The peasant encounters a forest-imp Gustave Doré (1832-83 from X. B. Santine's La Mythologie du Rhin (1862), 243. Note the Druid stones in the background. [Click on these images for larger pictures.]
“Il arrivait autrefois que le voyageur attardé, le paysan ou le bûcheron revenant d'une noce vers la tombée de la nuit, avaient cette chance heureuse de rencontrer dans une clairière du bois ou sur les bords d'un ruisseau, une troupe de lutins débattant au milieu des clartés crépusculaires.” (243). [It once happened that a traveler, a farmer or woodcutter returning from a wedding in the dark, had the good fortune to meet in a clearing in the woods or on the banks of a stream, a band of elves struggling in the twilight gleams.]
Formatting and text by George P. Landow. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you link your document to this URL in a web document or credit the Internet Archive and Oxford University and link to the Victorian Web web document or cite it in a print one.]
Bibliography
Santine, X. B. La Mythologie du Rhin. Paris: L. Hachette, 1862. Internet Archive version of a copy in the library of the University of Oxford. Web. 22 February 2014.
Last modified 24 February 2014