The myth and legend of Fairies

Posted by Saluki in Stray Thoughts with Saluki | 7 comments

by Saluki

Besides reading vampire fiction, I am also a big fan of the paranormal genre.  After reading three popular series: The Fever series by Karen Marie Moning, The Soul Screamer series by Rachel Vincent, and the Wicked Lovely Series by Melissa Marr, I became fascinated bythe fae, or fairies.  Growing up, a fairy equated to Tinkerbell in my book.  I had never thought about the real legends behind fairies until I started reading the Fever series.  In that series, the main character goes to Dublin to investigate her sister’s death and becomes immersed in the Faery world.  These faeries aren’t cute little things flitting around doing good deeds.  In fact, most of them are evil, horribly disfigured beings intent on eliminating the human race and others are so beautiful it literally hurts to look at them.  As I have read more fictional accounts of the Fae, I have gotten much more curious to learn about the legends behind these fascinating creatures.

As I started researching the topic one thing became clear, there really is no consensus on the origin of fairies.  There are stories of fairies from across the globe, but the most prominent are from Ireland, England, and Scotland.  After researching these different legends, I am even more fascinated with the world of what we know as fairies.  I hope you find it as interesting as I have.

Many legends state that fairies are the souls of the dead, people not good enough to enter Heaven yet not bad enough for Hell. They wander the in between and are occasionally seen by humans. Most often they keep themselves concealed, not wanting to lower themselves to associate with the human race. Along a similar theme, fairies are also believed to be angels that had been cast out of Heaven for siding with Satan before he was banished to Hell.

The Irish believe that fairies are the descendants of a previously conquered society, the Tuatha De Danaan (People of the Goddess Dana).  They supposedly descended on Ireland from a black cloud in the sky.  Scholars believe they actually came to Ireland on ships which they burned upon arrival to ensure no one could leave.  As the legend goes, the Tuatha De Dannan ruled over Ireland until defeated by the Milesians.  Some stories suggest they were banished underground, where their power and magic grew until they became an immortal race.  Others suggest that the Tuatha willingly retreated to their fairy mounds and returned to their home land of Faery. Still other stories suggest that because the Tuatha De Dannan were held in such high regard and believed to be deities, the people of Ireland couldn’t accept they were just a moral race that were defeated by a stronger culture, so they were consigned to mythology.

In parts of England and Britain, it was believed that if a baby was ill, chances were good that it was not a human infant at all, but a changeling left by the Fae. If left exposed on a hillside, the Fae could come reclaim it. In a Welsh version of the legend recounted in The Stolen Child by William Yeats, parents of a new baby could keep their child safe from abduction by the Fae by using one of several simple charms: a wreath of oak and ivy kept faeries out of the house, as did iron or salt placed across the door step. Also, the father’s shirt draped over the cradle keeps the Fae from stealing a child.  According to another Welsh legend, many people also believed that fairies were local gods or nature spirits that dwindled in majesty and size over time.  As other religions overshadowed these gods, they became smaller and weaker with their diminished importance. 

There are also legends that fairies started out as Gods and Goddesses and with the spreading of Christianity in the fifth century, faded to less powerful creatures.  During this time, church leaders declared fairies to be evil beings, but because of their strong roots in folk legend, monks tried to rewrite folk tales to diminish the importance of fairies in society.  Several scholars put stock in this theory because many beings who are described as deities in older tales are described as “fairies” in more recent writings.

All of this research has left me chomping at the bit to read more about the Fae world.  The fifth and final book in the Fever series, Shadowfever, is set to release December 28, 2010. I’m not sure I’ll be able to wait that long, but until then, I can take satisfaction knowing that the fourth book in the Wicked Lovely series, Radiant Shadows, comes out April 20th (squee!).  I’m not sure if there is a fourth Soul Screamer book in the works, but I really hope there is.  Are there other Fae series you would recommend?  I need more of my Fae fix!