E X T E N S I O N IRISH FOLKLORE Irish legends come from old generations of Irish people. You can find some tales on manuscripts1 of the 8th century but many of them have their origins over 2,000 years ago. At that time people tell stories and so these pass orally from one generation to the next. In Irish folklore, little people and spirits appear in lots of legends. The most famous of the little people is the Leprechaun. He is an elf 2 about the size3 of a child and lives alone in the woods4. He is a shoemaker5 and makes little shoes for the fairies6. He wears green clothes and works sitting under the trees. The Leprechaun has got a pot7 of gold8; he puts it in a secret place in the woods. If you catch him, he will give you his gold; but if you look away from him for a moment, he will run away with his pot. There is also a female9 spirit in Irish folklore: the Banshee. She is a fairy and she starts crying when someone in an Irish family is going to die10. Today lots of people, especially in country areas, still believe in Banshees and they are afraid when they hear someone crying at night. When a Banshee is crying, she has got grey hair, she wears a grey cloak11 and her eyes are red from crying. When she is not crying, she is a beautiful young girl, with long red hair and she wears green clothes, like many of the Irish fantasy characters. 1. manuscript: handwritten document. 2. elf: small magical person in fairy stories. 3. size: dimensions. 4. woods: large area of trees. 5. shoemaker: a person that makes shoes. 6. fairy: imaginary little woman with magical powers. 7. pot: 8. gold: valuable, yellow metal. 9. female: a woman or a girl. 10. die: stop living. 11. cloak: 56