The Nain Rouge (French for red gnome) is a malevolent fairy creature reportedly living in Michigan, USA.
Origin
It is said that the Nain Rouge originated in Normandy, France, as a type of lutin (the French name, male, for a type of hobgoblin).
Description/Morphology
The Nain Rouge appears as a small child-like creature with red or black fur boots. It is also said to have "blazing red eyes and rotten teeth." (Skinner 1896)
Powers
In a French fairy tale, Le Prince Lutin, written in 1697 has a description of the air, water and terrestrial lutin:
"You are invisible when you like it; you cross in one moment the vast space of the universe; you rise without having wings; you go through the ground without dying; you penetrate the abysses of the sea without drowning; you enter everywhere, though the windows and the doors are closed; and, when you decide to, you can let yourself be seen in your natural form.”
Beliefs
The Nain Rouge haunts Detroit, Michigan, United States and feared by its residents as "the harbinger of doom." (Skinner 1896) Its appearance is said to presage terrible events for the city.
Sightings
- The creature is said to have been attacked in 1701 by the first white settler of Detroit, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, who soon after lost his fortune. The creature is also said to have appeared on July 30, 1763 before the Battle of Bloody Run, where 58 British soldiers were killed by Native Americans from Chief Pontiac's tribe.The small tributary of the Detroit river,which still flows through what is now Elmwood Cemetery, turned red with blood for days after the battle.It is said he was seen dancing on the banks of the Detroit river.
- Famous multiple sighting occurred in the days before the 1805 fire which destroyed most of Detroit. General William Hull reported a "dwarf attack" in the fog just before his surrender of Detroit in the War of 1812.
- A woman claimed to have been attacked in 1884, and described the creature as resembling, "a baboon with a horned head...brilliant restless eyes and a devilish leer on its face." Another attack was reported in 1964.
- Other sightings include the day before the 12th Street Riot in 1967 and before a huge snow/ice storm of March 1976, when two utility workers are said to have seen what they thought was a child climbing a utility pole which then jumped from the top of the pole and ran away as they approached.
- More recently, in the autumn of 1996, according to an article in the Michigan Believer, the Nain Rouge was spotted by two admittedly drunken nightclub patrons, who claimed to both have heard a strange "cawing sound, similar to a crow," coming from a "small hunched-over man" who was fleeing the scene of a car burglary. The creature was described as wearing "what looked like a really nasty torn fur coat."
Art/Fiction
- Detroit Beer Co., a brewpub in downtown Detroit, has as its signature brew a "Detroit Dwarf" lager, named in honor of the Nain Rouge.
- In Palladium Books Rifter #36, Nain Rouge is an Optional Character for Beyond the Supernatural.
References
- Le Prince Lutin by Marie Catherine d’Aulnoy in her Fairy Tales (Les Contes des Fees, 1697)
- Myths and Legends of our Lands, vol. 6, by Charles M. Skinner, 1896;
- Legends of Le Détroit by M.C.W. Hamlin, 1884.
- Myths and Legends of our Lands, vol. 6, by Charles M. Skinner, printed about 1896, Nain Rouge.
- Legends of Le Détroit, by M.C.W. Hamlin, 1884.