Fairy List
Mutable, Anamorphose, Astral, Creators of Illusions
Nothing
is what it seems in the world of fairies. Castles turn out to be dark
caverns, and caverns turn out to be bright palaces. Fairies are in and
of themselves mutable beings, always changing form and type. When a
fairy pays a human for services rendered, the enigmatic creatures are
never satisfied with simply paying them in money. Fairies instead pay
humans with dead horses, dried leaves, twigs, or other seemingly
useless items. Items which turn to gold should the person be smart
enough to bring it home with them. What are we to take from these
strange actions?
The fairy world is confusing, whether as a
means to test human fidelity or because of the fairies’ strange nature,
fairy actions can never be straightforward. Fairies, by some peoples’
calculations, are astral beings (“astral” being the insubstantial world
of the soul). This makes sense given that fairies appear at least in
some respects to be essentially souls. The astral world itself is both
less solid and more stable then water for it always changes, always
flows, but the beings within it can choose to be solid or can choose
their form.
“The fairy world is always described as an
immaterial place.” (Wentz, 1911) Further testimonies gathered from
Celtic peasents go on to attest that: “Spirits and fairies exist all
round us, invisible. Fairies have no solid bodily substance. Their
forms are of matter like ghostly bodies, and on this account they
cannot be caught. In the twilight they are often seen, and on moonlit
nights in summer.” (Ibid) Many fairies are always changing form
appearing as a cup, an animal, or a tree. It’s impossible because of
such changes to know for certain if fairies even naturally appear as
humans, or if they simply take human form to put us at ease.
Jacob
Grimm believed that: “The freest personality is proper to gods and
spirits who can suddenly reveal or conceal their shape, appear and
disappear. To man this faculty is wanting. He can but slowly come and
go, and in his body he must abide.” (Grimm, 1935) What would it be like
to not have to have any form? To be able to change and adjust at will;
to be anywhere one wanted to be? There are two possibilities we must
consider. The first is that fairies truely are free; that they are the
artists that alter everything, even their forms, to get that which they
seek. Or perhaps fairies are themselves a reflection of the world
around them. A reflection that shows us what we want to see. In
“Religion of the Ancient Celts” (MacCulloch, 1911) attests that: “With
the growth of religion, the vaguer spirits tended to become gods and
goddesses, and worshipful animals to become anthropomorphic divinities
with the animals as their symbols, attendants, or victims. And as the
cult of vegetation spirits centered in the ritual of planting and
sowing, so the cult of the divinities of growth centered in great,
seasonal and agricultural festivals which were the key to the growth of
the Celtic religion to be found. Yet the migrating Celts, conquering
new lands, evolved divinities of war. Here the old, female influence
was still at work since many of these were female. “Most of the Celtic
divinities were local in character; each tribe possessing its own
group, each god having functions similar to those of other groups.
Some, however, had or gained a more universal character absorbing
divinities with similar functions. Still, this local character must be
borne in mind. The numerous divinities of Gaul, with differing
names—but judging by their assimilation to the same Roman divinity,
with similar functions are best understood as gods of local groups.
Thus the primitive nature spirits gave place to greater or lesser gods,
each with his separate department and functions. Though growing
civilization tended to separate them from the soil, they never quite
lost touch with it. In return for man's worship and sacrifices, they
gave life and increased victory, strength, and skill. However, these
sacrifices had been and still often were rites in which the
representative of a god was slain.” What we see then is that these
fairies may not have been so free. They may have been, at least in
part, defined by the thoughts of the people who surrounded them. So in
this sense when humans wished for fairies to be beautiful, powerful
beings that would make their crops grow, it was so. Later, as humans
wanted them to be devils or faded souls, it again became so. Finally,
when humans stopped caring about fairies, they ultimately vanished
altogether.
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