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Last modified: 22 October 1997.
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"The Little Folk" Copyright (c) 1997 Simon E. Phipp
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# The Little Folk

Very distinct from the Fairy Folk, the Little Folk are the original inhabitants of Britain, pre-Celtic and possibly earlier than that. They are the descendants of the original Neolithic settlers and maybe the Bronze Age settlers, but I prefer those to be more like the Celts.

The Little Folk are the small, dark, painted savages that people think of when talking about Picts who were not actually small, dark or savage. The Little Folk are hunter gatherers still although a few may grow some grain now and again. They have been driven to the edges of the land of Britain and survive in areas which are Fairy Lands or which are too wild to be properly conquered. So, they live in the Snowdonian Mountains, in the Glastonbury Marshes, on Exmoor and Dartmoor, in the Lake District, in the East Anglian Fens and in the Mountains of Caledonia.

The Little Folk practice the Old Ways and have Shamans who lead their worship. They have a small pantheon of hunter/fertility deities but mostly use shamanic forms of worship. Some druids can contact these deities and use their spells, but they are rare.

The Little Folk do not use Iron, preferring Stone and occasionally Bronze. They use stone axes and arrows, little changed for thousands of years, and regularly use poison and magic to enhance the capabilities of the weapons. They are know to be masters of the silent death and to be able to put curses on people just by looking at them.

The Little Folk have no Chieftains nor do they have kingdoms, but each tribe may be contacted by those who know their ways and may be hired to fight. They are masters of guerrilla warfare and can sneak up to enemies and kill them with poisoned arrows or poisoned axes before they are even seen.

Some people have confused the Little Folk and the Fairy Folk, possibly because both are furtive and hard to find and both have some magical powers. They are very, very different in nature and power. Fairy Folk are the descendants of powerful Sorcerers and have delusions of grandeur and power, Little Folk are descendants of hunter gatherers and are simply trying to survive the best way they can - stay hidden and kill anyone who tries to interfere. Of the two, the Little Folk seem to have survived the best as they are mentioned in Norman Accounts of the Welsh folk.