"The Leprechaun" by Lady Francesca Wilde

"The Leprechaun" by Lady Francesca Wilde  (1888, 3 pages)

Irish Short Story Month

March 1 to March 31

Year III

Lady Francesca Wilde

Wexford

"Wake me when this post
is over"-Carmilla

Lady Francesca Wilde (1821 to 1896) was one of Ireland's most accomplished folklorists.  She is know to history as the mother of Oscar Wilde.  Irish writers online has an excellent general background article on her which you can read here.   She died in London while her son was in prison.  It is hard to say how much she would still be read out side of small circles were she not Oscar's mother but she has a lovely writing style and her knowledge and love for Irish folklore was very real.  

Lady Wilde, as I feel she should be called, does not need me to explicate this very short work.  I love her prose style.   Here is the opening of "The Leprechaun":

The Leprechauns are merry, industrious, tricksy little sprites, who do all the shoemaker's work and the tailor's and the cobbler's for the fairy gentry, and are often seen at sunset under the hedge singing and stitching. They know all the secrets of hidden treasure, and if they take a fancy to a person will guide him to the spot in the fairy rath where the pot of gold lies buried. It is believed that a family now living near Castlerea came by their riches in a strange way, all through the good offices of a friendly Leprechaun  And the legend has been handed down through many generations as an established fact.

"Lady Wilde, I salute you"
Rory

There was a poor boy once, one of their forefathers, who used to drive his cart of turf daily back and forward, and make what money he could by the sale; but he was a strange boy, very silent and moody, and the people said he was a fairy changeling, for he joined in no sports and scarcely ever spoke to any one, but spent the nights reading all the old bits of books he picked up in his rambles. The one thing he longed for above all others was to get rich, and to be able to give up the old weary turf cart, and live in peace and quietness all alone, with nothing but books round him, in a beautiful house and garden all by himself.

Through the good offices of the Leprechaun the boy obtained his dream and his decedents still live from the gold he showed the boy.

You can and should read this wonderful retelling of a legend on the webpage of Library Ireland.

Mel u