Fairies

So, since we are entering the domain of the fairy queen, I should write a bit about fairies - and there is a lot to write. Fairy-tales are a staple of folklore and there are literally thousands of stories in the interlocking folklore of the British Isles and Europe. Rather than retell these (go to any library and you'll find things like Grimm's Fairy Tales, or the various coloured Fairy Books of Andrew Lang) I'd like to have a go at telling a few things about fairies. Even this is daunting because there's a lot to tell.

First of all, the idea that fairies are tiny creatures is fairly recent - invented by people like JM Barrie in the late Victorian era for literary effect. Nor are they necessarily cute, although they are often beautiful. Shakespeare's fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream are a bit closer to the mark - mischeivous and magical, amusing themselves at the expense of humans - although their righting everything at the end is a bit dubious in the context of fairy lore.

Leaving aside the possibility that fairies are actual beings (famously advocated in the 17th Century by Robert Kirk) their origin is accounted for in at least three ways

• some say that they are folk tales which have developed independently of any "official" or "high" culture - tales developed and passed on through the oral cultures of working people, designed both for amusement and as spiritual allegories
• some have suggested that they may incorporate a distorted memory of the pre-Celtic inhabitants of Britain, forced by the Celtic invaders into the more remote parts of the country, being similar to the Celts but with a different language, a slightly different appearance, and with a lot of very confusing and perplexing customs
• a third possiblity is that they are the remnants of pre-Christian gods and spirits, "re-badged" in the wake of conversion to Christianity, losing some of their divine attributes but keeping their sense of "otherness" and some of their powers.

I'll go into the spiritual allegory thing another time but here I'd like to give you a brief picture of fairies. The term "fairy" or "fey" is actually a generic term for intelligent creatures which are not human, but resemble humans in various ways. Within this category are various specific creatures:

• the elves, who live in woods or hillsides - the queen who abducted Thomas would be an elf. Elves are great singers and musicians, have a huge stock of tree and animal lore, are often able to change shape
• nixies live in streams and lakes (a kind of freshwater equivalent to mermaids) - they will entice or entrap humans, particularly men, to visit their watery home, from which they will be unable to return
• brownies are household spirits or fairies. If you have a brownie in your house it is unlikely to appear to you, but will carry out various household tasks. Beware of getting too friendly or trying to reward your helpful brownie, because if it takes offence there will be household mayhem!
• as well as these there are various "fey" creatures. Some of these are terrifying, like the waterhorse which will attempt to lure you into the sea or lake and drown you. Others are more likely to be helpful - magical horses, birds and fish which will speak and offer help to a hero who treats them with the right kind of courtesy.

Some of these are closer to human beings than others. Water-horses, for instance, are pretty much equivalent to demons. Nixies, likewise, are never friendly, solely bent on using their beauty and charm to trap or drown unwary humans. Brownies and elves, on the other hand, often befriend humans. Beware their friendship, though, it is very dangerious!

Humans and fairies live in separate realms. There is often genuine friendship and even love between the two. For example, the mythical King Malcolm of Scotland (as opposed to one of the real ones) is said to have married a fairy princess and had children by her. However, even marriage could not permanently bind her to him and eventually she returned to the fairy realm, in this case with ongoing friendship and aid in times of need. The reverse is also often the case - children raised by fairies will ultimately yearn for human life and return to human society.

However, these are the mildest sort of problems. One of the key dangers for humans befriending fairies is that they are so easy to offend. As I mentioned, a brownie will be offended by its human co-habitants offering it food and will turn against them, damaging their home and even harming or killing them. Likewise, one of the stories collected by Lang recounts the friendship between a human and a fairy woman. The fairy woman would borrow the human woman's kettle each day, and when she had finished using it would return it full of juicy bones. However, when one day the woman was away, her husband was too afraid to allow the fairy woman into the house, and the result was unbreakable enmity between the two women, and a danger of death only averted by the woman's quick thinking.

Another type of seperation is that between day and night. In many stories, fairies hide during the day and conduct their business at night, particularly by moonlight. The two realms are to a certain degree mutually exclusive - fairies are terrified of sunlight which may result in their death or disenchantment, while humans who attempt to join or even view fairies at night run the risk of permanent entrapment.

These risks are made worse by the fairies' love of practical jokes. These jokes may be only harmless pranks, but they can also be seriously dangerous. Humans can be tricked into giving up their children, long periods of service, or simply endless disruption of their farms or households.

To make matters worse, fairies are not forgiving. A slight, however accidental, will be punished without mercy, and punishments will be ended not out of a sense of justice from the fairies (ie, "you have been punished enough now") but by an act of magic which averts the mischief. Even other fairies cannot wholly deflect this kind of revenge - in some of the world's best-known fairy tales the "good" or "friendly" fairy is at best only able to mitigate the punishment, moderating its effect (100 years sleep instead of death) or providing a convoluted and difficult way out.

Of course it goes without saying that fairies can work magic, and usually they do so simply by speaking or willing. However, they are not all-powerful beasts and their magic can be undone or defeated by rival magic. There are certain repeated motifs - rowan branches can ward them off, they are unable to overcome iron tools or weapons, they cannot bear sunlight and they can be tricked in their turn.

A final source of seperation - fairies cannot be baptised. They are outside the pale of the church and cannot enter heaven. Indeed, in some stories they are required to pay regular homage to the Devil (via an annual sacrifice, most often - humans can be stolen for this purpose to spare the fairies from sacrificing one of their own) to retain their independence.

More in future posts about the symbolism of fairy tales, and about fairy abductions.