Celtic fairy traditions
Korrigans
Evans-Wentz collects stories of corrigans dancing near megaliths and tempting passing people to join them. Their welcome can turn to revenge if the visitor disrupts or displeases the company. Other accounts describe water-fairies near sacred fountains and grottoes, with knowledge of war, prophecy, and transformation. The survey notes overlapping descriptions rather than establishing one fixed appearance.
Also known as Corrigans
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In the sources
Principal account
ReportedEvans-Wentz collects stories of corrigans dancing near megaliths and tempting passing people to join them. Their welcome can turn to revenge if the visitor disrupts or displeases the company.
Further detail
ReportedOther accounts describe water-fairies near sacred fountains and grottoes, with knowledge of war, prophecy, and transformation. The survey notes overlapping descriptions rather than establishing one fixed appearance.
Context & interpretation
Evans-Wentz combines named informants, manuscript narratives, and his own psychical theory in a 1911 survey. This entry preserves those distinctions: collected belief and literary tradition do not establish the physical existence of an Otherworld.
Original passages
Source 1
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
' Taboo. — ' At night, the corrigans dance, singing, " Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday " ; they are prohibited from completingOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Celtic fairy traditions; active reader leaf 239
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0045-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0045-E001-P0239
- Original scan leaf
- 240
- Recorded leaf number
- 240
- Current Reader position
- 235
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
Their favourite haunts are near fountains and dolmensOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Celtic fairy traditions; active reader leaf 242
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0045-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0045-E001-P0242
- Original scan leaf
- 243
- Recorded leaf number
- 243
- Current Reader position
- 238
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Continue exploring
Carnac in the Fairy-Faith
Breton megalithic landscape surrounded by living tales of korrigans.
Same subject and traditionBanshee
A warning woman associated with family, mourning, and the dead.
Same subject and traditionBucca
A Cornish power that the survey distinguishes from ordinary fairies.
Same subject and traditionCornish Piskies
Fairy people whose presence is negotiated around Cornish homes and moors.