Strange Tales Mythology of Hidden Folk—Or Are They Real? By Elle AndraWarner
Recently I came across an online CBC news article posted in 2014 about a northern Ontario explorer, Bill Steer, who suggested that there may be fairies on the remote Fairy Point (named for fairies) on Lake Missinaibi as depicted in more than 100 pictographs over a rock face of 40 metres. “Mischievous sprites,” known as Memegwaysiwuk, “live within the crevices along the sheer rock face,” said Steer. “It is those playful, prankish, tiny beings who emerge from their rocky refuge to steal your camping supplies or rock your canoe for no apparent reason.” Steer compared the sprites and fairies to the “wee people” of Ireland and said to be on the lookout for “diminiutive beings linked to the metaphysical” of most Native cultures.
Fairy by Charles Edmund Brock (1870-1938). | PUBLIC DOMAIN
“There are too many legends and beliefs in these little people to ignore the possibility of their existence,” he said. Steer’s comments echoed those of Norwegian-born author and authority on ‘little people’ Lise Lunge-Larson. In his book Gunflint: The Trail, the People, author John Hendrickson quotes Lunge-Larson as saying, “I think they have withdrawn into an elusive world, parallel but not easily accessible to ours. In our civilized world, most people have lost touch with nature and aren’t capable of seeing the beings that live there.” In his book, Hendrickson also introduces his readers to Ellefolk, the resident little people who live in the bogs of northern Minnesota. Who are these Ellefolk? According to Henrickson, they originally lived in the bogs of Denmark, moved to Nor-
sided on the mountainside to the west of the Munro homestead and would stop by there when going to the grocery store.
‘Fairy Islands’ from the book Elves and Fairies 1916 by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite. | PUBLIC DOMAIN
In his book, Over the Years, author J. Alex Munro writes that MacFarlane would tell “about the fairies or leprechauns that he claimed dwelt on his rock-strewn place,” as well as what he called “fairy races” on moonlight nights. And in winter, MacFarlane saw them from his window riding on snowshoe hares over snow-covered areas, but the fairies vanished when he stepped outside for a closer look.
A woodcut from an old English book— Fairies dancing in a ring near a large mushroom and a hill with a doorway. | PUBLIC DOMAIN way, and came to the Gunflint region with some Norwegian immigrants. He writes that Minnesota’s Ellefolk are “light” beings (benign), “not dark” (nasty), and can “travel with great ease through air, fire, wood, water, and stone.”
Then there’s the tale of fairies and leprechauns in Slate River in Ontario across the Minnesota-Ontario border, as told by Patrick “Paddy” MacFarlane (1833-1903) from Ireland. As the story goes, he became known as the “hermit of Slate River.” He re-
The Northern Ontario Travel website, features a story about the “Little People of Doghead Mountain” (known as Memegwesiwijiw and translated to “mountain of the little people”) who live at the base of the mountain near Nipigon. Described as tricksters, they are also mischievous and like to tease humans. Over In Canada’s northern Manitoba, the story goes that the Huldufólk—Iceland’s ‘hidden people’—live in Gimli, the largest
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