Fair Isle folklore

THE STORY OF LUKKI MINNI

This is the story of Lukki Minni, one of Fair Isle's guid-fiks fairies, who lived on Malcolm's Head. One day she captured a boy who had been taunting her and tied him up in a sack. Then she went to fetch a stick to beat him. Whilst Lukki Minni was gone the boy escaped and in his place he put all her crockery in the sack.

When Lukki Minni returned she hammered the sack thinking she would teach the boy a lesson, only to find that she had been smashing all her dishes. The boy who been hiding decided to run for it but Lukki Minni saw him and gave chase down Malcolm's Head. At the bottom the boy jumped the burn and made off. But when Lukki Minni jumped she fell in and was washed away, never to be seen again.

LUKKI MINNI AND THE BOY (hand-knitted on Fair Isle by Fiona Mitchell)

MALCOLM'S HEAD - Lukki Minni's home.

THE STORY OF LUKKI MINNI (courtesy of Fiona Mitchell)

SHEEP'S-BIT (Jasione montana), known on Fair Isle as 'Lukki Minni's Buttons'.

LUKKI MINNI'S BUTTER - Fair Isle folk-lore name for sea foam which is churned up during a storm and blown or washed up onto beaches. On very stormy days puffs of 'Lukki Minni's Butter' can also be seen blowing across the fields.