"Fairy Houses" by Oliver Hunter
Fairies in Legend, Lore, and
Literature (Continued)
by Terri Windling
In his famous poem "The Horns of Elfland," Tennyson wrote that even the echoes of elfin bugles are growing faint and dying away, as the fairies disappear from the woods and fields, chased away by modern life. This was a favorite theme of the Victorians, who believed that the fairies were taking their leave of us and that magic would soon vanish from the world forever. Fortunately, as far as I can see, the Victorians were dead wrong. The British Isles, and other parts of the world, are still thickly populated by the elfin tribes, if the present revival of fairies in popular culture is any indication. In North America, fairies are everywhere — in books and paintings, on t–shirts and teacups, in children's toyshops, in art museums, and flying through the airwaves. If Tennyson's elfin bugles have dimmed . . .well, never mind. The fairies play electric bagpipes now.
Instead of Tennyson, I'm more inclined to listen to the poet William Butler Yeats, who knew a thing or two about the fairies, for he believed in them all his life. He said that "you can not lift your hand without influencing and being influenced by hordes of them."
There's a famous story of a Scottish house fairy who proved to be so terribly annoying that the family in the house tried and tried to make him leave, to no avail. Finally there was no help for it. The family packed to go themselves. But as they drove down the road, their worldly goods strapped to the old farm cart, they noticed the fairy perched on top, saying, "Ah, but it's a fine day to be moving!" And so they sighed and went back home, knowing they were stuck with him for good. The fairy haunts that cottage and their descendants to this day.
So it is with fairies in literature and art. Fairy stories go in and out of fashion. But just when you think they're gone for good, cast out by book and art critics who insist we move on to weightier matters, the fairies are still there, grinning, saying, "Ah, it's a fine day to be moving!" — determined to move right along with us and be a part of whatever the future has in store.
"Fairy" by Richard Doyle
End Notes:
1. Quoted from The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies by Robert Kirk, 1893. (continue reading)
2. Spiritualism was a practice in which "spirit mediums" provided contact with the spirits of the dead and with supernatural creatures. The movement was started in America by the Fox sisters in 1848, who claimed to communicate with the dead through mysterious knocks upon a table. Soon "table–turning" parties were all the rage in all levels of English society, right up to the Royal Court. Spiritualist societies sponsored lecture tours, opened reading rooms and published newspapers, and popular spirit mediums developed huge followings. (continue reading)
3. Theosophy was a Spiritualist and philophical movement founded by Madame Blavatsky at the end of the 19th century. Many prominent Theosophists believed in fairies. (continue reading)
4. Quoted from The Hidden Side of Things by Charles W. Leadbeater, 1913. (continue reading)
5. Quoted from The Coming of the Faires by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1922. (continue reading)
6. Quoted from "Some Remarks About the Spirits of Nature," published in The Occult Review, 1911. (continue reading)
7. Quoted from The Vanishing People: Fairy Lore and Legends by Katherine Briggs, 1978. (continue reading)
8. Painter and poet William Blake firmly believed in faeries, and once wrote about witnessing a fairy funeral. (continue reading)
9. Opium derivatives like laudanum, called "the aspirin of the 19th century," were available without prescription in Victorian England, and were commonly used for insomnia, headaches and "women's troubles." It may be no accident that the Victorian's obsessions with fairies and Spiritualism occurred during the same span of years when casual opium use was widespread. (continue reading)
10. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the son of the fairy painter Charles Doyle who, like Richard Dadd, had been confined to an insane asylum and whose imagery came from his personal visions. The fairy painter Richard Doyle (by all accounts a sane, sweet–tempered man) was Arthur Conan Doyle's uncle. (continue reading)
11. Quoted from Alison Lurie's "Braking for Elves," first published in The New York Review of Books and reprinted in her excellent book Don't Tell the Grown–ups: Why Kids Love the Books They Do. (continue reading)
12. Some claim that North America has no fairies, which is stuff and nonsense. What it has is a melting pot of fairies and stories carried over by numerous immigrant groups, transplanted to new soil and bearing fruit both familiar and strange. Mixed into this pot are Native American tales from a variety of tribal traditions — including tales about magical little people who live under the hills or deep in the woods, and are sometimes good and sometimes bad, and who tend to play tricks on human beings — fairies, in other words, in everything but name. (continue reading)
"Small Fairy" by Alan Lee
Further Reading:
Adult Fiction:
The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
A Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson
Strands of Starlight by Gael Baudino
The Wild Reel by Paul Brandon
The Hob's Bargain Patricia Briggs
The Truth About Celia Kevin Brockmeier
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
Possession by A.S. Byatt
The Dreaming Tree by C.J. Cherryh
The Fairy of Ku–She by M. Lucie Chin
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (winner of the World Fantasy Award)
The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke
Little, Big by John Crowley (winner of the World Fantasy Award)
The Ill–Made Mute by Cecilia Dart–Thornton
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
Jack of Kinrowan by Charles de Lint
The Little Country by Charles de Lint
The Wild Wood by Charles de Lint
Widdershins by Charles de Lint
The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue
The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany
Fairy Tale by Alice Thomas Ellis
Faerie Tale by Raymond Feist
Stardust by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess
Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon by Lisa Goldstein
The Kappa Child by Hiromi Goto (winner of the Tiptree Award)
The Lastborn of Elvinwood by Linda Haldeman
Mortal Love by Elizabeth Hand
Ill Met by Moonlight by Sarah A. Hoyt
The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson
The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce
Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner (winner of the World Fantasy Award)
The Fairy Godmothers by Mercedes Lackey
The Wandering Unicorn by Manuel Mujica Lainez
Eccentric Circles by Rebecca Lickiss
The Grey Horse by R.A. MacAvoy
The Dark Mirror by Juliet Marillier
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
Once Upon a Winter's Night by Dennis McKiernan
Solstice Wood by Patricia A. McKillip
Something Rich and Strange by Patricia A. McKillip (winner of the Mythopoeic Award)
Winter Rose by Patricia A. McKillip
The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O'Shea
The Sacrifice by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Troll: A Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo
The Flight of Michael McBride by Midori Snyder
Singer of Souls by Adam Stemple
Photographing Fairies by Steven Szilagyi (winner of the World Fantasy Award)
The Mysteries by Lisa Tuttle
Kingdoms of Elfin by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Autumn Castle by Kim Wilkins
The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams
Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede
Young Adult Fiction
The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley
Tithe by Holly Black
Valiant by Holly Black
I Was a Teenage Fairy by Francesca Lia Block
Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan
Summerland by Michael Chabon
Shadow Castle by Marian Cockrell
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
Stealing the Elf–King's Roses by Diane Duane
The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer
Aquamarine by Alice Hoffman
Indigo by Alice Hoffman
A Dark Horn Blowing by Dahlov Ipcar
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
A Midsummer's Nightmare by Garry Kilworth
The Stones Are Hatching by Geraldin McCaughrean (winner of the Carnegie Medal)
The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw
Spindle's End by Robin McKinley
An Earthly Knight by Janet McNaughton
Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli
The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope
Changeling by Delia Sherman
Hannah's Garden by Midori Snyder
I Am Morgan le Fay by Nancy Springer
The New Policeman by Kate Thompson
The Faery Flag by Jane Yolen
Pay the Piper by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple
Troll Bridge by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple
Anthologies
So Fey: Queer Faery Fiction edited by Steven Berman
The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
Faery edited by Terri Windling
Fair Folk edited by Marvin Kaye
Fairy Folklore
The Vanishing People: Fairy Lore and Legends by Katherine Briggs
Erotic World of Faery by Maureen Duffy
The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries by W.Y. Evans-Wentz
Fairy Mythology by Thomas Keightley
At the Bottom of the Garden: A Dark History of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Nymphs and Other Troublesome Things by Diane Purkiss
British Goblins: Welsh Folklore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes
Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness by Carole G. Silver
British Fairy Origins by Lewis Spence
Irish Fairy and Folk Tales by William Butler Yeats
Reference Volumes:
An Encyclopedia of Fairiesby Katharine Briggs (emphasizing British folklore)
The Great Encyclopedia of Fairies by Pierre Dubois (emphasizing French folklore)
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fairies by Anna Franklin (fairy lore from around the world)