Brownies

 The Brownie is the Scottish and Northern English counterpart of the Scandinavian Tomte, the Slavic Domovo and the German Heinzelmannchen.

Brownies are said to inhabit houses and aid with the upkeep and tasks around the house. Although they hate to be seen so work at night or when there isn't anyone at home, they would become fiercely loyal to their families and would move with them to a new house. They take food as gifts for their help but they are very difficult to keep happy and can get very aggressive or even leave if their gifts are called a payments, the owners misuse them are called by a name or nickname or if they are thanked. They are known to like honey, milk and porridge the best and many would leave them out daily. They make their nests or homes in unused parts of the house, like holes in walls or lofts.

Depending on where you are brownies can vary in their looks, normally they are short, often male but in the highlands they don't have fingers and toes and in the lowlands they didn't have noses.

  There are a few tales and ballads about the brownies but not many. But there are differences between the English Brownie and the Scottish Urusig. The English brownie lived in the house and helped with domestic tasks as did many in the Scottish manor houses but the Scottish Urusig wasn't domestic and lived in or by streams, it had a generally nice temperament and like to be solitude but around the end of harvest would come out to get some of the it's favourite dairy products from the milkmaids.

  The only people who could see the brownies where the ones who possessed the second sight, which enabled them to be able to see anything from the sprite or fay world. But they where said to appear to certain people if they didn't have it.

  Although there is a general blanket description for brownies they are several different types. When they where miss treated they would turn into Boggarts with sharp teeth and wild hair. These where horrible are violent, throwing things, stealing and breaking things, tormenting the people living there and spoiling food and milk.

  There is the Brown Men that are a type of brownie that live on Bodmin moor in Cornwall England, you will never see these little red haired men, they look after all the wild life that live on the moor with them. Similar to the Brown Men are the Gruagach, brownies that live in the Hebrides off the coast of Scotland and are thought to watch over farmers’ herds. Early legends say that they were given offerings of milk in order to ensure that they would watch over flocks and herds and keep all of the animals safe. A brownie-clod was a type to live outside and cause havoc by throwing mud at anyone that came near, a Dobbie was a simple minded but well meaning brownie that unintentionally caused chaos (these are the ones that inspired the house elves and their name sake Dobbie in the Harry Potter books).

  The brownie also isn’t to be confused with the browney, which is a different type of mythological creature. The browney comes from Cornwall, and it’s thought to watch over hives of bees.