page_title: Brownie (folklore)
section_title: Gifts of clothing
hierarchical_section_title: Brownie (folklore) / Traditions / Gifts of clothing
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration for a Grimm fairy tale
context_page_description: A brownie or broonie, also known as a brùnaidh or gruagach, is a household spirit from Gaelic 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. If angered, they are sometimes said to turn malicious, like boggarts.
  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.
context_section_description: 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!
  It is possible that the Cauld Lad may have simply thought himself "too grand for work", a motif attested to in other folk tales, or that the gift of clothing may have been seen as a means of freeing him from a curse. A brownie from Jedburgh is also said to have desired clothing. The servants are reported to have heard him one night saying, "Wae's me for a green sark!" The laird ordered for a green shirt to be made for the brownie. It was left out for him and he disappeared forever. People assumed he had gone to Fairyland.
caption: A recurring folkloric motif holds that, if presented with clothing, a brownie will leave his family forever and never work for them again,[13][30][31] similar to the Wichtelmänner in the German story of "The Elves and the Shoemaker".
exif: {}