24 replies to this topic

[starshiner]

I have always been interested in then subject of magical beings but never followed through with my curiosity, what are your views ?

[rashore]

Welcome to UM

There are a few threads here already about the wee folk, just use the search box in the upper right to get started. That could probably get you up to speed on how several people feel about the subject.

Wee folk lore comes in a dazzling array from all over the world. I would even hazard to say there isn't anywhere that doesn't have wee folk. There's way more than tinkerbells, dwarves, and gnomes.
In todays age, a lot of wee folk stories have gone into the realms of cryptids and ghosts. Like merfolk came out of wee folk lore, but is now considered a cryptid, or banshees are fairies but often come up in ghost stories. The wee folk even have their own grim reapers.

Wee folk within the notion of magical beings... That's kind of where the heart of the fae is. Pretty much all of them are supposed to be magical in some sort of way. Sometimes they are of the essence of a magic, like those associated with the spirit of elements, plants, special places. Sometimes the are more magic users, spell casters, portal or dimension shifters. Sometimes their only magic seems to be that of eluding the human eye.. or at least our recording devices.

[Kafkaesque]

My views on elves are that if they exist, I want to live with them.

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

Eonwe, on 22 January 2013 - 10:44 PM, said:

My views on elves are that if they exist, I want to live with them.

My opinion is that if the Fair Folk exist, then we'd better be very careful as to not draw their attention.
"We daren't go a hunting, for fear of little men" that sort of thing.

[Kafkaesque]

Wearer of Hats, on 22 January 2013 - 11:51 PM, said:

My opinion is that if the Fair Folk exist, then we'd better be very careful as to not draw their attention.
"We daren't go a hunting, for fear of little men" that sort of thing.

It'd probably be wise.

[Trakkia]

well, we have tall people, short people, people with broad shoulders, people with big jaws, why not people with pointy ears? All they have to do is wear a hat. In fact, I bet that's why hipsters wear hats and scarves and stuff, they'r hiding pointy ears! But seriously, point ears is plausible, some race of humanoids could have existed with pointy ears at some point, then people decided to breed with with them, or kill them, and flushed out that gene, just like big browed neanderthals went bye bye. If they lived in a time where people made stories and then died out before now, we'd be hearing about 'Mr. Bigbrows' in fairy tails, probably taking on the roll of a grumpy troll or something.

As for dwarves, well I'm pretty sure that came from short people, who were likely outcast-you know, racism, it most likely existed back when the idea came about- and made their own little towns. Isn't there a condition to do with people being short due to their genes with something resembling 'dwarf' in the name? Not sure how this is much of a myth to be honest... Bar the idea of super strength or something, from some stories I've heard; but look at other things in history shrouded in mystery, people make up crazy things about them. Ever heard of ninjas?

The grim reaper is some creepy guy who decided to invent Halloween, but it went horribly wrong so someone else did.
Fairies.... I have no idea, I'd put it down to mushrooms...

But if they existed in all their magical prowess, I'd happily go to live with them, as someone said earlier.

Anyways, dwarves are just short people, elves could have had a gene that makes them have pointy ears -like features found in different ethnic groups that define them-, then the rest was superstition when they cut themselves off or from stories which were exaggerated after the gene disappeared, probably when mother nature realised pointed ears don't really aid hearing and will likely get you killed by the church -back then, that is. That's probably why they disappeared if they ever existed, and since ears don't have bones if we found elf bones we wouldn't know it.

Edited by Trakkia, 23 January 2013 - 03:01 AM.

[ali smack]

I don't believe in faeries, elves or any other little people.
I feel as if there's no evidence for there existence and also
I feel it's impossible for a human/or human like being been that small

[glorybebe]

ali smack, on 23 January 2013 - 04:40 PM, said:

I don't believe in faeries, elves or any other little people.
I feel as if there's no evidence for there existence and also
I feel it's impossible for a human/or human like being been that small

But, interestingly enough, every inhabited continent has old old stories about little people in one shape or form.

[rashore]

Not all wee folk are small. Some of them are smaller than average human, some of them are human sized, and some of them are larger than human. Some of them are very human-like, some are very not human like at all. Some are animals too.
There really is a huge amount of variety among all the wee folk lore.

[starshiner]

Good points I believe there is something like that, at the heart of nature, or more at the heart of deeper unknown/unexplored places, places we perhaps cant see or places that we don't .

Personally I think we're not ready as a hole to descover anything do pure because we would destroy it, exploit it. I believe in time we will learn to co-exist and create rather than take and destroy, well that is my hope.

[DieChecker]

Personnally, I think they are folklore. But it is interesting that almost every culture in the world has some kind of little people in their myths and legends.

The Hawaiians have the Menehune. The Japanese have the Kappa. The Native Ameicans had numerous kinds of little people, as did Europe, Asia and Africa.

Could very well be a hard wired thing in the human brain to believe in the unexplained, and the Little People, could be the end result of such a issue in our brains/thinking.

[modas]

I do kind of beleave in some of folk creatures who live in other dimentions but i think it's a side efect of playing to much dragon age (for those who don't know it it's a briliant video game).

[Rafterman]

Are we talking Keebler type elves or more of the hot cosplay kinds of elves?

[starshiner]

Rafterman, on 26 January 2013 - 01:12 PM, said:

Are we talking Keebler type elves or more of the hot cosplay kinds of elves?

No specific type of elf, just them in general

[starshiner]

modas, on 26 January 2013 - 12:00 PM, said:

I do kind of beleave in some of folk creatures who live in other dimentions but i think it's a side efect of playing to much dragon age (for those who don't know it it's a briliant video game).

People I have spoken to before have said the same- that they believe elves and higher beings exists in other planes or dimensions to us.