"Martin H. Greenberg - Christmas Bestiary" - читать интересную книгу автора (Greenberg Martin H)

Western culture, the dragon is almost always associ-

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Stefan Dziemianowicz

ated with paganism and portrayed as evil: Satan ap-
pears as the red dragon of the Book of Revelations
and adopts a dragon's shape to fight his losing battle
with St. George.

Elf: Although divided into two classes, the light and
the dark, elves are generally mischievous but possess
great magical powers that can be used either benevo-
lently or harmfully. Benevolent elves coexist peace-
fully with man; some cohabit in human dwellings
where they cause beer to brew, bread to rise, and
butter to churn. Their less benevolent kindred steal
milk from cows, destroy cattle, and abduct unbaptized
children from the cradle. In Scotland, fairies of short
human stature are called elves. At the North Pole,
elves are diligent workers with a fundamental respect
for work deadlines; one is said to have grown up to
become Santa Claus.

Fairy: Fairies are kin to the jinn of Arabic legend
and the nymphs of Greek mythology. Depicted as an
intermediate species between men and angels, and
thought by some to be subdivided into many classes,
including brownies, pixies, leprechauns, and hobgob-
lins, fairies can range in height from several inches tall
to full human scale. Although they prefer to live near
forests or under hills, they are not completely remote
from humans. Some fairies marry human lovers, but
under such proscriptions of fairy law that the marriage
is invariably doomed to fail. Fairies sometimes substi-
tute changelings for human children or spirit adults
away to fairyland and encourage them to eat and drink
there, after which there is no returning to mortal
realms. Fairies are generally not malicious, but rather
mischievous tike Shakespeare's Puck.

Golem: Legends of the golem arose from Jewish
folklore of the Middle Ages. The golem is a homuncu-
lus, or human effigy, often fashioned from virgin clay

INTRODUCTION 11

of a mountainous region. He can be endowed with life
through the inscription of God's name on a piece of
paper attached to his forehead or inserted in his mouth.