GREEN LADY In England, green lady is a term for dryads, or tree spirits, dwelling in oak, elm, apple, willow, holly, and yew trees. Permission had to be sought from the fairy before chopping down any tree and primroses were planted beneath the trees as an offering to the Green Lady to solicit her blessings. Green, of course, is the colour of growing things, and many nature fairies wear green dresses, jackets or caps. Some even have green skin. In Scotland and Ireland green is exclusively a fairy colour, and until recently was considered very unlucky for humans to wear- my grandmother absolutely forbade green clothes.

Many people instinctively feel that a tree has a spirit or consciousness. In the early days of Buddhism this was a matter of some controversy and it was decided that trees do not have souls like humans, but had certain resident spirits called dewas who spoke from within them. Occultists use the term ‘devas’ to describe the resident spirit of a tree or other plant.

Tree spirits have been honoured since ancient times. Since trees can live for many centuries, some for thousands of years, they witness far more than we humans can in our short lives. Our ancestors therefore believed that tree spirits must be very wise. The spirits of evergreen trees were particularly powerful, since they could withstand the force of winter, when other trees shed their leaves and become dormant. They were honoured at festivals with wreaths and decorations. From this connection of the tree-deity with virility comes the custom of carrying tree sprigs in a wedding bouquet, and such May Day observances such as the leaf-clad Jack in the Green dancer, which celebrates the return of vegetation in the summer. We still honour the spirit of the tree when we decorate the evergreen Christmas tree and place the fairy, which represents its living spirit, at the top.

Knockers live in the tin mines of Devon and Cornwall in the south-west of England. They are small, ugly and thin limbed, with hook noses and mouths like slits, which stretch from ear to ear. Though all the mines are now closed, the fairies once guided miners to good seams by tapping or ‘knocking’ in return for food, traditionally a bit of Cornish pasty. However, they were not always helpful and would sometimes try to frighten the miners by pulling faces at them or performing grotesque dances. They were offended by whistling or swearing, and would punish these misdemeanours with bad luck, or a harmless shower of stones.

Some knockers, however, are positively malevolent. The knockers at the Chaw [‘Raven’] Gulley on Dartmoor are particularly vicious. A raven warns them when anyone tries to enter the mine to hunt for the treasure that is buried there, and they will kill the intruder by cutting the rope the man uses to lower himself into the shaft. His body will be found laid out on the surface the next day.

The Welsh equivalents of knockers are coblynau or koblernigh. These work in coal mines, rather than tin mines, tapping to indicate good coal seams. The word coblyn means both ‘knocker’ and ‘sprite’. Though the coblynau are sometimes spotted working on coal faces themselves, they do not actually mine anything, they are just pretending.

Our ancestors knew that most of their precious jewels, valuable metals came from beneath the ground, and that these were guarded by spirits that live in the earth. Practically every culture in the world has stories of these fairies, who often dressed as miners themselves, with miniature picks, lamps, and hammers. All the metals and minerals of the earth belong to them. When miners venture into these underworld realms, they encounter spirits who may either aid or hinder them, according to how they behave themselves. If they honour the spirits, usually by leaving offerings in the form of food, the fairies may lead favoured miners to rich seams. Those who show a lack of respect are punished with showers of stones.

Pixies are little green fairies that are only found in the south west of England, though they are generally called piskies in Cornwall. Large bands of them can be found on the wild heath of Dartmoor as can be discerned from the number of places named after them there, including Pixie’s Holt, Pixie’s Cave, and Pixie’s Parlour. At night they mount the wild Dartmoor ponies and ride them madly through the night, twisting and knotting their manes.

Pixies are full of mischief and love to play practical jokes. Many travellers have set off across the moor and found themselves hopelessly lost when the fairies have bewitched the path. This is called being pixy-led and the only remedy is to turn your coat inside out, as this will confuse them long enough for you to get away.

However, they are not malicious creatures and have been known to help those in need. If a farmer treats them with respect, they might finish his work for him while he sleeps, doing chores about the house and yard, especially the threshing of the grain. But be warned, if you have helpful pixies, don't make them a gift of new clothes. One kindly farmer noticed that his accommodating pixie wore tattered clothes and had his wife make him a new suit. The pixie left off threshing and delightedly put on his new outfit and disappeared, never to be seen again.

DRYADS [From the Greek drus meaning ‘tree’] are nymphs of ancient Greek myth, who make their home in trees, usually oaks, but unlike the hamadryads who are one with their trees, they can leave their trees and dance in the forest. They are the companions of Artemis, the maiden goddess of the moon and the hunt, or sometimes of Dionysus the god of wine. It is unlucky to see them or keep company with them.

EARTH FAIRY is a term applied to fairies who dwell under the earth in mounds or caves, as opposed to those who dwell beneath lakes or wells, since most fairies are to be found below the surface of the earth.  The term may also refer to nature fairies like devas, vegetation spirits, tree fairies, or earth elementals like gnomes.

Mounds are associated with fairies and are credited with magical properties. From Scandinavian to Celtic and Slavonic lore earth mounds are described as occasionally glowing or giving off a strange light. They are also the home of ghosts, who live there in company with the ancestors. At certain phases of the moon, the Scottish Highland fairies may be seen inside their mounds, feasting and drinking, since their habitations are raised on pillars for a short time. Burial mounds, dating from the Neolithic period onwards, are found throughout Europe. There are upwards of 40,000 in Britain alone. They vary in size from a few feet across to over 300 feet in diameter. Some contained treasure and other grave goods, while others seem never to have had any occupants and their function is still obscure. Tumuli or earth heaps, found on hills and inside earthworks may have had a defensive purpose, while the several types of barrows contain chambers that may have been used for burials.

It seems likely that some mounds had a ritual purpose. They were not sealed, but the interred bones were brought out to witness special events, allowing the tribe to commune with the ancestral dead. Other barrows were designed so that at certain times of year shafts of sunlight would strike the inner chamber. This is possibly a symbolic fertilisation of the earth womb, allowing the souls of the dead to attain rebirth or travel to the otherworld. These barrows were probably also used for magical initiations with the candidate going into the burial chamber, symbolically dying and entering the ground. He or she would lie in the earth womb while experiencing visions of the OTHERWORLD, and then emerge through the narrow passage which represents the birth canal, being ‘reborn’ into the daylight. It seems that their connection with ancestral spirits, magic and the otherworld is preserved in fairy lore