A real troll? (Part 2)

Last week, when we received the puzzling message from Nils Hiekkalinna, who thinks he might have snapped a photograph of a real Finnish troll, we knew just the person to bring in to help us solve the mystery. Reginald Bakeley is Castle in the Air's fairy identification expert, so we forwarded the photo on to him at his home in Wales. Here's the reply (and the slightly clearer photo) we got back from Reg this afternoon.

"Most intriguing! My personal 'expertise', as you are calling it, extends mainly to the real world which involves the sense of smell. And it's quite a good thing that Mr Hiekkalinna was traveling at highway speed when he got his shot in. Had he been standing in the path of an oncoming troll the scent alone could have knocked him senseless. Perhaps we can borrow a scrap of his clothing and see whether by chance it picked up any trace of the troll's earthy musk??

"HOWEVER: I won't leave you high and dry here. My colleague Professor Marcus White (Inverness curator and archivist) has an unfathomable love of all this email and computer mumbo-jumbo, and he got straight to work on sorting out this odd photograph business. He's got all the latest high tech, and is especially keen to use it regarding questions of fairy sightings.

"I attach his _slightly_ clearer version of the picture. Goodness knows how he's able to do this sort of thing. Hope this helps...I'll keep you up to speed as I hear more from Prof.

"RB"

Leprechaun Field Notes from Reg

Yesterday's post about the Lucky Leprechaun's Shoe prompted a reader to comment and ask if there is a history behind the fairy's shoe.

We did some research in the Castle in the Air library and found that the leprechaun's name is thought to come from the Gaelic phrase leith brogan, meaning "maker of one shoe." This fairy cobbler is in fact always working on a pair of shoes, but he hides one of them such that he only has to carry one shoe when he's spotted by a mortal. You could think of yourself as the leprechaun as you work on yours! The leprechaun is also obliged to tell anyone who catches him the location of his hidden crock of gold. He can be very tricky about how he gives this information, though, and at the first chance, he will disappear, along with his shoe and all his treasure.

We were thrilled to get an email this morning from fairy expert and gnome-hunter extraordinaire Reginald Bakeley in response to our blog post. We love Reg -- he's such a pragmatist:

"Was incredibly agitated to see your item about the Leg of Leprechaun," Reginald wrote. "Vile, secretive creatures, leprechauns, but the dark flesh of their legs and haunches is delectable. They're about the easiest sort of fairy to notice in the field, but they're also one of the quickest to vanish once your gaze wavers. Had one by its scruffy red beard just last summer -- caught it beneath a dead hazel shrub in Leinster -- but the boggart blew snuff all over my face and in the fit of subsequent sneezing my grip eased to where he slipped off. Bother leprechauns. And gold, for that matter. I only wanted a morsel off the blighter's thigh, but some things in life are not meant to be. And now to see your recipe for an ersatz Leg of Leprechaun. Well, I'm going to make one and fill it with poteen-soaked suet and take it back to that same spot, see if I can't attract the knobby cobbler into my net and roast him up with heaps of garlic and snails."

Strangely enough, a treasure-seeker came to Fourth Street yesterday and made off with a crock of gold from our neighborhood bank. He could have learned a thing or two about hiding his hoard, as the Berkeley police caught him and recovered the loot later that day.

Happy Gnomevember!

Celebrated every year between the Halloween and Christmas seasons, Gnomevember is the time when we at Castle in the Air peek under mushrooms and between the cracks in the floorboards to check the goings-on of our most industrious and diminutive colleagues—the gnomes.

This Gnomevember, Castle in the Air presents “Woodland Fauna from the Collection of Reginald Bakeley,” a special exhibit of “found fairies.” Bakeley has made it his life’s work to capture and preserve gnomes, pixies, and other denizens of the fairy kingdom. A portion of his trophies will be on display at our store through Gnomevember, with more information available at Wonderella Printed.