Kate Hauge ENGL 495 Davis & Tammaro 6-29-12

Leprechaun Archetype: Lucky or Ordinary?

The Leprechaun has been categorized as an elf, but more often he is considered to be a solitary fairy. When most people think of fairies, they think of trooping fairies, who like to travel or gather in groups, and who absolutely love to dance. Legend says that thousands of years ago fairies had control of the land now known as Ireland. Various clans and regional kings fought for control of the area, and the lands shifted hands several times. Ita Fitzmohany, storyteller at the National Leprechaun Museum, explained that eventually the fairy people lost possession of the land to the Gaelic people. In exchange, they received the power of invisibility and were given all the land underground (Fitzmahony). Thus, all around Ireland, there are fairies, often unbeknownst to the humans. Fairies can choose to be visible and they often interact with humans. Generally, they may cause mischief but mean no harm. Sometimes they are portrayed as a God figure and reward humans whom they see as deserving. For instance, in The Rival Kempers, as told by William Carleton, a fairy depicted as a small red woman visited two young ladies who were in a contest to see who was the most capable spinster; the winner would get a husband (Yeats). The fairy found one of the ladies to be humble, generous, and kind; the other was vain, heartless, and selfish. The fairy used her magic to ensure that the kind young lady won the contest. However, not all fairies are good, and even the good ones are easily offended and act with swift vengeance, a function of God and Devil figures. Usually the

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punishment comes in the form of extreme bad luck or severe illness, either on the perpetrator himself or his children. But, if caught in time, there is usually a charm or a blessing that will reverse the effects. Sometimes the humans can even negotiate with the fairies and they will freely rescind their wrath. When fairies choose to be visible, they look like humans, sometimes a little smaller. Fitzmahony insists there is only one surefire way to tell the difference between a human and a fairy: play traditional Irish music (Fitzmahony). Fairies love to dance. They cannot resist it. If music begins to play, even at the softest volume, they must dance. The extraordinary amount of dancing they do results in needing to frequently replace their shoes. This is where the Leprechaun comes in. The Leprechaun is the shoemaker to the fairies. As previously mentioned, the Leprechaun is a solitary fairy and is almost always seen alone with one partially made shoe in his hands. He is usually depicted as an aging male, though some stories do refer to females. For instance, early in Leprechaun history there was a queen, and some Leprechauns do not like to leave their mothers despite being over a thousand years old (Fitzmahony). Legend keeper, Michael Quirke suggested that the original job of the Leprechaun was a tinsmith (Quirke). This is because a human will typically hear the tapping of the Leprechaun working, before seeing the fairy himself. (He would have to be distracted; otherwise, he would hear the human coming). Since it is relatively recent that cobblers started using hammers to make shoes, Quirke proposed that it was actually the hammering of tin that early characters heard. There is also debate on the size of the Leprechaun. Officially, according to Fitzmahony, a Leprechaun is one third the size of a human and a human is one third the size of a giant (Fitzmahony). In the traditional stories, the size of fairies seems to vary. In Master and Man, as told by T. Crofton Crocker, the

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Leprechaun is described as being able to fit in a humans pocket as easily as a blackberry (Yeats 79). It is this small size that is customarily thought of today. The most celebrated aspect of Leprechauns is their pots of gold. They earn their gold by making shoes for the fairies. On occasion they may also make shoes for humans and then they may shave off a little gold from human currency as payment. The function of the Leprechaun archetype in the majority of traditional folktales is fairly straightforward. They represent the elusiveness of the magical realm with an undercurrent of the futileness of greed. Most stories have a human attempt to catch a Leprechaun, and try to force him to reveal the location of his gold, often involving a promise from the Leprechaun. Leprechauns cannot make a promise if it is not the truth (Fitzmahony). However, Leprechauns are very tricky, and it does not have to be the whole truth and it does not keep the Leprechaun from creating a new scheme. One very common story that is still frequently told today in both Ireland and the United States is Tom and the Leprechaun (Tom and the Leprechaun). Tom caught a Leprechaun who promised that his pot of gold was under a bush in the forest. Tom tied a red ribbon to the bush so he could find it when he came back with a shovel. While he was gone the Leprechaun tied red ribbons to every bush in the forest, thus protecting his gold. In this and similar tales, the Leprechaun is mischievous but not malicious. In this type of story, the Leprechaun is practically indifferent to humans. There are a few traditional stories however in which the Leprechaun is an evil character the adversary to be conquered. In Master and Man, the Leprechaun tricks a man into a verbal agreement to be his slave (Colum). The man endures the situation for awhile, but when the Leprechaun attempts to use his magic to steal a young bride the night before her wedding the man rescues her.

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In the modern United States, the Leprechaun archetype has taken on more varied forms. In the early 2000s the television series Charmed had Leprechauns as occasional returning characters that were at first cranky and suspicious but became powerful allies to the starring sister witches (Combs, McGowan and Milano). The 1993 Leprechaun horror film had the Leprechaun as a psychotic murderer searching for his gold (Jones). On the opposite side of the spectrum, the Disney Channel original movie The Luck of the Irish had the main character, Kyle, discover that he was a Leprechaun by heritage whose lucky gold coin, passed on from generation to generation, allowed him to live as an average American teenager. Kyle was faced with defeating (through a series of traditional challenges including step dancing) an evil Leprechaun that was stealing the luck (coins) of other Leprechauns (Merriman). More often, however, the Leprechaun is found in childrens stories and is more or less aligned with the traditional archetype. The undercurrent for the futileness of greed that was in the traditional stories is brought to the forefront and is typically the moral lesson to be learned from the good natured tales. The Leprechaun Trap, a short story by Teresa Bateman appearing in the Highlights for Children magazine, featured clever Leprechauns that trapped gold-hungry humans in a trap the humans had built to catch the Leprechauns (Bateman). This story and others like it are decidedly in favor of the Leprechauns, who are only trying to protect their hard earned money. There is an overwhelming amount of Leprechaun themed material that is released, or re-released, in March to celebrate St. Patricks Day, particularly in regard to children based audiences. These stories focus on the stereotypical characteristics of gold, small size, and dressing in green clothes. If the Leprechaun archetype is not varied in these settings, the medium through which the story is told is. Books, magazine articles, plays, television shows, films, and more are all used. A search-and-find game that had Clifford looking for Leprechauns in a forest

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appeared in the Clifford the Big Red Dog magazine, a spin-off of the popular television series of the same name, as recently as 2010 (Clifford Looks for Leprechauns). This type of stereotypical use of the Leprechaun is what researcher Anthony Patterson lumps with shamrocks and good craic, classifying them as generic Ireland branding (Patterson). It is the stuff of tacky tourist shops that lock the national Irish identity into a restricted box. But there is a small movement that is using the Leprechaun archetype to move past limited views and into a broader cultural context. Leprechaun Land by Maggie Murphy, a short story appearing in Spider magazine in 2005, was about a young Irish girl who happens upon a group of Leprechauns who are discussing leaving Ireland for St. Patricks Day because of the droves of treasure seekers that hunt them and ruin their efforts at celebrations (Murphy). The moral of the tale caused the readers to consider their motivations for their actions and to have a level of respect for the land and the people that inhabit them. Taking broad cultural contexts one step further, third graders in Taos Pueblo, New Mexico had an entire unit that focused on Leprechauns. The unit was designed to be interdisciplinary. The students first read a short novel about Leprechauns. After learning about Leprechaun characteristics from the story they used mathematic and art skills to design their own Leprechaun trap. Finally, they had to write their own short story using their trap in the plotline. Not only was it a good interdisciplinary exercise, but it gave the students a global perspective and an opportunity to compare and contrast other cultural traditions to their own (Miller and Smith). Surprisingly, the Leprechaun archetype, while experiencing more variation than it once did, by and large has changed very little. He will always be a trickster who stashes gold at the end of rainbows or under forest brush, and who is a source of luck. Furthermore, when paired with the shamrock, he is irrevocably the most recognizable icon of Ireland.

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Work Cited Bateman, Teresa. "The Leprechaun Trap." Highlights for Children Mar 2002: 16-18. Charmed. Dir. Brad Kern. Perf. Holly Combs, Rose McGowan and Alyssa Milano. 1998-2006. "Clifford Looks for Leprechauns." Clifford the Big Red Dog 2010 Mar: 1-3. Colum, Padraic. A Treasury of Irish Folklore. New York: Crowne Publishers, 1983. Danaher, Kevin. Folktales of the Irish Countryside. Cork: Mercier Press, 1967. Fitzmahony, Ita. National Leprechaun Museum Kate Hauge. 20 May 2012. Leprechaun. Dir. Mark Jones. 1993. Miller, Nola and Walter Smith. "Taos Pueblo Students Hunt Leprechauns in Science and Language Arts." Technology Teacher November 1999: 13-16. Murphy, Maggie. "Leprechaun Land." Spider March 2005: 16-20. Patterson, Anthony. "Brand Ireland Tourism and National Identity." Academia.edu: Share Research. 19 June 2012. <http://liverpool.academia.edu/AnthonyPatterson/Papers/1430036/Brand_Ireland_Tourism_and_ National_Identity>. Quirke, Michael. Legend Keeper Kate Hauge. 29 May 2012. The Luck of the Irish. Dir. Paul Hoen. Perf. Ryan Merriman. 2001. "Tom and the Leprechaun." Scholastic News March 2011. Yeats, William. Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland. New York: Touchstone, 1983.