Fairy

File:Fairfacefairy.jpg

Take the Fair Face of Woman... by Sophie Anderson

A fairy (fey or fae; collectively wee folk, good folk, people of peace and other euphemisms) is a spirit or supernatural being, based on the fae of medieval Western European (Old French) folklore and romance, often identified with related beings of other mythologies, see list of beings referred to as fairies. Even in folkore that uses the term "fairy," there are many definitions of what constitutes a fairy. Sometimes the term is used to describe any magical creature, including goblins or gnomes, and at other times only to describe a specific type of more ethereal creature.

Fairies are generally described as humanoid in appearance and as having magical powers. Their origins are less clear in the folklore, being variously the dead, or some form of angels, or a species completely independent of humans or angels. Folklorists have suggested that their actual origin lies in a conquered race living in hiding, or in religious beliefs that lost currency with the advent of Christianity. These explanations are not always mutually incompatible, and their origin may come from multiple sources.

Much of the folklore about fairies revolves about protection from their malice, by such means as cold iron or charms of rowan and herbs, or avoiding offense by shunning locations known to be theirs. In particular, folklore describes how to prevent the fairies from stealing babies and substituting changelings, and abducting older people as well.

Many folktales are told of fairies, and they appear as characters in stories from medieval tales of chivalry, to Victorian fairy tales, and up to the present day in modern literature.

Nature

Fairies are generally portrayed as humanoid in appearance and as having supernatural abilities such as the ability to fly, cast spells and to influence or foresee the future. Although in modern culture they are often depicted as young, sometimes winged, females of small stature, they originally were depicted much differently: tall, radiant, angelic beings or short, wizened trolls being some of the commonly mentioned. Diminutive fairies of one kind or another have been recorded for centuries, but occur alongside the human-sized beings; these have been depicted as ranging in size from very tiny up to the size of a human child. Even with these small fairies, however, their small size may be magically assumed rather than constant. Wings, while common in Victorian artwork of fairies, are very rare in the folklore; even very small fairies flew with magic, sometimes flying on ragwort stems or the backs of birds.

Various animals have also been described as fairies. Sometimes this is the result of shapeshifting on part of the fairy, as in the case of the selkie (seal people); others, like the kelpie and various black dogs, appear to stay more constant in form.

Etymology

The word fay came to English from Old French fae, and originated in the Vulgar Latin feminine fata, referring to the Fates, personifications of destiny (the Greek Moirae), e.g. Fata Morgana or Morgan le Fay.

English fairy was loaned in ca. 1300 from Old French faerie "land of the fae, enchantment," an abstract noun of fae (fae-ry as in e.g. yoeman vs. yoemanry). From adjectival use ("fairy gold," "fairy queen" etc.) from the 15th century applied to the class of supernatural beings inhabiting faerie, re-interpreted as derived from fair, singular fairy with a new plural fairies. The term fairy tale is a translation of the Conte de feés of Madame d'Aulnoy (1698). The spelling faerie first appears 1590 in Spenser's Faerie Queene. From Spenser's use, the spelling with -ae- came to be used in a dignified or poetic sense as opposed to "vulgar" tales. J. R. R. Tolkien makes use of the distinction, in On Fairy-Stories defining Faerie as "the realm or state in which fairies have their being," depicted as a mystical or visionary state in his Smith of Wootton Major.

Origin of fairies

Folk beliefs

People who believed in the existence of fairies often did not always ascribe to them a definite origin, and explanations varied culturally, regionally and temporally.

One popular belief was that they were the dead, or some subclass of the dead. The banshee, with an Irish or Gaelic name that means simply, "fairy woman," is sometimes described as a ghost or as a harbinger of death. The Cauld Lad of Hylton, though described as a murdered boy, is also described as a household sprite, like a brownie. One tale recounted a man caught by the fairies, who found that whenever he looked steadily at one, the fairy was a dead neighbor of his. This was among the most common views expressed by those who believed in fairies, although many of the informants would express the view with some doubts.

Another view held that they were an intelligent species, distinct from humans and angels. In alchemy, in particular, they were regarded as elementals, such as gnomes and sylphs, as described by Paracelsus. This is uncommon in folklore, but accounts describing the fairies as creatures of the air have been found popularly.

A third belief held that they were a class of "demoted" angels. One popular story held that when the angels revolted, God ordered the gates shut; those still in heaven remained angels, those in hell became devils, and those caught in between became fairies. Others held that they had been thrown out of heaven, not being good enough, but were not evil enough for hell. This may explain the tradition that they had to pay a "teind" or tithe to Hell; as fallen angels, though not quite devils, they are subject to the Devil.

A fourth belief was the fairies were devils, entirely. This belief became much more popular with the growth of Puritanism. The hobgoblin, once a friendly household spirit, became a wicked goblin. Dealing with fairies was in some cases considered a form of witchcraft and punished as such in this era. Disassociating himself from such evils may be why Oberon, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, carefully observed that neither he nor his court feared the church bells.

The belief in their angelic nature was less common than that they were the dead, but still found popularity, especially in Theosophist circles. Informants who described their nature sometimes held aspects of both the third and the fourth view, or observed that the matter was disputed.

A less-common belief was that the fairies were actually humans; one folktale recounts how a woman had hidden some of her children from God, and then looked for them in vain, because they had become the hidden people, the fairies. This is parallel to a more developed tale, of the origin of the Scandinavian huldra.

Sources of beliefs

One theory for the source of fairy beliefs was that a race of diminutive people had once lived in the Celtic nations and British Isles, but been driven into hiding by invading humans. They came to be seen as another race, or possibly spirits, and were believed to live in an Otherworld that was variously described as existing underground, in hidden hills (many of which were ancient burial mounds), or across the Western Sea. Some archaeologists attributed Elfland to small dwellings or underground chambers where diminutive people might have once lived. In popular folklore, flint arrowheads from the Stone Age were attributed to the fairies as "elf-shot". The fairies fear of iron was attributed to the invaders having iron weapons, whereas the inhabitants had only flint and were therefore easily defeated in physical battle. Their green clothing and underground homes were credited to their need to hide and camouflage themselves from hostile humans, and their use of magic a necessary skill for combating those with superior weaponry. In Victorian beliefs of evolution, cannibalism among "ogres" was attributed to memories of more savage races, still practicing it alongside "superior" races that had abandoned it. Selkies, described in fairy tales as shapeshifting seal people, were attributed to memories of skin-clad "primitive" people traveling in kayaks. African pygmies were put forth as an example of a race that had previously existed over larger stretches of territory, but come to be scarce and semi-mythical with the passage of time and prominence of other tribes and races.

Another theory is that the fairies were originally worshiped as gods, but with the coming of Christianity, they lived on, in a dwindled state of power, in folk belief. Many beings who are described as deities in older tales are described as "fairies" in more recent writings. Victorian explanations of mythology, which accounted for all gods as metaphors for natural events that had come to be taken literally, explained them as metaphors for the night sky and stars.

A third theory was that the fairies were a folkloric belief concerning the dead. This noted many common points of belief, such as the same legends being told of ghosts and fairies, the Sidhe mounds in actuality being burial mounds, it being dangerous to eat food in both Fairyland and Hades, and both the dead and fairies living underground.

Fairies in literature and legend

Fairies of the meadow, by Nils Blommér

The question as to the essential nature of fairies has been the topic of myths, stories, and scholarly papers for a very long time.

Practical beliefs and protection

When considered as beings that a person might actually encounter, fairies were noted for their mischief and malice. Some pranks ascribed to them, such as tangling the hair of sleepers into "Elf-locks," stealing small items or leading a traveler astray, are generally harmless. But far more dangerous behaviours were also attributed to fairies. Any form of sudden death might stem from a fairy kidnapping, with the apparent corpse being a wooden stand-in with the appearance of the kidnapped person. Consumption (tuberculosis) was sometimes blamed on the fairies forcing young men and women to dance at revels every night, causing them to waste away from lack of rest. Fairies riding domestic animals, such as cows, could cause paralysis or mysterious illnesses.

As a consequence, practical considerations of fairies have normally been advice on averting them. In terms of protective charms, cold iron is the most familiar, but other things are regarded as detrimental to the fairies: wearing clothing inside out, running water, bells (especially church bells), St. John's wort, and four-leaf clovers, among others. Some lore is contradictory, such as Rowan trees in some tales been sacred to the fairies, and in other tales being protection against them. In Newfoundland folklore, the most popular type of fairy protection is bread, varying from stale bread to hard tack or a slice of fresh home-made bread. The belief that bread has some sort of special power is an ancient one. Bread is associated with the home and the hearth, as well as with industry and the taming of nature, and as such, seems to be disliked by some types of fairies. On the other hand, in much of the Celtic folklore, baked goods are a traditional offering to the folk, as are cream and butter.

“The prototype of food, and therefore a symbol of life, bread was one of the commonest protections against fairies. Before going out into a fairy-haunted place, it was customary to put a piece of dry bread in one’s pocket.”

Bells also have an ambiguous role; while they protect against fairies, the fairies riding on horseback — such as the fairy queen — often have bells on their harness. This may be a distinguishing trait between the Seelie Court from the Unseelie Court, such that fairies use them to protect themselves from more wicked members of their race. Another ambiguous piece of folklore revolves about poultry: a cock's crow drove away fairies, but other tales recount fairies keeping poultry.

In County Wexford, Ireland, in 1882, it was reported that “if an infant is carried out after dark a piece of bread is wrapped in its bib or dress, and this protects it from any witchcraft or evil.”

While many fairies will confuse travelers on the path, the will o' the wisp can be avoided by not following it. Certain locations, known to be haunts of fairies, are to be avoided; C. S. Lewis reported hearing of a cottage more feared for its reported fairies than its reported ghost. In particular, digging in fairy hills was unwise. Paths that the fairies travel are also wise to avoid. Home-owners have knocked corners from houses because the corner blocked the fairy path, and cottages have been built with the front and back doors in line, so that the owners could, in need, leave them both open and let the fairies troop through all night. Locations such as fairy forts were left undisturbed; even cutting brush on fairy forts was reputed to be the death of those who performed the act. Fairy trees, such as thorn trees, were dangerous to chop down; one such tree was left alone in Scotland, though it prevented a road being widened for seventy years. Good house-keeping could keep brownies from spiteful actions, and such water hags as Peg Powler and Jenny Greenteeth, prone to drowning people, could be avoided by avoiding the bodies of water they inhabit. It was believed that fairies could be made visible by bending a grass leaf into a circle and "by looking through nature one could see into the world of nature".^{[citation needed]}

Other actions were believed to offend fairies. Brownies were known to be driven off by being given clothing, though some folktales recounted that they were offended by inferior quality of the garments given, and others merely stated it, some even recounting that the brownie was delighted with the gift and left with it. Other brownies left households or farms because they heard a complaint, or a compliment. People who saw the fairies were advised not to look closely, because they resented infringements on their privacy. The need to not offend them could lead to problems: one farmer found that fairies threshed his corn, but the threshing continued after all his corn was gone, and he concluded that they were stealing from his neighbors, leaving him the choice between offending them, dangerous in itself, and profiting by the theft.

Millers were thought by the Scots to be "no canny" due to their ability to control the forces of nature, such as fire in the kiln, water in the burn, and for being able to set machinery a-whirring. Superstitious communities sometimes believed that the miller must be in league with the fairies. In Scotland fairies were often mischievous and to be feared. No one dared to set foot in the mill or kiln at night as it was known that the fairies brought their corn to be milled after dark. So long as the locals believed this then the miller could sleep secure in the knowledge that his stores were not being robbed. John Fraser, the miller of Whitehill claimed to have hidden and watched the fairies trying unsuccessfully to work the mill. He said he decided to come out of hiding and help them, upon which one of the fairy women gave him a gowpen (double handful of meal) and told him to put it in his empty girnal (store), saying that the store would remain full for a long time, no matter how much he took out.

Changelings

A considerable amount of lore about fairies revolves about changelings, the theft of a human baby and the substitution of a fairy one or an enchanted piece of wood, and preventing a baby from being abducted. Older people could also be abducted; a woman who had just given birth and had yet to be churched was regarded as being in particular danger. A common thread in folklore is that eating the fairy food would trap the captive, as Prosperina in Hades; this warning is often given to captives who escape by other people in the fairies' power, who are often described as captives who had eaten and so could not be freed. Folklore differed about the state of the captives: some held that they lived a merry life, others that they always pined for their old friends.

Classifications

In Scottish folklore, fairies are divided into the Seelie Court, the more beneficiently inclined (but still dangerous) fairies, and the Unseelie Court, the malicious fairies.

Trooping fairies refer to fairies who appear in groups and might form settlements. In this definition, fairy is usually understood in a wider sense, as the term can also include various kinds of mythical creatures mainly of native Celtic origin; however, the term might also be used for similar beings such as dwarves from German folklore or elves from Scandinavian folklore. These are opposed to solitary fairies, who do not live or associate with others of their kind.

Legends

In many legends, the fairies are prone to kidnapping humans, either as babies, leaving changelings in their place, or as young men and women. This can be for a time or forever, and may be more or less dangerous to the kidnapped. In the 19th Century Child Ballad, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight," the elf-knight is a Bluebeard figure, and Isabel must trick and kill him to preserve her life. Child Ballad "Tam Lin" reveals that the title character, though living among the fairies and having fairy powers, was in fact an "earthly knight" and, though his life was pleasant now, he feared that the fairies would pay him as their teind (tithe) to hell. Sir Orfeo tells how Sir Orfeo's wife was kidnapped by the King of Faerie and only by trickery and excellent harping ability was he able to win her back. Thomas the Rhymer shows Thomas escaping with less difficulty, but he spends seven years in Faerie. Oisín is harmed not by his stay in Faerie but by his return; when he dismounts, the three centuries that have passed catch up with him, reducing him to an aged man. King Herla also visited Fairy and returned three centuries later; although only some of his men crumbled to dust on dismounting, Herla and his men who did not dismount were trapped on horseback, this being one folkloric account of the origin of the Wild Hunt.

A common feature of the fairies is the use of magic to disguise appearance. Fairy gold is notoriously unreliable, appearing as gold when paid, but soon thereafter revealing itself to be leaves, gorse blossoms, gingerbread cakes, or a variety of other useless things.

These illusions are also implicit in the tales of fairy ointment. Many tales from the British islands tell of a mortal woman summoned to attend a fairy birth — sometimes attending a mortal, kidnapped woman's childbed. Invariably, the woman is given something for the child's eyes, usually an ointment; through mischance, or sometimes curiosity, she uses it on one or both of her own eyes. At that point, she sees where she is; one midwife realizes that she was not attending a great lady in a fine house but her own runaway maid-servant in a wretched cave. She escapes without making her ability known, but sooner or later betrays that she can see the fairies. She is invariably blinded in that eye, or in both if she used the ointment on both.

Literature

"Prince Arthur and the Fairy Queen" by Johann Heinrich Füssli; scene from The Faerie Queen

Fairies appeared in medieval romances as one of the beings that a knight errant might encounter. A fairy lady appeared to Sir Launfal and demanded his love; like the fairy bride of ordinary folklore, she imposed a prohibition on him that in time he violated. Sir Orfeo's wife was carried off by the King of Faerie. Huon of Bordeaux is aided by King Oberon. These fairy characters dwindled in number as the medieval era progressed; the figures became wizards and enchantresses. Morgan Le Fey, whose connection to the realm of faerie is implied in her name, in Le Morte d'Arthur is a woman whose magic powers stem from study. While somewhat diminished with time, fairies never completely vanished from the tradition. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late tale, but the Green Knight himself is an otherworldly being. Edmund Spenser featured fairies in The Faerie Queen. In many works of fiction, fairies are freely mixed with the nymphs and satyrs of classical tradition; while in others (e.g. Lamia), they were seen as displacing the Classical beings.

Study for The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania by Noel Paton: fairies in Shakespeare

The smaller but harmless sorts of fairies were used by William Shakespeare in A Midsummer's Night Dream, and Michael Drayton in his Nimphidia; from these stem Alexander Pope's sylphs of The Rape of the Lock, and eventually the Victorian flower fairies, with the fairies becoming prettier and smaller as time progressed.

The précieuses took up the oral tradition of such tales to write fairy tales; Madame d'Aulnoy invented the term contes de fée ("fairy tale"). While the tales told by the précieuses included many fairies, they were less common in other countries' tales; indeed, the Brothers Grimm included fairies in their first edition, but decided this was not authentically German and altered the language in later editions, changing each "Fee" (fairy) to an enchantress or wise woman. J. R. R. Tolkien described these tales as taking place in the land of Faerie. Additionally, not all folktales that feature fairies are generally categorized as fairy tales.

Fairies in literature took on new life with Romanticism. Writers such as Sir Walter Scott and James Hogg were inspired by folklore which featured fairies, such as the Border ballads. This era saw an increase in the popularity of collecting of fairy folklore, and an increase in the creation of original works with fairy characters. In Rudyard Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill, Puck holds to scorn the moralizing fairies of other Victorian works. The period also saw a revival of older themes in fantasy literature, such as C.S. Lewis's Narnia books which, while featuring many such classical beings as fauns and dryads, mingles them freely with hags, giants, and other creatures of the folkloric fairy tradition.

Fairies in art

"Momentarily, she was trans-formed into a little, exquisitely beautiful fairy". Illustration from Alfred Smedberg's The Seven Wishes among Gnomes and Trolls by John Bauer.

The Cottingley Fairies series of photographs taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths.

Fairies have been numerously depicted in books of fairy tales and sometimes as standalone works of art and sculpture. Some artists known for their depictions of fairies include:

• Alan Lee
• Amy Brown
• Arthur Rackham
• Brian Froud
• Cicely Mary Barker
• Warwick Goble
• Ida Rentoul Outhwaite
• Myrea Pettit
• Kylie InGold
• Jessica Galbreth
• David Delamare
• Richard de Chazal in his Four Seasons series of photographs
• Josephine Wall

The Victorian era was particularly noted for fairy paintings. The Victorian painter Richard Dadd created paintings of fairy-folk with a sinister and malign tone. Other Victorian artists who depicted fairies include John Atkinson Grimshaw, Joseph Noel Paton, John Anster Fitzgerald and Daniel Maclise. Interest in fairy themed art enjoyed a brief renaissance following the publication of the Cottingley fairies photographs in 1917 and a number of artists turned to painting fairy themes. Following in the footsteps of the Cottingley fairies and utilizing modern digital technology, fantasy photographers like artist J. Corsentino created a new sub-genre of "fairy photography".

Fairies in modern culture and film

Fairies are often depicted in books, stories, and movies. A number of these fairies are from adaptations of traditional tales.

Perhaps some of the most well-known fairies were popularized by Disney. Tinkerbell, from the Peter Pan stories by J.M. Barrie and the Disney adaptation. While in Carlo Collodi's tale Pinocchio a wooden boy receives the gift of real life from the a fairy described as the "lovely maiden with azure hair", who was dubbed the "Blue Fairy" for Disney's adaptation.

As would be expected, fairies appear in other media as well, including novels, video games, and music. A comprehensive list is beyond the scope of this article, but one recent and notable example is Susanna Clark's novel Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which revolved about two magicians with close connections to the fairy world; it won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Clark drew heavily on British folklore for this work and her collection of short stories The Ladies of Grace Adieu, including retelling the story of Tom Tit Tot as her "On Lickerish Hill".

Bibliography

• D. L. Ashliman, Fairy Lore: A Handbook (Greenwood, 2006)
• Brian Froud and Alan Lee, Faeries, (Peacock Press/Bantam, New York, 1978)
• L. Henderson and E.J. Cowan, Scottish Fairy Belief (Edinburgh, 2001)
• C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1964)
• Patricia Lysaght, The Banshee: the Irish Supernatural Death Messenger (Glendale Press, Dublin, 1986)
• Peter Narvaez, The Good People, New Fairylore Essays (Garland, New York, 1991)
• Eva Pocs, Fairies and Witches at the boundary of south-eastern and central Europe FFC no 243 (Helsinki, 1989)
• Diane Purkiss, Troublesome Things: A History of Fairies and Fairy Stories (Allen Lane, 2000)
• Tomkinson, John L. Haunted Greece: Nymphs, Vampires and other Exotika, (Anagnosis, 2004) ISBN 960-88087-0-7

External links

• Academic discussion on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time, May 11, 2006 (streaming and podcast)
• Audio recording of a traditional fairy story from Newfoundland, Canada (streaming and downloadable formats)
• Creatures by Type: Fairies
• Fairies in Art
• Fairies World
• Fairy Images
• Free public domain images of fairies
• Galleries of 21st Century Fairy Artists
• Kalash Fae of Pakistan
• The Faerie Chronicles

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