Tuesday, 29 November 2016

black man

The Black man

I found a source, hunting about on line,  which fits the stories
of the shadow people pretty well, and is more ancient?

The Fear Dubh, a Scottish folklore figure,
Its tale is of a lone dark figure, which follows travellers.
With corollaries in Eastern Europe, this is a  dark, usually thin figure.
According to internet sites, this creature often takes on
attributes of the boogeyman, and is said to abduct children.
Its slender dark appearance might lead you to believe
that it could be an archetype for the "Black Man" and shadow people,
even, dare I say it, the Men in Black?

It does seem that the name Fear Dubh could come from Celtic folklore,
but i would prefer to see it in pre-internet written sources,
as the internet is a hotchpotch of often untestified or poorly back sourced
information. Having said that, though, the name itself simply
does seem to mean Dark man, so it fits a mythological
and archetypal image, which sits at the back of our conscoiusnesses.
The earliest i have traced so far is 1890, by the internet
To Jeremiah Curtin, "Myths and Folklore of Ireland"
relating to tales of Fin McCumhail, an Irish hero,
however it strays a little from the spirit nature
that i'm looking for, except interestingly Fear Dubh and his brothers
are apparently the children of a hag.

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