I’ve talked before about so-called ‘nursery sprites,’ those faeries whose primary purpose seems to be (or, at least, to have become) keeping children in order and away from harm. Parents have co-opted their fearsome natures to try to ensure that infants stay clear of rivers, ponds, pits and empty or derelict buildings.
Here, though, I’d like to discuss what might be seen as a subset of these beings. They are the faeries involved with sleep; unlike those bogies who keep children in their beds out of terror at what might lurk in the shadows or in the cupboard, these are more gentle, soothing beings. One of this family is Billy Winker, known in Lancashire and the North-West of England. He seems to be closely related to Wee Willie Winkie from over the border in Scotland. This character was first publicised widely by the Glasgow poet William Miller (1810-72). A skilled cabinet-maker, he started writing verse whilst still a youth. This was published in local newspapers and journals and prepared the way for him to publish ‘Willie Winkie’ and several other children’s’ poems between 1839 and 1843.
“Wee Willie Winkie
Rins through the toun,
Up stairs and doun stairs
In his nicht-gown,
Tirling at the window,
Crying at the lock,
“Are the weans in their bed,
For it’s now ten o’clock?”
If Willie finds a “waukrife [wakeful] laddie/ That winna fa’ asleep,” and who is keeping everyone else awake, Willie helps to comfort the exhausted parents and to help their efforts to soothe the child. The last name obviously denotes the spirit’s job (as we shall see); the ‘Willy/ Billy’ element may just be there for a harmonious effect, but there might possibly be a little more significance to it.
Billy Blind (who’s also known variously as Billy Blin, Billy Blynde or Belly Blin) is an English and Lowland Scottish household spirit, who’s related to the brownies or hobgoblins. He appears only in ballads, where he frequently gives wise advice to characters. Billy appears in several of the ballads collected together as the so-called ‘Child Ballads’:
- Gil Brenton– in which Billy Blind advises the hero that the latter’s bride (who is a virgin) is not the woman laying beside him. This false bride is, in fact, already pregnant;
- Willie’s Lady– Willie’s wife has been in labour but cannot deliver her baby because Willie’s mother, a witch, is using charms to prevent her. Billy Blind advises Willie to make a wax figure of a baby and invite his mother to the christening. In her rage, the mother demands to know how all her spells have been undone, listing them one by one and thereby enabling Willie to counteract them;
- Young Bekie– in which Billy advises Burd Isobel that Young Bekie is about to marry another bride and then helps her to travel magically so she can reach him in time; and,
- The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter– during which Billy reveals the true births of the marrying couple: they are far more noble than they knew.
Billy clearly has some sort of second sight, by which spells and deception are revealed to him. The name ‘Blind’ or ‘Blin,’ in both Scots and English, has the familiar sense of blind, sightless, but there are other, associated meanings such as ‘blink/ wink’- closing eyes for sleep (as in “forty winks”)- and ‘hidden’ or ‘secret.’ As for Billy, this can simply be a pet-form of William or, much more significantly, it can imply a person who’s a friend or companion.
I wonder, therefore, if the faery Billies are, by their names alone, to be understood as helpful and friendly individuals. Secondly, not only is sleep good for the sleeper and restful for everyone else in their household (as with those restless children)- it can be a portal to visions. As I discussed in my book Faery Mysteries, dreams can be a medium by which faeries communicate with mortals, providing them with information and counsel. It has to be said, as well, the dreams are a vehicle by which people are abducted and seduced too, so matters are not wholly benign, but sleep may, nonetheless, be a route to wealth and success. The faeries seem to be able magically to control sleep- their slumbers as well as ours- and to go further still by employing dreams as a way of contacting us across the dimensions.