The transformed elves
The transformed elves is a fairy tale . It is contained in the Irish fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm at number 11, which they translated in 1825 from Fairy legends and traditions of the South of Ireland by Thomas Crofton Croker .
content
Honest old Johann Mulligan is a firm believer in ghosts. Once he got into an argument with boys from high school who didn't believe his grandmother's stories, especially since he never saw elves himself. He rides away drunk in the evening and sees the elves dancing around an old oak tree. He fetches the two boys who find out it's mushrooms. Since then he has been called the Mushroom Hans.
annotation
According to Grimm: The original title was fairies or no fairies? . The story is not about ridicule. Anyone who believes in elves interprets it to mean that the elves turn into mushrooms for unbelievers, under which they live.
literature
- Irish fairy tales. In the broadcast by the Brothers Grimm. Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig, first edition 1987. pp. 162-167, 259-260. (Insel Verlag; ISBN 978-3-458-32688-5 ; The text follows the edition: Irische Elfenmärchen. Translated by the Brothers Grimm. Friedrich Fleischer, Leipzig 1826. Orthography and punctuation were slightly normalized.)