New York Fairies: A History of the Little People of the Empire State

Dutch, Irish and Native American residents of New York State have long told tales about mysterious Little People occupying the region’s hills and forests. An exhausted man in 1880s Brooklyn reported to the police that dancing fairies on his roof were keeping him up at night. Irish immigrants in Hell’s Kitchen claimed that banshees in trailing white gowns mourned the deaths of their loved ones. Hordes of goblins on Bannerman Island emerged after nightfall to terrorize navigators of the Hudson River. And in the Genesee Valley, waterfall-dwelling Little People taught a sacred dance to a Haudenosaunee boy. From the noisy metropolis to upstate’s rolling hills, Andrew Warburton roams New York in search of tales of the enchanting Fair Folk.