Silkies and Ke/pies, over the sea, beyond Skye, to a Nova Scotia …. Down ice green fjords of Scandinavia, and away to the Land of the Eagle, then sailed the Ellefolk, in their terrible-prowed lqngships: the Nissen and the Tom- tra, those hairy farm-fairies; Grims from the stone towers; squat, squinting Wood- and River-Trolls; and, in the bows, faces set to the cold salt spray, the Elves themselves, yellow hair streaming in the wind, blue-gray eyes fixed on the far horizon. Of all the folk of Jotunheim, only some of the Koboldes stayed behind, and these proud Tree-Fairies were soon and forever turned to wooden playthings for the children of Man. Guided on its stately way by the Rhine Maidens, a great fleet bearing away strong-thewed Dwarfs from the mines, plump and hairy Witchtln from the fields, the handsome Wilden Fraulein from the marshes, and red-capped Hutchen from the Black Forest forsook Germany and her neighbors for the New World, far across the sea. Then from the East, from the Far Marches, from the wide snowy Steppes and boundless fertile plains of Russia-travelled the native Fair Folk: Vazily, Poleviki, Domivye, and Vi/y. The Leshy abandoned the forest tops of Tatary, the Rusyalki rose up from the river beds, and all followed the Forest Fathers and Moss Maidens across the winter prairie to the Black Sea shore and onto waiting ships. Together they emigrated, away to the West. Cradling Italy, calm as the clouded moon, dark as
イルド郷はこう書き残している。
「妖精たちは······ ひとりまたひとりと人間が
住んでいる地域をあとにし、 大西洋の荒波が
白く砕ける遠い島々へと向かった……」 J
ウ
ラ
そして、永遠にスコットランドの高地にも
どれなくなったのがいたずらもののシェリー
コートや小さな鼻と毛深いからだをした茶色
の小人、 頭の中央に髪の毛がひと房あり 1
本の腕が胸のところからでている怪物ファハ
ン、女王陛下の臣下で蒲の穂にまたがって空
を飛ぶ灰色の小人トロウたちだった。
エディンバラ公であるヒュー・ミラーがあ
る民話を集めた本のなかでこういっている。
「小さな生き物が毛のふさふさした小馬に乗
って海岸のほうにおりていったとき、 それに
気がついたのはふたりの子どもだけだった。
人間の少年が、 列のいちばんうしろにいる生
き物に向かって 『あんたはだれ? おちびく
ん。 どこに行くんだい?」 とたずねた。 する
と、その生き物はちょっと振りかえってこう
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…Wilde recorded these words:
“The fairies… one by one abandoned the regions where humans dwelt, heading toward the distant islands where the wild waves of the Atlantic break white…”
And those forever banished from the Scottish Highlands were: the mischievous Seelie Court; the small-nosed, hairy-bodied brown dwarves; the monster Fachan with a single tuft of hair on the center of its head and one arm growing from its chest; and the Trows — grey dwarves, subjects of Her Majesty, who fly through the air astride cattail stalks.
Hugh Miller of Edinburgh wrote in a collection of folktales:
“When the little creatures rode their shaggy ponies down toward the shore, only two children noticed them. A human boy called out to the creature at the very end of the line: ‘Who are you, little one? Where are you going?’ And the creature turned slightly and replied…”
23
