Matt, that's very similar! Those Oliver Sack's tales are equally intriguing. In the case of Agnes Bowker, though, there may have been several people in on the reimagined truth/lie (the midwife may have helped spread the story, for Agnes' sake). I do wonder what a clinical psychologist would have made of Agnes!

And I forgot to say, Lina, that you're completely right how susceptible we are in the face of authority, especially when we have a lot to lose (love, respect, our fingers...yikes!) those kinds of moral tales really help keep us check though, don't they? And maybe I should check with our psychologist friends, but I wonder if we as humans are less likely to question with certain kinds of authority, such as that which comes from our parents.

Sleeping Gypsy, this is a really interesting question! I did a quick search (never having heard of the Duende (a fairy-goblin-like creature with Spanish origins). Many cultures do seem to have similar traditions about these fairy folk (although they seem to vary in how helpful vs mischievous they are, as well as in their capacity for kindness and cruelty). From what I can see, these traditions seem to share early medieval roots, although oral folk storytelling may have preceded anything that was written down in the early modern period. The first writing about "gnomes", of Scandinavian origins, seems to have been by Paracelsus in the 16th century. the question for me, however, is why did different cultures opt to create these types of mythological figures? For entertainment of course,but perhaps also to explain why good and bad things happen. What do you think?