Leprechaun 2, Leprechaun’s (Warwick Davis) Prototype Scroll

original movie prop

“Cry as you may, cry as you might. It’s gonna be one hell of a wedding night.”

This 30” x 12” prototype scroll copy on vellum was made for the production of the horror-comedy sequel Leprechaun 2 (1994). The Leprechaun (Warwick Davis) unrolls a distressed version of the same parchment at a desk holding his pot of gold right before the opening credits.

The piece consists of various drawn portraits that form a family tree of O’Day female ancestors through the centuries, beginning with William O’Day’s daughter (Shevonne Durkin) in the year 994 A.D.

In the movie, the Leprechaun can only take a wife every thousand years, on his birth date, if he can cause a mortal lass to sneeze three times without anyone uttering a “God bless you.”

Failing to do so a millennium ago, the crafty creature is determined not to go home empty-handed again. (Fittingly enough, in the United Kingdom, Leprechaun 2 went by the alternate title, One Wedding and Lots of Funerals.)

The seemingly arbitrary rule of a leprechaun’s matrimonial eligibility actually comes from real recorded Irish folklore, namely the “Master and Man” tale, as collected in the 1825 book Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland.

In that myth, a reckless young man’s weakness for liquor forces him into indentured servitude to a powerful fairy known as a “cluricaune,” a heavy-drinking relative of the leprechaun. The man obeys his little master’s orders until he hears of the ugly monster’s covetous plan to steal away a bride-to-be named Bridget and marry her for his upcoming 1,000th birthday.