Magical Magic Creature Spotlight: Pixie

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

Pixie
MOM Classification: XXX
(This article comes with a rather amusing note by Harry that reads “but XXXXXXX if you're Lockhart”)

So, Pixies are from Cornwall. They seem to be related to Imps and Fairies, except that they're more brightly-colored than an Imp (being bright blue) and they don't have wings (but can fly). They also stand out because they give birth to live young, unlike most other fairy creatures (besides Leprechauns).

Pixies are troublemakers and like to grab people by the ears and deposit them high off the ground, as they did to Neville in Lockhart's class, as well as pull other practical jokes. So they're fairly typical fair folk that way. They communicate with one another through a jabbering sound that only other Pixies can understand.

For the record, it isn't clear to me why they'd be from Cornwall specifically. Does anyone know?

Comments

[wolf-willow31.livejournal.com]

Why from Cornwall? Well, this is a stretch (a very long stretch) but maybe JKR is fond of Cornish pasties, and 'Cornish pixies' sounds vaguely similar (like I said, a very long stretch). Also, Cornwall is associated with king Arthur and Merlin, so it's a magical place.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

Actually, JKR got this right. There is a lot of folklore about Pixies in England, particularly in Devon and Cornwall. In fact, in Ottery St. Mary, a town in East Devon, there is even a tradition called Pixie Day, where locals dress up as pixies (or piskies, as they're also called in Cornwall) and pretend to drag the church bell ringers from the church to the square, mimicking the way that the pixies bewitched the monks in the town legend. In Cornish folklore, the pixies are even said to have a queen, Joan the Wad.

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

What gets me about this description is that if they only come from Cornwall, then why bother to use Cornish in the name? Shouldn't Cornish Pixies be a specific type of the general pixie?