Background

• Origin of the Faeries

• Types of Fairies

Origin of the Faeries

Fairy comes from the Old French word faerie. The word has been overused to describe a supernatural being. There is a great deal of difference in classifying a being as a fairy from medieval literature and those from modern literature, especially those belonging to the Celtic tradition.

There are also other faerie traditions such as those found in English, German and Slavic folklore.

Today, when we think of fairies, we often visualise them as tiny, supernatural beings with wings and glowing with uncommon light, as in today's children fairy tales. They also possess some sort of strange magical powers, like Tinkerbell in the story of Peter Pan or the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella. The modern fairies, between the 18th and 20th century, come from oral tradition before they were transmitted into writing.

The fairies are supernatural beings that can best be described by the Greek word - daimon, which means "spirit". They are not divinities, ie. gods or goddesses, in the usual sense of the word, and yet they are not mere mortals; often, it is easier to classify them as minor divinities.

However, if we look at the idea of fairies, then you would find that they have been around a lot longer than everyone might expect. Perhaps the earliest form of faeries can be found loosely in the mythical beings in Greek mythology such as the nymphs, satyrs and sileni. The nymphs from ancient Greek myths can be considered as fairies and they existed as early as the time of Homer writing the Iliad and the Odyssey. Even the river gods in Greek myths can be classified as fairies. These are spirits or minor deities of nature or of natural phenomena.

And then there are household or guardian spirits that can be found in Roman religion and mythology, such as the penates, lares and genii.

The Norse versions of the fairies are the wide variety of elves and the dísir that exist in the Teutonic traditions. The Valkyries could also be classified as fairies.

It was during the time of Queen Elizabeth I of England that William Shakespeare (1564-1616) popularised fairies in English folklore, in his play A Midsummer Night's Dream, with the characters Oberon, Titania and Puck (Robin Goodfellow). Earlier than Shakespeare, Chaucer (1342-1400) mentioned that the land of Britain was filled with fairies before the time of King Arthur.

In the Arthurian legends, the divine or fairy figures also appeared in abundance. Morgan, Arthur's half-sister, seemed to be great sorceress and healer, and was often called Morgan le Fay; her nickname was Fay, which means "Fairy". And then there was the Lady of the Lake. Arthur's wife, Guinevere, or Gwenhwyfar in the Welsh tradition, also appeared to be a fairy, as well as the sovereignty goddess. Many knights were either born from fairies or they took female fairies as their lovers. Even Merlin was only part mortal.

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Then you would discover that that these images of fairies are not the only kind. There were all sorts in fairy tales and folklore. Some were benign, while others were malign and hostile to mortals. Some were seen as fair, while others were considered ugly and monstrous to look at. They could come in all size and sizes - tall or short, fat or skinny, so there is really no clear definition of fairies may look like. Different types of fairies may also have different types of magical powers.

So, what are these fairies? Where do they come from?

To understand what they are, we should look at some of those found in Celtic mythology and other Celtic traditions. But, then you would discover that fairies are not just confined to Celtic traditions. Many cultures and civilizations have their own versions of fairies.

There are enough kinds of fairies to confuse anyone because sometimes writers have associated one fairy with a different kind.

In Celtic religion, there were Celtic deities in Gaul (France and Belgium), Hispania (Spain) and Britannia (Britain) during the Roman occupation of these regions or provinces. But the situation changed when Christianity spread to the west and north. These deities that were worshipped before the conversion to Christianity were reduced to the status of fairies in Celtic mythology and folklore.

So in Ireland the gods in the Tuatha De Danann were degenerated to the roles of fairies (eg. Dagda and Lugh), people living under the dune mound or fabled islands, or even within underwater domains. Similar degeneration occurred with old deities in Wales, Scotland and other surviving pockets of Celtic kingdoms (such as Cornwall, Brittany and the Isle of Man).

In these earlier Celtic traditions of fairies, the former Irish or Welsh deities were also not fairies in the usual sense. They looked very much like humans in size and shape, except that they had special magical powers and they seemed eternally young, but they didn't have wings. The Dananns or their Welsh counterparts were usually seen as a race of fair people. They could die just as mortals could, but their lives could last hundreds or even thousands of years.

The problem was that sometimes, the Christian authors also turned them into beings serving the Devil, and claimed that the fairies were actually demons. However this view is no longer shared, today.

These medieval fairies were different from the common folklore and fairy tales of today. The Tuatha de Danann are nothing like the brownies, leprechauns and goblins of these later traditions.

Types of Fairies

Most of the information that I have about Irish fairies comes from 19th century poet, William Butler Yeats.

He wrote two works which are of interest:

• The Celtic Twilight (1893, 1902)

• Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888)

In Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, we have descriptions of fairies. It's also a collection of works, poems and prose from other authors such as T. Crofton Croker and Lady Wilde.

In this work, he divided the fairies into two broad categories:

• Trooping Fairies or Social Fairies

• Solitary Fairies

Social or trooping fairies are those who lived in a large company, like in a clan. The Tuatha de Danann who lived in the sidhe, ruled by a king and sometimes a queen (or both), could be considered as social fairies. They were often seen feasting, singing and dancing. They could be either benevolent or hostile to humans. Another example of trooping fairies are the Merrow.

The solitary fairies usually avoided large gatherings. There were many types of solitary fairy such as the banshee, leprechaun, cluricaune, brownie, pooka, etc.

Generally, they could be recognised by the type of jackets they wore. The social fairies wore green jackets, while the solitary fairies wore red ones, but sometimes their jackets were brown or grey.

Scottish fairy folklore can also be divided in similar fashion between solitary and social fairies.

Another writer named Wirt Sikes wrote the British Goblins (1880), comparing the Welsh fairies with Norse/Teutonic fairies.

Sikes says that there were four types in the Norse tradition: 1) elves, 2) dwarves and trolls, 3) nisses and 4) necks, mermen, and mermaids.

While in the Welsh traditions there are:

1. the ellyllon, or the elves;

2. the coblynau, or the mine fairies;

3. the bwbachod, or the household fairies;

4. the gwragedd annwn, or the fairies of the lakes and streams;

5. the gwyllion, or the mountain fairies.

Here, the classification of Welsh fairies distinguished household fairies from that of the mines, lakes and mountains. Like the Irish tradition, the Welsh can be further divided into solitary and social fairies.

The Welsh name used for fairies is y Tylwyth Teg, which mean "the fair folk". And these folk lived in Gwlad y Tylwyth Teg, "Fairyland".