ganconer

A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology | 2004 | 664 words | Copyright

ganconer, gancanagh, gean-cannach, geancánach. Amorous leprechaun-like but false fairy of Irish folk tradition, sometimes known in English as the ‘love talker’. Always seen with a pipe [Ir. dúidín, dudeen] in his mouth, the ganconer haunts lonely valleys, speaking his love to milkmaids and shepherdesses, then abandoning them, leaving them to pine for death. Portrayed in Ethna Carbery 's poem ‘The Love-Talker’, Four Winds of Erin (Dublin, 1902).
W. B. Yeats records ganconers who play at hurling, Irish Fairy and Folk Tales (London, 1893).
Confused with but very different from the gan ceann. Folk motif: F301.2.

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