Fairy Lore

©Eileen Holland - www.open-sesame.com

"Dread Fairy King,
I sacrifice before you,
How nobly do you stand!
You have filled up my house.
You have brought me a wife when I had not one,
Instead of daughters you have given me sons.
You have shown me the ways of right,
You have given me many children."

- Biddulph, Tribes of the Hindoo Kush

Are fairies real?
   I have never seen a fairy so I don't believe in them. But I know people who do, people whose opinions I respect. This may be an urban thing on my part, because any fairies brave enough to show up wouldn't last long where I live. The popular notion of fairies is that they are cute or sexy creatures you'd like to have around. I can't bear cuteness in any form so I imagine fairies as Elementals, a kind of djinn. I think they'd probably be nasty if you disturbed them and would be best left alone.  I think nymphs are more interesting mythologically.
    Do you believe in fairies? Don't let my grouchy disbelief spoil your enjoyment of them.

About Fairies
Mythology gives us lots of information about fairies. These are some of their supposed qualities and attributes:

• May be male or female, helpful or harmful
• Have powers of magic and enchantment
• Wear green clothes
• Move swiftly
• Live on hills, in woody dells, underwater, or in the Otherworld
• Can turn invisible, or blend so closely into the forest as to seem invisible
• Are immortal
• Shape-shift
• Cause fog and tempests
• May be winged and fly
• May be tiny, or child-sized
• Live on fruit
• Play tricks
• Brawl with each other
• Possess gold
• Bestow gifts - Fairy gifts include the cauldron of plenty, the wand of intelligence, and the tree of knowledge
• Steal babies and replace them with changelings
• War with insects and reptiles
• Borrow household items from humans
• Enjoy music, dancing and making love
• Enchant humans and beguile them into the fairy realm
• Are associated with certain plants, trees and places
• Sometimes take human lovers
• Can breed with humans
• Create artifacts, such as shoes and bows

ORIGIN:

• The Little People are said to be the dispossessed early tribes of the British Isles. They faded away into uninhabited places, growing smaller and smaller with time as they were forgotten and passed into legend.
• The Tuatha de Danann, People of the Goddess Dana, ruled Ireland before the Milesian invasion. They were driven underground where they became the Daoine Sidhe fairies.

Other theories hold that fairies are:

• Supernatural beings
• Fallen angels trapped on earth
• Spirits of the dead
• Elementals/Nature spirits
• Old god/esses who have been neglected, lost their powers and dwindled away

NAMES:

• Fairies are the Little People, the good folk who live in woody dells. Names for them include: faery - faerie - fatae - fa'ae - fairye - sidhe - sith - fee - fay - fae - fayerie - fair folk - verry folk - feriers - ferishers - farisees - wee folk - green men - greenies - greencoaties - green children - gremlins - good neighbors - good people - grey neighbors - pixies - piskies - sprites - tamlane - tammerlane - tom-lin - tom of lyn
• Elves, gnomes, sprites, goblins, hobgoblins, nymphs, merfolk, trolls, leprechauns, etc. are considered types of fairies in some traditions.
• Knowing a fairy's true name gives you power over it, so fairies are said to guard their real names very closely. Nevertheless, individual fairies known to us from mythology include:
  • Aeval, Fairy Queen of the Midnight Court
  • Aillen MacModha, who sets Tara ablaze every year
  • Caer, a beautiful fairy who lived as a swan
  • Clethrad, an alder fairy
  • Donagh, Finvarra's beautiful wife.
  • Finvarra, fairy king of the Daoine Sidhe. He is known for his skill at chess and for abducting brides-to-be. Spanish wine is a suitable offering got him.
  • Ghillie Dhu, a Scottish fairy who wears moss and leaves, lives in birch thickets.
  • Heliconian, a willow fairy
  • Melia, an ash or quince fairy
  • Melwas, the fairy king of the Summer Land who abducted Guenivere
  • O'Donoghue, king of the Lough Lean fairies in Ireland
  • Summer, beautiful queen of the Elves of Light. Her presence melts Winter away.
  • Urisk, a lonely male Scottish fairy who is found near pools
  • Wichtlein, a German mine fairy
    • Also:
      • the Asparas/Apsaras, fig tree fairies
      • the Caryatids, nut tree fairies
      • the Dryads, oak tree fairies
      • the Luantishees, blackthorn fairies
• Literary fairies include Queen Mab, Puck, Titania, Tinkerbell, Tammerlane, Mustardseed and Oberon.
• Fairy Goddesses: Aine of Knockaine - Airmed - Eri -  Morgan le Fay (Morgan the Fairy)
• Fairy Gods: Credne, the fairy goldsmith - Goibnie, the fairy blacksmith - Lichtar, the fairy carpenter

GLOBAL FAIRIES
Little People from cultures around the world. UPDATED

Fairies: PLANT LORE UPDATED

FAIRY GODMOTHERS
    The fairy godmother is a stock character of fairy tales. She appears alone or in a group to bestow gifts, usually on newborns. Sometimes she acts like a guardian angel.
    Fatae, one of the names for fairies, derives from Fata/Fatae, the Fates. This Roman Triple Goddess appeared at the birth of kings and notables to decree the child's destiny. The archetype is much older, going back at least as far as Egypt where the Seven Hathors appeared upon the birth of a child to bestow gifts and divine its fate.

CHANGELINGS

"There are other forms of life as well as ours whose sphere of evolution impinges upon the earth. In the realm of folk-lore we constantly meet with the idea of intercourse between the human and the fairy kingdoms; of the marriage of a human being with a fairy spouse, or the theft of a child by the fairies, an impish changeling being left in its place. We shall be rash if we assume that an extensive body of folk-belief is entirely without foundation in fact."

- Dion Fortune, Psychic Self-Defence

THE FAIRY KINGDOM
    Fairyland, also called Elfland or Tir Nan Og, is an enchanted place where fairies live in an organized community. It may be thought of as an alternate or parallel universe, a place where time stands still and there is no sickness or death. The fairy kingdom is said to be a hilltop one, but invisible, or composed of magnificent underground cities. Fairy kings and queens rule there.
    Humans who enter the fairy realm cannot leave once the door closes behind them. Those who do leave may find that years have passed on earth during what was, for them, but minutes in the fairy kingdom.

FAIRY MAGIC Element: Air (airy fairy) Color: green Metal: iron repels fairies For: enchantment - gifts - flower magic - tempests - raising magic mists

WHEEL OF THE FAERY YEAR
March 15
    Festival of river nymphs and water fairies, a dangerous day for swimming.
April 30/May 1 - Beltane/May Day
    Fairies ride out from their hills to celebrate Beltaine on May Eve
August 7
    Fairy hills and dwellings are revealed on this day.
September 29
    Doors open between our world and the fairy realm.
November 8
    Another day when it is possible to catch a glimpse of fairyland.
November 11
    Festival of the blackthorn fairies.