Hello, I don't know where to ask but the most accurate sub seems to be here I think.
Background: I am Turkish, live in Istanbul. Didn't have too much of an interest in mythology up until recently, let alone Celtic ones.
First and foremost, forgive me for my question if it sounds stupid or childish or if it is out of place. FYI I am 35, no superstitious beliefs -until recently mayhaps-
My grandma passed away the two weeks ago, and something is bothering my mind since then.
My grandparents (and also some folks of their age from the very same village) used to tell about incidents when they were out to collect wood from the local forest, they sometimes heard "people" with broken and a funny-mannered Turkish chatting (lots of swearwords, kinky jokes and creative phrases -mostly in form of insults thrown at each other- that would make people giggle when heard) and sometimes playing music("funny music" or "circus music" as they phrased. Or sometimes "broken music", assuming some notes being "off" hence "funny" maybe) Those incidents became much more pronounced especially when they were late to sunset.
And when they followed the trail where those sounds were coming from, they said they used to encounter "people with dwarfism with colorful, funny/circus-style clothes" chatting, jumping, playing games with each other(like tag and a form of checkers with stones). Those "people" when they became aware of the presence of my grandparents always scattered around as if they were "outlaws trying to hide in the woods"(my grandpa's wording).
They also, albeit much rarely, used to encounter such "people" walking alone in the woods(usually with hatchets or adzes in hand), and when they see my gandparents, again, they used to run away.
They hail from a village near the city of Bolu (northwestern Anatolia, isolated, a mountainous and densely forested location), and those tales they told are from ~1950s
Now when I looked deeper into this I encountered leprechaun legends of Celts. Also, as far as my research goes, such incidents (funny looking dwarf people inhabiting forests running away when they see other people) are/were prevalent all around Turkey and Balkans.
Now I would have dismissed such tales as some "outcasts due to their dwarfism hiding away from society in the woods" in I didn't make a research and see the similar patterns all around the world, or at the most "archetypical patterns" if they were not told by my grandparents and the folk around them. But such incidents and accounts seem too "real" to be dismissed or reduced under an archetypical box.
Is there anyone who happen to have encountered or heard such similar incidents ?