Saint Patrick, who is revered for having single-handedly converted Ireland from Celtic paganism to Christianity, is nonetheless associated with a very pagan character—the leprechaun. With a reputation for chicanery and a predisposition toward foul play, the legendary trickster may be the embodiment of an ironic last laugh.
Leprechauns
In general, leprechauns are solitary, dangerous, and territorial beings who don’t want to be messed with. While early folktales depicted them as menacing cobblers who hid treasures, and modern caricatures exalt them as the Lucky Charms mascot, they are faeries, and Irish faeries can be vengeful.
The first written account of leprechauns appears in Echtra Fergus mac Léti (The Adventure of Fergus, son of Léti), an eighth-century tale of revenge.[i] Following a long and bitter battle, alleged to have taken place in the second century AD, the mythical Fergus wrested control of the Kingdom of Ulster. Satisfied with his accomplishment, the new king went to the seaside and fell asleep.
A group of water sprites called lúchorpáin (meaning “small” and “body, i.e., leprechauns) emerged from the sea. They first stole the king’s sword and then attempted to drag him into the ocean and drown him. Instead, Fergus woke up, captured them, and extracted three demands.
There is no simple explanation of how a water sprite evolved into a dandy humanoid who is often depicted as a shoemaker with sacks of gold, gardens of shamrock, and a bottle of whiskey. But linguists and folklorists have tried, looking to etymology (word origins) and other cultures for clues.
For example, depicting the leprechaun as a guardian of hidden treasure (most often a pot of gold) is grounded in Scandinavian history. Viking invasions of Ireland began in 795 AD. They were red-haired pirates whose raids throughout Europe and Asia influenced their use of gold coinage as currency.
And while many linguists agree that lúchorpáin means “small body,” others argue that “leprechaun” is derived from the Old Irish term leath bhrogan, which means “shoemaker.” Yet, the image of a shoemaker with a pipe is more akin to a Germanic dwarf—an association that may be tied to the Celts. When they invaded Ireland between 700 BC and 100 BC, they brought with them a language, mythology, and social structure that originated in central and western Europe.
Tuatha Dé Danann
While the Celtic invasion of Ireland is based on historical fact, the mythological version is drawn from Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of Invasions), a collection of poems and prose compiled in the 11th century to chronicle the history of Ireland and the Irish from the creation of the world through the Middle Ages.[ii]
According to Lebor Gabála Érenn, six tribes ruled Ireland since its inception: the Fomorri, the Partholonians, the Nemedians, the Fir Bolg, the Tuatha Dé Danann, and the Milesians—better known as the Celts.
The Milesians defeated the Tuatha Dé Danann and drove them underground into the sídhe (pronounced shee), the ancient mounds or hills in Irish folklore. As faeries, they exist in a parallel universe to our own and may influence our actions in it. Folklorist Jack Lasky refers to them as the “progenitors of the various supernatural beings in traditional Irish folklore.” [iii]
According to Celtic historian Peter Berresford Ellis, author of A Dictionary of Irish Mythology,[iv] the leprechaun is a derivative of the god Lugh, a revered craftsman, warrior, and king of the Tuatha Dé Danann. After being banished to the sídhe, however, Lugh’s reputation as a powerful god diminished in folk memory until he became simply a faerie craftsman named Lugh-chromain, “little stooping Lugh,” or leprechaun. While his shoemaking may be all that people remember of this once-omnipotent deity, Lugh remains all-powerful in the faerie realm.
Another theory correlates the leprechaun’s origin with that of the shillelagh.
Pointing to artifacts from the Bronze Age as proof, 19th-century storyteller David Russell McAnally[v] theorizes that the tall and brawny Celts drove the smaller Tuatha Dé Danann into the interior of the island. There, united by Chief Ealach, the small people were known as Siol Eolaigh (pronounced sheel Yoh-lee), or followers of Ealach. Not only does the term sound like the word shillelagh, but the little people could disappear through blackthorn bushes, the plant from which the shillelagh is made.
Yeats’ Take
As an active member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secret occult society, Irish poet William Butler Yeats studied folklore as a bridge between the natural and the supernatural worlds. He believed that fairies were real.
In his 1888 book Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, Yeats shared stories he heard as a child in County Sligo, Ireland. In the book’s introduction, he explains that old women, like his mother, knew the most, but would not readily talk, for fear of faerie retribution. Instead, he collected stories by making “friends with the children and the old men” in isolated villages who had not been influenced by current culture. [vi]
Yeats divided the creatures into Trooping Fairies and Solitary Fairies. Trooping fairies, he said, live in communities and are known for singing and dancing. They may or may not be friendly to humans. Solitary fairies, who live on their own, are likely to be harmful.
Leprechauns, he said, were solitary faeries. They were dangerous, very much like banshees and shape-shifting goblins. In quoting Douglas Hyde, the first president of Ireland and a renowned Irish scholar, Yeats defined the leprechaun as leith bróg (the “one-shoemaker” or “one-shoe-maker”), a “withered, old, and solitary” spirit … often depicted as “sluttish, slouching, and jeering.” Since he makes shoes continually, he has grown very rich. “Many treasure-crocks, buried of old in wartime, has he now for his own.”
Appearance and Characteristics
According to Yeats and McAnally, the leprechaun is about three feet high with a small, withered face. His attire reflected the 19th-century culture that gave rise to the current depictions as a humanoid dandy.
Yeats reported that trooping fairies wore green jackets; the solitary ones, red. On the red roundabout jacket of the leprechaun are seven rows of buttons, with seven buttons in each row. On the western coast, Yeats said, the red jacket is covered by a coarse woolen coat, and in Ulster, the creature wears a cocked hat. If he is up to anything unusually mischievous, the leprechaun may leap onto a wall and spin, balancing himself on the point of the hat with his heels in the air.[viii]
While McAnally agrees with Yeats on the leprechaun’s attire, he goes into more detail—red breeches buckled at the knee; gray or black stockings; and around his neck is an Elizabethan ruff, with lace at his wrists. On the wild west coast, where the Atlantic winds bring almost constant rains, the leprechaun “dispenses with ruff and frills and wears a frieze [overcoat] over his pretty red suit.”[ix]
McAnally reported that in northern counties, the leprechaun was known as the Logheryman, who wears a British infantry uniform of red coat, white breeches, and a broad-brimmed, high, pointed hat. In Tipperary, he was the Lurigadawne, who wore an antique slashed jacket of red, a jockey cap, and carried a sword, which he used as a magic wand. And in Kerry, the Luricawne was a “fat, pursy fellow whose jolly round face rivals in redness his cut-a-way jacket.” [x]
The leprechaun never wore green until the 20th century.
Cluricaun and Far Darrig
(Public Domain)
Cousins to the leprechauns, the cluricauns are tall and generally drunk. They are solitary household faeries who live in cellars and attics, where they borrow or steal whatever they need. They have been known to harness sheep, chickens, and dogs and take them on wild rides throughout the countryside. Some folklorists consider them leprechauns on a drinking spree.
The far darrig (or fear dearg) is another popular faerie related to the leprechaun. In Old Irish, fear dearg means Red Man. According to Yeats, the far darrig always wears a red coat and a cap and busies himself with practical joking, especially with gruesome joking. “This he does,” Yeats said, “and nothing else.” [xi]
Staying Relevant
From water sprites to Lucky Charms, the leprechaun has managed to stay relevant, probably by changing his appearance to match the culture he finds himself in. He is a true—though sometimes nasty—bridge between what Yeats called the natural and the supernatural worlds. It is a connection that even Saint Patrick could not dispel.
To view a humorous and yet comprehensive video of leprechauns, visit Jon Solo’s “Messed Up Origins of Leprechauns | Fables Explained.”
References
[i] James MacKillop, “Echtra Fergus mac Léti,” A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, Oxford Reference, Oxford University Press, 2004
[iii] Jack Lasky, “Leprechauns (folklore),” EBSCO Information Services, 2024
[iv] Peter Berresford Ellis, A Dictionary of Irish Mythology, Oxford University Press, 1992
[v] D.R. McAnally, Irish Wonders, 1888, Project Gutenberg
[vi]William Butler Yeats, Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, 1888, Project Gutenberg,(pp 10–12)
[vii] Ibid., p 96
[viii] Ibid., p. 325
[ix] Irish Wonders, pp 114–115
[x] Ibid., p.108
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