4. Leprechauns Tried To Kill A King
While the cereal, Lucky Charms, would have you believe that leprechauns are cute little men dressed all in green, they are mischievous faeries of Celtic – mainly Irish – origin. Most of their time is spent mending shoes and engaging in somewhat deleterious practical jokes. In one of the earliest tales of leprechauns, King Fergus Mac Leti of Ulster was dragged into the water by three leprechauns after he fell asleep on the beach. He woke up and caught them before he drowned and was granted three wishes in return for their release. The famous children’s story, Rumpelstiltskin, which is about a little man who tricked a young woman into giving him her firstborn child, may have actually been about a leprechaun.
Similar to faeries, leprechauns were also believed to be Tuatha de Danaan, or descendants of the gods. In fact, the earliest ones were believed to be characterizations of Celtic pagan divinities.
Before the 1900s, leprechauns were believed to wear red, not green, and beliefs about their appearance varied depending on the particular region of the Emerald Isle. The modern depiction of the leprechaun, as a charming little man dressed in green, is a pretty current invention. However, they were initially believed to have a pot of gold kept hidden at the end of a rainbow.