Pixies Legends

One myth states that pixies or gothic fairy were a race of people who were not good enough for Heaven or bad enough for Hell and were therefore forced to remain on Earth forever. Another legend claims that pixies or gothic fairy were Druids who resisted Christianity and were subsequently sentenced by God to grow smaller and smaller until they accepted Christianity.

More recently a theory has developed that pixies or gothic fairy are named after the nation of Picts that inhabited Scotland during the post-Roman period, whom some believe are descended from an indigenous group of people predating the arrival of the Celts in Britain during the Iron Age. However, this is not proven, as many scholars believe the Picts to have been largely a Celtic people, as evidenced by the fact that they were called Priteni (Irish Cruithni) by the Welsh, an archaic Celtic name for "Briton". Additionally, the name Pict is derived from Latin picti, "painted people", making the Pictish origin of pixies unlikely.

Pixies or gothic fairy are said to enjoy playing tricks on people, for example by stealing their belongings or throwing things at them. At night, pixies steal horses and bring them back before dawn, leaving only tangled manes as evidence of the prank. Some pixies or gothic fairy are said to exude pixie dust, which is left in their footprints or floating behind them as they fly.

On Dartmoor, in Devon, travellers who became lost on the moor were sometimes said to have been "pixie led," in other words, deliberately led astray by the pixies. It is said that if travellers feel the onset of the pixies or gothic fairy spell, they can turn their coats inside out to confuse them and escape, a technique normally used for all fairies.

Pixies can also be repelled by objects made from iron or iron ore as contact with the metal is said to harm them, another trait they share in common with other fairies of the British Isles. Those who deliberately follow pixies or gothic fairy often vanish without a trace. For example, a farmhand at Rowbrook, situated on the steep, wooded flanks of the River Dart valley, is said to have been lured down towards the river by mysterious voices, calling his name. He was never seen again.

Even within living memory, some rural families left small gifts, such as bowls of food or saucers of milk, for the pixies or gothic fairy in order to placate them. When shown this respect and attention, pixies would sometimes even help the family by tidying up the household during the night.