The word korrigan (from Breton korr, dwarf, followed by the diminutive ig and the suffix an, Breton plural: Korriganed ) means “little dwarf” with a very common hypocoristic suffix in personal names. In the feminine, we sometimes find a feminized form in the French way “korrigane”, which can designate an evil fairy. The prefixes corr (Welsh literature) and cor (old cornish) both denote a dwarf.
Korrigans, sometimes also called octopuses, are spirits taking the appearance of dwarves in tradition Celtic and in particular Breton. Benevolent or malicious depending on the case, their appearance is varied. For example, they have magnificent hair and luminous red eyes, with which they can bewitch mortals. They haunt springs and fountains.
In the Middle Ages, the witches' rings that were sometimes found on meadows or in the undergrowth were attributed to them with terror. It is said that they form a circle there to dance at dusk. To the mortal who disturbs them, they sometimes offer challenges that can turn into death traps leading straight to hell or an underground prison without hope of deliverance. On the night of October 31, they are said to be operating near the dolmens, ready to drag their victims into the underworld to avenge the dead for the misdeeds of the living. This tradition links them to the no less Celtic Halloween.
Sometimes they also symbolize the resistance of the Brittany to Christianization and they are then given nocturnal pranks in the vicinity of churches, taking priests especially as targets.
