The Little People’s Village
Ghosts, light humour and serious beliefs, item 8
Standing in the forest near Middlebury, Connecticut, is a complex set of dollhouse-sized, ruined and abandoned buildings known locally as the “Little People’s Village”. These small ruins surround the foundation of a stone house with iron bars over the windows. While believed to be the remains of a failed roadside attraction, there is a far more sinister story about the Little People’s Village whispered between the townspeople.
In the early 1900s, a husband and wife were living quite happily in the small stone cottage. As they settled into their home, the wife began to hear voices coming from the surrounding wood. At first, it was just voices, whispers through the trees, but soon enough the voices began to talk directly to her. Then she began to see small figures darting between the trees. She knew these small people were fairy folk and asked her husband to build her new friends homes, each home to be no more than four feet high.
To make his wife happy, the husband began building out of cement, basalt, quartz, and stone intricate homes to house her fairy friends. As more homes were build, more fairy folk came in from the wood. They would gather, speaking with the wife. Slowly they convinced the wife she was their rightful queen.
After the small homes were finished, the wife asked her husband to make a throne from which she could rule her tiny kingdom. Hewn into the side of the hill, the stone throne was to be the seat of the wife’s power. But the Little People made more demands of their queen. Iron bars were put over the windows of the stone cottage the husband and wife shared to keep the Little People at bay.
One version of the legend says: To the horror of the Little People, the husband sat down upon the throne. In retribution, they demanded their queen murder her husband. After she killed her husband, the Little People turned on their queen, hounding her until she committed suicide.
In another version of the legend, the husband cracks under the pressure brought about by his wife’s growing madness and murders her. Despondent over what he had done, he then kills himself.
Now, the sounds of passing traffic cover any voices which might be coming from the wood. The homes of the Little People have been abandoned, their intricate buildings stand open exposing spiral staircases and walls of basalt and quartz to the elements and the eyes of the curious. Today, if you dare to enter the wood, the foundation of the husband and wife’s cottage, the throne and one complete house built for the Little People can be seen.
Ghost, Spiritual Or Historic Stories For Pubs And Restaurants