The leprechaun of Irish folklore is familiar to all who have ever sat among a green-wearing crowd on St. Patrick's Day. According to this modern-day popular telling of fairy tale, the leprechaun came into being something like this:
In the beginning, before there was humankind in the form even of Adam and Eve, God had created the angels to worship Himself. That all did not do so is well known: The Archangel Lucifer thought himself an equal to Himself and fomented a rebellion amongst the angel legions, arch and otherwise. It was touch and go for a while - not because God was ever in doubt of losing, mind you, but because the Almighty Father wanted to see who among his heavenly creations had faith in Himself - and humility in themselves (jealousy, you see, being the root of Lucifer's failings). The Archangels Michael and Gabriel were, of the course, to be seen at the forefront of God's legions, casting down Lucifer and his jealous crowd with the zeal of the righteous. Angels cannot be extinguished save by God's hand, however, and the Lord thought it fitting that they should be banished from His sight rather than ceasing to be. This was suffering more than Lucifer thought he could stand. About to set off on his downward journey to eternal exile, he turned back to God and taunted: "Sure and You're casting us away - but what of those who feared to join the fray?" For, indeed, there were those among the heavenly legions who had not joined sides. God was in a quandary: for all His almighty powers of foresight, had he not failed to consider that there would be those playing it clever and remaining neutral? Then, of course, there was that little affair of the heart of creating Man and Woman that had need of being attended to - which presented the Almighty with a solution. To those angels who had thought to stay between the sides, he would drop them a tad down from the heavenly field to live between Heaven and Hell. That is, th...