Fairy Lore
There are legends of fairies all over the world, mysterious creatures who live apart from the race of mankind but who are sometimes seen in wild and lonely places. Some are large and some are small, some are good and some are evil. Many are solitary beings living alone to guard a well, a hill, a tree or a lake. Some aristocratic fairies gather together in large bands to form a fairy court.
The world of the fairy sometimes impinges on that of mankind. Their kingdoms appear and disappear. Usually fairies are only seen in the blinking of an eye, though there are tales of humans who have spent extended periods with them, or feasting and dancing with them for what seems to be a night, only to find that many years have passed in the human world. Human men and women have occasionally become the lovers of a fairy, but this relationship always has conditions and taboos imposed on it, and should the fairy lover leave for any reason- usually because of the breaking of a taboo- then the human will pine away and die.
The English word ‘fairy’ or ‘faerie’ is derived, by way of the French fée, from the Latin fatare meaning ‘to enchant’. Variations on the spelling include fayerye, fairye, fayre and faery. In England, Geoffrey Chaucer made the words fairy and elf interchangeable, though the word ‘elf’ is from the Scandinavian alfar, a term that relates to mountains and water. The Welsh call fairies Tylwyth Teg meaning ‘Fair Family’. In Scotland they are the Daoine Coire or ‘Honest Folk’ or Daoine Beaga ‘Little Folk’ and to the Irish Daoine Matha, ‘Good People’ or Daoine Sidhe, meaning‘ People of the Hills’. Sidhe simply means ‘hill’, referring to the hollow hills and mounds where fairies are said to live, though it has been suggested that it may be from the same etymological root as the Hindustani word siddhi meaning ‘something which controls the elements’.
However, in the past it was considered unlucky to name the fairies, or even to use the word ‘fairy’ perhaps because to do so may have summoned them, or because using a name without its owner’s permission was a threat or challenge. It was wise to call them ‘the Good People’, ‘the Little People’, ‘The Gentry’, ‘the Mother’s Blessing’, ‘Good Neighbours’, ‘Wee Folk’ or ‘the Hidden People’, just as the ancient Greeks called the Furies, the terrifying goddesses of vengeance, ‘The Kindly Ones’. Talking about fairies was to invite disasters, the least of which was being struck by blindness.
Fairies are generally thought to be immortal, though others say that they are merely long-lived, existing for between 400 and 1000 years. William Blake witnessed a fairy funeral in his garden, with the corpse borne on a rose leaf. It was buried with ceremony and chants before the fairies disappeared. Perhaps though, fairy funerals are only pantomimes in imitation of human beings..
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE- WHAT DO FAIRIES LOOK LIKE?
CHAPTER TWO- SEEING FAIRIES
CHAPTER THREE- FAIRY REALMS
Plus legendary fairy isles and kingdoms
CHAPTER FOUR- FAIRY FOOD
CHAPTER FIVE- ELF BOLTS AND OTHER FAIRY ILLS
CHAPTER SIX- PROTECTION AGAINST FAIRIES
CHAPTER SEVEN- FAIRY PLANTS
CHAPTER EIGHT- FAIRY ANIMALS
CHAPTER NINE -CHANGELINGS
CHAPTER TEN- FAIRY ABDUCTIONS
CHAPTER ELEVEN - FAIRY LOVES
CHAPTER TWELVE -VISITS TO FAIRY LAND
CHAPTER THIRTEEN -FAIRY MUSIC
CHAPTER FOURTEEN -FAIRY GIFTS
CHAPTER FIFTEEN -FAIRY DAYS AND FESTIVALS
CHAPTER SIXTEEN -FAIRIES AND WITCHES
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - WHAT ARE FAIRIES?
Hallucinations and the shamanic experience
