Cindy's Open House Blog: The Elusive Little People

Sunday, 23 March 2014

The Elusive Little People

The Elusive Little People

OF ALL PARANORMAL PHENOMENA, the existence of "little people" – whether they be fairies, elves, or leprechauns – is among beliefs that receive little serious attention, even among paranormal researchers. These myths are ancient and reside deep within the folklore of many cultures. But no one today really believes in these tiny, magical beings...

... Or do they?

K.T. relates this story of her face-to-face encounter:
In October, 2003, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, I was out playing on our patio with my 2½-year-old son when he stopped suddenly and asked me: who was the little man sitting on our stone wall? I looked where he was pointing and saw nothing... but the area looked different somehow (shimmery?). Later, in January 2004, we were again outside playing, this time with my husband, when the most beautiful snow began to fall. It was just coming on to dusk and I said I wanted to take a quick walk in the woods and my husband would watch our son while I went. I started through the woods and was somewhat perplexed by how different everything looked. Hard to describe; again "shimmery" is first word that comes to mind. As I rounded a bend in the path, I came face-to-face, about three or four feet away, with a little elf-looking man peering right at me from behind a tree. It was almost a stereotypical elf: long, pointy ears, long funny-shaped nose, very long fingers and pointy cap. It was wearing red clothes and hat, and its skin appeared to be a very light lavender color. I let out a startled "Ooh!" and it jerked back and just disappeared into thin air.

Was this the product of a tired mind and an active imagination? Quite possibly. But, like stories of ghost encounters, these tales are related by serious people who will usually swear that they were not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and that their experiences seemed entirely real.

In Jerome Clark's book, Unexplained!, he retells the story of 13-year-old Harry Anderson who had a strange encounter on a summer night in 1919. Anderson claimed to have seen a column of 20 little men marching in single file toward him. The bright moonlight made them clearly visible, and Anderson could see that they were dressed in leather knee pants with suspenders. The men were shirtless, bald and had pale white skin. They paid no attention to Anderson as they passed and seemed to be mumbling something unintelligible all the while.

In Stowmarket, England in 1842, a man claimed this encounter with "faries" when walking through a meadow on his journey home:
There might be a dozen of them, the biggest about three feet high, and small ones like dolls. They were moving around hand in hand in a ring; no noise came from them. They seemed light and shadowy, not like solid bodies. I... could see them as plain as I do you. I ran home and called three women to come back with me and see them. But when we got to the place, they were all gone. I was quite sober at the time.