants off with their rent and feeling sorry for them or forgetting until I used the opportunity of two wanting to leave to sell up.

Although the place was better appointed than our own home when I let it, it was a tip by the time I came to sell which meant a few weeks hard graft to make it inhabitable. I changed the locks before vacating the property and being somewhat pedantic as well as madly busy, hung the keys up on a hook in the hallway so they were always at hand.
It came to locking up time and there were no keys on the hook. I hadn't been out so was a little nonplussed but thought it just conceivable I'd pocketed them - the spare set being at home a few miles away.

No keys in any pocket. Now there's no access to the property other than through the front and back door and I'd been in all day and both were a bit sticky and made a noise that could be heard through the house, besides which I'd been decorating the front room which gave a clear view of both entrances and being in an urban area, I always locked the doors straight after me.

To cut a long story short I was starting to get slightly panicked about leaving the property unsecured for the evening and the shops were closed by this point. I'd looked in all the upstairs bedrooms to no avail, even though I hadn't been up that day before searching for the missing keys. As I entered the back bedroom for the last time, which had been completely cleared some days previously by myself, I found the new keys plus some old ones of my own lined up in a perfect row in the doorway. I ma be slightly absent minded but I'm not barking mad.

Since then I've always been mindful of the small folk and thank them for their indulgence.

Dawkinsians, resume your positions.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Female leprechauns?
From: Fiolar
Date: 04 Feb 10 - 08:08 AM

Where I grew up in Ireland, the plant "Bog Cotton" was called "Leprechaun's Beard." Tradition has some great themes and many of them may very well be based on fact. What annoys me is when the "experts" usually do something stupid. I watched a series recently called "Special Unit 2" and one of the so-called evil characters was male called the "Banshee". The word "Banshee" means "Fairy Woman" and as 'catters will know it is usually associated with the death of a person.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Female leprechauns?
From: semi-submersible
Date: 04 Feb 10 - 01:49 PM

Fascinating accounts!

Over here in Canada, experiences aren't the same. There are reports of hairy and/or small nonhuman people who may have uncanny abilities to conceal themselves, but they aren't at all domestic. (They are also predominantly described as male, except the large apelike sasquatches which are reported in both genders.) All the stories of house elves or suchlike that I can recall are imported, though there are Canadian ghost stories aplenty.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Female leprechauns?
From: Jeri
Date: 04 Feb 10 - 02:09 PM

Seamus, I'm sorry if I was mean to you.

I have some here that have obviously learned how to ski. I looked out a window and saw a path where several distinct slidey thing went down a hill in back of my house. It just started with no animal tracks at all and continued down to the seasonal creeklet, now frozen over. I don't have a clue what else it could have been, other than a land migration of flying earthworms or baby snakes.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Female leprechauns?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 04 Feb 10 - 06:48 PM

Semi-submersible, you have been reading things by somebody who takes himself all too seriously.

Leprechauns don't have big ears. They have pointed ears, just like Mr. Spack. [sp] So shouldn't they be a sign of intelligence?

If big ears are a sign of deficiency, then Prince Charles is in real trouble.

As for the hillbilly-iodine link, hillbillies come from the South, and iodine deficiency was a big problem of the Great Lakes area. a thousand miles north.

Tell your sources that no, people sometimes like to be playful and use their imaginations.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Female leprechauns?
From: GUEST,crazy little woman
Date: 05 Feb 10 - 11:03 AM

Hi, Jeri. I bet your ski tracks were made by Borrowers. They are very small.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Female leprechauns?
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Feb 10 - 12:51 PM

glueman, I've had that same type of experience several times. Never knew to whom or what to attribute it...

By the way, how about hobbits? I never heard of a female one.