Lucharacháin
The Dwarf Otherworld Community Of Irish Mythology
Modern form of name:
Lucharacháin “Little, Small (Dwarf, Pygmy) People”
Lucharachán “Little, Small (Dwarf, Pygmy) Person”
Alternative and earlier modern form:
Abhaic “Dwarfs, Pygmies (Water Sprites)”
Abhac “Dwarf, Pygmy (Water Sprite)”
Derived from the following words:
Lú “Small, little”
Carachán (Carrachán) “Small bodied, puny creature”
Origins
The Lucharacháin are a diminutive race of supernaturally-gifted people in the literature and folklore of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, whose earliest appearance is traced to an 8th century text (where they are called the Abhaic). They remain something of an anomaly in mainstream Irish Mythology and it is only in the last two centuries that they have gained in popularity, largely due to the influence of Irish emigrant communities abroad. As a consequence a line is sometimes drawn between the traditional and derivative versions of these beings when using the Irish form of their name. The modern literary term Lucharacháin (derived from a regional version of the original name) is often preferred over what has become the more cartoonish and tourist-aimed word Leipreacháin (derived from a more common local variant of the original name and which gives us the anglicised term “Leprechauns”).
As stated above, in the earliest Irish accounts the Lucharacháin are in fact called the Abhaic, a word derived from the same stem that gives abha, abhainn “river”, and are closely associated with water and the sea. It’s probable that Classical myths of water sprites and diminutive peoples, the Pygmies of Greek legend in particular, contributed to their origin and development. These Abhaic were loosely associated with the Fomhóraigh (probably due to their aquatic nature, with a shared origin claimed in some Biblically influenced texts ) giving them something of a capricious air and were thought to live outside of Ireland, beneath lakes or the sea (that is, in the “Otherworld”). In contrast to the solitary Little People of 19th and 20th Folklore, the earliest tales portrayed the Abhaic as living in populous communities much like those to be found in early Irish society, with lords and kings (similar, then, to the same social makeup as the Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish Mythology). One collective title for them in the earliest surviving story was the Tuatha Luachra “Peoples of Luachair (Peoples of the Little, Small Folk or the Rushland)”. Their home is called Loch Luachra “Lake of Luachair (Lake of the Little, Small Folk or the Rushland)”.
However it is clear that the early Christian scribes struggled to find a place for the Abhaic in the context of the accepted literary milieu they had created with supernatural races like the Tuatha Dé Danann, Aos Sí and Fomhóraigh, and their stories remained unpopular until the post-Medieval period. At some stage before that the name Abhaic was slowly displaced by the modern name Lucharacháin, which is derived from an older Luchorpáin (which also gives the more popular if latterly vulgarised word Leipreacháin). This is probably a compound of the Irish words lú “little, small” and corp, corpan “body” (the latter borrowed from Latin corpus “body”) and this became the prefered name for the “Little People”.
Irish Folklore
In the Late Middle Ages other concepts shaping the image of the Lucharacháin came from Britain and the Continent and the various legends of “dwarfs” and “dwarf communities” shaped by the interaction of Celtic, Germanic and Classical myths in Medieval European fairy-lore But the modern popularity of the legend of the “Irish Little People” is partly the result of a separate development in North America where the Irish Lucharachán mixed with English, Germanic and Scandinavian tales of dwarfs, elves and goblins to produce the much-changed Irish-American figure of the “Leprechaun” (an anglicised version of the regional term Leipreachán carried by bilingual or anglophone immigrants from Ireland). This in turn filtered back to Ireland in the late 19th and 20th centuries, combining with the already existing lore of the “Little People”. Unlike the peoples and kingdoms of the earliest myths they now took on a more lonesome (and at times sinister) profile and became associated with magic, shoe-making, metal craft and ancient hidden riches.
This has led to considerable debate between those who see the original references in Irish Mythology to diminutive races as being of foreign origin and those who see them as being an indigenous concept under heavy external influences. In favour of the former view are the entirely peripheral and rare occurrences of the tales of the Little People in Irish Mythology, and the lack of a purely native name (excluding Abhaic). Those who favour an Irish origin point to the relatively early first appearance of the Little People in Irish myth, before the Germanic “dwarf” influences of English and Scandinavian legend could have come into play, and the lack of an exact Classical comparison. On the other hand, the popular image of the contemporary “Leprechaun”, largely shaped outside of Ireland, is barely Irish at all.
One very unfortunate effect of the popularity of the Leipreacháin or Leprechauns in popular culture over the last two hundred years has been the diminution of traditional Irish Mythology and races like the Tuatha Dé Danann and Fomhóraigh. Just as the Fomhóraigh have become equated with “giants” in contemporary imagery so the Tuatha Dé have been confused with the Leipreacháin and been reduced to the status of the “Little People” (quiet literally). The modern or popular image of the “Fairies” in Ireland is largely based upon a meld between concepts of the “Little People”, in the form of the more recent legends of the Leipreacháin, and 19th and 20th century English and German fairylore, with its abundance of diminutive or winged fairies, elves, dwarfs and trolls. It bears very little relation to the genuine Irish tradition and its popularity is largely as a result of the gradual erosion of native Irish culture in favour of a crude Anglo-American approximation.
Alternative Names and Derivations
Alternative regional names in the Irish language for the Little People are usually derived from words or concepts related to their nature: small, furtive, rarely seen, large-footed, and possessed of magic or treasures. Here is the most comprehensive list of words:
Lú “little, small”
Luch “mouse”
Corp, corpan “body, little body”
Lúth “agility”
Lurga “ankle”
Lom “sparse”
Regional and variant names and spellings of the names of the Little People in the Irish language:
Lútharacáin
Lúthargáin
Lúrac(h)áin
Lucharbáin
Luchargáin
Luchramáin / Lochramáin
Lupracháin (close to the spelling of the original name)
Loimreacháin
Loiridín
Lúracáin
Luchragáin
Lurgadáin / Lorgadáín
Leipreacháin (from this widely spread regional word derives the anglicised name Leprechaun)
‘clúracáin
Clutharac(h)án
Geancánach
Geancánach
Leipreacháin Or Leprechauns
Leipreacháin is one of the commonest terms in late Irish and Hiberno-Irish folklore for the “Little People”, and is derived from a regional variant of their original literary name (Luchorpáin) that eventually became popular across Ireland and beyond. From this word comes the anglicised form “Leprechauns” (sg. Leipreachán “Leprechaun”). Though a perfectly valid term in itself the association with the modern, populist imagery of Leprechauns has generally lowered the word’s standing and some now decline to use it when referring to the traditional form of the diminutive race. In this case the more literary term Lucharacháin is preferred (a word also derived from the early Luchorpáin).
Púcaí Or Pookas
Due to some confusion or misunderstanding many modern authors and “experts”, particularly writers of Children’s fiction or populist “Guides” to the Celts, have conflated the Luchorpáin with the Pucaí, supernatural creatures of late Irish and Scottish Folklore usually anglicised as “Pookas, Pucas, Pucks” in English. However these two beings are quiet separate. The Púca is a sort of elemental shape-shifting creature that usually appears in animal form (normally a horse, dog or goat) frequently with a hostile intent. The origins of these legendary beings is highly debatable. Their relatively late appearance in Irish and Scottish folklore would indicate a foreign origin. This impression is reinforced by the fact that the Irish word Púca is cognate with several similar words describing very similar beings in a number of Germanic languages and so pointing to an importation from Medieval or post-Medieval Scandinavia or England (c.f. the Modern English “Puck” derived from Old English “Puca/Púcel”, Icelandic “Púki”, Norwegian “Pukje”, Frisian “Puk”). However, the Celtic family group of Welsh, Cornish and Breton all contain pooka-style words like Irish (c.f. Welsh “Pwca”) which might in fact indicate a Celtic origin for the concept which was adopted into the Germanic tradition (by English invaders in Britain and Scandinavian settlers in Scotland and Ireland). Yet again, others have suggested that the similarities of the Celtic and Germanic traditions point to a common, if extremely distant, Indo-European origin and the belief in supernatural or elemental creatures that are not quiet god-like. Though the Fomhóraigh may have had an influence on the characteristics of the Púcaí in Irish folklore it is debatable whether there is any common origin between the two.
Variations of the Púca are the Each Uisce (pl. Eich Uisce), Capall Uisce (pl. Capaill Uisce) and Colpach (pl. Colpacha) “Water-horse, kelpie, selkie”. Though Victorian folklorists attempted to draw a distinction between the Púcaí, Eich Uisce and other related creatures (a misunderstanding that has survived into most modern contemporary descriptions and classifications) it is clear that they are aspects of the same beings in the late folkloric tales of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. Unlike the Púca proper the Each Uisce occasionally adopted the guise of a beautiful young woman or man, though it normally remained quiet inimical to human life or well-being, and they were principally encountered at watery places (fast flowing rivers, lakes or the sea’s edge). Again, though seeming quintessentially Celtic, water-horses may be of foreign origin and were only adopted into the Celtic cultures of north-western Europe at a late Medieval date since there is no explicit references to them in any of the surviving early Celtic literatures (Germanic myth is replete with water-horse like creatures and other beings only found in natural settings like woods, lakes, springs, etc.). However the existence of these elemental supernatural creatures in genuine Celtic mythology (perhaps related to the literary-found Bocánaigh above) cannot be entirely ruled out.
A Note On Spelling And Language
All spelling in the names and titles above are in Modern Irish, unless otherwise specified.
