Fairy Tale Spotlight: Darby O'Gill and the Good People (Part 3 of 3)

The final chapter of "Darby O'Gill and the Good People" dealt exclusively with leprechauns. Once again, I am not here to give a synopsis of the chapter as much as I am going to tell of what I learned. Leprechauns are not at all what I remember them being growing up. The first thing you should probably do before we begin is to put the whole rainbow and pot o' gold story out of your mind. It really has nothing to do with this legend.

From what I understand, the leprechauns were also one of the Good People, but more specifically, they were the cobblers. I'm not sure how they got picked for this job, but I get the impression that they were not volunteers. Leprechauns seem to not like their work very much.

One of the many Good People were chosen and forced to learn the art of cobbling. They were told to do this possibly under some sort of threat. This cobbler was hence forth called a leprechaun. They spent much of their time away from their friends and would do their work in various hiding spots around the country.

Apparently leprechauns are invisible. You might be able to hear them talking, but you won't be able to see them. However, when a leprechaun is really busy working, his invisibility spell fails. If you manage to spot a leprechaun, he will remain visible even after he realizes he has been spotted. At that point, he is in your trap. This is actually not a good thing for either party, and I really need to go into why right away.

While in your trap, he cannot disappear at all and this is really upsetting to him. A main bullet-point of his job is to not be seen by anyone. The other Good People are probably going to ridicule him for it. Getting caught will automatically give the leprechaun a bad day. I want you to know this in case you are in that situation. You are actually causing this creature problems that he did not ask for.

Like with all the Good People, there is a set of rules for the encounter. Any broken rules will make the whole thing null and void. Firstly, you can't blink. The moment something breaks your vision of the leprechaun, he will be able to turn invisible again. He'll be gone after that. It is very common for a leprechaun to try and get you to either blink or look away. He may point at something behind you just to get you to look. The leprechaun may also ask to share a pipe with you which will give him a chance to cause a fire flash in your eyes or blow smoke at you. Either one will surely cause an automatic blinking reaction. If you decline these attempts, you should still be able to keep the leprechaun within your power.

It is important to note that the reason the leprechaun is trying to trick you into blinking is because he wants to get away from you. He was already having a bad day and you are making it worse. Keeping him in the trap is only making him hateful and even vengeful. Nevertheless if you can manage to keep your eyes open and decline his attempts to thwart you, you will be given a set of wishes that he will be obligated to grant.

How many wishes you get are actually a part of the rules. The leprechaun will ask you for your first, second, and third wish in order. You will make your wishes, and he will promise to grant them. And always at this point, the creature will ask you what your fourth and final wish will be. Well, four wishes! That's not a bad deal at all! The problem is that if you make that fourth wish, it breaks the hold you have on the leprechaun. The first three wishes are also dissolved. There is another problem you will have at this point, but I will get to that later.

When you are asked what your fourth wish is, you are supposed to decline. With much frustration, the leprechaun will then proceed to make the wishes a reality. There are few limits to what the leprechaun can grant. They nearly have the ability to change reality itself, but therein lies a problem. This reality is exclusively controlled by the leprechaun himself. He is conjuring it all up, and you are allowing yourself to be incorporated into it. This allows the leprechaun to include a few subtle snide remarks within the new reality, but other than that, it seems very real. He is still bound by your wishes, however, and will be forced to keep you happy unless certain rules are broken.

One very easy rule to break is that you cannot tell anyone about the leprechaun. You must pretend it never happened. This is difficult to do because the leprechaun is going to make everyone you come in contact with ask you all about your change in fortune. They will be very persuasive too. The moment you tell, the whole fantasy ends. All wishes destroyed.

During the fantasy, people may ask if you want anything. This is a leprechaun trick. He is actually trying to get you to make that fourth wish. Yes, just because you declined to make the wish does not mean that you can't make one later... and by accident. It is very hard to avoid these trials, and remember that they don't really end. You have to try and enjoy your newfound wealth while always keeping in mind that the leprechaun is watching for even one mistake. There is no statute of limitation. One slip up and the whole thing is ruined.

Now for the scary part. Remember how I told you that you were making the leprechaun's day even worse? Well, that is probably the most important part. This creature will hate you for giving him all that extra trouble. If you fail on any of those rules, there is a good likelihood that the leprechaun will seek revenge against you or the ones that you love. The longer you push him, the more hateful he will become.

The best rule for dealing with a leprechaun is to just walk away. He won't bother with you if you just leave. The truth is that there really is no way to win against one anyways. He will always be one step ahead of you and eventually you will mess up. But really, why do you want to upset him to begin with? Just leave him alone.

I have a friend who made a really interesting point. He told me that if he spotted a leprechaun who was having troubles doing his work, he would walk up, help him finish it, and then simply turn around to leave. The leprechaun would not expect that, to be sure. Some might suggest that doing so might cause the leprechaun to attempt to give you a gift, but something tells me that going into it with that mindset is not a good idea. The gift itself could also be bound by rules that could still work against you later on. This only adds to the augment of simply leaving them alone. Whatever you end up choosing to do, it really counts that you just be a good person.

Before I bring an end to the Darby O'Gill blogs, I want to leave you with a poem included at the beginning of the book:

THE FAIRIES

"Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren't go a-hunting
For fear of little men.
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping altogether;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl's feather.

They stole little Bridget
For seven years long;
When she came down again
Her friends were all gone.
They took her lightly back
Between the day and morrow;
They thought that she was fast asleep,
But she was dead with sorrow."

~William Allingham.

Thank you for reading my blog! If you enjoyed it, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. Thanks!