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In Scottish folklore the Ghillie Dhu or Gille Dubh (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [ˈkʲiʎə ˈt̪u]) was a solitary male fairy. He was kind and reticent, yet sometimes wild in character. He had a gentle devotion to children. Dark-haired and clothed in leaves and moss, he lived in a birch wood within the Gairloch and Loch a Druing area of the north-west Highlands of Scotland. Ghillie Dhu is the eponym for the ghillie suit.^[1]

Etymology

Ghillie is an English equivalent of the Scottish Gaelic word gille;^[2] Edward Dwelly, a Scottish lexicographer, lists gille as a "lad", "youth" or "boy"^[3] with dubh translating as "dark" or "dark-haired".^[4]

Folk beliefs

Description and common attributes

According to folklorist and scholar Katharine Briggs the Ghillie Dhu was a gentle and kind-hearted mountain spirit,^[5] or a "rather unusual nature fairy."^[6] The Ghillie Dhu was an individual male modern day fairy described by Osgood Mackenzie, a Scottish landowner and horticulturist, in his memoirs that were published in 1921.^[5]^[7] The fairy was generally timid, yet he could also be "wild".^[8]

Residing in the birch woods near Loch a Druing,^[9] in the north-west Highland area of Gairloch,^[10] he was mainly seen in the latter part of the 18th century.^[5] The woods are in a dip alongside a hilly area^[11] around 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) from where Rua Reidh Lighthouse was later built.^[9] One summer evening a local child named Jessie Macrae wandered into the woods and became lost.^[9] Jessie was found by the Ghillie Dhu who looked after her until the next morning when he took her home.^[9] Over a period of four decades the fairy was frequently seen by many people but Jessie was the only person he conversed with.^[9] Generally of a dishevelled appearance,^[12] he used green moss and leaves taken from trees as clothing.^[9] As implied by his name, he had black hair;^[9] he was of a small stature.^[13] His fondness of children is similar to that displayed by the little known Hyter sprite of English mythology.^[14]

Attempted hunt

Shortly after the Gille Dhu rescued Jessie, a group of Mackenzie dignitaries were invited by the landowner, Sir Hector Mackenzie of Gairloch, to get together to hunt and capture the Ghillie Dhu.^[9] The team of five hunters congregated at the home of one of Mackenzie's tenants where they were provided with a complimentary evening meal before setting off on their mission to shoot the child-rescuing, kind Ghillie Dhu.^[9] Despite searching extensively throughout the night, the hunters could not find their prey;^[15] according to Patricia Monaghan, a writer on Celtic mythology, the Ghillie Dhu was never seen again.^[12]

Origins

After researching folklore traditions gathered primarily from Gaelic areas of Scotland,^[16] an authority on congenital disorders, Susan Schoon Eberly, has speculated the tale of the Ghillie Dhu may have a basis in a human being with a medical condition;^[17] other academics, such as Carole G. Silver, Professor of English at Stern College for Women,^[18] agree and suggest he was a dwarf.^[13] Eberly maintained several other solitary or individual fairies, including the Brownie and the Manx Fenodyree, could also have a medical, rather than supernatural, explanation.^[19]

References

Citations

^ David Amerland (2017), The Sniper Mind: Eliminate Fear, Deal with Uncertainty, and Make Better Decisions, St. Martin's Press, p. 53, ISBN 978-1-250-11368-9
^ MacKillop, James (2004), "ghillie", A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (online ed.), Oxford University Press, retrieved 12 September 2014
^ Dwelly (1902), p. 492
^ Dwelly (1902), p. 367
^ ^a ^b ^c Briggs (2002), p. 49
^ Briggs (1961), p. 517
^ Mackenzie (1921), p. 233
^ Briggs (2002), p. 284
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Mackenzie (1921), p. 234
^ MacKillop, James (2004), "gille dubh", A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (online ed.), Oxford University Press, retrieved 13 September 2014
^ Dixon (1886), p. 334
^ ^a ^b Monaghan (2009), p. 214
^ ^a ^b Silver (2000), p. 120
^ Rabuzzi (1984), p. 74
^ Mackenzie (1921), p. 235
^ Black (2005), p. liv
^ Eberly (1988), p. 72
^ Strange and Secret Peoples, Oxford University Press, archived from the original on 7 March 2016, retrieved 15 September 2014
^ Black (2005), p. liii

Bibliography

Black, Ronald (2005), "Introduction", The Gaelic Otherworld: John Gregorson Campbell's Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands, Birlinn^{[dead link‍]}
Briggs, Katharine Mary (1961), "Some Late Accounts of the Fairies", Folklore, 72 (3), Taylor and Francis, JSTOR 1258579
Briggs, Katharine Mary (2002) [1967], The Fairies in Tradition and Literature, Psychology Press, ISBN 978-0-415-28601-5
Dixon, John H. (1886), Gairloch in North-west Ross-shire, Edinburgh Co-operative Printing
Dwelly, Edward (1902), Faclair Gàidhlìg air son nan sgoiltean, vol. 2, E. MacDonald
Eberly, Susan Schoon (1988), "Fairies and the Folklore of Disability: Changelings, Hybrids and the Solitary Fairy", Folklore, 99 (1), Taylor and Francis, JSTOR 1259568
Mackenzie, Osgood Hanbury (1921), A Hundred Years in the Highlands, Edward Arnold
Monaghan, Patricia (2009), The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore, Infobase Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4381-1037-0
Rabuzzi, Daniel Allen (1984), "In Pursuit of Norfolk's Hyter Sprites", Folklore, 95 (1), Taylor and Francis, JSTOR 1259761
Silver, Carole G. (2000), Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness, Oxford University Press^{[dead link‍]}