This article in defense of the REAL spirits of nature who O'Connor feels have been commercialized or trivialized by the media and popular culture. Isn’t it time to give respect to those beings who support us and really come up with an authentic way to talk about our spiritual experiences with them? I hope you will enjoy this article and learn a little about their history.




To the modern imagination, the subject of fairies may invoke thoughts of coin-bearing tooth pixies, wish-granting winged godmothers, feminine men or diminutive young naked nymphs tripping naughtily through the flowers in a circle. However one relates to the subject of fairies in modern popular culture, the response always seems to border on the humorous or disdainful. Fairies are anything, but taken seriously and their trivialized position is one in which this paper will most closely be concerned with. By what process did these stereotypical images come into modern Western thought? What can they tell us about the transmission of mythic thought and are we always aware of the submerged layers of meaning within the images culture so readily absorbs?


To the modern imagination, the subject of fairies may invoke thoughts of coin-bearing tooth pixies, wish-granting winged godmothers, feminine men or diminutive young naked nymphs tripping naughtily through the flowers in a circle. However one relates to the subject of fairies in modern popular culture, the response always seems to border on the humorous or disdainful. Fairies are anything, but taken seriously and their trivialized position is one in which this paper will most closely be concerned with. By what process did these stereotypical images come into modern Western thought? What can they tell us about the transmission of mythic thought and are we always aware of the submerged layers of meaning within the images culture so readily absorbs?


Although fairy traditions have typically been ignored in modern Religious Studies, there is much that they can tell us about change and continuity of culture, perceptions of otherness (e.g. gender, race, spirit), oral tradition, popular religion, and land based religious experience. In the attempt to come to terms with some of these important issues, two main strands of fairy tradition will be examined here. The first will illustrate popular images of fairies that modern Western culture inherited from the imagination of Victorian society. The second strand will deal with the underlying continuity of the traditional folk view of fairies. Neither strand is exclusive and each has become inextricably intertwined with the other over the course of time.

The concept of fairies or nature spirits like them has its roots in many religious traditions around the globe. Native Americans, Australians, Tibetans, Pre-Islamic Middle Eastern peoples, Polynesians, Germans, Russians, and Celtic peoples are but a few cultures that have passed on oral traditions about folk spirits throughout history. However, I will be primarily focusing on the Celtic traditions of fairies since those are what modern culture is most familiar with and derives most of its popular images. At the same time, the study of fairies and spirits within these other cultures can be equally useful in understanding important questions about religious traditions. It should also be noted that even within the Celtic traditions, there is a diversity of opinions about the nature of fairies. However, popular culture had tended to blend much of these together over time.

There are many sources that may used in the investigation of fairies. A great deal of these are from folklore interviews mostly from the early 1800’s- the present. Other sources are through literature dating back to the Middle Ages. Artwork is another source of information on the perception of fairies. The Internet also has many sites that one can get a modern Western understanding of fairies.

Etymologically, the term “fairy” in Old English was more like an adverb or adjective than a noun and could be translated as “fatedness”. Not until more recent times did the word “fairy” come to represent the name of the spirits themselves. And since the early 19th century the word has retained the same meaning that we understand it presently. The early confusion of the term has lent itself to it an inherent ambiguity crucial to its understanding (Williams, 468). Early connotations of the word referred to its magical or strange quality sometimes in relation to a female enchantress or supernatural creature, especially with a shining appearance and often connected with death. Later, after the influence of Christianity, the various types of Celtic supernatural beings were lumped together as fairies. At this point they were particularly connected with generic evil or the Devil. These were then thought to have vampiric or parasitic qualities and cause disease (462-468). Thus, “fairy” is a term that refers not only to the tiny winged flower fairy of popular Western culture, but also to a wide variety of spirit folk within Celtic folk religions. These include elves, dwarves, brownies, pixies, banshees, ghosts, silkies, trows, giants, mermaids, ogres, goblins, the Tuatha de Danaan, the Tylwyth Teg, the horde and many more.

Most of our current popular images were derived in the Victorian age. In those times fairies were all the rage. They were represented in art, literature, drama, and even scholarly research. Carol Silver, discusses this at length in her book, Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness. She states that “Victorians were the most repressed society ever to ventilate its obsessions and anxieties. At its center are the elfin peoples, for the cultural preoccupation with the secret kingdom of fairies in a hallmark of the era,” (3)

Part of the fascination with fairies in those times was connected with a nationalistic attitude in the British Isles as well as an attempt to connect the actual with the occult. Other influences were the advent of social sciences such as archaeology, ethnology, and anthropology. Some of the most influential people involved in the fairy movement were theosophists like Arthur Conan Doyle, William Butler Yeats, and Andrew Lang; artists like Henry Fuseli, Richard Doyle, John Duncan and Thomas Heatherly; novelists like Charlotte Bronte, William Shakespeare (post-humously), William Blake, E.A.Waite, James Hogg and Baron de la Motte Fouque; scholars like W.Y. Evans-Wentz, Anna Eliza Bray, Sir John Rhys, Patrick Kennedy.

In academic circles within Victorian society some scholars attempted to show that fairy tales created an analogy between children and primitive peoples. Fairy tales allegedly illustrated how cultures evolved from savagery to civilization. Children were thought to be miniature adults who quickly went though the evolution process as they grew to maturity. Fairy stories were thought to appeal to children because it was believed they could relate to this early stage of evolution.

Some scientists believed that stories about fairies originated from memories of a small statured race of Lapps or Mongols that had originally inhabited the country before the invasion of the Celts. The “discovery” of African Pygmies in the 1870’s also contributed to scientific notions about the evolution of peoples. Racist views connected the pygmies with dwarves and little goblin men. Darwinists speculated that these fairies were a branch that evolved separately from Homo sapiens. Unlike the romantic light-skinned airy-fairies depicted in much Victorian artwork and literature, dwarves were shown to be swarthy, grimacing, dangerous, and inferior.

John Buchan’s work “No Man’s Land” described a Pict (early Scot also known as Pixie) thus:
It was little and squat and dark; naked apparently, but so rough with hair that it
wore the appearance of a skin-covered being… in its face and eyes there seemed
to lurk an elder world of mystery and barbarism, a troll-like life which was too
horrible for words (pg.35)

Not only were African Pygmies depicted as monstrous and uncivilized, but so were many non-British peoples such as the Scots, Irish, Native Americans, and many other groups. In artwork they were portrayed as less evolved and ape-like. Drawings of leprechauns show the British opinion here of the Irish. Some drawings even show leprechauns with whiskey bottles. Other artists depicted dark-skinned Native Americans as childlike and dependent on the favors of whites.

At the same time, questions about the reconciliation between science and religion were uppermost in Victorian minds. This led certain occult scientists like Theosophists and Spiritualists to speculate upon the reality of fairies. Some believed that fairies were the souls of the dead. It was thought that a soul was smaller than the body it inhabits and thus explains why fairies were thought to be of small stature (169).

One occultist named Charles Leadbetter tried to apply evolutionary theory to connect the physical realms to the spiritual. Fairies, angels, devas, plants, animals, and minerals were all strategically linked in his constructed life chart. Within his book, The Hidden Side of Things, Leadbetter notes, “…like the Pygmies and ape-like men of the Uganda borderland and the other savages studied by travelers and anthropological folklorists, some elfin tribes are less highly evolved than others,” (123).

Other explanations for fairies were that they were fallen angels, ghosts, elementals, invisible life forms, or the survivals of ancient gods (Silver, 7). Alfred Nutt theorized that beliefs in fairies were remnants of ancestor or goddess cults, or the worship of local agricultural deities (41). Folklore scholars like Thomas Croften Croker, Henry Brooke, Richard Dorson, and WE Wentz focused on the continuation of belief in fairies in the British Isles. Much of the primary data that we have today is from the interviews of believers in the 1800’s.

Similar to today, Victorian scholars were interested in the reconciliation of beliefs systems, the Fairy Faith of the peasantry and the Christian faith of the establishment. Some theorists believed that the idea of fairies originated with the Druids. They argued that the Druids hid from their conquerors underground and abducted women and children to fill their dwindling ranks. Regardless of their origin, the syncretic recreation of fairy stories due to the combination of Christian beliefs is certainly evident. Images of fairies became more dangerous and associated with demons and moral behavior. Fairies were thought to be fallen angels that were permanently stuck between worlds and unable to attain Christian salvation. The underground land of fairies became associated with Hell or Hades and fairy women were depicted as Eve-like temptresses. This interplay between dominant hegemonic systems and its relationship with the counter hegemonic is a huge source for understanding the transformation of beliefs systems over time.

Other popular Victorian fairy themes were obsessively concerned with the danger of fairy abductions. These themes directly relate to perceptions about women and children. Changelings were monstrous fairies that were substituted for unbaptized children. Some parents acted on these beliefs by bludgeoning their child with iron tools in hopes to drive the evil fairy out of them. One woman was convicted of drowning her child because she was trying to return what she though was a changeling to its fairy home underwater.

Recent theorists have speculated whether genetic diseases like Progeria, which causes infants to look old and elf-like, might have been explained why some parents thought their babies were a changelings. Other disorders that might have been seen as being caused by fairy abduction could have been mental retardation, Hypothyroidism, or Hypertelorism, to name a few (Eberly, 236-240). These abduction stories often graphically illustrate how tragedy is dealt with through mythic reconciliation.

Victorian attitudes of toward women are also reflected in abduction stories. Tales like the Swan Maiden and Fairy Queen were popular renditions that reveal opinions about female sexuality, divorce, women’s right to property, and female power. Fairy brides (e.g. the Swan Maidens) were traced back in folklore to so-called primitive cultures. Not only were these spirit women considered part animal and thus connected to nature, but they were also seen as over-sexed and savage. Charles de Kay wrote on women in early Ireland and concluded that the Irish Sidhe (fairies) and the Banshee (the Irish death messenger) were indicative of the high status of women in those times. However, the Sidhe and Banshee were depicted as licentious and depraved (96-100). Sometimes they were described as beautiful and other times hideous. Either way these images reflected more about Victorian stereotypes than factual early history
.
While fairy stories were popularized in the Victorian media in much the same way as they are today, continuation of traditional belief coexisted then as it does now. Studies in Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall and the Rathlin Islands indicate a continuous tradition of fairy faith. At the same time, these beliefs are not stagnant and are continuously transformed according to the location, historical circumstance, culture, and the proponents of these stories. Not only are the stories passed on through memories of legends and literature, but also new experiences of fairy encounters provide memorates to constantly refresh the stories. This leaves the question of their reality constantly up in the air. While some stories are not always believed, others are considered real according to whom is relating to the experience and how connected he or she feels to the story.

In present studies of a community in Scotland there is evidence for the continuity of belief in fairies Mary Bennett shows how Scottish Calvinistic culture combines belief in fairies and other supernaturals. Those who experience them are thought to have the second sight. Although strongly Christian, the belief in fairies is not seen as a conflict. One woman explained, “God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, ghosts, fairies, water horses all together. I believe in them very sincerely, there is no question about it.”

In Patricia Lysaght’s book, The Banshee: the Irish Death Messenger, she notes that, to this day, a huge percentage of the population of Ireland has a belief in the ominous female fairy being who foretells the death of family members. Besides the folklore material she used that was collected from professional field collectors which is now primarily preserved in the Irish Folklore Collections, University College Dublin, she also distributed a detailed questionaire about the Banshee, and conducted extended taped interviews with respondents to the questionaire. The questionaire and interviews were done to establish the current status of the belief. Lysaght concluded that in both urban and rural areas throughout Ireland, the belief was alive and well. In fact, many of the respondents claimed to have direct experiences of the Banshee (Lysaght 1997, 1-22). This statement was made by one informant in Connemara, Co. Galway:

Well a banshee was heard the night my mother died… when my poor
mother and she in her death-struggles heard the terrible wail that she knew
was not human and she down in her fever, and she says to my father, says she
‘Denis, I must go’, and sure enough she died that week. (pg 142)

Between 1978-1982,on Rathlin Island of the coast of Northern Ireland, Linda-May Ballard recorded a series of interviews concerning the belief in fairies. She states that, “ As in other rural areas of Ireland, the fairies are not totally irrelevant. People are still prepared to speculate on their existence, which accounts for the sustained vibrancy of tradition on the island,” (Ballard, 48). Various fairylore motifs on the island include: fairy habitations should not be disturbed, musical ability, fairies may lead one astray, or leave gifts. Fairies may also play tricks on people as illustrated by the following account:

They played a trick on my grandfather one time. He came out to fodder the
Horses, and he went round the stable a dozen times, couldn’t get the door. He
Was an hour out, and they went out to look for him, and they asked him what
Kept him. He said, “Them wee buggers!” Made a fool of him! And he could
Hear them laughing up in the hill. He couldn’t see them. That was some of the
Wee folk (pg 53).

Other researchers like Robin Gwyndaf in Wales, Alan Bruford in Orkney and Shetland, and Diarmuid O Giollain in Ireland have also concluded that traditional belief in fairies is still existent in the present day. At the same time, non-traditional belief in fairies also exists in new religious movements within neo-paganism and other alternative spiritual belief systems. This is evident through popular literature on fairies and through Internet websites and chat rooms. Not only are personal experiences related, but role-playing that involves imagining oneself as a fairy is also popular. The fairy forms that are chosen relate directly to the types of transmitted images that were popular in the Victorian age supplemented with Disney like caricatures. Female participants associate with the beautiful winged version of fairies, while males either see themselves as elfin-like or warriors. In this sense, fairylore has taken on an unprecedented twist. It is ironic that while hoping to substantiate and validate the fairy tradition, not only are we as a society remaking it, but we seem to be innocently unaware that we are promoting the most unsubstantially non-traditional and trivialized forms. In part, we are helping to further the stereotypes about fairies. I wonder how the tradition bearers in the Celtic countries would view these new developments. But how can this be changed, because it is only out of love and fascination for the fairies and realms of spirit that this happens. The answer may lie in looking within and really thinking about our experiences with the divine. We can talk about these and come up with new and personal ways to keep the fairies and spirits of nature relevant and honored in our spiritual practices. For in these times, as in the past, our relationship with spirit is reciprocal and reflective of the respect we give ourselves and each other.

NOTE: I want to add that I do love the images of art and fairies too. I enjoy dressing in medieval clothes and thinking about and communing with the beautiful nature beings all around us. My artwork also shows this. It is out of respect for them that I write this and wish to promote new ways to express this relationship and honor it.--- Gina O'Connor

By Gina O'Connor Copyright 2008