Fairy Fishermen Sighted Off Man

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lag-ny-keilley fairies

Editor’s Note: This tale comes from one Billy Clarke via Evans-Wentz. It was presumably collected while Evans-Wentz was undertaking research 1907-1909 in the Celtic fringe of Britain and in Ireland. It is interesting because this is the only description (known to this author) of fairies fishing and because of the use of Manx, a language that was by then in terminal decline.

Once while I was fishing from a ledge of rocks that runs out into the sea at Lag-ny-Keilley, a dense grey mist began to approach the land, and I thought I had best make for home while the footpath above the rocks was visible. When getting my things together I heard what sounded like a lot of children coming out of school. I lifted my head, and behold ye, there was a fleet of fairy boats each side of the rock. Their riding-lights were shining like little stars, and I heard one of the Little Fellas shout, ‘Hraaghyn boght as earish broigh, skeddan dy liooar ec yn mooinjer seihll shoh, cha nel veg ain’ (Poor times and dirty weather, and herring enough at the people of this world, nothing at us). Then they dropped off and went agate o’ the flitters. Evans-Wentz, 1911, 117-118

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