What Is A Leprechaun?

A leprechaun is a creature of myth and legend. It found in Irish mythology as well. They are supposed to be short in stature and resemble old men appearance. They enjoy playing pranks on people and indulging in mischief. They wear a green hat and coat. They also carry pipes to smoke and are professionally cobblers or shoe makers. They are known to horde wealth and be greedy to the core. It is believed that if one manages to catch a leprechaun he can get his or her hand on the treasure of the leprechaun as ransom. It is also believed that Leprechauns are fairy like, in the sense that they can grant wishes. It is believed that the pot of gold that belongs to a leprechaun lies at the end of a rainbow.

A leprechaun is usually no more than 2 feet tall and is sometimes the size of a newborn. They are greedy little animals and if you catch one and do not let it go it will give you a pot of gold. Do not be deceived by it's tricks, they are all false.

At one time, people believed that there lived on this earth with us all kinds of strange beings who had magical powers. Sometimes they were called fairies, and sometimes they had special names, depending on their power or on the country where they were supposed to Leprechauns were the fairy shoemakers of Ireland. They were little old wrinkled men, not even as big as a new-born child. In Scotland, fairies about 60 centimeters high, were called brownies. A brownie chose some house to serve and, coming at night, scrubbed and cleaned and did all sorts of work. All he would take in payment was a bowl of cream and a bit of white bread.

In England, the very smallest fairies were called pixies. They would wear green jackets and red caps and dance to the music of crickets and grasshoppers. In France, they were called fees and in Scandinavia, white elves. They lived in the woods and fields and a mortal could find his way to their home only on one of the four magical nights of the year- Midsummer Eve, May Eve, Christmas Eve, or Halloween.

Fairies that were bigger in size had different names. For instance, if they, were from 45 centimeters to the size of children, they were called goblins. In Germany they were called gnomes and dwarfs. And in Scandinavia they were called trolls.Sometimes there were human-sized fairies, and they were hard to tell from mortals. In Germany, if you met a man with green teeth he was a nix, or water spirit. When nix ventured on land, some bit of their clothing was always wet.Of course it was considered very difficult to know the real size of a fairy because they were so seldom seen.