Tag Archives: Fairy

DEATH FAIRY

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The job of a Death Fairy is a thankless task, but somebody must do it!

death fairyA banshee (“woman of the sídhe, woman of the fairy mounds”) is a female spirit in Irish mythology, who heralds the death of a member of one of the prominent Gaelic families.   The banshee is often described in Gaelic lore as wearing red or green, usually with long, disheveled hair. She can appear in a variety of forms. Perhaps most often she is seen as an ugly, frightful hag, but she can also appear as young and beautiful if she chooses. In some tales, the figure who first appears to be a banshee or other cailleach (hag) is later revealed to be the Irish battle goddess, the Morrígan.

One popular belief was that they were the dead. This noted that many common points of belief, such as the same legends being told of ghosts and fairies, the sídhe in actuality being burial mounds, it being dangerous to eat food in both Fairyland and Hades, and both the dead and fairies living underground. Diane Purkiss observes an equating of fairies with the untimely dead who left “unfinished lives”.

Another belief is that the fairies were an intelligent species, distinct from humans and angels. In alchemy in particular they were regarded as elementals, such as gnomes and sylphs, as described by Paracelsus. This is uncommon in folklore, but accounts describing the fairies as “spirits of the air” have been found. 

FEY: SPIRITS OF THE AIR

Republished by Blog Post Promoter


Faery Land

“There is a difference between this world and the world of Faery, but it is not immediately perceptible. Everything that is here is there, but the things that are there are better than those that are here. All things that are bright are there brighter. There is more gold in the sun and more silver in the moon of that land. There is more scent in the flowers, more savour in the fruit. There is more comeliness in the men and more tenderness in the women. Everything in Faery is better by this one wonderful degree, and it is by this betterness you will know that you are there if you should ever happen to get there.”
― James StephensIrish Fairy Tales

The word fairy derives from the term fae of medieval Western European (Old French, from Latin fata: Fate) folklore and romance, one famous example being Morgan le Fay (‘Morgan of the Fae’). “Fae-ery” was therefore everything that appertains to the “fae”, and so the land of “fae”, all the “fae”. Finally the word replaced its original and one could speak of “a faery or fairy”, though the word fey is still used as an adjective or to refer to the word fairy as a plural.

In alchemy in particular they were regarded as elementals, such as gnomes and sylphs, as described by Paracelsus. This is uncommon in folklore, but accounts describing the fairies as “spirits of the air” have been found popularly.  Many of the Irish tales of the Tuatha Dé Danann refer to these beings as fairies, though in more ancient times they were regarded as Goddesses and Gods.

When considered as beings that a person might actually encounter, fairies were noted for their mischief and malice. Some pranks ascribed to them, such as tangling the hair of sleepers into “Elf-locks”, stealing small items or leading a traveler astray, are generally harmless. But far more dangerous behaviors were also attributed to fairies. Any form of sudden death might stem from a fairy kidnapping, with the apparent corpse being a wooden stand-in with the appearance of the kidnapped person.

Fairies can be observed when the “third eye” is activated.