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71-545: Thomas Keightley (1870) describes the Dames Blanches as a type of Fée known in Normandy "who are of a less benevolent character." They lurk in narrow places such as ravines, forest, and on bridges and try to attract passerby attention. They may require one to join in her dance or assist her in order to pass. If assisted she "makes him many courtesies, and then vanishes." One such Dame was known as La Dame d'Apringy who appeared in

142-431: A malevolent spirit that lives in a mill pond strikes a deal with the miller that she will restore his wealth in exchange for his son. This story is taken from Grimms' Fairy Tales . The legend of Heer Halewijn , a dangerous lord who lures women to their deaths with a magic song, may have originated with the nix. Alternate names for the female German Nixe are Rhine maidens (German: Rheintöchter ) and Lorelei . In

213-445: A variety of names , they are common to the stories of all Germanic peoples , although they are perhaps best known from Scandinavian folklore . The related English knucker was generally depicted as a worm or dragon , although more recent versions depict the spirits in other forms. Their sex, bynames, and various transformations vary geographically. The German Nix and his Scandinavian counterparts were male. The German Nixe

284-680: A degree, and due to poor health he was forced to abandon the pursuit of the legal profession and admission to the Irish Bar . In 1824 he settled in London, and engaged in literary and journalistic work. Keightley is known to have contributed tales to Thomas Crofton Croker 's Fairy Legends of South Ireland (1825), though not properly acknowledged. It turned out that he submitted at least one tale ("The Soul Cages") almost entirely of his own fabrication unbeknown to Croker and others. Having spent time in Italy, he

355-561: A fictional depiction, the Rhine maidens are among the protagonists in the four-part Opera Der Ring des Nibelungen by the composer Richard Wagner , based loosely on the nix of the Nibelungenlied . The Rhine maidens Wellgunde , Woglinde , and Floßhilde ( Flosshilde ) belong to a group of characters living in a part of nature free from human influence. Erda and the Norns are also considered

426-700: A hoax of sorts. The male merrow story was first printed in Croker's anthology, but Keightley came out with a later edition of the Fairy Mythology he added a footnote to this tale, proclaiming he "must here make an honest confession," and informed the reader that except for the kernel of the story adapted from the German story of "The Peasant and the Waterman", this Irish tale was entirely his invention. The Fairy Mythology underwent several printings (1833, 1850, 1878, etc.) in

497-420: A long list of history quizzes organized by chapter, for young students of his Roman, Greek, and histories. Keightley stated he sought to create history material for the schoolroom which were an improvement on Oliver Goldsmith 's History , thought himself equal to the task, and found his proof when his titles were "adopt(ed).. immediately on their appearance" by " Eton , Harrow , Rugby, Winchester , and most of

568-415: A man playing the violin in brooks and waterfalls (though often imagined as fair and naked today, in folklore, he was more frequently described as wearing more or less elegant clothing) but also could appear to be treasure or various floating objects, or as an animal—most commonly in the form of a "brook horse" (see below). The modern Scandinavian names are derived from nykr , meaning "river horse". Thus, it

639-521: A more historico-scientific, as opposed to theological approach to Greek mythology . Keightley's Tales and Popular Fictions; their Resemblances and Transmissions from Country to Country, appeared in 1834. He divided the book into three parts, tales which he believed were transmitted to Europe from the Middle East, tale groups demonstrating striking similarity but which he thought were independently conceived, and those which confounded him. Keightley

710-567: A part of this 'hidden' world. They are first seen in the first work of the Nibelungen cycle, Das Rheingold , as guardians of the Rheingold , a treasure of gold hidden in the Rhein river. The dwarf Alberich , a Nibelung , is eager to win their favour, but they somewhat cruelly dismiss his flattery. They tell him that only one who cannot love can win the Rheingold . Thus, Alberich curses love and steals

781-681: A pool called the Knucker-hole . The Victorian authority Walter William Skeat had plausibly suggested the pool's name of knucker (a name attested from 1835, Horsfield) was likely derived from the Old English nicor , a creature-name found in Beowulf . The Nordic näcken , näkki , nøkk were male water spirits who played enchanted songs on the violin, luring women and children to drown in lakes or streams. However, not all of these spirits were necessarily malevolent; many stories indicate at

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852-449: A race of titans . Though that may be so according to the genealogy laid out by Hesiod 's Theogony , it has been pointed out that Milton could well have used alternate sources, such as Lactantius 's Divinae Institutiones ("Divine Institutes"), which quotes Ennius to the effect that Uranus had two sons, Titan and Saturn . Likewise regarding Milton's angelology , Keightley had made some correct observations, but he had constrained

923-504: A ravine at the Rue Quentin at Bayeux in Normandy, where one must dance with her a few rounds to pass. Those who refused were thrown into the thistles and briar, while those who danced were not harmed. Another Dame was known on a narrow bridge in the district of Falaise , named the Pont d'Angot. She only allowed people to pass if they went on their knees to her. Anyone who refused was tormented by

994-509: A series of mid-sized histories to be used in schools. History of England (1837–39), 2 vols., although based on John Lingard , was intended to counteract that writer's Catholic tendencies. Other textbooks followed: History of Greece (1835); Rome (1836); Roman Empire (1840); India in (1846–7). His History of Greece was translated into modern Greek. Keightley also compiled as a study tool Questions on Keightley's History of Greece and Rome (1836), and one on English history (1840) consisted of

1065-445: A tail that trailed on the ground. The horse pranced for the girl to show her how handsome he was. However, the girl knew it was the brook horse and ignored it. Then the brook horse came closer and closer, and finally he was so close that he could bite the farm horse in the mane. The girl hit the brook horse with the bridle and cried: "Disappear you scoundrel, or you'll have to plough so you'll never forget it." As soon as she had said this,

1136-425: A water source. The Norwegian Fossegrim or Grim , Swedish strömkarl , is a related figure who, if properly approached, will teach a musician to play so adeptly "that the trees dance and waterfalls stop at his music". It is difficult to describe the appearance of the nix, as one of his central attributes was thought to be shapeshifting . Perhaps he did not have any true shape. He could show himself as

1207-689: Is derived from Old Swedish neker , which corresponds to Old Icelandic nykr ( gen. nykrs ), and nykk in Norwegian Nynorsk . In Finnish, the word is näkki . In Old Danish, the form was nikke and in modern Danish and Norwegian Bokmål it is nøkke / nøkk . The Icelandic and Faroese nykur are horselike creatures. In Middle Low German , it was called necker and in Middle Dutch nicker (compare also Nickel or Nikkel plus Kobolt ). The Old High German form nihhus also meant "crocodile", while

1278-401: Is likely that the figure of the brook horse preceded the personification of the nix as the "man in the rapids". Fossegrim and derivatives were almost always portrayed as gorgeous young men whose clothing (or lack thereof) varied widely from story to story. The enthralling music of the nøkk was most dangerous to women and children, especially pregnant women and unbaptised children. He

1349-519: Is not "a child of God". In a poem by Swedish poet E. J. Stagnelius , a little boy pities the fate of the Näck ( nøkk ), and so saves his own life. In the poem, arguably Stagnelius' most famous, the boy says that the Näck will never be a "child of God", which brings "tears to his face" as he "never plays again in the silvery brook". On a similar theme, a 19th-century text called "Brother Fabian's Manuscript" by Sebastian Evans has this verse: Where by

1420-569: Is regarded as an early practitioner in England of the Brothers Grimm 's approach to the study of myth and folklore, exploring the parallels between the myth of a nation to the religions and mythology of other regions. Thus Keightley began by attempting to trace fairy myth to Gothic and Teutonic roots, as the Grimms had done for elves . Keightley, like the Grimms, eventually reached the conclusion that it

1491-424: Is said that the nykur can equally well change itself into the form of all quadrupedal animals, except that he does not know how to create the horn-points of a ram or a male lamb on himself. But when he hasn't changed his form, he is like a horse, and it has come about that people gain power over him by carving a cross into his back, and then they have been able to have him drag great stones by his tail down from

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1562-415: Is said to have praised the work. It was popular among Victorian folklore researchers and literary figures in its day; an expanded edition appeared in 1850, and a newly prefaced one in 1860. It has subsequently been reissued intermittently up to modern times, vindicating Keightley's own "high hopes of immortality for his work" in his preface, despite an early biographer calling this "pretentious". Keightley

1633-615: Is visible on it still. The equivalent term in Continental Scandinavian languages is bäckahäst or bækhest ('brook horse'). It has a close parallel in the Scottish kelpie and the Welsh Ceffyl Dŵr . The bäckahäst was often described as a majestic white horse that would appear near rivers, particularly during foggy weather. Anyone who climbed onto its back could not get off again. The horse would then jump into

1704-651: The Dames of mediæval folk-lore." The Dames Blanches have close counterparts in both name and characterization in neighboring northern countries: In Germany the Weiße Frauen and in the Dutch Low Countries the Witte Wieven . This article relating to a European folklore is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Thomas Keightley (historian) Thomas Keightley (17 October 1789 – 4 November 1872)

1775-408: The Old English nicor could mean both a "water monster" like those encountered by Beowulf , and a " hippopotamus ". The Norwegian Fossegrim and Swedish Strömkarlen are related figures sometimes seen as by-names for the same creature. The southern Scandinavian version can take on the form of a horse named Bäckahästen ("the brook horse"), similar to other water horses such as

1846-452: The Rheingold . From the stolen gold, he forges a ring of power. Further in the cycle, the Rhine maidens are seen trying to regain the ring and transform it into the harmless Rheingold . But no one will return the ring to them; not even the supreme god Wotan , who uses the ring to pay the giants Fasolt and Fafner for building Valhalla , nor the hero Siegfried , when the maidens appear to him in

1917-401: The loon , and a fatality would later occur on that spot. He was also said to cause drownings, but swimmers could protect themselves against such a fate by throwing a bit of steel into the water. In the later Romantic folklore and folklore-inspired stories of the 19th century, the nøkk sings about his loneliness and his longing for salvation, which he purportedly never shall receive, as he

1988-517: The lutins , cats, owls, and other creatures who helped her. J. A. MacCulloch believes Dames Blanches are one of the recharacterizations of pre-Christian female goddesses, and suggested their name Dame may have derived from the ancient guardian goddesses known as the Matres , by looking at old inscriptions to guardian goddesses, specifically inscriptions to "the Dominæ , who watched over the home, perhaps became

2059-479: The sign of the cross . Immediately she fell down on the ground and saw the brook horse disappear into the lake with the plough. She heard a frustrated neighing when the brook horse understood his trick had failed. Until this day, a deep track can be seen in the field. The German Nix and Nixe (and Nixie ) are types of river merman and mermaid who may lure men into drowning, like the Scandinavian type, akin to

2130-581: The 19th century. The 1878 edition was reprinted a century later retitled as The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves and Other Little People (New York: Avenel Books, 1978). Keightley's bowdlerized The Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy for the Use of School (1831) was applauded by Thirlwall for making the subject "fit for ladies." In it, Cronus 's use of the adamant sickle ( harpē ) to emasculate his father has been euphemized as an act of Uranus being "mutilated". It has been noted that Keightley took

2201-556: The 2019 film Frozen II , Queen Elsa of Arendelle encounters and tames the Nøkk (in the form of a horse), the Water spirit who guards the sea to the mythical river Ahtohallan. Nekkers are a common swamp and water area enemy in The Witcher video games. The 2021 video game Valheim features Neck as a common enemy encountered near water. In contrast to their humanoid appearances in folklore,

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2272-593: The Celtic Melusine and similar to the Greek Siren . The German epic Nibelungenlied mentions the nix in connection with the Danube , as early as 1180 to 1210. Nixes in folklore became water sprites who try to lure people into the water. The males can assume many different shapes, including that of a human, a fish, and a snake. The females bear the tail of a fish. When they are in human form, they can be recognised by

2343-886: The English language, including the expanded prose versions of Ogier the Dane which conveys the hero to Morgan le Fay 's Fairyland , or Swedish ballads on nixes and elves , such as Harpans kraft ("Power of the Harp") and Herr Olof och älvorna  [ sv ] ("Sir Olof in Elve-Dance"). Keithley was one of "early and important comparativist collectors" of folklore, and "For an early book of folklore The Fairy Mythology sets high standards". In 1828 Keightley published Fairy Mythology, 2 vols., illustrated by W. H. Brooke . A German translation by Wolff  [ de ] Mythologie der feen und elfen (1828) quickly appeared. Jacob Grimm

2414-604: The Life, Opinions, and Writings of John Milton, with an Introduction to Paradise Lost (1855). His nuggets of insight have been occasionally invoked, compared, and contradicted in studies into the 20th century and beyond. He is listed among the "distinguished file" in one survey of past commentaries on Milton, going back three centuries ( Miner, Moeck & Jablonski (2004) ). Appreciation of allusions in Milton's poems require familiarity with classical Greco-Roman mythology and epics; to borrow

2485-727: The Middle Ages ( Library of Entertaining Knowledge 1837) was initially published anonymously, and against his wish, and later reprinted in 1848. Keightley edited Virgil 's Bucolics and Georgics (1847), which was prefigured by his Notes on the Bucolics and Georgics of Virgil with Excursus, terms of Husbandry, and a Flora Virgiliana, (1846). Other Latin classics he edited were Horace , Satires and Epistles (1848), Ovid, Fasti (1848), and Sallust , Catilina and Jugurtha (1849). Keightley produced an annotated edition of Milton (2 vols. 1859) as well as his critical biography Account of

2556-519: The Neck in Valheim are depicted as small, aggressive green creatures - similar to a cross between a newt and a frog. In the 2021 novel Lone Wolf by Sam Hall, the main character, Paige, is a nix. The mythological version of the nix exists in the world as lore, but a nix is also a special female wolf shifter. She has greater powers and calls to all eligible bachelors, pitting them against each other and then taking

2627-470: The Old French romance, Adenes Le Roi 's Cléomadès . He also wrote of Henry Fielding 's peculiarism of using the antiquated "hath" and "doth" ( Fraser's Magazine , 1858), without acknowledging a commentator who made the same observation before him. Keightley, a friend to Gabriele Rossetti , and firm supporter of the latter's views on Dante became one of a handful of non-Italians who socialized with

2698-453: The Rossetti family provide some other loose information on Keightley's related kin or on his later private life. A record by William Rossetti of a spiritual séance at Keightley's home at Belvedere on 4 January 1866, amusing in its own right, identifies "two Misses Keightley" in attendance, a kinsman named "William Samuel Keightley" who died in 1856 supposed to have made his spiritual presence in

2769-625: The Scottish kelpie and the Welsh Ceffyl Dŵr . English folklore contains many creatures with similar characteristics to the Nix or Näck . These include Jenny Greenteeth , the Shellycoat , the river-hag Peg Powler , the Bäckahäst -like Brag , and the Grindylow . At Lyminster , near Arundel in the English county of West Sussex , there are today said to dwell "water-wyrms" called knuckers , in

2840-482: The best history of Rome in any language, or to be the first to justly value Virgil and Sallust, could not be admitted by his friends. During the last years of his life he received a pension from the civil list. He died at Erith, Kent, on Nov 4, 1872. Besides the works already mentioned Keightley was author of The Crusaders, or Scenes, Events, and Characters from the times of the Crusaders (1834). His Secret Societies of

2911-438: The bottom of the water. Sometimes he encounters people in human form, as a handsome youth, to lure young women to himself, and promises them joy and gladness in his hall if they want to go along with him. But if they get a suspicion of who he is, when they are giving themselves away, such that they can call him by his true name — nykur — then he loses the power over them and must release them and go along into his waters. It

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2982-410: The bottom, down in the depths, he has his lair; from here he often goes onto land and it is not good to meet him. Sometimes he is like a beautiful little horse which seems to be good and tame, and thus he lures people to draw near to him to pat him and stroke him along the back. But when they come to touch the tail, they become stuck fast to him, and then he releases no-one, but he drags them with him to

3053-422: The brook horse had changed places with the farm horse, and the brook horse started ploughing the field with such speed that soil and stones whirled in its wake, and the girl hung like a mitten from the plough. Faster than the cock crows seven times, the ploughing was finished, and the brook horse headed for the lake, dragging both the plough and the girl. But the girl had a piece of steel in her pocket, and she made

3124-422: The family in the childhood days of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his siblings. Keightley's Fairy Mythology was one of the books Dante Gabriel pored over until age ten. William Michael Rossetti 's Memoir notes that Keightley had as "his nephew and adopted son, Mr. Alfred Chaworth Lyster" who became a dear friend. A pen and ink likeness of this nephew by Dante Gabriel Rossetti exists, dated 1855. Writings from

3195-587: The first book in the children's series Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles , the main characters rescue a Nixie named Taloa after fire-breathing giants destroy her pond. Nixies are depicted as aquatic female humanoids related to mermaids but with frog-like legs instead of tails. In the 2017 game Unforgiving: A Northern Hymn the Näcken is portrayed as villainous in the story, tempting the protagonist into handing him Freyjas' Harp as part of an endless limbo. In

3266-495: The fisherman was fishing in his little dugout of oak, he met the Nøkken , who offered him great catches of fish on the condition that the fisherman gave him his beautiful daughter the day she was eighteen years old. The desperate fisherman agreed and promised the Nøkken his daughter. The day the girl was eighteen she went down to the shore to meet the Nøkken . The Nøkken gladly asked her to walk down to his watery abode, but

3337-430: The forest of Tiveden relates that a father promised his daughter to a nøkk who offered him great hauls of fish in a time of need; she refused and stabbed herself to death, staining the water lilies red from that time on: At the lake of Fagertärn, there was once a poor fisherman who had a beautiful daughter. The small lake gave little fish and the fisherman had difficulties providing for his little family. One day, as

3408-418: The girl took forth a knife and said that he would never have her alive, then stuck the knife into her heart and fell down into the lake, dead. Then, her blood coloured the water lilies red, and from that day the water lilies of some of the lake's forests are red. In Faroese , the word nykur refers specifically to a supernatural horse, described in one Faroese text thus: The nykur dwells in water; at

3479-417: The greatest of the fighters as her mates. In the 2021 game Northern Journey , Nøkken is used as the cover art for the game and can be found in-game as part of the story. The game also has a related soundtrack called Nokkpond . A 2021 urban fantasy series of novels, The Legend of Nyx by Theophilus Monroe, highlights a "nyx" who attempted to seduce a vampire by song and lost her abilities, freezing her in

3550-504: The marishes boometh the bittern , Neckar the soulless one sits with his ghittern. Sits inconsolable, friendless and foeless. Waiting his destiny, – Neckar the soulless. (The source has "bloometh" for "boometh", but this is an error; a bittern is not a plant but a bird, and it is known for its booming call. A "ghittern" is a guitar. The spelling "Nickar" vice "Neckar" is sometimes used.) In Scandinavia, water lilies are called "nix roses" ( näckrosor / nøkkeroser ). A tale from

3621-602: The mountains to homesteads or houses. Some are still seen in Húsavík in Sandoy and on Eiði in Eysturoy and the big rocks that are gathered together there bear witness to how strong he is. At Takmýri in Sandoy lies one huge rock, which they wanted to have him draw to Húsavík, but his tail broke here, and the stone remains there. One part of the nykur 's tail, which was attached to the stone,

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3692-577: The other great public schools , besides a number of private ones." In 1850, Keightley wrote immodestly of his historical output as "yet unrivalled, and may long be unsurpassed." Keightley's History of Rome was derivative of the labors of the German classical historian Barthold Georg Niebuhr , and Keightley's patron or mentor Arnold was a subscriber of Niebuhr's approach. Samuel Warren , in his Legal Studies, 3rd ed. 1854 (i. 235–6, 349), highly praises his historical work. But he ludicrously overestimated all his performances, and his claim to have written

3763-540: The possibility that similar tales arose independently. At the request of the educator Thomas Arnold , he authored a series of textbooks on English, Greek, and other histories, which were adopted at Arnold's Rugby School as well as other public schools . Keightley, born in October 1789, was the son of Thomas Keightley of Newtown, County Kildare , and claimed to be related to Thomas Keightley (1650?–1719). He entered Trinity College, Dublin , on 4 July 1803, but left without

3834-413: The river, drowning the rider. The brook horse could also be harnessed and made to plough, either because it was trying to trick a person or because the person had tricked the horse into it. The following tale is a good illustration of the brook horse: A long time ago, there was a girl who was not only pretty but also big and strong. She worked as a maid on a farm by Lake Hjärtasjön in southern Nerike . She

3905-782: The session. It has also been remarked that by this period, Keightley had become as "stone-deaf" as Seymour Kirkup , a person who was corresponding with Keightley on matters of spiritualism and visions. Neck (water spirit) The Nixie , Nixy , Nix , Näcken , Nicor , Nøkk , or Nøkken ( German : Nixe ; Dutch : nikker , nekker ; Danish : nøkke ; Norwegian Bokmål : nøkk ; Nynorsk : nykk ; Swedish : näck ; Faroese : nykur ; Finnish : näkki ; Icelandic : nykur ; Estonian : näkk ; Old English : nicor ; English: neck or nicker ) are humanoid , and often shapeshifting water spirits in Germanic mythology and folklore . Under

3976-473: The sirens, the Nixie by her song draws listening youth to herself, and then into the deep." According to Grimm, they can appear human but have the barest hint of animal features: the nix had "a slit ear", and the Nixie had "a wet skirt". Grimm thinks these could symbolise they are "higher beings" who could shapeshift to animal form. One famous Nixe of recent German folklore , deriving from 19th-century literature,

4047-487: The source mostly to the Bible, and made mistakes, such as to identify the angel Ithuriel as a coinage. Keightley also published an unannotated edition of Shakespeare (6 vols. 1864), followed by a study guide entitled Shakespeare Expositor: an aid to the perfect understanding of Shakespeare's plays (1867). Keightley is credited with first noticing that Chaucer's Squire's Tale is paralleled by, and hence may have drawn from,

4118-470: The third act of Götterdämmerung . Eventually, Brünnhilde returns it to them at the end of the cycle, when the fires of her funeral pyre cleanse the ring of its curse. Descendants of German immigrants to Pennsylvania sometimes refer to a mischievous child as "nixie". In the video game Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege , the Danish operator Nøkk is named after the mythical creature. In The Nixie's Song ,

4189-555: The very least that nøkker were entirely harmless to their audience and attracted not only women and children but men as well with their sweet songs. Stories also exist wherein the spirit agrees to live with a human who had fallen in love with him. Still, many of these stories ended with the nøkk returning to his home, usually a nearby waterfall or brook. (Compare the legend of Llyn y Fan Fach in Wales.) The nøkker were said to grow despondent unless they had free, regular contact with

4260-405: The wet hem of their clothes. The Nixes are portrayed as malicious in some stories but harmless and friendly in others. The 1779 poem Der Fischer by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe handles of a fisherman who meets his end when he is lured into the water by a Nixe By the 19th century, Jacob Grimm mentions the Nixie to be among the " water-sprites " who love music, song, and dancing, and says, "Like

4331-465: The words of an American contemporary Thomas Bulfinch : "Milton abounds in .. allusions" to classical mythology, and especially "scattered profusely" throughout Milton's Paradise Lost . Keightley was one annotator who meticulously tracked Milton's mythological sources. Some of Keightley's flawed commentary have been pointed out. He argued that Milton erred when he spoke of "Titan, Heaven's first-born," there being no single divine being named Titan, only

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4402-565: Was Lorelei ; according to the legend, she sat on the rock at the Rhine which now bears her name and lured fishermen and boatmen to the dangers of the reefs with the sound of her voice. In Switzerland, there is a legend of a sea-maid or Nixe that lived in Lake Zug (the lake is in the Canton of Zug). The Yellow Fairy Book by Andrew Lang includes a story called " The Nixie of the Mill-Pond " in which

4473-965: Was a female river mermaid . Similar creatures are known from other parts of Europe, such as the Melusine in France , the Xana in Asturias (Spain), and the Slavic water spirits (e.g., the Rusalka ) in Slavic countries. The names are held to derive from Common Germanic * nikwus or * nikwis(i) , derived from PIE *neigʷ ("to wash"). They are related to Sanskrit nḗnēkti , Greek νίζω nízō and νίπτω níptō , and Irish nigh (all meaning to wash or be washed). The form neck appears in English and Swedish ( näck , definite form näcken ). The Swedish form

4544-528: Was an Irish writer known for his works on mythology and folklore, particularly Fairy Mythology (1828), later reprinted as The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People (1978, 2000, etc.). Keightley was as an important pioneer in the study of folklore by modern scholars in the field. He was a "comparativist" folklore collector, drawing parallels between tales and traditions across cultures. A circumspect scholar, he did not automatically assume similar tales indicated transmission, allowing for

4615-399: Was an uneasy situation, as Keightley was clearly peeved at Croker for not properly acknowledging Keightley's aid, even though in the preface to the 1850 edition, Keightley explains the circumstances more cordially, addresses Croker as "one of my earliest literary friends in London". A selection in Fairy Mythology was an Irish mermaid story entitled "The Soul Cages," which turned out to be

4686-418: Was believed to cause their death. Another belief was that if a person bought the nøkk a treat of three drops of blood, a black animal, some brännvin (Scandinavian vodka ) or snus (wet snuff) dropped into the water, he would teach his enchanting form of music. The nøkk was also an omen for drowning accidents. He would scream at a particular spot in a lake or river in a way reminiscent of

4757-456: Was capable of producing translations of tales from Pentamerone or The Nights of Straparola in Fairy Mythology , and he struck up a friendship with the patriarch of the Rossetti household. Thomas claimed to be literate in twenty-odd languages and dialects in all, and published a number of translations and digests of medieval and foreign works and passages, often sparsely treated elsewhere in

4828-445: Was implausible to trace a myth to an ultimate single source, and that parallel myths can be explained by the " Enlightenment idea that human nature [that] is uniform," and similar experiences and responses are shared across mankind. Keightley had contributed to T. Crofton Croker 's Fairy Legend (1825–1828), and Keightley being stimulated to write his own book was perhaps the most important consequence of Croker's publication. But it

4899-521: Was long occupied in compiling historical manuals for instructional use and popular enlightenment. His Outlines of History was one of the early volumes of Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia (1829). His History of the War of Greek Independence (1830) forms volumes lx. and lxi. of Constable's Miscellany . After the Outlines, Keightley was urged by the educator Thomas Arnold of Rugby School to undertake work on

4970-400: Was ploughing with the farm's horse on one of the fields by the lake. It was springtime and beautiful weather. The birds chirped, and the wagtails flitted in the girl's and the horse's tracks to pick worms. All of a sudden, a horse appeared out of the lake. It was big and beautiful, bright in colour and with large spots on the sides. The horse had a beautiful mane which fluttered in the wind and

5041-504: Was thought to be most active during Midsummer's Night , Christmas Eve, and Thursdays. However, these superstitions do not necessarily relate to all the versions listed here. Many, if not all, developed after the Christianizing of the northern countries, as was the case of similar stories of faeries and other entities in other areas. When malicious nøkker attempted to carry off people, they could be defeated by calling their name; this

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