![]() ![]() He strives to place his collected Cornish accounts of piskies into a wider Celtic world. More details, many in agreement with the legend ‘The Fairy Dwelling on Selena Moor’, are available from the work of Evans-Wentz. Even if people escaped after visiting the piskie realm, they were likely to lose interest in the mortal world. Cornish fairies enjoyed music, dancing and feasts. They held magical powers and could even assume animal forms. In addition, the supernatural beings were the spirits of people from an ancient time. ![]() Turning clothing inside out was a frequently mentioned means by which someone could avoid enchantment. The creatures coveted human captives whom they enslaved as servants. Their food, which appeared to be tantalizing, was dangerous since anyone who ate even one morsel would likely be trapped in the otherworld. Cornish piskies were small, capable of invisibility, and they lived in communities similar to those in human society. That said, a great deal can be learnt from ‘The Fairy Dwelling on Selena Moor’, particularly when considered with other stories. Many Cornish legends involving piskies are difficult to categorize because they have little more than single, generic motifs in common with other accounts. Documentation exists to place the term in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but its origin is certainly much older. After various nineteenth-century publications appeared featuring piskies and their neighbouring counterparts, ‘pixey’ became more commonplace in English vocabulary. It is related to ‘pixey’, a widespread word with roots in the south-west of Britain. Unfortunately, the source of the name is not clear. The analysis of these kinds of stories is the subject of the next two chapters, while the concern here is with the core nature of the piskies and related supernatural beings.įirst and foremost, there is a need to discuss the term ‘piskie’, which appears with several spellings. When examples of a specific legend type can be found, it is apparent that they have some historical relationship with one another. Many of these are shared across the region. In addition, northern European fairies are the subject of numerous legends. The Cornish piskies fit easily into this pattern of the wider northern European tradition. The fact that their reactions are unpredictable increases this risk. As they are neighbours, contacts are inevitable, and as they are liable to be irritable, even malignant, there is always the risk of offending them. Having known people who believed in these supernatural beings, Reidar Christiansen was able to comment on the ‘common background’ of Irish and Scandinavian folklore, which consisted of the idea that the fairies were:Ī hidden race, living close to the human world, perhaps even under our very houses. Traditions about fairylike creatures, whether in Cornwall, Ireland, Sweden, or anywhere else in northern Europe, drew upon many shared assumptions. Since those who told these stories might disagree with the terms and designations, it is misleading to attach too much importance to these sorts of classifications. Classifying supernatural beings is always problematic since it depends on people who might not agree with one another and whose observations can change from time to time. He further suggested that the bucca was a separate entity and that the bockle and the brownies were probably later importations. He suggested that the Pobel Vean, the spriggans and the piskies were virtually indistinguishable. Jenner, in his turn-of-the-century preface to the Cornish section of the treatise by Evans-Wentz, contested these categories. With a nineteenth-century scientific perspective, Robert Hunt maintained there were five distinct types of supernatural beings on land: the Pobel Vean, Cornish for ‘small people’ spriggans piskies buccas, bockles or knockers and brownies. Sorry for the long excerpts, but the book is too expensive, and this seems the best way to answer your question I hope this helps: I discuss these supernatural beings in several chapters in my recent book, The Folklore of Cornwall (2018) I'm excerpting a few key paragraphs (with citations). Pixy (and its various dialect forms) is the term traditionally used in the south west of Britain, to signify the local fairies of the region's folklore. ![]()
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