Gremlins
A Gremlin is a mythological creature which is similar to a fairy or goblin. The creature originates from the fairy fields and woods of England. They are mischievous creatures that can be destructive and love to make things malfunction or place things in disarray. Wise dowagers would catch and keep them as pets to do their evil bidding. The word Gremlin comes from Old English and the word gremian which means “to vex”.
A gremlin is a small, pesky spirit that first appeared in British military aircraft during World War I. Royal Air Force pilots sent out on dangerous missions reported seeing misty, goblinlike spirits in their aircraft. The pilots named them “gremlins.” Nothing public was said about them until 1922, perhaps out of superstitious belief that it might be bad luck to acknowledge the spirits.
The term "gremlin," after Grimm's Fairy Tales, came into popular usage in 1939 during World War II, when a British bomber squadron in India suffered numerous incidents of seeming sabotage to their craft. Various descriptions have been given of gremlins. During World War II, some were said to be six inches tall with horns and black leather suction boots, while others looked like a cross between a jack rabbit and a bull terrier. Still others were humanoid and about one foot tall, wearing ruffled red jackets and green breeches. Some had webbed feet with fins on the heels. The original description was that of tiny humans with elf-like ears and yellow eyes, wearing miniature overalls, and carrying tools sized for them yet somehow still eligible to be used as if they were the correct size. While depictions of these creatures vary, past findings present the animals to be similar to the chupacabra, with spiky backs, large strange eyes, and small clawed frames that feature sharp teeth.
There's surprisingly little written about gremlins, which is possibly a function of the linked facts that, on notion they are a sub-species of pixies, fairies, goblins, imps, and other ill-behaved fey creatures from folklore and legend; and another is, they have a recent and fairly specific point of origin. A gremlin is a mischievous folkloric creature invented at the beginning of the 20th century to originally explain malfunctions in aircraft, and later in other machinery, processes, and their operators. Depictions of these creatures vary widely. Stories about them and references to them as the causes of especially inexplicable technical and mental problems of pilots were especially popular during and after World War II.
The term "gremlin," after Grimm's Fairy Tales, came into popular usage in 1939 during World War II, when a British bomber squadron in India suffered numerous incidents of seeming sabotage to their craft. Various descriptions have been given of gremlins. During World War II, some were said to be six inches tall with horns and black leather suction boots, while others looked like a cross between a jack rabbit and a bull terrier. Still others were humanoid and about one foot tall, wearing ruffled red jackets and green breeches. Some had webbed feet with fins on the heels. The original description was that of tiny humans with elf-like ears and yellow eyes, wearing miniature overalls, and carrying tools sized for them yet somehow still eligible to be used as if they were the correct size. While depictions of these creatures vary, past findings present the animals to be similar to the chupacabra, with spiky backs, large strange eyes, and small clawed frames that feature sharp teeth.
There's surprisingly little written about gremlins, which is possibly a function of the linked facts that, on notion they are a sub-species of pixies, fairies, goblins, imps, and other ill-behaved fey creatures from folklore and legend; and another is, they have a recent and fairly specific point of origin. A gremlin is a mischievous folkloric creature invented at the beginning of the 20th century to originally explain malfunctions in aircraft, and later in other machinery, processes, and their operators. Depictions of these creatures vary widely. Stories about them and references to them as the causes of especially inexplicable technical and mental problems of pilots were especially popular during and after World War II.
