Leprechauns made their first appearance in an eighth-century poem. King Fergus of Ulster was sleeping when the tiny, angry men sneakily tried to drag him into the ocean and drown him.

In Ireland, leprechauns serve as a morality tale figure, ... W.B. Yeats offered an 18th-century poem by William Allingham titled "The Lepracaun; Or, Fairy Shoemaker." ...