Young Writers Society

Random fae information gathered:

The Spring Court is seen as the much "calmer" ones to the benevolence of the Fae compared to Summer. The fae of this court are generally polite and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. These fae are more apt to lure humans in with sweet dew. They also have blossoming curiosity. The Spring Court is strongest during the ends of winter and throughout the spring season, despite the Summer Court having reigned. These fae are peppy, quiet, seductive, emotional, and vernal obviously. The epitome of spring.

Types of Faries:

The Fae come in many varieties and each has its own quirks. Let’s take a look at the fairies known to ‘haunt’ houses.

Just so you know, each culture will have its own take on fairy lore. In our review, we’ll examine the Celtic fairies. These are mainly from the United Kingdom and Ireland. I may throw in an American, German or Scandinavian fairy from time-to-time.
This list covers the most common fairies and they’re also the most likely to be mistaken for a haunting.
In no particular order, the fairies include:

Brownies
One of the most helpful fairies, brownies help out with chores and they only expect a little food offering. Whatever you do, don’t leave money. That’s considered poor taste and Brownies will make your house messy!

Pixies
Pixies can be mischievous and it could lead to killing you. They like to play tricks, especially travellers. Pixies are known to lead people off their route and into bogs and swamps. It’s not uncommon for someone to get caught in quicksand and die.

Leprechauns
You know pretty much everything to know about Leprechauns – pot of gold, wears green, has a pipe. These fairies are solitary and they don’t venture into places with humans.

Dwarves
Dwarves, as we know them, come from German folklore. They were absorbed into English tales during the early-1800s. Dwarves are ugly little buggers and incredibly strong. They can be great friends to humans, but they can be mean and harmful if you offend them. Dwarves are very proud of their craftmanship, like making furniture or iron work. Watch your manners when you meet a dwarf – they take social niceties very seriously.

Elves
Scandinavians brought their tales to the English Isles during the Viking conquests. There are 2 kinds of elves, light and dark. There are many descriptions of elves, but they all have magical powers to enchant people and they can move back and forth between their homeland and our world. Elves may be the only fairy to have children with humans.

Kobolds
I haven’t seen a good picture of a kobold, but they live in mines. If there’s danger to the mine workers, they’ll start knocking on the tunnels to let everyone know there’s danger of a cave in.

Nature Fairies
These little fairies don’t have human forms and appear as flickers of blue, red and green light deep in a forest. They can be very shy and generally tend to animals and plants in the forest. They rarely interfere with human, but they have helped people lost in the woods by showing them a way to get out of the forest.

Changelings
I didn’t know this before we started researching this topic, but changelings are most likely to be trolls. Trolls liked how humans coddled their children, so a troll would take a human child and replace it with a baby troll. The kid didn’t turn out to be good looking, but it would be strong and protective of its home and community!

Sluagh
Sluagh (SLOO-ah) are the spirits of the dead, caught in a strange kind of purgatory. They cannot enter Heaven, Hell, Otherworld or any other afterlife realm. They haunt the living to create suffering. These were not nice people in life. They mean to do harm. If your house tends to attract crows and other blackbirds, you could have a Sluagh in your house.

Red Caps
These are murderous goblins. They are ugly as sin with huge teeth and knife-like fingers. They get the name Red Cap because they dip their hats in their victims’ blood.

Asrai
Asrai is an aquatic fairy, similar to Mermaid and Selkie. Asrai is believed to reside in deep water and grows only by the light of the Moon. Breathtakingly beautiful and shy, she is known to surface once in a century. Asrai is afraid of daylight and if caught or exposed to sunlight, she instantly melts into a pool of water and dies. Asrai’s touch is believed to be very cold; if she ever touches a human skin, it can never feel warm again.

Pixie
Pixies are little fairies with gossamer wings, pointed noses and ears, and big heads (pretty big for little fairies). They are affable fairies but are also known to be pranksters, who have a reputation of misleading travelers. They love flowers and are also known to assist in household chores. Pixies possess the power of shape-shifting that allows them to change their appearance into a different form or being. Pixies can also increase or decrease their size.

Elf
Elves are believed to be half humans of extraordinary beauty who dwell in forests, caves, hills or rocks, and springs. Elves are typically characterized by pointed ears, large expressive eyes, and beautiful features. Though Elves are not immortals, they have good longevity, which allows them to live for centuries. Elves are known to possess a natural defense against dark powers. They are also endowed with exceptional sense of sight and hearing, and gifted with agility and grace.

Merpeople
Merpeople are alluring people who have human appearance above the waist and fish-like tail and fins below. Merpeople include the popular mermaid and merman, who are the denizens of the deep ocean and seas. Mermaids are known to lure sailors with their enchanting beauty and lead them to their death. While, mermaids are mostly portrayed negatively, there are some mermaids who bring good luck and grant wishes to the sailors, when encountered.
All mermaids can manipulate the sea. Right from freezing and boiling the water to creating storm, mermaids possess strong powers. Some mermaids are even known to foretell the future.

Banshee
Banshee is a popular fairy of Irish descent whose eerie wailing portends death. Banshee is a fairy woman who is either seen as a beautiful woman or a hag in unkempt robe, who laments to warn a household of the death of its member. Banshee is popularly known as the Death Messenger as she is believed to possess foreknowledge of death.

Leprechaun
Leprechauns are known to live in Ireland and are often garbed in red or green clothing. Devious little fairies, Leprechauns like to live solitary lives and are shoemakers by profession. Leprechauns are magical creatures that grant three wishes in turn for their freedom when caught by a human.

Brownie
Brownies are benevolent fairies who help the sick and old people. Brownie gets his name for his brown face and hair. Brownies are not visible to ordinary people and can be only seen by those who possess second sight. Brownies offer their household services in exchange of honey, bread, and hood. Brownies possess the power of shape-shifting, using which, they can they can transform themselves into different forms. They mostly like to turn themselves into farm or domestic animals.

The Seelie Court
The Seelie court, or the blessed court, a group of rather beneficial spirits, is friendly towards humans. They warn those who had accidentally offended them, and to return human kindness with favors of their own. While the fairies from the Seelie court enjoyed playing pranks on humans they were usually harmless affairs, compared to the Unseelie court that enjoyed bringing harm to humans as entertainment. Other names for the Seelie court are ‘The Shining Thron’ or ‘The Golden ones’ and ‘The light Court’. The Seelie Court, as a group, would often use these excursions to find those in need of help. The Seelie were also prone oto a great deal of mischief, especially when bord. However, their pranks rarely caused true harm, for the Seelie were really very fond of humans.

The Spring Court
The Spring Court is seen as the much "calmer" ones to the benevolence of the Fae compared to Summer. The fae of this court are generally polite and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. These fae are more apt to lure humans in with sweet dew. They also have blossoming curiosity. The Spring Court is strongest during the ends of winter and throughout the spring season, despite the Summer Court having reigned. These fae are peppy, quiet, seductive, emotional, and vernal obviously. The epitome of spring

The Unseelie Court
The Unseelie Court or Unblessed Court contains the most malicious, malevolent and evil of the faeries, and a number of monsters of horrible appearance and fearsome abilities as well. They take great pleasure in harming humans. Often called the ‘Unblessed Ones,’ the Unseelie were depicted as a dark cloud riding upon the wind from where their unnerving cackles and howls can be heard. Though not necessarily evil, they were far from kind. These unsavory characters tended towards evil and were often malignant. The Unseelie Court was almost always out to harm, or at least bedevil and trick, humankind .

The Autumn Court
The Autumn Court is seen as the equally malevolent side of Fae in comparison to Winter, but much more middling. The fae of this court are generally the ones doing the "dirty work" and "trooping". However, these fae can have much nicer sides than any of the Fae and return great favors. The Autumn Court is strongest during the ends of summer and throughout the autumn season. These fae are strong, mystique, eerie, ravishing all the same, and devious. The epitome of autumn.

Garden Fairies
You will find these fairies among the flowers dancing and playing wearing flowing gowns with transparent wings. At dawn they pour out blessings upon the world.

Pixies
Pixies are mythical creatures of folklore . A fairylike or elfin creature, especially one that is mischievous; a playful sprite. According to Ireland and Scottland , pixies are believed to inhabit ancient underground ancestor sites such as stone circles, barrows, dolmens, ringfort or menhirs. In traditional regional lore, pixies are generally benign, mischievous, short of stature and attractively childlike; they are fond of dancing and gather outdoors in huge numbers to dance or sometimes wrestle, through the night . In modern times they are usually depicted with pointed ears, and often wearing a green outfit and pointed hat. Sometimes their eyes are described as being pointed upwards at the temple ends. These, however, are Victorian era conventions and not part of the older mythology.
Before the mid-19th century, pixies and fairies were taken seriously in much of Cornwall and Devon. Books devoted to the homely beliefs of the peasantry are filled with incidents of pixie manifestations. In Devon, pixies are said to be “invisibly small, and harmless or friendly to man.” In the legends associated with Dartmoor, pixies (or piskeys) are said to disguise themselves as a bundle of rags to lure children into their play. The pixies of Dartmoor are fond of music and dancing and for riding on Dartmoor colts. These pixies are generally said to be helpful to normal humans, sometimes helping needy widows and others with housework. They are not completely benign however, as they have a reputation for misleading travellers (being “pixy-led”, the remedy for which is to turn your coat inside out). Thomas Keightley observed that much of Fairy myth is attached to Pixies by Devonshire mythology. Pixies are said to reward consideration and punish neglect on the part of larger humans. Keightley gives examples. By their presence they bring blessings to those who are fond of them. Pixies are drawn to horses, riding them for pleasure and making tangled ringlets in the manes of those horses they ride. They are “great explorers familiar with the caves of the ocean, the hidden sources of the streams and the recesses of the land.”

Dyrad
A dryad is a tree nymph, or female tree spirit . In Greek mythology, the dryads are female spirits of nature (tree nymphs), who preside over the groves and forests. Each one is born with a certain tree over which she watches. A dryad either lives in a tree, in which case she is called a hamadryad, or close to it. The lives of the dryads are connected with that of the trees; should the tree perish, then she dies with it. If this is caused by a mortal, the gods will punish him for that deed. The dryads themselves will also punish any thoughtless mortal who would somehow injure the trees.”

Elf
An elf is a creature of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally imagined as a race of minor nature and fertility gods, who are often pictured as youthful-seeming men and women of great beauty living in forests and underground places and caves, or in wells and springs. They have been portrayed to be long-lived or immortal and as beings of magical powers. Although the concept itself is never clearly defined in the extant sources, the elves appear to have been conceived as powerful and beautiful human-sized beings. The myths about elves have never been recorded. The elves and (like most creatures in the Scandinavian folklore) become nasty when offended. One could appease the elves by offering them a treat (preferably butter) placed into an elven mill – perhaps a custom with roots in the Old Norse álfablót. Elves have been a popular subject in fiction for centuries, ranging from William Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” to the classic fantasy novels of J.R.R. Tolkien 300 years later. But it’s only recently that elves have been confined to plays, books, and fairy tales: In centuries past, belief in the existence of fairies and elves was common among both adults and children. Like fairies, elves were said to be magical, diminutive shape-shifters. (Shakespeare’s elves were tiny, winged creatures that lived in, and playfullyflitted around, flowers.) Like men of the time, elves lived in kingdoms found in forests, meadows, or hollowed-out tree trunks. As with fairies, elves eventually developed a reputation for pranks and mischief, and strange daily occurrences were often attributed to them. For example, when the hair on a person or horse became tangled and knotted, such “elf locks” were blamed on elves .In either form, elves are strongly associated with magic and nature.

Dwarf
Dwarf a being from Germanic mythology and folklore , inhabiting the interiors of mountains and the lower levels of mines. Dwarfs were of various types, all of small stature, some being no more than 18 inches (45 cm) high and others about the height of a two-year-old child.
Their associations with the underground became more predominant. Dwarves were magical creatures with huge skill at metallurgy, taking fame for making great artifacts of legend.

Gnome
Gnomes are traditionally thought of as being small, bearded and wearing pointed, colourful, conical hats. They live in natural areas close to the Earth and care for wildlife. It is typically said to be a small, humanoid creature that lives underground. Paracelsus classifies them as earth elementals. A race of small, misshapen, dwarf-like creatures that dwell in the earth. The name ‘gnome’ was given to them by the medieval scholar Paracelcus, in an attempt to describe the most important of the earth spirits. Gnomes live under the earth, where they guard treasures. According to Paracelcus, they move as easily through the earth as humans walk upon the ground. They cannot stand the light of the sun, for even one ray would turn them to stone. Some sources claim they spend the hours during daylight as a toad. They are in some way related to goblins and dwarfs. Gnomes are believed to live for 400 years, are industrious, kind, and wise. Family is important to them, and they almost always merry. They always live in rural areas, sometimes even on (or below) farms, and will give advice to farmers. They are seen as guardians of nature and animals. Although they are kind to humans, gnomes are still very secretive; they never allow humans to know the location of their burrows, never teach non-gnomes their language, and appear only when they want to.

Leprechaun
A leprechaun is a type of fairy in Irish folklore, usually taking the form of an old man, clad in a red or green coat, who enjoys partaking in mischief. The Leprechauns spend all their time busily making shoes, and store away all their coins in a hidden pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If ever captured by a human, the Leprechaun has the magical power to grant three wishes in exchange for their release. Popular depiction shows the Leprechaun as being no taller than a small child , with a beard and hat. Their trade is that of a cobbler or shoemaker. They are said to be very rich, having many treasure crocks buried during war-time. According to legend, if anyone keeps an eye fixed upon one, he cannot escape, but the moment the gaze is withdrawn, he vanishes. Many tales present the leprechaun as outwitting a human . In most tales and stories leprechauns are depicted as generally harmless creatures who enjoy solitude and live in remote locations, although opinion is divided as to if they ever enjoy the company of other spirits. Although rarely seen in social situations, leprechauns are supposedly very well spoken and, if ever spoken to, could make good conversation. Among the most popular of beliefs about leprechauns is that they are extremely wealthy and like to hide their gold in secret locations, which can only be revealed if a person were to actually capture and interrogate a leprechaun for its money.By nature, leprechauns are said to be ill-natured and mischievous, with a mind for cunning.

Brownie
Brownies are legendary creatures popular in folklore around Scotland and England . Brownies are said to inhabit houses and aid in tasks around the house. However, they do not like to be seen and will only work at night, traditionally in exchange for small gifts of food. Among food, they especially enjoy porridge and honey. They usually abandon the house if their gifts are called payments, or if the owners of the house misuse them. Brownies make their homes in an unused part of the house, often in attics and holes in walls. Folklorist John Gregorson Campbell distinguishes between the English brownie, which lived in houses, and the Scottish ùruisg or urisk, which lived outside in streams and waterfalls and was less likely to offer domestic help.[1] The ùruisg enjoyed solitude at certain seasons of the year. Around the end of the harvest, he became more sociable, and hovered around farmyards, stables and cattle-houses. He particularly enjoyed dairy products, and tended to intrude on milkmaids, who made regular libations of milk or cream to charm him off, or to gain his favour. He was usually seen only by those who possessed second sight, though there were instances when he made himself visible to ordinary people as well. He is said to have been jolly and personable, with flowing yellow hair, wearing a broad blue bonnet and carrying a long walking staff. Every manor house had its ùruisg, and in the kitchen, close by the fire was a seat, which was left unoccupied for him. One house on the banks of the River Tay was even until the beginning of the twentieth century believed to have been haunted by such a sprite, and one room in the house was for centuries called “Seòmar Bhrùnaidh” (Brownie’s room). In 1703, John Brand wrote in his description of Shetland (which he called “Zetland”) that: “Not above forty or fifty years ago, every family had a brownie, or evil spirit, so called, which served them, to which they gave a sacrifice for his service; as when they churned their
milk, they took a part thereof, and sprinkled every corner of the house with it, for Brownie’s use; likewise, when they brewed, they had a stone which they called ‘Brownie’s stane’, wherein there was a little hole into which they poured some wort for a sacrifice to Brownie. They also had some stacks of corn, which they called Brownie’s Stacks, which, though they were not bound with straw ropes, or in any way fenced as other stacks used to be, yet the greatest storm of wind was not able to blow away straw off them.”The brownies seldom discoursed with man, but they held frequent and affectionate converse with one another. They had their general assemblies too, and on those occasions they commonly selected for their rendezvous the rocky recesses of some remote torrent, whence their loud voices, mingling with the water’s roar, carried to the ears of some wondering superstition detached parts of their unearthly colloquies. In a certain district of the Scottish Highlands, “Peallaidh an Spùit” (Peallaidh of the Spout), “Stochdail a’ Chùirt”, and “Brùnaidh an Easain” (Brownie of the little waterfall) were names of note at those congresses, and they still live in legends which continue to amuse old age and infancy. Every stream in Breadalbane had an ùruisg once according to Watson the Scottish place name expert, and their king was Peallaidh. (Peallaidh’s name is preserved in “Obair Pheallaidh”, known in English as “Aberfeldy”.) It may be the case, that ùruisg was conflated with some water sprite, or that ùruisg were originally water sprites conflated with brownies.

Red caps
A Red Cap or Redcap, also known as a powrie or dunter, is a type of malevolent murderous goblin, elf, or faerie found in British Folklore. They inhabit ruined castles found along the border between England and Scotland. Redcaps are said to murder travelers who stray into their homes and dye their hats with their victims’ blood (from which they get their name). Indeed, redcaps must kill regularly, for if the blood staining their hats dries out, they die. Redcaps are very fast in spite of the heavy iron pikes they wield and the iron-shod boots they wear. Outrunning the buck-toothed little demons is quite impossible; the only way to escape one is to quote a passage from the Bible. They lose a tooth on hearing it, which they leave behind.

Africa
The Aziza are, according to African mythology, a beneficent fairy race from Africa, specifically Dahomey

Asia
Both the Chinese huli jing and the Japanese kitsune have been translated as "fox fairy".
Mogwai are, according to Chinese tradition, a breed of fairy-folk that possess superpowers, which they often use to inflict harm on humans.
In Malays, pari-pari (Malaysian) or peri (Indonesian) are often seen as motherly creatures who will help those who have good heart. Malay fairies also love any fruit and like nature.
Peris, found in Persian mythology, are descended from spirits who have been denied paradise until they have done penance.
Tien [2] are heavenly beings variously translated as angels, fairies, immortals, and spirits in Vietnamese folklore.
Yaksha are creatures usually characterized as having dual personalities, found in Hindu and Buddhist mythology. On the one hand, a Yaksha may be an inoffensive nature-fairy, associated with woods and mountains; but there is a much darker version of the Yaksha, which is a kind of cannibalistic ogre, ghost, or demon that haunts the wilderness and waylays, and devours travelers.

European folklore (and European colonies in the New World)
The Aos Sí or sídhe are a powerful, supernatural race in Irish mythology.
The duende or chaneque refers to a fairy- or goblin-like mythological character. While its nature varies throughout Spain, Portugal, the Philippines, and Latin America, in many cases its closest equivalents known in the Anglophone world are the Irish leprechaun and the Scottish brownie.
Elves are a supernatural race from Germanic mythology.
Encantado, in Portuguese, are creatures who come from a paradisaical underwater realm called the Encante. It may refer to spirit beings or shape shifting snakes, or most often to dolphins with the ability to turn into humans.
The Erlking is a malevolent creature that is said to lure children away from safety and kill them.
Feufollet are a Cajun legend that emerged along the bayou as early as the 1920s with a light (a ball of fire) that shot out into the sky, likely derived from the same natural phenomena as the will o' the wisp. The lights were known as fairies, spirits and sometimes the ghosts of loved ones.
Nymphs are female nature spirits from Greek mythology. Satyrs are their male counterparts.
Slavic fairies come in several forms and their names are spelled differently based on the specific language.
Tylwyth Teg or Bendith y Mamau is the traditional name for fairies or fairy-like creatures of the Otherworld in Welsh folklore and mythology.
The Xana is a character found in Asturian mythology
Zână (plural Zâne) is the Romanian equivalent of the Greek Charites. These characters make positive appearances in fairy tales and reside mostly in the woods. They can also be considered the Romanian equivalent of fairies.

New World
An alux is a type of sprite or spirit in the mythological tradition of certain Maya peoples from the Yucatán Peninsula.
Chaneques are small elf- or pixie-like beings in the south to southeast of Mexico, especially Veracruz and parts of Oaxaca. Their name "chaneque" derives from the Nahuatl term ohuican chaneque, meaning "those who dwell in dangerous places", and they seem to have originally been guardian spirits of craggy mountains, woods, springs, caves, etc. Today, they are usually described as having the appearance of a toddler, with the wrinkled face of a very old person. They are known for hiding things, getting people lost, and sometimes throwing stones at people.[3]
The curupira is a male supernatural being which guards the forest in Tupi mythology.
Jogah are small spirit-folk in Iroquois mythology.

Oceania
Menehune (pl./s.)/Menehunes (pl.): Centuries ago, a Hawaiian legend spoke of the Menehune, who were a mischievous group of small people, or dwarfs, who lived hidden in the forests and valleys of the tropical islands. These creatures were only about 2–3 feet tall; some were as small as 6 inches. They enjoyed dancing, singing, archery, and cliff diving, and their favorite foods were bananas and fish. They also, according to local lore, were smart, strong, and excellent craftsmen. The Menehune were said to use magic arrows to pierce the heart of angry people, igniting feelings of love in its place. Menehune were rarely seen by human eyes, and they are credited with mighty feats of engineering and overnight construction.


Fairy mischief lore:

A fairy (also fata, fay, fae, fair folk; from faery, faerie, "realm of the fays") is a type of mythical being or legendary creature in European folklore (and particularly Celtic, Slavic, German, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural, or preternatural.
Myths and stories about fairies do not have a single origin, but are rather a collection of folk beliefs from disparate sources. Various folk theories about the origins of fairies include casting them as either demoted angels or demons in a Christian tradition, as minor deities in Pagan belief systems, as spirits of the dead, as prehistoric precursors to humans, or as elementals.
The label of fairy has at times applied only to specific magical creatures with human appearance, small stature, magical powers, and a penchant for trickery. At other times it has been used to describe any magical creature, such as goblins and gnomes. Fairy has at times been used as an adjective, with a meaning equivalent to "enchanted" or "magical".
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 modern 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 and Edwardian eras. The Celtic Revival also saw fairies established as a canonical part of Celtic cultural heritage.


More Research:
The English fairy derives from Old French form faierie, a derivation from faie (from Vulgar Latin fata) with the abstract noun suffix -erie. 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.[1]
"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.[1] 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 fay is not related the Germanic fey (from Old English fǣġe), meaning "fated to die",[2]. Yet, 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".[3]
Various folklore traditions refer to fairies euphemistically as wee folk, good folk, people of peace, fair folk (Welsh: Tylwyth Teg), etc.[4]
The term fairy is sometimes used to describe any magical creature, including goblins and gnomes, while at other times, the term describes only a specific type of ethereal creature or sprite.[5] The 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 "fairy tales" for children.
Historical origins include various traditions of Brythonic (Bretons, Welsh, Cornish), Gaelic (Irish, Scots, Manx), and Germanic peoples, and of Middle French medieval romances. 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 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 Silvers and others suggested this fascination of English antiquarians arose from a reaction to greater industrialization and loss of older folk ways.[6] Fairies are generally described as human in appearance and having magical powers. Diminutive fairies of various kinds have been reported through centuries, ranging from quite tiny to the size of a human child.[7] These small sizes could be magically assumed, rather than constant.[8] Some smaller fairies could expand their figures to imitate humans.[9] On Orkney, fairies were described as short in stature, dressed in dark grey, and sometimes seen in armour.[10] In some folklore, fairies have green eyes. Some depictions of fairies show them with footwear, others as barefoot. Wings, while common in Victorian and later artworks, are rare in folklore; fairies flew by means of magic, sometimes perched on ragwort stems or the backs of birds.[11] Modern illustrations often include dragonfly or butterfly wings.[12]Early modern fairies does not derive from a single origin; the term is a conflation of disparate elements from folk belief sources, influenced by literature and speculation. In folklore of Ireland, the mythic aes sídhe, or 'little folk', have come to a modern meaning somewhat inclusive of fairies. The Scandinavian elves also served as an influence. Folklorists and mythologists have variously depicted fairies as: the unworthy dead, the children of Eve, a kind of demon, a species independent of humans, an older race of humans, and fallen angels.[13] The folkloristic or mythological elements combine Celtic, Germanic and Greco-Roman elements. Folklorists have suggested that 'fairies' arose from various earlier beliefs, which lost currency with the advent of Christianity.[14] These disparate explanations are not necessarily incompatible, as 'fairies' may be
traced to multiple sources.
King James, 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.[15]
A Christian tenet held that fairies were a class of "demoted" angels.[16] One story described a group of angels revolting, and God ordering the gates of heaven shut; those still in heaven remained angels, those in hell became demons, and those caught in between became fairies.[17] Others wrote that some angels, not being godly enough, yet not evil enough for hell, were thrown out of heaven.[18] This concept may explain the tradition of paying a "teind" or tithe to hell; as fallen angels, although not quite devils, they could be viewed as subjects of Satan.[19]
In England's Theosophist circles of the 19th century, a belief in the "angelic" nature of fairies was reported.[20] Entities referred to as Devas were said to guide many processes of nature, such as evolution of organisms, growth of plants, etc., many of which resided inside the Sun (Solar Angels). The more Earthbound Devas included nature spirits, elementals, and fairies,[21] which were described as appearing in the form of colored flames, roughly the size of a human.[22]
Arthur Conan Doyle, in his 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."[23] At one time it was thought that fairies were originally worshiped as minor deities, such as nymphs and tree spirits,[24] and with the burgeoning predominance of the Christian Church, reverence for these deities carried on, but in a dwindling state of perceived power. Many deprecated deities of older folklore and myth were repurposed as fairies in Victorian fiction (See the works of W. B. Yeats for examples). A recorded Christian belief of the 17th century cast all fairies as demons.[25] This perspective grew more popular with the rise of Puritanism among the Reformed Church of England (See: Anglicanism).[26] The hobgoblin, once a friendly household spirit, became classed as a wicked goblin.[27] Dealing with fairies was considered a form of witchcraft, and punished as such.[28] In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Oberon, king of the faeries, states that neither he nor his court fear the church bells, which the renowned author and Christian apologist C. S. Lewis cast as a politic disassociation from faeries.[29] In an era of intellectual and religious upheaval, some Victorian reappraisals of mythology cast deities in general as metaphors for natural events,[30] which was later refuted by other authors (See: The Triumph of the Moon, by Ronald Hutton). This contentious environment of thought contributed to the modern meaning of 'fairies'.
One belief held that fairies were spirits of the dead.[31] This derived from many factors common in various folklore and myths: same or similar tales of both ghosts and fairies; the Irish sídhe, origin of their term for fairies, were ancient burial mounds; deemed dangerous to eat food in Fairyland and Hades; the dead and fairies depicted as living underground.[32] Diane Purkiss observed an equating of fairies with the untimely dead who left "unfinished lives".[33] One tale recounted a man caught by the fairies, who found that whenever he looked steadily at a fairy, it appeared as a dead neighbor of his.[34] This theory was among the more common traditions related, although many informants also expressed doubts.[35] There is a theory that fairy folklore evolved from folk memories of a prehistoric race: newcomers superseded a body of earlier human or humanoid peoples, and the memories of this defeated race developed into modern conceptions of fairies. Proponents find support in the tradition of cold iron as a charm against fairies, viewed as a cultural memory of invaders with iron weapons displacing peoples who had just stone, bone, wood, etc., at their disposal, and were easily defeated. 19th-century archaeologists uncovered underground rooms in the Orkney islands that resembled the Elfland described in Childe Rowland,[36] which lent additional support. In folklore, flint arrowheads from the Stone Age were attributed to the fairies as "elfshot",[37] while their green clothing and underground homes spoke to a need for camouflage and covert shelter from hostile humans, their magic a necessary skill for combating those with superior weaponry. In a Victorian tenet of evolution, mythic cannibalism among ogres was attributed to memories of more savage races, practising alongside "superior" races of more refined sensibilities.[38]
A theory that fairies, et al., were intelligent species, distinct from humans and angels.[39] An alchemist, Paracelsus, classed gnomes and sylphs as elementals, meaning magical entities who personify a particular force of nature, and exert powers over these forces.[40] Folklore accounts have described fairies as "spirits of the air".[41] Much folklore of fairies involves methods of protecting oneself from their malice, by means such as cold iron, charms (see amulet, talisman) of rowan trees or various herbs, or simply shunning locations "known" to be theirs, ergo avoiding offending any fairies.[42] Less harmful pranks ascribed to fairies include: tangling the hair of sleepers into fairy-locks (aka elf-locks), stealing small items, and leading a traveler astray. More dangerous behaviors were also attributed to fairies; any form of sudden death might have stemmed from a fairy kidnapping, the evident corpse a magical replica of wood.[43] Consumption (tuberculosis) was sometimes blamed on fairies who forced young men and women to dance at revels every night, causing them to waste away from lack of rest.[44] Rowan trees were considered sacred to fairies,[45] and a charm tree to protect one's home.[46]Classic representation of a small fairy with butterfly wings commonly used in modern times.
In Scottish folklore, fairies are divided into the Seelie Court (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.[37]
Trooping fairies refers to those who appear in groups and might form settlements, as opposed to solitary fairies, who do not live or associate with others of their kind. In this context, the term fairy is usually held in a wider sense, including various similar beings, such as dwarves and elves of Germanic folklore.[47]
Changelings A considerable amount of lore about fairies revolves around changelings, fairy children left in the place of stolen human babies.[6] In particular, folklore describes how to prevent the fairies from stealing babies and substituting changelings, and abducting older people as well.[48] The theme of the swapped child is common in medieval literature and reflects concern over infants thought to be afflicted with unexplained diseases, disorders, or developmental disabilities. In pre-industrial Europe, a peasant family's subsistence frequently depended upon the productive labor of each member, and a person who was a permanent drain on the family's scarce resources could pose a threat to the survival of the entire family.[49]
In terms of protective charms, wearing clothing inside out,[50] church bells, St. John's wort, and four-leaf clovers are regarded as effective. In Newfoundland folklore, the most popular type of fairy protection is bread, varying from stale bread to hard tack or a slice of fresh homemade bread. Bread is associated with the home and the hearth, as well as with industry and the taming of nature, and as such, seems to be disliked by some types of fairies. On the other hand, in much of the Celtic folklore, baked goods are a traditional offering to the folk, as are cream and butter.[20] “The prototype of food, and therefore a symbol of life, bread was one of the commonest protections against fairies. Before going out into a fairy-haunted place, it was customary to put a piece of dry bread in one’s pocket.”[51] In County Wexford, Ireland, in 1882, it was reported that “if an infant is carried out after dark a piece of bread is wrapped in its bib or dress, and this protects it from any witchcraft or evil.”[52]
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.[53] Another ambiguous piece of folklore revolves about poultry: a cock's crow drove away fairies, but other tales recount fairies keeping poultry.[54]
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.[55] In particular, digging in fairy hills was unwise. Paths that the fairies travel are also wise to avoid. Home-owners have knocked corners from houses because the corner blocked the fairy path,[56] 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.[57] Locations such as fairy forts were left undisturbed; even cutting brush on fairy forts was reputed to be the death of those who performed the act.[58] 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.[59]

A resin statue of a fairy
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.[60] Other brownies left households or farms because they heard a complaint, or a compliment.[61] People who saw the fairies were advised not to look closely, because they resented infringements on their privacy.[62] 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.[63]
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.[64]
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.[citation needed]
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.[65]
Legends
Sometimes fairies are described as assuming the guise of an animal.[66] In Scotland, it was peculiar to the fairy women to assume the shape of deer; while witches became mice, hares, cats, gulls, or black sheep. In "The Legend of Knockshigowna", in order to frighten a farmer who pastured his herd on fairy ground, a fairy queen took on the appearance of a great horse, with the wings of an eagle, and a tail like a dragon, hissing loud and spitting fire. Then she would change into a little man lame of a leg, with a bull's head, and a lambent flame playing round it.[67]
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.[68] 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 teind (tithe) to hell.[68]
"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.[69] 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.[70] 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.[71][72]
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.[73]
These illusions are also implicit in the tales of fairy ointment. Many tales from Northern Europe[74][75] 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.[76]
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.
Tuatha Dé Danann
Main article: Tuatha Dé Danann
The Tuath(a) Dé Danann are a race of supernaturally-gifted people in Irish mythology. They are thought to represent the main deities of pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland. Many of the Irish tales of the Tuatha Dé Danann refer to these beings as fairies, though in more ancient times they were regarded as goddesses and gods. The Tuatha Dé Danann were spoken of as having come from islands in the north of the world or, in other sources, from the sky. After being defeated in a series of battles with other otherworldly beings, and then by the ancestors of the current Irish people, they were said to have withdrawn to the sídhe (fairy mounds), where they lived on in popular imagination as "fairies."[citation needed]
They are associated with several Otherworld realms including Mag Mell (the Pleasant Plain), Emain Ablach (the Fortress of Apples, the Land of Promise or the Isle of Women), and Tir na nÓg (the Land of Youth).
Aos Sí
Main article: Aos Sí
The aos sí is the Irish term for a supernatural race in Irish and Scottish, comparable to the fairies or elves. They are variously said to be ancestors, the spirits of nature, or goddesses and gods.[77] A common theme found among the Celtic nations describes a race of diminutive people who had been driven into hiding by invading humans. In old Celtic fairy lore the Aos Sí (fairy folk) are immortals living in the ancient barrows and cairns. The Irish banshee (Irish Gaelic bean sí or Scottish Gaelic bean shìth, which both mean "woman of the fairy mound") is sometimes described as a ghost.[78]
In the 1691 The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies, Reverend Robert Kirk, minister of the Parish of Aberfoyle, Stirling, Scotland, wrote:
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[79]
In literature
"Prince Arthur and the Fairy Queen" by Johann Heinrich Füssli; scene from The Faerie Queene
The word "fairy" was used to describe an individual inhabitant of Faerie before the time of Chaucer.[1]
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.[80] These fairy characters dwindled in number as the medieval era progressed; the figures became wizards and enchantresses.[81]
The oldest fairies on record in England were first described by the historian Gervase of Tilbury in the 13th century.[82]
Morgan le Fay, whose connection to the realm of Faerie is implied in her name, in Le Morte d'Arthur is a woman whose magic powers stem from study.[83] While somewhat diminished with time, fairies never completely vanished from the tradition. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late tale, but the Green Knight himself is an otherworldly being.[81] Edmund Spenser featured fairies in The Faerie Queene.[84] In many works of fiction, fairies are freely mixed with the nymphs and satyrs of classical tradition,[85] 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.[86]

The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania by Noel Paton: fairies in Shakespeare
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[87] 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”.[88]
Shakespeare's contemporary Michael Drayton features fairies in his Nimphidia; from these stem Alexander Pope's sylphs of The Rape of the Lock, and in the mid-17th century, précieuses took up the oral tradition of such tales to write fairy tales; Madame d'Aulnoy invented the term contes de fée ("fairy tale").[89] 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.[90] J. R. R. Tolkien described these tales as taking place in the land of Faerie.[91] 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 Border ballads. This era saw an increase in the popularity of collecting fairy folklore and an increase in the creation of original works with fairy characters.[92] In Rudyard Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill, Puck holds to scorn the moralizing fairies of other Victorian works.[93] 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 fauns and dryads, mingles them freely with hags, giants, and other creatures of the folkloric fairy tradition.[94] 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.[95] Andrew Lang, complaining of "the fairies of polyanthuses and gardenias and apple blossoms" in the introduction to The Lilac Fairy Book, observed that "These fairies try to be funny, and fail; or they try to preach, and succeed."[96]
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."[97] Fairies are seen in Neverland, in Peter and Wendy, the novel version of J. M. Barrie's famous Peter Pan stories, published in 1911, 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."[98]
In visual art
At that moment she was changed by magic to a wonderful little elf by John Bauer
Images of fairies have appeared as illustrations, often in books of fairy tales, as well as in photographic media and sculpture. Some artists known for their depictions of fairies include Cicely Mary Barker, Amy Brown, David Delamare, Meredith Dillman, Gustave Doré, Brian Froud, Warwick Goble, Jasmine Becket-Griffith, Rebecca Guay, Florence Harrison, Kylie InGold, Greta James, Alan Lee, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, Myrea Pettit, Arthur Rackham, Suza Scalora, and Nene Thomas.[99]
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.[100] Interest in fairy-themed art enjoyed a brief renaissance following the publication of the Cottingley Fairies photographs in 1917, and a number of artists turned to painting fairy themes.[citation needed]