Brownies and Boggarts

This week I continue my series of myths and legends with this little chap called a Brownie, for anyone who is a Harry Potter fan you may find some of this sounding familiar. Brownies are usually found all over the UK, in Scotland they are known as Broonies, they are household spirits, usually male and if treated right they are useful around the house. At night while the home owners are asleep they will come out of their hiding places to perform various chores and sometimes even farming jobs.

The humans who live in the house should leave a small offering for the resident brownie, something like a saucer of milk or some cream will suit the brownie perfectly. It is hard to say what a Brownie looks like as they are rarely seen, In Roman times it was thought that they were human sized but in more recent times it is thought they were smaller, very ugly and could turn invisible or shape shift into different animals as a disguise.

Here is where it may sound familiar to Potter fans, The Brownie will happily continue doing the various chores IF they are looked after however there are several ways to lose your Brownie, If a person attempts to present a brownie with clothing then he will leave forever never to be seen again. You must never criticise your Brownie or the work that he does, If you do he may fly into a rage and destroy any of the work he has done.

If your Brownie gets too enraged then he will turn into a Boggart, as you can imagine this is a very mischievous spirit and difficult to remove from your property. Thankfully most Boggarts now live in the north of England in places such as Boggart Bridge in Burnley,  at the Boggart Stones on Saddleworth Moor and at Boggart Hole Clough in Blackley, Manchester.

So everyone, please let this be a lesson to you all, treat your Brownie with respect and feed him his saucer of milk every night.

The Salmon of Knowledge

This week for my series of Myths and Legends I have decided to look at a wonderful story introduced to me by my friend Hazey who lives in Ireland, thanks Hazey.

There was once a water well surrounded by 9 Hazel trees, one day the 9 trees dropped 1 hazelnut each into the well where they were washed into a nearby river and were consumed by an ordinary Salmon, by this act the salmon gained the worlds knowledge and the first person to eat the salmon would in turn gain the knowledge. News of the legendary salmon spread and many people went out to try and catch the fish but after 7 years it was caught by a poet called Finn Eces. Finn was eager to gain the knowledge of the world by eating the salmon but wanted to do the job properly so he gave the fish to his servant Fionn telling him to cook the salmon but what ever happens he must not eat it.

Fionn being a loyal servant did as he was told, slowly turning the fish so that it was cooked all the way through, just to check if it was done he pushed his thumb onto the fish to check it was ready but instead he got burnt on some searing hot fish fat, Fionn quickly sucked on his thumb to ease the pain, Little did he know that all of the knowledge of the world had been concentrated into that small drop of oil and Fionn now possessed the knowledge. 

When Finn was presented with the fish to eat he could see a spark of knowledge in Fionn's eyes, He asked what had happened and when he realised that Fionn now possessed the knowledge Finn allowed Fionn to eat the rest of the fish. From that moment on Fionn could draw up the knowledge of the world by merely biting his thumb, he eventually became leader of a warrior group called the Fianna and became one of the most famed mythical heroes of Irish History.  If you are in Belfast then you can see a ceramic sculpture of the Salmon of Knowledge on Donegall Quay.