LEPRECAT in the Eighties

           LEPRECAT number 7: containing the 80s and 90s. 
We're creeping up on the modern world now, and maybe Faery will fade away. "We" certainly don't seem to have much belief in them anymore. But you and I keep the faith, right? So, let's put on our bravest faces and see if "they" still sneak out and show themselves from time to time.

 So, there aren't a lot of them there above, but we might have a few keepers. ... at least some "somethings" to hold onto. ... and I have a few non-illustrated ones for later. We are heavily dependent upon our trustworthy natures this time, as five of the ten cases above are Fairy Census reports. The other five include newspaper stories and websites. Let's begin with the five Fairy Census encounters. (In no order.) 

1. SCOTLAND. 1980s. A female witness in her 30s. Fairy Census case #177. 
    She was out very early in the "morning" (c. 3am) walking in a woodland. She was staring at the plants growing at her feet, when she bumped into an invisible barrier. The environment became utterly silent (The OZ Effect.) Looking up, she saw a figure on a horse. It was life-sized. There was no motion, as if this was a statue. The horse was white, and the figure was green --- a shining green as if all of this was made of light. The horse and rider then faded into the air. The witness interpreted this as a fairy vision, as she had spent time cleaning this area of debris from a rubbish tip nearby, and felt a peacefulness as if thanked by the spirit(s) of the place. 

Certainly an interesting tale. Seems more "apparition" than fairy, and the OZ portends (more and more for me) some penetration of two realities (ours and one other "X") which could include all those apparitional pictures and filmstrips from the past. Obviously I don't know what I'm talking about here.

2. HAMPSTEAD HEATH, UK. 1987. A female witness of 18. Fairy Census case #82.
    She and many others were camping on the heath. Awakened by the morning sun streaming into the makeshift tent, she saw much movement outside. Also, a strange silence had overcome the forest sounds (OZ Effect again.) A sudden unexplained chill hit her. A morning mist hung in the trees where dozens of small fairy beings moved in the branches. There were 50 or 60 of these "dryads" scurrying about. They were an almost transparent pale green with yellow wings. No clothes. High energy. (size is not stated but must be bird-sized small or not much bigger.) She watched these beings for a long time (disappearance is not stated.) This witness claims a second fairy experience, possibly in her home in Melbourne --- likely the Derbyshire village, not the Australian Melbourne. In this second encounter, the "fairies" were Balls-of-Light buzzing around her living room "for a few hours." 

What to make of this? OZ again is interesting. This case is a rare Wings case. The witness obviously likes the ideas associated with fairies, and calls the first group "dryads" despite them not being much like classic tree and plant spirits. I'm always uncomfortable with the "just-woke-up" encounters. 

3. LINCOLNSHIRE, UK. 1980s. A male witness in his teens. Fairy Census case #78.
    The witness was in his family's back garden wherein grew a willow tree. He was sitting beneath it. Looking over his shoulder he sensed motion and felt an electric tingle. Five very tiny humanoid beings (less than a foot tall and slender compared to dwarves). But they had a classic dress for gnome cases: Brown to dark green clothes, tights, sturdy boots, smock-like top. But even though they had gnomish wrinkled faces, their features were more angular and having narrow eyes. They stared at one another (the witness felt that they had an understanding about each other) and then marched off beneath a bush. The witness was certain that these creatures were "physical" (though he could not have known that really.) The persons had voices, very light and small of pitch like in the range a kitten might make. The witness rejected the idea that these were things like ghosts/apparitions etc. 

Neat case. Close to a classic gnome encounter. Intelligent witness. Beings sort of small tweeners of gnomes vs elves. 

4. ESSEX MOORS, UK. 1980s. A male witness in his 20s. Fairy Census case #49. 
    The witness was camping with a group near the moors. One evening he had a "call of nature" and moved slightly away from camp to answer it. He walked over to a hedgerow. Before he could begin his task, he was confronted by a largish hole in the hedge from which came an amount of light. Standing in that light, in silhouette but clearly outlined, was a two to three foot tall entity standing with hands on hips. The witness got the impression (without verbal communication) that the being was seriously angry about what he was about to do. As this sort of "emotional surprise" can cancel one's desire along this line, the witness, being now well scared, abandoned his mission and scurried off. The next morning, he had renewed courage and went back to the spot. There was now no hole in that hedge. 

Though many will find all of that humorous, I could do without the "humanity" part of the story (which WAS told simply without dwelling on things at least.) The part that DOES intrigue me was the lighted opening no longer there in real world time the next day. A "Portal?" 

5. OXFORDSHIRE, UK. 1980s. A male witness in his 20s. Fairy Census case #108.
    This witness views himself as sort of a counter-culture character, but his narrative gives me some hope that he is basically a "free spirit" without an agenda. Anyway, we join him as he's sitting meditating in a prehistoric tomb chamber (you see what I mean.)  He's meditating by looking down the passageway of the tomb, and appearing in that passageway is a two-foot tall figure. He had a round face full of fine wrinkles. He had on a pure white pointed conical hat of apparently brushed wool. Clothing was vague in memory. The figure seemed inquisitive with a benevolent attitude. He then just vanished. The witness later heard that several others had seen such a being in the area.  He thought of this as a gnome and nature spirit. He then said something which could be important for credibility: "The strange thing for me was that it wasn't how I imagined such beings." 

In some ways (small gnomish figure, instant vanishment, association with prehistoric site), this incident strikes a resonant chord. 
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The other five:
6. CRIEFF, Scotland. 1980s. An adult and four kids witnessed this. From Janet Bord's Fairies.
    The witnesses were walking along a path on a Sunday. Ahead of them was coming what appeared to be an old lady. "Unfortunately" as she got nearer, she was seen to have no feet, and was floating above the ground. She continued to disappear from her feet upwards, while making a sound, interpreted either as "tee hee" or as " taigh shidhe". Taigh Shidhe has been translated as "fairy mound." Ms. Bord interprets this as possibly establishing a link between ghosts and faery. 

Well, I'm ready to be wrong, but I don't. The case seems VERY apparitional. And the witnesses cannot assert with any assurance that the voice said anything in Celtic. Even if that latter was true, there's a difficult task to connect an apparition with a Celtic phrase with Fairies. I bother to argue against Janet Bord (one of my heroes) here for a simple reason: the old people separated ghosts from Faery cleanly. When the going gets tough, I'm sticking with the Old Folks. 

7. NEW BRUNSWICK. 1986. A young girl of about six witnessed this. Website report.
    The witness' family ran a potato farm. It was full of potato storage barns. One day the girl saw a figure standing in the entryway of one of the barns. She initially thought it was a farm hand and called out to him. It wasn't. She had begun running towards "him" but she then saw that this was a tall male figure with no facial features. He/it was "transparent" having a liquid like appearance. Much later in her life, she saw the movie The Terminator, and was stunned to see what she saw so long ago. At the time, she halted when the thing seemed to beckon to her, and she ran away. Years later, unable to express her feelings then, she said "It was like looking through Time." She admitted that she couldn't explain why she felt that way. 

What can we say about this? It seems to stand alone. An utter mystery to me.

8. WINCHESTER JUNCTION, Hampshire. 1980. 2 witnesses adults. Paranormal database.
    There was a dis-used piece of railroad track near Worthy Down. A husband and wife were walking there taking photos. Twelve-fifteen feet in front of them, something rose from the tracks. It was a small two to three foot tall (child-sized) being dressed in a muddy-colored coat. It had a hood and showed the face of a child. It had, however, slanted dark eyes. The husband held his wife's hand, stepped forward and said "Hello." The being turned to its left and vanished. 

VERY classic gnomish/elfin encounter but VERY brief report. This is another example of a potentially super case with way too little for the researcher to go on. 

9. FLAG STOP, Nome, AK. 1988. Group of young men witnessed. Newspaper report.
    Several teenagers out driving after midnight. See a "?" ahead. Coming nearer they see that this is a little man glowing green. Thinking that this is a fun thing, they try to race with this entity who runs the road at 50mph. It was two to three foot tall. Something happened and they ran over the being, but it seemed just to "flatten out" with no bump. They panicked and drove into town, but they picked up more kids and went back out. They found the little greenish man again in a different area. The thing changed color from green to silver. Two of the boys tried to run it down on foot. The being reversed the roles and chased them. Finally all was over. But the next night something similar happened again. Apparently that night even adults saw the thing. On a third night three of the beings showed up, and more chasing and observation occurred. More color shifting happened. 

I'm completely boggled, even more than usual on this one. This is a combination of full-of-action yet low on detail. BIG need for better data. If true, one of the very few repetitive and highly paranormal incidents around. 

10. NOME, AK area. somewhat earlier than the above. One adult male witness. Newspaper case.
     This is very much more in the Native American traditions of the Alaskan cultures than the previous case. Here a village fisherman was in an isolated situation where the environment was rough. This fisherman was visited by a group of several little men (two to three foot tall?) He welcomed them and they conversed in "eskimo" (content undescribed). The Little People all had backpacks, and were dressed as if on a hunt. Sealskins pants, mukluks, white skin parkas. They had facial hair. Their manner was friendly. 

This, at least, has all the earmarks of a normal-paranormal encounter. 

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All that was hard work at the old panning stream with few nuggets to show for it. The five Fairy Census cases were interesting and for all we know, good ones, but ... The same thing can be said of the second Nome case. So, I'll try to add a little something to this 80s post, by adding a few non-illustrated incidents. 

(Hmmmm... a few cartoon drawings just showed up for some 80s cases. Three try to illustrate some of the last five, and there are three others. Since blogging is supposed to be fun, why not put them up here?) 

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As to the general group of the whole post: 
These cases have some possibilities as to truth. The real value of these sorts of claims is whether they help constitute a genuine pile of respectable incidents, which has enough coherence to support a pattern. All our explorations here through these posts have been with the hope that either enough rock solid credibility cases will arise to make a stand-alone argument for some sort of paranormal reality, or that a lesser but not insignificant number of strong cases will arise to serve as foundationstones for a much greater pile of "just maybe" quality cases, which together make almost a statistical case for the anomaly. As I've said: this is not like UFO research. We don't have the overwhelming firepower. But we seem to have SOMETHING which can be presented without embarrassment. There seems to be a lot of flawed evidence here which can be anchored by the fewer Rocks that we have upturned. 

Next time will be a try at the 1990s.