#tommyknockers — Public Fediverse posts

Fairies of Northern Appalachia: Cover reveal!

I’m so excited to reveal the cover for my next book, Fairies of Northern Appalachia: A History of the Little People of the Mountains, which covers fairy stories and beliefs from Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky.

I thought John Anster Fitzgerald’s painting “The Fairies’ Favourite” was the perfect cover for this book, because it captures something of the diversity and strangeness of the fairies that occupy Appalachian stories. I also like the fact that the cover seems to depict a fairy queen wearing a crown (can you find her?) because my book contains a couple of stories about “fairy queens”—from both eastern Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

Here is the cover and back cover in full:

Book overview

Join Andrew Warburton, author of New York Fairies and New England Fairies, as he explores the deep, but often overlooked, roots of fairy lore in the mist-shrouded mountains of Northern Appalachia.

The magic of Old World folklore lingers in Northern Appalachia’s hills and hollers. From banshees to tommyknockers to mischievous elves, myriad fairy spirits populate the stories of the region’s mountain folk. The Little Hunchbacked Man who dwelled in corners of Pennsylvania Dutch homes. Pixies whose knocking warned of explosions in West Virginia’s mines. A red-haired fairy whose magical arrows tormented the Scots Irish of Kentucky’s Cumberland Mountains.
 
In this vivid and well-researched history, Andrew Warburton gathers the region’s forgotten fairy stories―from tales about “ancient pygmies” in Ohio to a psychiatrist’s account of photographing fairies in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.

The contents are as follows:

• Introduction
• 1. German Fairies: Influence of Pennsylvania Dutch folklore.
• 2. Irish Fairies: Influence of Scots-Irish settlers.
• 3. Underground Fairies: Tales of “tommyknockers” and mining spirits.
• 4. Virginia’s Fairy Stone Park: Legends behind the famous staurolite stones.
• 5. Fairies by Other Names: Regional variations of little people.
• 6. Appalachian Pygmies: Legends of ancient, small inhabitants in Ohio and throughout Appalachia.
• 7. Modern Fairy Stories: Accounts and sightings in the modern era.
• A Glossary of Northern Appalachian Fairies
• Bibliography

Tommyknockers, the American counterpart to the Cornish Knocker, are beings of gnome-like appearance that dwell deep within the mines of Pennsylvania and the Western United States. Some miners believed them to be the ghosts of fellow miners that died on the job. #FolkloreThursday

📷: Dane Deaner

#Folklore #Tommyknockers #Ghosts #Gnomes Miners #AmericanFolklore

The end of this book is very satisfyingly violent. #tommyknockers

So anyway I’m rereading #Tommyknockers for the first time in like 30+ years, ask adult me anything about how well I thibk it rips off Quatermass and the Pit.

(Quite well actually)