A brownie or broonie (Scots), also known as a or (Scottish Gaelic), is a household spirit or hobgoblin from Scottish folklore that is said to come out at night while the owners of the house are asleep and perform various chores and farming tasks. The human owners of the house must leave a bowl of milk or cream or some other offering for the brownie, usually by the hearth. Brownies are described as easily offended and will leave their homes forever if they feel they have been insulted or in any way taken advantage of. Brownies are characteristically mischievous and are often said to punish or pull pranks on lazy servants.
Brownies originated as domestic tutelary spirits, very similar to the Lares of ancient Roman tradition. Descriptions of brownies vary regionally, but they are usually described as ugly, brown-skinned, and covered in hair. In the oldest stories, they are usually human-sized or larger. In more recent times, they have come to be seen as small and wizened. They are often capable of turning invisible, and they sometimes appear in the shapes of animals. They are always either naked or dressed in rags. If a person attempts to present a brownie with clothing or baptize it, it will leave forever.
Regional variants in England and Scotland include hobs, and ùruisgs. Variants outside England and Scotland are the Welsh Bwbach and the Manx Fenodyree. Brownies have also appeared outside of folklore, including in John Milton's poem L'Allegro. They became popular in works of children's literature in the late nineteenth century and continue to appear in works of modern fantasy. The Brownies in the Girl Guides are named after a short story by Juliana Horatia Ewing based on brownie folklore.
Origin
Brownies originated as domestic tutelary spirits, very similar to the Lares of ancient Roman tradition, who were envisioned as the protective spirits of deceased ancestors. Brownies and Lares are both regarded as solitary and devoted to serving the members of the house. Both are said to be hairy and dress in rags and both are said to demand offerings of food or dairy. Like Lares, brownies were associated with the dead and a brownie is sometimes described as the ghost of a deceased servant who once worked in the home.
The Cauld Lad of Hilton, for instance, was reputed to be the ghost of a stable boy who was murdered by one of the Lords of Hilton Castle in a fit of passion. Those who saw him described him as a naked boy. He was said to clean up anything that was untidy and make messes of things that were tidy. The Menehune of Hawaiian folklore have been compared to brownies as well, seeing they are portrayed as a race of dwarf people who carry out work during night time. In Japanese folklore, there's several yokai that are similar household spirits, such as the Zashiki Warashi and Chōpirako, though they are usually described as little children.
The family cult of deceased ancestors in ancient times centred around the hearth, which later became the place where offerings would be left for the brownie. The most significant difference between brownies and Lares is that, while Lares were permanently bound to the house in which they lived, brownies are seen as more mobile, capable of leaving or moving to another house if they became dissatisfied. One story describes a brownie who left the house after the stingy housewife fired all the servants because the brownie was doing all the work and refused to return until all the servants had been re-hired.
Traditions Activities Traditions about brownies are generally similar across different parts of Great Britain. They are said to inhabit homes and farms. They only work at night, performing necessary housework and farm tasks while the human residents of the home are asleep. The presence of the brownie is believed to ensure household prosperity and the human residents of the home are expected to leave offerings for the brownie, such as a bowl of cream or porridge, or a small cake. These are usually left on the hearth.
The brownie will punish household servants who are lazy or slovenly by pinching them while they sleep, breaking or upsetting objects around them, or causing other mischief. Sometimes they are said to create noise at night or leave messes simply for their own amusement. In some early stories, brownies are described as guarding treasure, a non-domestic task outside of their usual repertoire.
Brownies are almost always described as solitary creatures who work alone and avoid being seen. There is rarely said to be more than one brownie living in the same house. Usually, the brownie associated with a house is said to live in a specific place, such as a particular nearby cave, stream, rock, or pond. Some individual brownies are occasionally given names. Around 1650, a brownie at Overthwaite in Westmorland was known as "Tawny Boy" and a brownie from Hylton in Sunderland was known as the "Cauld Lad of Hylton". Brownies are said to be motivated by "personal friendships and fancies" and may sometimes be moved to perform extra work outside of their normal duties, such as, in one story of a brownie from Balquam, fetching a midwife when the lady of the house went into labour.
In 1703, John Brand wrote in his description of Shetland that:
Appearance Brownies are virtually always male, but female brownies, such as Meg Mullach (or "Hairy Meg"), have occasionally been described as well. They are usually envisioned as ugly and their appearances are sometimes described as frightening or unsettling to members of the houses in which they reside. They received their name from the fact that they are usually described as brown-skinned and completely covered in hair. In the earliest traditions, brownies are either the same size as humans or sometimes larger, but, in later accounts, they are described as "small, wizened, and shaggy".
They are often characterized as short and rotund, a description that may be related to mid-seventeenth-century Scottish descriptions of the Devil. Two Scottish witchcraft confessions, one by Thomas Shanks in 1649 and another by Margaret Comb in 1680, both describe meetings with a "thick little man". The man in these descriptions may have been conceived as a brownie.
In the late nineteenth century, the Irish folklorist Thomas Keightley described the brownie as "a personage of small stature, wrinkled visage, covered with short curly brown hair, and wearing a brown mantle and hood".Keightley, Thomas (1870). "The Brownie". The Fairy Mythology. London: H. G. Bohn. Brownies are usually described as either naked or clothed in rags. Brownies of the Scottish Lowlands were said not to have noses, but instead had merely a single hole in the centre of their face. In Aberdeenshire, brownies are sometimes described as having no fingers or toes. Sometimes brownies are stated to appear like children, either naked or dressed in white tunics.
Like the Phooka in Irish folklore, brownies are sometimes described as taking the forms of animals. As a rule, they can turn invisible, but they are supposed to rarely need this ability because they are already experts at sneaking and hiding. A story from Peeblesshire tells of two maids who stole a bowl of milk and a bannock that had been left out for the brownie. They sat down together to eat them, but the brownie sat between them invisibly and whenever either of them tried to eat the bannock or drink the milk, the brownie would steal it from them. The two maids began arguing, each accusing the other of stealing her milk and bannock. Finally, the brownie laughed and cried out: "Ha, ha, ha! Brownie has't a'!"
Leaving the house If the brownie feels he has been slighted or taken advantage of, he will vanish forever, taking the prosperity of the house with him. Sometimes the brownie is said to fly into a rage and wreck all his work before leaving. In extreme cases, brownies are even sometimes said to turn into malicious boggarts if angered or treated improperly. A brownie is said to take offence if a human observes him working, if a human criticizes him, or if a human laughs at him.
Brownies are supposedly especially angered by anything they regard as contempt or condescension. The brownie at Cranshaws in Berwickshire is said to have mown and thrashed the grain for years. Then someone commented that the grain had been poorly mown and stacked, so, that night, the brownie carried all the grain to Raven Crag two miles away and hurled it off the cliff, all the while muttering:
It's no' weel mow'd! It's no' weel mow'd!— Then it's ne'er be mow'd by me again; I'll scatter it owre the Raven Stane And they'll hae some wark ere it's mow'd again!
A brownie can also be driven away if someone attempts to baptize him. In some stories, even the manner in which their bowls of cream are given is enough to drive the brownie away. The brownie of Bodsbeck, near the town of Moffat in Scotland, left for the nearby farm of Leithenhall after the owner of Bodsbeck called for him after pouring his cream, instead of letting him find the cream himself.
Sometimes giving the brownie a name was enough to drive him away. A brownie who haunted Almor Burn near Pitlochry in Perthshire was often heard splashing and paddling in the water. He was said to go up to the nearby farm every night with wet feet and, if anything was untidy, he would put it in order, but, if anything was tidy, he would hurl it around and make a mess. The people of the area feared him and did not go near the road leading up from the water at night. A man returning from the market one night heard him splashing in the water and called out to him, addressing him by the nickname "Puddlefoot". Puddlefoot exclaimed in horror, "I've gotten a name! 'Tis Puddlefoot they call me!" Then he vanished forever and was never heard again.
Gifts of clothing
If the family gives the brownie a gift of clothing, he will leave forever and refuse to work for the family. The first mention in English of a brownie disappearing after being presented with clothes comes from Book Four, Chapter Ten of Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft, published in 1584. Sometimes brownies are reported to recite couplets before disappearing. One brownie from Scotland is said to have angrily declared:
Red breeks and a ruffled sark! Ye'll no get me to do your wark!
Another brownie from Berwickshire is said to have declared:
Gie Brownie a coat, gie Brownie a sark, Ye'se get nae mair o' Brownie's wark.
Explanations differ regarding why brownies disappear when presented with clothes, but the most common explanation is that the brownie regards the gift of clothing as an insult. One story from Lincolnshire, first recorded in 1891, attempts to rationalize the motif by making a brownie who is accustomed to being presented with linen shirts become enraged upon being presented with a shirt made of sackcloth. The brownie in the story sings before disappearing:
Harden, harden, harden hamp, I will neither grind nor stamp; Had you given me linen gear, I have served you many a year. Thrift may go, bad luck may stay, I shall travel far away.
The Cauld Lad of Hilton seems to have wanted clothes and to have been grateful for the gift of them, yet still refused to stay after receiving them. At night, people were supposed to have heard him working and somberly singing:
Wae's me! Wae's me! The acorn is not yet Fallen from the tree, That's to grow to the wood, That's to make the cradle, That's to rock the bairn, That's to grow a man, That's to lay to me.
After the servants presented him with a green mantle and hood, he is supposed to have joyfully sung before disappearing:
Here's a cloak, and here's a hood! The Cauld Lad of Hilton will do no more good!