Back to Earth's Other Worlds index
Meet Dobby
Two or three years ago some friends noticed that a shape appeared on their kitchen window whenever the kitchen filled with steam. Over time it settled into a thin figure with a central core and variable placing of face and abdomen. He was about 2 feet tall, wore shorts and had spindly legs ending in ankle boots. He always wore a tall cap. For a long time people were careful to avoid cleaning the window, but eventually it had to be done, so they said goodbye to the shape and thought that would be the end. But the creature came back the next time the kitchen steamed up. After that some space was cleared and he was given his own candle to be lit every day.
We looked him up in Katharine Briggs’ Dictionary of Fairies which is the standard work, and found “Hobmen. The generic name for all the various types of lobs and hobs, to which Robin Goodfellow, Puck, pixies, the Irish phooka and many others belong.” These are all localised, ancient names which are not now generally familiar. So we just called him Dobby the house elf.
The photographs below were taken on two separate occasions, before and after the window was cleaned. On one of these occasions flash photography was used, which seems to have given him a shock.
October 2008
Click here for more pictures
