“Faeries” by Brian Froud & Alan Lee – 25th anniversary edition. The second best reference work on fairy folklore after Katherine Briggs’ A Dictionary of Fairies. Certainly better illustrated – reflecting its coffee table book style – with Alan Lee’s characteristically fey art

(10) FAIRIES

Fairy, faery, fay, fey, fae – the stuff of folklore, most distinctively in British and Irish folklore, but also throughout wider European folklore. And perhaps beyond, as some historians argue for their origin from the peris of Persian mythology – and there are analogous beings (or ‘godlings’) elsewhere.

Of course, the term fairies now conjures up images of cute little gossamer-winged pixies like Tinkerbell.

In folklore – particularly British and Irish folklore – fairies were much different, most aptly styled as the Fair Folk, itself a euphemism for things that would flay you and walk around in your skin, because you sure as hell didn’t want to draw their attention or conjure them up by using names more true to their nature, or worse yet, their true names. In fairness (heh), they weren’t always as extreme as to literally flay you and walk around in your skin, only on occasion and only some of them. Some of them were more neutral or even nice, although even the nice ones were usually weird or had weird alien morality. Indeed, alien is an apt description, as in a manner of speaking, the fairies of European folklore have been replaced with the aliens of modern folklore, which uncannily resemble their fairy predecessors in many ways. Hence a whole array of apotropaic magic or protective charms to ward them off.

Their origins are myriad, both those attributed to them by folklore or folk belief, and the historical origins of that same folklore or belief . “The unworthy dead, the children of Eve, a kind of demon, a species independent of humans, an older race of humans”. Demoted or semi-fallen angels. Demoted pagan deities or ancestors. Spirits of the dead. Hidden people. Elementals.

As for the classification or types of fairies themselves, that could be the subject of its own top ten – even by broader classifications, let alone all the variations of individual types. The Seelie and Unseelie Courts of Scottish folklore. The classification of trooping and solitary fairies proposed by William Butler Yeats (to which Katherine Briggs added domesticated faires). Heroic faires. Diminuitive faries. Irish Tuatha de Danaan and sidhe. Scandanavian elves. Changelings. Goblins.  Pixies (lending themselves to one of my favorite fairy expressions – pixy-led)

And then there’s all the various fairy objects. Fairy animals – fairy cats and fairy dogs (or black dogs). Fairy trees. Fairy godmothers. Fairy gold. Fairy hills and forts. Fairy paths. Fairy riding (or elfshot). Fairy time. And of course the Fairy Queen and Fairyland (or Otherworld).

RATING: 4 STARS****
A-TIER (TOP TIER)