Fairies, dwarves and elves – do they really exist?

Basically, I would say that I am open to many things, but not gullible. I like to let everything sink in first and then decide if it feels right to me. I love fairy tales with pixies, goblins and nature spirits. But do I really believe in them? No, I never could. At least not in real life. Until I went for a walk with my dog in a small wood on a bright, full-moon night in winter.

The path was wonderfully illuminated by the shimmering moonlight, so I didn’t need a torch. The fresh new snow glistened and there was a deep silence over the whole landscape. The path then bent and at that moment, I saw something in front of me, right in the middle of the path. Disorientated by the surprise that a human being had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, the creature leapt in my direction. Now I was startled too, because I thought that the creature, which was about one metre tall, was about to run me over and so I jumped to the side. All this happened in a fraction of a hundredth of a second, too fast for the rational mind to understand what was going on! Intuitively, however, I immediately knew what I had seen, it was a dwarf! Yes, one of those mythical creatures that appear in countless fairy tales and books! Nevertheless, my mind immediately wiped the event away and I forgot the whole thing.

In late spring, about half a year later, I was again walking with my dog through the same grove. This time it was during the day and I met a nice woman who was also walking there with her child. Somehow we got into a short conversation and I think I said something along the lines of how much I like walking here and how beautiful and magical this wood was! Out of the blue, she replied, half jokingly, half seriously, “well, that’s the dwarf forest!”. Suddenly the scales fell from my eyes as the memory of the incident six months ago came back to life! So I had really seen a real dwarf!?

Of course I immediately wanted to know more and asked with interest, “so there are dwarves here?”. Yes she replied, again half joking and half serious, she probably wasn’t sure if I wouldn’t make fun of her right away? Her little girl had seen the dwarves. At that moment I couldn’t help thinking of all those stories about children’s naturally innate clairvoyance before they lose it or suppress it in adulthood.

After that I had a few more experiences with nature spirits, but I’ll tell those in another story, perhaps.