Читать книгу THE ELEMENT ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FAIRIES: An A-Z of Fairies, Pixies, and other Fantastical Creatures - Lucy Cooper - Страница 30

From the cavernous entrance to the Underworld of Greek and Roman mythology to humble holes in the cliff, caves repeatedly appear in folk tales as portals leading to other worlds and fairy realms.

In the classical tale of Psyche and Cupid, Psyche must enter the Underworld and bring back a box containing the beauty of the goddess Proserpine in order to win back her lover, Cupid. It is through a cave that she gains entrance to the Underworld to carry out her task.

In England, the legendary King Herla entered the fairy realm via a cave in a high cliff that led to a dwarf’s splendid palace. Returning to the mortal world, he discovered that hundreds of years had passed. According to a taboo placed upon them by the dwarf, he and his men were prevented from dismounting from their steeds and went on to roam the land as the wild hunt.

A down-to-earth account in William Bottrell’s Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall (1873) tells of a Cornish cliff cave as an entrance to fairyland:

A few days since, a woman of Mousehal told me that not long ago troops of small people, not more than a foot and a half high, used – on moonlit nights – to come out of a hole in the cliff opening onto the beach, Newlyn side of the village, and but a short distance from it. The little people were always dressed very smart; and if anyone came near them they would scamper away into to the hole. Mothers often told their children that if they went under the cliff by night, the small people would carry them away into ‘Dicky Danjy’s holt.’