Yesterday I wrote about the fairies of Humshaugh (Northumberland, England) and I was struck by how s

Yesterday I wrote about the fairies of Humshaugh (Northumberland, England) and I was struck by how sweet it was. Often with British folklore, especially fairy tales, the endings can be quite harsh and involve the death or intense suffering of one who has, sometimes inadvertently, crossed the fae! Well, this morning I found an alternative ending to yesterday’s charming tale, and it’s not unlike another tale: the Fairies of Great Tosson. 

Great Tosson is also in Northumberland, about thirty miles away from Humshaugh. In this story a miller and his wife found that, whilst they were out, fairies had been using their mortar to grind up grain. Furthermore, they had left the miller and his wife some, and so the wife baked a delicious loaf of bread. The whole family partook apart from the dog who refused to eat it, and, a warning not to reject gifts from the fae, the dog died the following day. In the alternative ending of the Humshaugh fairy story, the ploughman, who had been left fairy bread and butter as thanks for fixing their churn, shared his gift with the rest of the workers. Only the ox refused to eat it, and, like the poor dog at Great Tosson, he too died the following day.

[Sources:Simonside Crag, Folk Tales of the North Country by F. Grice, Northumberland Folk Tales by Malcolm Green]