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Overview
A little man in a gold-laced three-cornered hat and silver-buckled shoes answers Billy Mac Daniel’s wish for a drink. After Billy empties the oversized glass and refuses payment, the stranger demands seven years and a day of service. Billy finds himself compelled to follow across the countryside, then return nightly to the Fort-field. The master makes rushes swell into horses and teaches him words that allow them to pass through locked doors’ keyholes. Their repeated journeys raid wine cellars around Ireland.
For a journey to a Limerick wedding, the little man orders a third mount and announces that he will be a thousand years old the next day. He intends to take Bridget Rooney, already about to marry Darby Riley, as his own wife. When Billy invokes a blessing in surprise at his age, the master warns that such words would ruin him. At the feast they perch overhead on roof beams. The fairy claims a growing hold over the bride as two sneezes pass without a blessing, then expects a third to complete his claim.
Billy cries out a religious blessing at the third sneeze. The master’s scheme collapses; he angrily dismisses Billy from service and kicks him from the beam onto the supper table. The priest hears the explanation and promptly marries the intended human couple. The text leaves Billy unsure whether his saving exclamation arose from sympathy or habit. The little man’s personal name is not given, and the tale does not identify him as Naggeneen from the neighbouring cellar story.
Origins & earliest records
T. Crofton Croker, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, condensed new edition, Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1844; X, Master and Man, pp. 70–76. The story supplies named human characters and a Limerick wedding setting, without naming an individual oral narrator.
Records & interpretation
Croker’s complete edited Master and Man narrative links the night journeys to the wedding intervention and Billy’s release. The edition places the tale in its Cluricaune section; neither the master’s name nor an identity with the neighbouring Naggeneen is supplied.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Fairy Legends X: Master and Man, pp. 70–76
Complete narrative from the drink debt to Billy’s dismissal, the thwarted abduction and human wedding. Page 77 begins the following tale.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary edited folklore collectionCroker’s Fairy Legends, 1844 edition transcriptionResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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