Table of Contents
Introduction
The
connection between humans, fairies, and deities
Fairy
Classifications
Humans who
become fairies
Fairies are
nature spirits
Wells,
Springs and Pools
Trees,
Forests, Glens and Plants
Fairies are
animals
Mountains,
Rocks, and Lands
Forces of
nature
House,
Hearth, and Field
Fairies are
the gods of the past
Fairies as
their own class of spirits
Common
fairy traits
Analysisi
of the fairies in fairy tales
Rumpelstiltskin
and Analysis
Briar Rose
Analysis of
Briar Rose
Puss in
Boots
Analysis of
Puss in Boots
The
Spindle, the Shuttle and the Needle
Analysis of The Spindle, the shuttle and the Needle
|
The connection between humans,
fairies, and deities.
Note: this is a preview which
has been edited and condenced.
What are Fairies?
Everything in the world – trees, rocks, shadows, even
emotions
– has a life of its own. The belief that all things have
souls
was once shared by all people. These souls were later understood to be
the fairies.
We are perhaps best served in our understanding of fairies by looking
to the Japanese for their understanding of the nature of Kami, which
are things that inspire reverence and awe. In the same manner, fairies
are the wondrous trees in nature, the tall mountains, and the calm
majestic rivers. Fairies are in the poems we tell and the songs we
sing. This view is apparent in people’s original belief that
the
gods needed no temple - they lived directly within that which inspired
awe.
The word “temple” itself means wood, implying that
the
deities lived within groves of trees on mountain tops and within sacred
wells. (Jacob Grimm, 1835) Early Romans also worshipped deities
associated with specific localities and even household objects which
they needed to survive, such as cupboards and hearths. (Bailey, 1907)
Fairies are not simply those creatures that inspire awe and reverence.
Just as the Kami was worshipped in Japan, so too were the fairies
worshipped by the peoples of ancient Europe. Just as the Kami and Yokai
of Japan were often feared, so too in Europe did the fairies also plant
the seeds of fear and cause sorrow. So in myth, fairies are both the
monster and the object of reverence, the illness in the cattle, the
things in the dark that cause our flesh to constrict into Goosebumps
and make our hearts race.
What are Humans?
In Greek mythology, humans are the children of the nymphs of the ash
trees who, in turn, are the children of the deities themselves. In
Germanic and Scandinavian mythology, humans were created from the ash
trees directly by the deity Odin. The Celts have a slightly different
take on the origin of humans;
“In Celtic belief men were not so much created by gods as
descended from them. (For) All the Gauls assert that they are descended
from Dispater, and this, they say, has been handed down to them by the
Druids. Dispater was a Celtic underworld god of fertility, and the
statement probably presupposes a myth, like that found among many
primitive peoples, telling how men once lived underground and thence
came to the surface of the earth. But it also points to their descent
from the god of the underworld. Thither the dead returned to him who
was ancestor of the living as well as lord of the dead”
(Religion
of the Ancient Celts)
Ultimately then, we have to conclude that humans in mythology are not a
separate species from nature like the fairies and deities, but that we
are a direct descendant of these things. In one of the most famous
stories of humans encountering fairies, two fairy children - a girl and
a boy who were green in color - were taken in by Sir Richard de Caine
at Wikes. Scared and saddened at finding himself in the human world,
the boy eventually died. However over time, the girl became human;
though she remained “rather loose and wanton in her
conduct.” (Keightley, 1870) What this shows us is that it was
believed that fairies could become human simply by living among us.
Some interesting questions arise from these stories regarding fairies
and humans. Firstly, if we are so close to fairies why is the world of
fairies such a mystery to us? Why are humans mortal while fairies are
immortal? Why do we lack the fundamental knowledge of nature that
fairies have? The fact of the matter is that most humans lack magic and
immortality. There have however been many humans throughout myth and
folklore who have found immortality and magic through druidism,
witchcraft, wizardry, and the arts of the cunning folk. Even by simply
visiting the realm of fairies, humans have actually found their place
among them. Despite this, however, most humans lack such powers,
leaving us to wonder why this is so?
There are three possible answers to these questions. First, we must
recall that the deities were not the first beings. They joined together
to kill the first being; and just as the deities killed the first
being, so too perhaps could humans displace the deities. So allowing us
to understand all the secrets of nature the way other fairies do could
be dangerous.
Indeed, Zeus forbade teaching humans the secrets of fire and many other
arts out of fear of what humans would do with this knowledge. Fairies,
too, desire to keep secrets from humans. For in the same manner that
they will capture us to be their spouses, so will we take them out of
greed for their treasure or to fulfill our own lustful desires. Indeed
there was a dwarf who told humans directly that they were mortal and
weak due in part to their “faithlessness” (Grimm,
1935).
What we see then is that humans are believed by fairies to be their
treacherous descendants, so it is possible that the secrets of magic
have been concealed from us simply to keep us from being even more
dangerous.
Germanic and Scandinavian myths also tell us that Odin will eventually
need the souls of dead humans to help him in his final battle to
prevent all things from being destroyed. So it is perhaps necessary for
humans to be mortal so that we can join his army. This could also
probably be his reason for creating us.
Briggs points out that one aspect of fairies is that they can never
mature or be the hero, while humans on the other hand can mature and
grow physically strong. (Briggs, 1967) Saving the world from Armageddon
requires something other than capricious or playful beings. Instead, it
requires creatures that are not afraid to die, beings who seek out the
warrior’s life and are always striving for more –
these are
qualities that immortal and magic-bearing beings would have difficulty
obtaining.
Odin is not the only one in mythology who needed humans. In the Welsh
story of Prince Powell, the fairy king seeks out Powell in order to aid
him in slaying a monster that the fairies cannot kill. (Griffis, 1921)
Fairies can become deities or loose their divinity based on human
worship.
What is ultimately clear is that in most Indo-European and Tengeri
myths, humans are simply another stage of life. Not just in the
evolution of fairies but also within the life cycle of fairies
themselves.
What are Deities?
Just as humans exist somewhere between fairies and giants, so do
fairies lie between mortals and deities. Deities appear to exist
physically alongside the giants as massive, awe-inspiring beings.
The differences between the ancient gods and fairies may be less than
many suspect, just as it is with humans and fairies. On one hand, many
of the fairies are descendants from deities or created by them. On the
other, some fairies seem to come from the same place that deities are
from and are even older than the deities themselves. For instance Zeus,
the leader of the deities in Greek mythology, was raised by a nymph who
kept him hidden from his father. Examining the evolution of European
beliefs about deities makes the definitive line between the worlds of
fairies and deities even harder to see. Initially, Europeans had no
real pantheon or concept of deity as it is now understood.
Rome’s
first deities were the spirits of rocks, trees, and animals. In other
words before they worshiped gods, Romans worshiped fairies (Bailey,
1907).
Among the Celts, most gods were local gods rather than all-powerful
deities. They were the gods of the rivers, mountains, trees, war, and
more, making it hard to make a clear distinction between them and other
spirits which might exist.
J. A. Maccullock (1911) believed that the divinities were the most
important spirits which only later came to be deified. Oftentimes,
these deities included among their ranks the spirits of the great
humans who had died. This shows a connection not only between fairies
and deities, but humans and deities as well.
These examples suggest that the only separation between deities and the
other spirits (fairies) is simply that humans hold more respect for the
deities.
Moreover, as we will see in the chapter “Fairies are
Forgotten
Gods”, deities can lose their godhood and turn back into
fairies.
This deification process can go beyond the fairy stage and down to the
realm of humans where humans can become the deities that people
worship. |