h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My understanding of it is that fairies were always vengeful, spiteful, malicious wee bodies. They specialised in things like abducting babies and playing nasty tricks on people, and weren't averse to stealing your stuff. The sort of creatures that would scare the tripe out of you if you thought they really exist.

But then, somewhere along the line, we ended up with this kind of fairy: The kind who wafts around full of peace and love and grants wishes.

So who, in addition to J.M. Barrie, is a party to this cover-up? Did the fairies hire Max Clifford to deal with the media? Were the Victorians involved? They seem to play a part in many instances of ideas being jumbled up on their way down to us.

Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream breaks down
all the categories of fairies and elves and such.
So does Tolkien but life is short.

That said, except for some playful naughtiness
most fairies are the good guys. Cinderella had
her Fairy Godmother! And the Tooth Fairy (even
Terry Pratchett's Tooth Fairy) is generally seen
as a kind, friendly and pretty young woman.


~jwf~

One of my informants (called Blind Dan - an ascetic tinker from the Irish border country) has it that they were fallen angels who rebelled against God, but repented before they got to hell, so they were allowed to take up residence on Earth. He also says that the reason you can't find any in Ireland these days is that they were all blown away on the night of the Big Wind in 1839. Interesting to hear from someone who's a faithful believer in them!

The so called British media are a bunch of fairies, so what chance have you got of an accurate report. Best is that if you find and capture one of these mischievous cretins don’t listen to a word it says, vent your disgust at it then boot it into the next doors neighbours garden

You're obviously not buying the propaganda, anyway!

Sorry but if Tinker bell appeared now and days she would most probably be wearing a hoodie, pushing a pram and have the manners of a pig. The Victorians fantasised, I don’t see that imagination features heavily today as mobile phones have eradicated the need to think now, let alone think of a garden and what might sit on an up turned plant pot at the end of it

JM Barrie didn't do much to sanitize fairies. Peter Pan is a callous, vicious, heartless (but charismatic) monster through most of the first book (I've not read any further yet). He frequently abandons the humans in dangerous situations, and generally makes it clear that their only value is as his occasional playthings. I remember one shocking paragraph where it mentions Peter sometimes bringing back dead pirates to the Wendy House!
I think Barrie had more of a finger on the pulse of fairy fiction than he's given credit for.
No, I'm just going to go ahead and blame D*sney for screwing up the fairies.

Pratchett's "Lords and Ladies" keeps the portrayal as malevolent nasty pieces of work.

I blame 2legs. I mean, Disney.

When I think about it, all I can come up with is the heroes who have kept the stories true: Pratchett, Brian Froud, everyone at Vertigo Comics...

The goblin market - Christina Rosetti

http://plexipages.com/reflections/goblin.html

Brilliant poem involving seduction by the little folk.

It´s not just the fairies though, gnomes and elves are also not the nasty creatures they used to be.

Would I be wrong in thinking the reason for hanging a horseshoe above a doorway wasn´t about "luck" as such, but about keeping the fairy folk out?

Doesn't it come down to the difference between the traditional Scottish/Irish view of fairies (hasty and capicious) and the traditional English/European view of fairies (helpful and friendly)?

Or am I missing something?


Geggs

I don´t think Scandinavia ever had much belief in fairies. However there was a belief in gnomes and elves, and those have changed to be more benevolent these days. Except perhaps the ones in Iceland.

> the traditional English/European view of fairies (helpful and friendly)?<

My hunch is that it's essentially a white washing by the Victorians. They white washed a hell of a lot of stuff. English culture has been suppressed possibly more than other and made synonymous with Britishness.

That's one of the reasons I like that Christine Rosetti poem...though it can be read on several levels.

But lots of stuff can leak out via poetry.

"Doesn't it come down to the difference between the traditional Scottish/Irish view of fairies (hasty and capicious) and the traditional English/European view of fairies (helpful and friendly)?"

That's an interesting idea!

Although, isn't it a bit strange (and inaccurate) to put a boundary between the "Scottish/Irish" and the "English/European"?

The brothers Grimm introduced us to wicked and good fairy godmothers.

Enid Blyton's offerings are full of friendly fairy-type folk - The Faraway tree series and Noddy.

A superb fairy-tale is 'Little, Big' by John Crowley. It's a long tale, and the fairies don't make much appearance, but I think the thing about them is not that they are good or bad, but that they have entirely their own agenda, and when that crosses with the lives of humans, the results could be good, bad or neutral, because their only interest in humans is whether or not they are in the way, basically. Well worth a read.

I know of a gentle fairy that’s good at washing dishes and is kind to your hands too, bless her. Like a genie she lives in a bottle too

I was brought up with traditional scottish fairies. Don't trust them but if they help you out, you have to appreciate them or they can be pretty spiteful. Elves and the shoemaker for instance. I suspect they are sort of scottish (and irish?) mafia.

My view of fairies was mostly shaped by (relativly) recent works like Startdust, Changeling the Lost, Jonathan Strange & Mr.Norrel, and the Dresodon Files. The're part of a trend towards a darker and somewhat more mythologicaly accurate veiw of the fey. Often, but not all ways bound by the exact words of there agreements and extremly alien.