deathtocapslock | Magical Magic Creature Spotlight: Leprechaun

Leprechaun

MOM Classification: XXX

This is the entry where Rowling’s issues with capitalization really come through. I present to you the first sentence:

“More intelligent than the fairy and less malicious than the imp, the pixie, or the Doxy, the leprechaun is nevertheless mischievous.”

That’s wrong. The thing is that every one of those names refers to the same thing: the species name of the animal (we can assume for our purposes). Therefore, going by scientific naming principles, every name in that sentence should be capitalized, since species names in the biological sciences are treated as distinct entities and thus proper nouns. Not everyone in the humanities is going to do this, but not being consistent is just stupid, because so far as we can tell, every one of those names has functioned exactly the same.

Anyway, Leprechauns are Irish, and actually have green skin and make clothes from leaves. Leprechauns are distinct from Fairies, Pixies, and the like in that they can speak, and are also somewhat unusual in that they have live babies (a trait they share with Pixies). They eat leaves.

Rowling also mentions that Leprechauns produce “a realistic gold-like substance that vanishes after a few hours, to their great amusement,” to which Ron replies “but not mine” in an added note :3

There’s some more stuff in here about how Leprechauns attract Muggle attention, but whatever. Leprechauns show up in Book 4 at the World Cup, where they represent the Irish team.