George MacDonald incorporated features of Scottish brownie lore in his nineteenth-century works The Princess and the Goblin and Sir Gibbie—his brownies have no fingers on their hands. Warrior brownies appear in the 1988 fantasy film Willow, directed by Ron Howard. These brownies are portrayed as only a couple inches tall and are armed with bows and arrows. Though they are initially introduced as the kidnappers of a human infant, they turn out to be benevolent. Creatures known as "house elves" appear in the Harry Potter series of books by J. K. Rowling, published between 1997 and 2007. Similar to the traditional brownies of folklore, house elves are loyal to their masters and wear ragged garments. They are released by a gift of clothing, but house elves cannot leave on their own accord regardless of how they are treated. House elves also resemble brownies in appearance, being small, but they have larger heads and large, bat-like ears. Rowling's books also include boggarts, which are sometimes traditionally described as brownies turned malevolent.
