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A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, found in the folklore of multiple cultures (including Celtic mythology, Slavic paganism, Germanic, and French folklore folklore), a form of spirit, often with magical, Metaphysics, supernatural, or preternatural qualities.
Myths and stories about fairies do not have a single origin but are rather a collection of from disparate sources. Various folk theories about the origins of fairies include casting them as either demoted or in a Christian tradition, as deities in Paganism belief systems, as spirits of the dead, as Prehistory precursors to , or as spirits of nature.
The label of fairy has at times applied only to specific magical creatures with human appearance, magical powers, and a penchant for trickery. At other times, it has been used to describe any magical creature, such as and . Fairy has at times been used as an adjective, with a meaning equivalent to "enchanted" or "magical". It was also used as a name for the place these beings come from: Fairyland.
A recurring motif of legends about fairies is the need to ward off fairies using protective charms. Common examples of such charms include church bells, wearing clothing inside out, four-leaf clover, and food. Fairies were also sometimes thought to haunt specific locations and to lead travelers astray using will-o'-the-wisps. Before the advent of Medicine, fairies were often blamed for sickness, particularly tuberculosis and birth deformities.
In addition to their folkloric origins, fairies were a common feature of Renaissance literature and Romantic art and were especially popular in the United Kingdom during the Victorian era and Edwardian era eras. The Celtic Revival also saw fairies established as a canonical part of Celtic cultural heritage.
In Old French romance, a faie or fee was a woman skilled in magic, and who knew the power and virtue of words, of stones, and of herbs.
Fairy was used to represent: an illusion or enchantment; the land of the Faes; collectively the inhabitants thereof; an individual such as a fairy knight. Faie became Modern English fay, while faierie became fairy, but this spelling almost exclusively refers to one individual (the same meaning as fay). In the sense of 'land where fairies dwell', archaic spellings faery and faerie are still in use.
Latinate fae, from which fairy derives, is distinct from English (from Old English fǣġe), which means 'fated to die'. However, this unrelated Germanic word fey may have been influenced by Old French fae (fay or fairy) as the meaning had shifted slightly to 'fated' from the earlier 'doomed' or 'accursed'.
Various folklore traditions refer to fairies euphemism as wee folk, good folk, people of peace, fair folk (Welsh language: Tylwyth Teg), etc.
Explanations for the origins of fairies range from Persian mythology to the folklore of the Celtic Britons (Bretons, Welsh people, Cornish people), Gaels (Irish people, Scottish people, Manx people), and Germanic peoples, and from the pages of Middle French medieval romances.
According to some historians, such as Barthélemy d'Herbelot, fairies were adopted from and influenced by the peris of Persian mythology. were angelic beings that were mentioned in antiquity in pre-Islamic Persia as early as the Achaemenid Empire. Peris were later described in various Persian works in great detail such as the Shahnameh by Ferdowsi. A peri was illustrated to be fair, beautiful, and extravagant nature spirits that were supported by wings. This may have influenced migratory Germanic and Eurasian settlers into Europe, or been transmitted during early exchanges. The similarities could also be attributed to a shared Proto-Indo-European mythology.
In the Middle Ages, fairie was used adjectivally, meaning "enchanted" (as in fairie knight, fairie queene), but also became a generic term for various "enchanted" creatures during the Late Middle English period. Literature of the Elizabethan era conflated elves with the fairies of Romance culture, rendering these terms somewhat interchangeable. The modern concept of "fairy" in the narrower sense is unique to English folklore, later made diminutive in accordance with prevailing tastes of the Victorian era, as in "" for children.
The Victorian era and Edwardian era saw a heightened increase of interest in fairies. The Celtic Revival cast fairies as part of Ireland's cultural heritage. Carole Silver and others suggested this fascination of English antiquarians arose from a reaction to greater industrialization and loss of older folk ways.Silver, Carole B. (1999) Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness. Oxford University Press. p. 47 .
King James I, in his dissertation Daemonologie, stated the term "faries" referred to illusory spirits (demonic entities) that prophesied to, consorted with, and transported the individuals they served; in medieval times, a witch or sorcerer who had a pact with a familiar spirit might receive these services.
In England's Theosophist circles of the 19th century, a belief in the "angelic" nature of fairies was reported. Entities referred to as Devas were said to guide many processes of nature, such as evolution of organisms, growth of , etc., many of which resided inside the Sun (Solar Angels). The more Earthbound Devas included nature spirits, , and fairies, which were described as appearing in the form of colored flames, roughly the size of a human.
Arthur Conan Doyle, in his 1922 book The Coming of the Fairies; The Theosophic View of Fairies, reported that eminent theosophist E. L. Gardner had likened fairies to butterflies, whose function was to provide an essential link between the energy of the sun and the plants of Earth, describing them as having no clean-cut shape ... small, hazy, and somewhat luminous clouds of colour with a brighter sparkish nucleus. "That growth of a plant which we regard as the customary and inevitable result of associating the three factors of sun, seed, and soil would never take place if the fairy builders were absent."
For a similar concept in Persian mythology, see Peri.
In Scottish folklore, fairies are divided into the Seelie (more beneficently inclined, but still dangerous), and the Unseelie Court (more malicious). While fairies of the Seelie Court enjoyed playing generally harmless pranks on humans, those of the Unseelie Court often brought harm to humans for entertainment. Both could be dangerous to humans if offended.
Some scholars have cautioned against the overuse of dividing fairies into types. British folklore historian Simon Young noted that classification varies widely from researcher to researcher, and pointed out that it does not necessarily reflect old beliefs, since "those people living hundreds of years ago did not structure their experience as we do."
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.Briggs (1976) "Bells" p. 20. Another ambiguous piece of folklore revolves about poultry: a cock's crow drove away fairies, but other tales recount fairies keeping poultry.Briggs (1967) p. 74.
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.Lewis (1994) p. 125. In particular, digging in fairy hills was unwise. Fairy path are also wise to avoid. Home-owners have knocked corners from houses because the corner blocked the fairy path,Silver (1999) p. 155. 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.Lenihan, Eddie and Green, Carolyn Eve (2004) Meeting The Other Crowd: The Fairy Stories of Hidden Ireland. pp. 146–47 . Locations such as were left undisturbed; even cutting brush on fairy forts was reputed to be the death of those who performed the act.Lenihan (2004) p. 125. Fairy trees, such as thorn trees, were dangerous to chop down; one such tree was left alone in Scotland, though it prevented a road from being widened for seventy years.Silver (1999) p. 152.
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 the 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.Briggs (1976) "Brownies" p. 46. Other brownies left households or farms because they heard a complaint, or a compliment.Briggs (1967) p. 34. People who saw the fairies were advised not to look closely, because they resented infringements on their privacy.Briggs (1976) "Infringement of fairy privacy" p. 233. 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.Briggs (1976) "Fairy morality" p. 115.
Millers were thought by the Scots to be "no canny", owing 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, 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.Gauldie, E. (1981) The Scottish Miller 1700–1900. Edinburgh, John McDonald. p. 187.
It is also believed that to know the name of a particular fairy, a person could summon it and force it to do their bidding. The name could be used as an insult towards the fairy in question, but it could also rather contradictorily be used to grant powers and gifts to the user.
Before the advent of modern medicine, many physiological conditions were untreatable and when children were born with abnormalities, it was common to blame the fairies.
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, Francis The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. The 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 tithe (tithe) to hell.
"Sir Orfeo" tells how Sir Orfeo's wife was kidnapped by the King of Faerie and only by trickery and an excellent harping ability was he able to win her back. "Sir Degare" narrates the tale of a woman overcome by her fairy lover, who in later versions of the story is unmasked as a mortal. "Thomas the Rhymer" shows Thomas escaping with less difficulty, but he spends seven years in Elfland. 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.Briggs (1967) p. 104. King Herla (O.E. "Herla cyning"), originally a guise of Woden but later Christianised as a king in a tale by Walter Map, was said, by Map, to have visited a dwarf's underground mansion 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 account of the origin of the Wild Hunt of European folklore.Briggs (1967) pp. 50–51.De Nugis Curiallium by Walter Map, Edited by F. Tupper & M.B Ogle (Chatto & Windus, London 1924)
A common feature of the fairies is the use of magic to disguise their 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 comparatively worthless things.Lenihan (2004) pp. 109–10.
These illusions are also implicit in the tales of fairy ointment. Many tales from Northern Europe Northumberland Folk Tales, by Rosalind Kerven (2005) Antony Rowe Ltd, p. 532.Narváez, Peter (1997) The Good People: New Fairylore Essays. University Press of Kentucky. p. 126 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.Briggs (1976) "Fairy ointment" p. 156.
There have been claims by people in the past, like William Blake, to have seen fairy funerals. Allan Cunningham in his Lives of Eminent British Painters records that William Blake claimed to have seen a fairy funeral:
'Did you ever see a fairy's funeral, madam?' said Blake to a lady who happened to sit next to him. 'Never, sir!' said the lady. 'I have,' said Blake, 'but not before last night.' And he went on to tell how, in his garden, he had seen 'a procession of creatures of the size and colour of green and grey grasshoppers, bearing a body laid out on a rose-leaf, which they buried with songs, and then disappeared.' They are believed to be an omen of death.
They are associated with several Otherworld realms including Mag Mell ('the Pleasant Plain'), Emain Ablach ('the place of apples'), and Tir na nÓg ('the Land of Youth').
These Siths or Fairies they call Sleagh Maith or the Good People...are said to be of middle nature between Man and Angel, as were Daemons thought to be of old; of intelligent fluidous Spirits, and light changeable bodies (lyke those called Astral) somewhat of the nature of a condensed cloud, and best seen in twilight. These bodies be so pliable through the sublety of Spirits that agitate them, that they can make them appear or disappear at pleasure
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.Lewis (1994) pp. 129–30. These fairy characters dwindled in number as the medieval era progressed; the figures became wizards and enchantresses.Briggs (1976). "Fairies in medieval romances". p. 132.
The oldest fairies on record in England were first described by the historian Gervase of Tilbury in the 13th century.
In the 1485 book Le Morte d'Arthur, Morgan le Fay, whose connection to the realm of Faerie is implied in her name, is a woman whose magic powers stem from study.Briggs (1976) Morgan Le Fay p. 303. While somewhat diminished with time, fairies never completely vanished from the tradition. Edmund Spenser featured fairies in his 1590 book The Faerie Queene.Briggs (1976) Faerie Queen, p. 130. In many works of fiction, fairies are freely mixed with the and of classical tradition,Briggs (1967) p. 174. while in others (e.g., Lamia), they were seen as displacing the Classical beings. 15th-century poet and monk John Lydgate wrote that King Arthur was crowned in "the land of the fairy" and taken in his death by four fairy queens, to Avalon, where he lies under a "fairy hill" until he is needed again. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fairies, Anna Franklin, Sterling Publishing Company, 2004, p. 18.
Fairies appear as significant characters in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is set simultaneously in the woodland and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the Moon and in which a disturbance of nature caused by a fairy dispute creates tension underlying the plot and informing the actions of the characters. According to Maurice Hunt, Chair of the English Department at Baylor University, the blurring of the identities of fantasy and reality makes possible "that pleasing, narcotic dreaminess associated with the fairies of the play".Hunt, Maurice. "Individuation in A Midsummer Night's Dream". South Central Review 3.2 (Summer 1986): 1–13.
Shakespeare's contemporary Michael Drayton features fairies in his Nimphidia, and from these stem Alexander Pope's sylphs of the 1712 poem The Rape of the Lock. In the mid-17th century the French literary style précieuses took up the oral tradition of such tales to write , and Madame d'Aulnoy invented the term contes de fée ('fairy tale').Zipes, Jack (2000) The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm. W.W. Norton. p. 858 . 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.Tatar, Maria (2003) The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales. Princeton University Press. p. 31 . J. R. R. Tolkien described these tales as taking place in the land of Faerie.Tolkien, J. R. R. "On Fairy-Stories", The Tolkien Reader, pp. 10–11. Additionally, not all folktales that feature fairies are generally categorized as fairy tales.
The modern depiction of fairies was shaped in the literature of Romanticism during the Victorian era. Writers such as Walter Scott and James Hogg were inspired by folklore which featured fairies, such as the . This era saw an increase in the popularity of collecting fairy folklore and an increase in the creation of original works with fairy characters.Briggs, (1967) pp. 165–67. In Rudyard Kipling's 1906 book of short stories and poems, Puck of Pook's Hill, Puck holds to scorn the moralizing fairies of other Victorian works.Briggs (1967) p. 203. 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 and , mingles them freely with , , and other creatures of the folkloric fairy tradition.Briggs (1967) p. 209. Victorian flower fairies were popularized in part by Queen Mary's keen interest in fairy art and by British illustrator and poet Cicely Mary Barker's series of eight books published in 1923 through 1948. Imagery of fairies in literature became prettier and smaller as time progressed."Lewis pp. 129–30". Andrew Lang, complaining of "the fairies of polyanthuses and gardenias and apple blossoms" in the introduction to The Lilac Fairy Book (1910), observed that: "These fairies try to be funny, and fail; or they try to preach, and succeed."Lang, Andrew Preface The Lilac Fairy Book.
A story of the origin of fairies appears in a chapter about Peter Pan in J. M. Barrie's 1902 novel The Little White Bird, and was incorporated into his later works about the character. Barrie wrote: "When the first baby laughed for the first time, his laugh broke into a million pieces, and they all went skipping about. That was the beginning of fairies."J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy, Oxford Press, 1999, p. 32. Fairies are seen in Neverland, in Peter and Wendy, the 1911 novel version of J. M. Barrie's famous Peter Pan stories, and its character Tinker Bell has become a pop culture icon. When Peter Pan is guarding Wendy from pirates, the story says: "After a time he fell asleep, and some unsteady fairies had to climb over him on their way home from an orgy. Any of the other boys obstructing the fairy path at night they would have mischiefed, but they just tweaked Peter's nose and passed on."J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens as well Peter and Wendy, Oxford Press, 1999, p. 132.
The Fairy Doors of Ann Arbor, MI are small doors installed into local buildings. Local children believe these are the front doors of fairy houses, and in some cases, small furniture, dishes, and various other things can be seen beyond the doors.
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 Anster Fitzgerald, John Atkinson Grimshaw, Daniel Maclise, and Joseph Noel Paton. Interest in fairy-themed art enjoyed a brief renaissance following the publication of the Cottingley Fairies photographs in 1920, and a number of artists turned to painting fairy themes.
About a century later (), Athanasius of Alexandria gives an exclusively negative assessment of these same creatures ( On the Incarnation 8.47) as simply "demons ...taking up their abode in springs or rivers or trees or stones and imposing upon simple people by their frauds." While such negative or skeptical ideas remained the majority positions for Christians, some exceptions can be found such as the Scottish minister Robert Kirk who wrote The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies in the later seventeenth century (1893).
In the modern era, C. S. Lewis writes about the possibility of fairies being real in "The Longaevi" (the "Long-livers" or "Long Lived Ones") in his book The Discarded Image. Lewis also shared this account of comments by J. R. R. Tolkien within a letter to Arthur Greeves (22 June 1930):
Tolkien shares more about the possible reality of fairies in a manuscript published posthumously:
Christian theologians John Milbank and David Bentley Hart have spoken and written about the real existence of fairies as has the Christian philosopher Stephen R. L. Clark.Clark, Stephen R.L. (1987). "How to Believe in Fairies." Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy. 30 (4):337-355. Hart was a 2015 Templeton Fellow at the University of Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study and has published the most on this topic including references in multiple interviews and books, especially Roland in Moonlight. For example, Hart has written:
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