June 24th: Fairy Day

Today is Fairy Day in Canada. So here are ten facts about the supernatural creatures of folklore, the fairies.

1. It's hard to pin down exactly what a fairy is, since there are so many tales. They can be anything from an old woman skilled in magic, a tiny creature with Butterfly wings, a giant, a goblin or gnome, an enchanted animal, to a god or goddess. The origins of the word don't throw much light on it - the word comes from the Latin fata and fatum (fate), which came, in medieval England to mean enchantment.
2. There are as many theories as to where they come from. Some say they are the spirits of the dead, others that they are a prehistoric race, distinct from humans, others maintain they are fallen angels or demons. Or you may choose to believe JM Barrie, creator of Peter Pan, who wrote "When the first baby laughed for the first time, his Laugh broke into a million pieces, and they all went skipping about. That was the beginning of fairies." Barrie also had a theory about the possible end of them, too - "Whenever a child says 'I don't believe in fairies' there's a little fairy somewhere that falls right down dead."
3. Whatever you choose to believe about where they come from, there's little doubt that fairies are mischievous. At best, they're known for stealing small items, confusing travellers, tangling your hair when you sleep or paying people Gold which would later turn out to be no more than dried leaves. However, they can also commit more evil crimes, such as kidnapping people, swapping babies or leading travellers to their deaths. Fairy lore was often a way of explaining things people didn't understand at the time, like diseases or disabilities. TB, or consumption as it was known, was often blamed on fairies who had put a spell on someone forcing them to dance and party until they wasted away.
4. Hence it was prudent to protect oneself against fairies. Ways to ward off fairies include wearing clothes inside out, bells (although the fairy queen is said to have bells on the harness of her Horse - however, this is said to be to protect her from the bad fairies), four leafed Clover, Rowan trees, Saint John's wort, and Bread (a symbol of home and the taming of nature to make food - however, while this works with some fairies, others are said to love gifts of fresh bread and cake).
5. The first written record of fairies in England dates to the 13th century. They were described by the historian Gervase of Tilbury.
6. It's said fairies love gifts, so leaving stuff for them is a way to keep them sweet. As well as food, they like small, shiny things of little value, like Buttons - but they don't like anything made of Iron - according to folklore, they are allergic to it, or it smells nasty to them.
7. They don't like Money, either. This may be why one of the most famous fairies, The Tooth Fairy, leaves money in exchange for teeth. The Tooth Fairy is a relatively recent invention, having first appeared in a Chicago Daily Tribune "Household Hints" column in 1908. That said, there are Norse legends dating back to the 13th century which mention the tand-fé ("tooth fee"), a small payment from a parent to their child when their baby teeth came out.
8. Another famous fairy is Tinkerbell from Peter Pan. She was based on a real actress called Margaret Kerry who was hired as a live action reference by the animators. Morgan le Fay is a woman with magical powers in the Arthurian tales - her connection with fairies is evident in her name. William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer's Night Dream is set in Fairyland and the plot revolves around the disruption caused by a fairy dispute. Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe is about a fairy who was banished for marrying a mortal.
9. There have been several famous writers who were especially interested in fairies. William Butler Yeats was one - he travelled around Ireland gathering people's stories of their encounters with fairies and wrote a book about them, called Celtic Twilight. William Blake once claimed to have witnessed a fairy funeral: "a procession of creatures of the size and colour of green and grey grasshoppers, bearing a body laid out on a rose-leaf, which they buried with songs, and then disappeared."
10. The writer best known for believing in fairies was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He was completely taken in by the photos taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, two young cousins who claimed to have taken pictures of fairies in their garden - the Cottingley Fairies. The pictures were evidence, he said, that supernatural beings existed. However, in later life, the girls admitted they'd faked the whole thing using cardboard cut-outs of fairies.

More details about my books. Follow this link if you like Superheroes, Psychics and/or quirky short stories. 

I've listed the themes each novel touches on here for easy reference.

Like my author page on Facebook for news on new books and blog posts.

Follow me on Twitter and Pinterest

Check out my Writing blog