Billy Blind

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Billy Blind, Billy Blin, Billie Blin, or Belly Blin is a British household spirit, much like a brownie. It appears, however, only in ballads, where it frequently advises the characters.

In Child Ballad no 5c, Gil Brenton, it is Billie Blin that advises the hero that his bride is not the woman beside him, who is a virgin, but she is hiding in her bower and already pregnant.

In Child Ballad no 6, Willie's Lady, Willie's wife has been in labor and can not deliver because Willie's mother, a rank witch, is preventing her. Billy Blind advises Willie to make a wax figure of a baby and invite his mother to the christening. In her rage, the mother demands to know how all her magic was undone, listing all the things she's done, and Willie is able to undo them.

In Child Ballad no 53C, Young Bekie, he advises Burd Isobel that Young Bekie is about to marry another bride, and gives her assistance in the magical journey to reach him in time.

In Child ballad no 110, The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter, he appears in many of the variants to reveal the true births of the marrying couple: much higher than was apparent.

The Billy Blind also appears in Peter S. Beagle's Tamsin, where his main characteristic is constantly to give advice.