~KRANDLEKEEP~
The Wisconsin Gnomelore Database
The Vortex Elves
"Quite different from the fairies are the elves or little people."
From There Be Hodags, by C.A. McAllister:
The Burlington vortex is a supposed whirlpool of psychic or electromagnetic energy located in the area of the city of Burlington, which in part serves as a portal between different dimensions. Many different sightings of supernatural entities or phenomena are attributed to the vortex, including sightings of little people, which are generally referred to as “elves” by the paranormal researchers who study the vortex. These elves are usually “cloaked” and thus rendered invisible to the human eye. However, the elves as well as the other psychic phenomena that they cause can be captured through “multi-dimensional photography,” as the presence of a cloaked elf has strange effects upon photos taken in the area of the little person.
The elves of the vortex are a reclusive folk, preferring to stick to the deep woods and go about their own, private affairs. When captured by multi-dimensional photography, they are typically found watching humans from the tops of trees. The elves are also associated with another type of phenomena in the Burlington area, known as “elfin currents.” According to Burlington paranormal researcher Mary Sutherland, elfin currents result from our thoughts making contact with thoughts coming from another dimension, which causes energy or light to become intensified, and which can be captured on cameras in what looks like waves of light or bolts of lightning. These elven currents create a subspace between dimensions, allowing for the exchange of information between universes.
From Haunted Burlington, by Mary Sutherland:
Quite different from the fairies are the elves or little people. While legends and sightings of the little people are mainly confined to fantasy literature, historical sightings around the world have been relentlessly reported throughout the centuries. Even today, we have numerous sightings of various kinds of miniature humanoid beings.
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The majority of legends of elves throughout the world confine these small beings to the deep forest, where they go about their own business, leading to a reclusive and mysterious life. But there have been other numerous accounts of observations of the little people that by chance someone walking through the woods has come upon, in most cases surprising both parties.
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Although the sworn testimonies of those who claim to have encountered the little people are still being dismissed as an over active imagination or hallucination, we do have evidence, based on archaeological discoveries, to prove the existence of the little people. One example was the discovery in 1932 of a fourteen-inch-tall mummified body found by gold prospectors in the Pedro Mountains sixty miles southwest of Casper, Wyoming. The mummy was found posed, sitting on a ledge in a small granite cave with its legs crossed and arms folded on its lap. It was described as having a flat nose, a low forehead and a broad, thin-lipped mouth. The mummy was X-rayed and analyzed by the Anthropology Department at Harvard University and it was certified as a genuine artifact. Both the Shoshone and Crow Indians, who indigenously inhabit the region where the mummy was found, have legends of he little people in their cultural lore.
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In the later 1900s, a British archaeological team uncovered hundreds of tiny flint tools in the Pennine Hills of East Lancashire, all of them no longer than half an inch. These tiny tools included scrapers, borers, and crescent-shaped knives. The craftsmanship of the tools was extremely fine. In many cases, a magnifying glass was needed to detect evidences of the flaking process that was used to bring these instruments to a sharp point. Corresponding with the Lancashire find, tiny tools similar to these have been found worldwide, including in Devon and Suffolk, England; Egypt; Africa; Australia; France; Italy; India; and the United States.
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In the book Mad Bear: Spirit, Healing, and the Sacred in the Life of a Native American Medicine Man, Doug Boyd writes about the indigenous holy man known as Mad Bear who spooke to him about a miniature race of beings whom he called the little people. According to Mad Bear, they evolved side by side with humans. Mad Bear presented the anthropologist author Doug Boyd with a skull the size of a ping-pong ball to physically prove his thesis.
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Having encountered the little people in the Burlington Woods and actually photographing them, I find them quite intriguing, enough so that I did a study on them to find out if they inhabit other areas besides Burlington. Not surprisingly, I found archaeological evidence and lore of them throughout the United States.
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