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Interpreting the Faeries


rashore

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This is a trip through some of the interpretations that have been cast over the faeries during the last hundred years or so. I get the impression that many folklorists are reluctant, even scared, to pin their true feelings to the mast when it comes to saying what the faeries really are. It’s pretty easy to recount folktales and faerie-stories… but what do they mean, and where do they come from? Some people are more willing than others to stick their necks out… here’s a personal choice of some of the best published interpretations of the faeries. It’s not comprehensive, but I think these works are essential if you’d like to come to some sort of understanding about what the faeries are and why they have persisted in our culture.

https://deadbutdreaming.wordpress.com/2017/03/05/interpreting-the-faeries/

 

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I like the quote from the introduction to The Fairy-Faith,

 

“The great majority of men in cities are apt to pride themselves on their own exemption from ‘superstition,’ and to smile pityingly at the poor countrymen and countrywomen who believe in fairies. But when they do so they forget that, with all their own admirable progress in material invention, with all the far-reaching data of their acquired science, with all the vast extent of their commercial and economic conquests, they themselves have ceased to be natural… they have lost all sympathetic and responsive contact with Nature, because unconsciously they have thus permitted conventionality and unnaturalness to insulate them from it.”

 

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I think it unlikely that there is a race of tiny people whom have lived alongside humanity millennia, and there is no physical proof thereof. Though I do suppose the occasional "toy" object, and "doll" clothing, is found....

More likely then magical origin would be extraterrestrial origins. At least that would explain away where they go, why they are so different, and why they can do "magic".

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, fairy in english name, in buddhisme that creature maybe low order spirit deity, to deva who life in the tree, but maybe as ghost spirit who hunt others, or hell creature.

 

Buddhisme think the world have 31 realms, from human realm as the bottom before hell realm and betwen highger realm, so we may ecounter not only animal world/realm but also get econter to low realm like ghost/spirit, hell creature and lower deva realm.

Edited by Daimond25
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I do tend to give the Faeries some credence.  Evans-Wentz's classic study  as well of some of Janet and Colin Bord's work, suggest to me that "something is afoot" in regard to earth elementals and other liminal beings like the Kelpies and the Each Uisge said to frequent lakes of the Celtic countries. I am not a materialist, and I believe in a Transcendent realm, which makes it comfortable for me to entertain the existence, physical and/or spiritual, of the Good Folk. I don't know if they exist, but I think the world would be the poorer without their presence.

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Fairies aren't a thing. There is zero chance or precedent in the fossil record for a tiny winged hominid that has gone undiscovered for tens of thousands of years. It just isn't possible.

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Don't know if you were replying to me or to the thread, but anyway, the thing with most fairies is that they are said to be supernatural, non-material beings. As such, they could not/would not leave a fossil record. Moreover, only a very few fairies, as often portrayed by popular writers and artists, are depicted with wings. For example, if you read Evans-Wentz's classic study, The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries, you will find that fairies, in addition to being supernatural "Others", come in all sizes and shapes, live not only in glens but sometimes under the water, and are by and large wingless. So it's not a matter for science to decide, except for those few fairies in the minority camp who are said, like bees, to be natural, physical creatures who fly on gossamer wings 'twixt flowers and blossoms - in that case, science can pronounce that so-called fairy effects are actually only due to natural processes, and dismiss fairies as mere phantoms, in the same way that science dismisses the "God of the gaps". But just as the God of the gaps dismissal is irrelevant to any real supernatural extra-cosmic/transcendent deity, so too, non-physical supernatural fairy-folk are beyond scientific proof or dismissal.

Edited by astab
completion of thoughts/better phrasing
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Proof?

is-this-the-proof-that-fairies-exist-fee

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 4/1/2017 at 4:57 AM, Podo said:

Fairies aren't a thing. There is zero chance or precedent in the fossil record for a tiny winged hominid that has gone undiscovered for tens of thousands of years. It just isn't possible.

I dont know, maybe there arent any bones left because their bones dissolve with time? Or something like that :P

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On 2017-04-27 at 7:24 AM, dani10 said:

I dont know, maybe there arent any bones left because their bones dissolve with time? Or something like that :P

Ah yes, magical dissolving bones. Definitely possible and not 100% fantasy.

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I must admit Fairies are some of the things I consider. Not exactly as they are in the stories, no little insiect-winged people who live inside hollow hills, of course...

...but beings from a different plane of existence, occasionally (accidentally?) briefly being visible and/or tangible to humans? I can see that happening.

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On 5/2/2017 at 0:15 AM, Podo said:

Ah yes, magical dissolving bones. Definitely possible and not 100% fantasy.

Hey now. Nobody knows what these "fairies" are/were made of, so its safe to assume we cant say for sure their bones would dissolve or not. For all we know their structure is supported by wood instead of bones :rofl:

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I think it depends on when and where in lore that explains or not what happens to wee folks after they die- the ones that do. There seems to be an awful lot of immortality going on with them. And not a whole lot of "what happens after they die" kind of things included in lore. But there are clues...

Like some are supposed to live in their own kingdoms that are dimensionally elsewhere- and so if there were corpses, they wouldn't be found here. Some notions are that they are supposed to be "of their element" and so would go back to that element- wood fairies would likely go back to wood, I guess akin to having wood bones. Or water sprites back to water, and so on. Some just can't really be killed, like when lore has grim reapers.

There are more corporeal wee folk stories.. Things like changlings or selkies that take their skin on and off. I'm pretty sure that proof of those things haven't turned up anywhere though, lol.

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1 hour ago, rashore said:

I think it depends on when and where in lore that explains or not what happens to wee folks after they die- the ones that do. There seems to be an awful lot of immortality going on with them. And not a whole lot of "what happens after they die" kind of things included in lore. But there are clues...

if we consider all the different traditions of creatures English calls "Fairy" then a good chunk of them even are dead souls/spirits.

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6 hours ago, dani10 said:

Hey now. Nobody knows what these "fairies" are/were made of, so its safe to assume we cant say for sure their bones would dissolve or not. For all we know their structure is supported by wood instead of bones :rofl:

Ah yes, magical wooden bones. Definitely possible and not 100% fantasy.

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4 hours ago, Orphalesion said:

if we consider all the different traditions of creatures English calls "Fairy" then a good chunk of them even are dead souls/spirits.

Do you mean that as in lore that would indicate dead humans spirits/souls turn into fairies? Or perhaps how some lore has shifted, and what used to be a fairy is now classified in with the dead human spirit realm, like how banshees are fairies, incorporeal ones, but of the fae and not human spirit realm, but now are considered ghosts/spirits in more modern lore, as in no way it's a fairy because that would be crazy, but it is now acceptable for it to be a dead human? Yes, I realize banshees are not English, but it's a good example of some of the lore that's shifted.

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1 hour ago, rashore said:

Do you mean that as in lore that would indicate dead humans spirits/souls turn into fairies? Or perhaps how some lore has shifted, and what used to be a fairy is now classified in with the dead human spirit realm, like how banshees are fairies, incorporeal ones, but of the fae and not human spirit realm, but now are considered ghosts/spirits in more modern lore, as in no way it's a fairy because that would be crazy, but it is now acceptable for it to be a dead human? Yes, I realize banshees are not English, but it's a good example of some of the lore that's shifted.

Well, I can only speak of my experience with the term sidhe and , which in English usually gets translated as "Fairy" (so the Banshee is actually one of the things I was alluding to) so please correct if you have more indebt information :) 
 

From my own research into the sidhe the term is very much like Youkai, in that it describes every form of supernatural entity that isn't of divine (in this case, Christian) origin and that the different sidhe characters range from nature spirits to ancestral or restless dead (human and animal), harbingers of death, half-remembered gods, spirits presiding over houses and crafts etc etc etc. Among other things it seems like the sidhe were a way to keep ancestral reverence alive within a Christian context.

Frequently the people of the mounds were even interpreted as the "people of the burial mounds", declared to be the spirits of the dead and their Otherworld was seen as an alternative afterlife to Christian heaven and hell.

The Banshee is actually a good example, she was maybe not seen as a "ghost", but was sometimes believed to be the spirit of a distant ancestor who was watching over her bloodline. 

Another good example is the Sluagh Sidhe (Host of the Sidhe/Fairy Host) a wandering conglomeration of restless dead.

However, there are also definitely legends in the British area that say that the Fairies steal babies and people because they have to surrender a regular tribute of souls to Hell and in order to spare their own people, they steal humans to be given away instead.

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I thought everyone knew they were brine shrimp.

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13 hours ago, Orphalesion said:

Well, I can only speak of my experience with the term sidhe and , which in English usually gets translated as "Fairy" (so the Banshee is actually one of the things I was alluding to) so please correct if you have more indebt information :) 
 

From my own research into the sidhe the term is very much like Youkai, in that it describes every form of supernatural entity that isn't of divine (in this case, Christian) origin and that the different sidhe characters range from nature spirits to ancestral or restless dead (human and animal), harbingers of death, half-remembered gods, spirits presiding over houses and crafts etc etc etc. Among other things it seems like the sidhe were a way to keep ancestral reverence alive within a Christian context.

Frequently the people of the mounds were even interpreted as the "people of the burial mounds", declared to be the spirits of the dead and their Otherworld was seen as an alternative afterlife to Christian heaven and hell.

The Banshee is actually a good example, she was maybe not seen as a "ghost", but was sometimes believed to be the spirit of a distant ancestor who was watching over her bloodline. 

Another good example is the Sluagh Sidhe (Host of the Sidhe/Fairy Host) a wandering conglomeration of restless dead.

However, there are also definitely legends in the British area that say that the Fairies steal babies and people because they have to surrender a regular tribute of souls to Hell and in order to spare their own people, they steal humans to be given away instead.

Between you and I is an excellent example of differences between era and area of lore. Even though we are talking about the same general wee folk, I'm coming at it from a non-Christian context and from more of outside just England side of the lore, and your coming at it from after the Christian takeover of the lore within England. We just learned the information differently.

And the Slaugh Sidhe is a pretty good example too, even though it is more Irish than English. For me, I learned the Slaugh were some of the most terrible of the fae, and if they caught up with a human, some terrible things could happen depending on the circumstances- but the human would still remain human, be they dead or alive. The way you learned it was they are all wandering restless dead. Although out of some of that lore comes other fairies that have made the transition from wee folk to other critters. Hounds. The hounds of the wee folk turned into hell hounds, ghost hounds, and to some extent cryptid hounds.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/11/2017 at 3:59 PM, rashore said:
Quote

This is a trip through some of the interpretations that have been cast over the faeries during the last hundred years or so. I get the impression that many folklorists are reluctant, even scared, to pin their true feelings to the mast when it comes to saying what the faeries really are. It’s pretty easy to recount folktales and faerie-stories… but what do they mean, and where do they come from? Some people are more willing than others to stick their necks out… here’s a personal choice of some of the best published interpretations of the faeries. It’s not comprehensive, but I think these works are essential if you’d like to come to some sort of understanding about what the faeries are and why they have persisted in our culture.

https://deadbutdreaming.wordpress.com/2017/03/05/interpreting-the-faeries/

This is a good source of info. I would also add Dora Van Gelder's little book "The Real World of Fairies: A True First Person Account" is worth a read.  

 

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On 3/31/2017 at 6:11 PM, astab said:

 

Don't know if you were replying to me or to the thread, but anyway, the thing with most fairies is that they are said to be supernatural, non-material beings. As such, they could not/would not leave a fossil record. Moreover, only a very few fairies, as often portrayed by popular writers and artists, are depicted with wings. For example, if you read Evans-Wentz's classic study, The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries, you will find that fairies, in addition to being supernatural "Others", come in all sizes and shapes, live not only in glens but sometimes under the water, and are by and large wingless. So it's not a matter for science to decide, except for those few fairies in the minority camp who are said, like bees, to be natural, physical creatures who fly on gossamer wings 'twixt flowers and blossoms - in that case, science can pronounce that so-called fairy effects are actually only due to natural processes, and dismiss fairies as mere phantoms, in the same way that science dismisses the "God of the gaps". But just as the God of the gaps dismissal is irrelevant to any real supernatural extra-cosmic/transcendent deity, so too, non-physical supernatural fairy-folk are beyond scientific proof or dismissal.

 

From my experience I would say to see the most accurate depiction of the fair folk refer to art and literature from before the Victorian era. 

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Could the fairies or some of them not be a old memory of defeated people. Perhaps pre indoeuropean inhabitants?

If we strip them for all the magical qualities what do we have left? small people (maybe because they were subjugated) hard to spot maybe because they were on the run or just rare. They love circles (like megalith?) they love the moon and moon light. Perhaps holding their festivity during precise moon phases, after all some tales report some kind of faeries dancing in the hidden in the moon light (circles again) Moon worship was not uncommon for ancient people. They are usually connected to wish granting and treasures, magical propriety but it could also simply mean they knew all the local resources included the hard to spot and the treasure could have been buried offerings to their gods? they are connected as somebody claimed to the world of the dead, partially maybe because they were eradicated or absorbed partially because they were performed their traditions in the hidden out of the see, like ghosts.  Lets not ignore the fact that people congregating in secret arise suspicion if discovered. Just look at the Freemason or the Jews in old times. Groups of people aggregating in secret makes people uneasy because they fear conspiracy against them. About defeated people or minorities having magical proprieties is not uncommon either. IE the gypsies, like curses and reading hands, the Sami people had the reputation of powerful magic or the native Americans in some movies and literature capable of shape shifting.

Anyways with time, superstition toke over and became what we in modern times label as sci-fy.

 

Oh well just a conjecture.  

 

Edited by Mr Supertypo
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For the sake of completion, regarding Diechecker's picture...

First, take a look at the FULL picture:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/fairy-photo-lisa-wildgoose_n_7224262

Any questions?  If that isn't enough, then look here:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/blogs/behind-the-scenes/2014/04/04
.. these 'fairies' have been offered up several times before, and they are indeed insects.

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