Fairies and other magical and mythical beings from Folklore

While the term fairy goes back only to the Middle Ages in Europe, analogues to these beings in varying forms appear in both written and oral literature, from the Sanskrit gandharva (semidivine celestial musicians) to the nymphs of Greek mythology and Homer, the jinni of Arabic mythology, and similar folk characters of the Samoans, of the Arctic peoples, and of other indigenous Americans.

The common modern depiction of fairies in children’s stories represents a bowdlerization of what was once a serious and even sinister folkloric tradition. The fairies of the past were feared as dangerous and powerful beings who were sometimes friendly to humans but could also be cruel or mischievous.

Fairies are usually conceived as being characteristically beautiful or handsome and as having lives corresponding to those of human beings, though longer. They have no souls and at death simply perish. They often carry off children, leaving changeling substitutes, and they also carry off adults to fairyland, which resembles pre-Christian abodes of the dead. People transported to fairyland cannot return if they eat or drink there.

Fairy and human lovers may marry, though only with restrictions whose violation ends the marriage and, often, the life of the human. Some female fairies are deadly to human lovers. Fairies are said to be of human size or smaller, down to a height of 3 inches (7.5 cm) or less. Female fairies may tell fortunes, particularly prophesying at births and foretelling deaths. Several herbs, especially St. John’s Wort and Yarrow, are potent against fairies, and Hawthorn trees, Foxglove, and Groundset are so dear to them that abuse of these plants may bring retribution.

What is the difference between Fairies and Faeries?  Unlike what most people assume, there is quite a lot of difference between the two. In most cultures, fairies are considered the more amiable of the two beings; whereas the faeries are known for their mal-intent.  The word 'fairy' is derived from the Latin word 'fatum', which can mean 'fate'.   ‘Faerie’ is a word derived from the Gaelic ‘fear shidhe’, which translates to ‘man of the shee’. Some also say that there is a difference with the faeries being from the realm of the fae.

They also tend to differ in appearance with the fairies being of a more human, and usually more attractive appearance. The faeries, however, are usually thought to have an evil intent and are often portrayed as dishonest beings.

Fairies are not straightforward. They are complicated beings on their own path of growth. They slip in between realms with their enthralling charm to test others and themselves.

Fairy lore is particularly prevalent in Ireland, Cornwall, Wales, and Scotland.  Fairies are common in literature from the Middle Ages on and appear in the writings of the Italians Matteo Boiardo and Ludovico Ariosto, the English poet Edmund Spenser, the Frenchman Charles Perrault, and the Dane Hans Christian Andersen, among others.

 

Pixies, in the folklore of southwestern England, are tiny elflike spirits or mischievous fairies, dressed in green who dance in the moonlight to the music of frogs and crickets. Their favourite pastimes are leading travellers astray and frightening young maidens. Pixies also delight in rapping on walls, blowing out candles, and playing in water. Pixies were first discussed at some length by British novelist Mrs. Anna Eliza Bray in The Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy.

Their prank of leading people astray gave rise to the term pixie-led and pixilated to describe a person who becomes lost on a familiar road. It was later extended to mean any state of bewilderment or confusion.

 

Barghest, in the folklore of northern England (especially Yorkshire), is a monstrous, goblin dog, with huge teeth and claws, that appears only at night. It was believed that those who saw one clearly would die soon after, while those who caught only a glimpse of the beast would live on, but only for some months. The Demon of Tidworth, the Black Dog of Winchester, the Padfoot of Wakefield, and the Barghest of Burnley are all related apparitions. Their Welsh counterparts were red-eyed Gwyllgi, the Dog of Darkness, and Cwn Annwn, the Dogs of Hell. In Lancashire the monster was called Trash, Skriker, or Striker; its broad, sometimes backward-pointing feet made a splashing noise, and it howled horribly. In East Anglia, where it was thought to be amphibious, the dog had only one eye and was known as Black Shuck, or Shock. It was called Mauthe Doog on the Isle of Man. The Manchester Barghest was said to be headless.

 

Brownies, in English and Scottish folklore, are a small, industrious fairy or hobgoblin believed to inhabit houses and barns. Rarely seen, they were often heard at night, cleaning and doing housework; they also sometimes mischievously disarranged rooms. They would ride for the midwife, and in Cornwall caused swarming bees to settle quickly.  Cream or bread and milk might be left for them, but other gifts offended. If one made a suit of clothes, he would put it on and then vanish, never to return.

The boggart of Yorkshire and the bogle of Scotland are hostile, mischievous brownies indistinguishable from poltergeists. 

 

Elves, in Germanic folklore, originally were a spirit of any kind, later specialized into a diminutive creatures, usually in tiny human form. In the Prose or Younger, Edda, elves were classified as light elves (who were fair) and dark elves (who were darker than pitch); these classifications are roughly equivalent to the Scottish seelie court and unseelie court. The notable characteristics of elves were mischief and volatility. They were believed at various times and in various regions to cause diseases in humans and cattle, to sit upon the breast of a sleeper and give him bad dreams (the German word for nightmare is Alpdrücken, or “elf-pressure”), and to steal human children and substitute changelings (deformed or weak elf or fairy children).

In the British Isles, flint implements called elf-bolts, elf-arrows, or elf-shot (which are now known to be prehistoric tools used by the early Irish and the early Scots) were believed to be the weapons with which elves injured cattle. Elves occasionally also were benevolent and helpful. The second edition of Encyclopædia Britannica, which was published in 1777–84, calls the word elf obsolete but reports that belief in such creatures “still subsists in many parts of our own country. . . In the Highlands of Scotland, new-born children are watched till the christening is over, lest they should be stolen or changed by some of these phantastical existences.” In time, elves came to be indistinct from fairies, though both older classics—such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s poem “Der Erlkonig” (“The Elf King”)—and such modern classics as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (1954–55) still treat elves as a distinct type.

 

Goblins, in Western folklore, are wandering sprites and bogeymen of sorts that are usually mischievous but often malicious. Goblins supposedly live in grottoes but attach themselves to households, where they are believed to bang upon pots and pans, snatch nightclothes off the bodies of sleeping people, move furniture at night, and flee after rapping on walls and doors. They are thought to help parents discipline children by rewarding the latter with presents when they are good and punishing them when they are disobedient. The word goblin derives from the Greek kobalos (“rogue”).

 

Leprechauns, in Irish folklore, are fairies in the form of a tiny old man often with a cocked hat and leather apron. Solitary by nature, he is said to live in remote places and to make shoes and brogues. The sound of his hammering betrays his presence. He possesses a hidden crock of gold; if captured and threatened with bodily violence, he might, if his captor keeps his eyes on him, reveal its hiding place. But usually, the captor is tricked into glancing away, and the fairy vanishes.  The word derives ultimately from Old Irish luchorpan, “little body.”