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Sample of Understanding the Fairies in Fairy Tales

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Oh Ye Poor Soldiers


Understanding the Fairies in Fairy Tales

In addition to the tools you need to help understand fairy characters in your favorite fairy tales I'll include analysises of some fairy tales to introduce to you to the many possabilities avalable within them including;

Puss in Boots is about a Household Deity overthrowing a Roman Deity.
Little Red Riding Hood is a Shaman on a Spirit Journey, a Witch or a Fairy
Hansel and Gretel takes place in the land of the dead.
The Spindle Shuttle Needle is about a future Fate Spinner
One water goddess set up Sleeping Beauty from the beginning to create the story.
And More


Analysis of “Rumpelstiltskin”

Like many fairy tales, “Rumpelstiltskin” is a story that is without a character which we can define as pure or innocent. Rather, it’s a story of two obviously wicked characters in the form of the father who lies to and thus ends up getting his daughter in a lot of trouble with the king who is a greedy man who cares about nothing but the gold he can get out of the miller’s daughter. Not all the characters are wicked, of course. The miller’s daughter clearly isn’t evil when she agrees to give a baby to a strange man, just desperate. She has been forced into an inescapable predicament by the two men in her life that she should be able to trust above anyone else, her father and her future husband. Clearly this situation puts her in a space between. She is not yet a fiancé, yet she is no longer free in that regard. She is trapped in a prison but an honored guest. She is between being a member of her father’s house, the executioner, and the king’s household. It is at this moment when she is trapped; pulled by so many worlds that the fairy appears.

In many ways Rumpelstiltskin is the most confusing and intriguing part of this story. For this particular “männlein,” as the German text designates, Rumpelstiltskin, despite outward appearances, is neither clear in his goal nor his motivation. On the cusp of it, it would seem that he wants the girl’s first-born baby. However, most fairies in stories don’t ask for the child they want, instead they simply take it. Rumpelstiltskin, however, despite being clearly able to sneak into a prison, being able to weave magic doesn’t just take the child as he obviously could. He tries to get the girl to accept giving the baby to him. What’s more, even after he comes to collect the child, he decides to give her another chance to escape her agreement with him.

Considering that during the time this story takes place children were left in the forests in droves or orphaned on the streets, Rumpelstiltskin could have taken hundreds of children easily, and taking them would have been an act of kindness as Rumpelstiltskin would have been rescuing them from starvation. He doesn’t just want any baby then. What he wants is this particular baby. Indeed, by his own words, this baby is more precious to him than all the treasures in the world.
We are left then with two questions, the first being, why doesn’t Rumpelstiltskin simply take the baby? Secondly, why does Rumpelstiltskin want the baby in the first place? To answer these questions, we must examine what fairies are as well as a few other fairy tales. Let us begin by placing Rumpelstiltskin into the possible categories of fairy to see where he might fit, or if he even has a place as all fairies don’t necessarily seem to.

Possibility 1 - Rumpelstiltskin is an ancestor spirit or a forgotten god.
At first glance this idea may seem preposterous; however, consider that Merlin was raised by a fairy as was Malagigi the wizard who aided Charlemagne in myth. King Arthur was taken by Merlin who saw his future before he was even born, and Lancelot was taken and raised by fairies as well. This might mean then that Rumpelstiltskin is after the child because he sees the child’s future or at least its potential future. This particular baby is not just that of the girl’s after all but also that of a king, and so is the future king just as King Arthur was. Thus, Rumpelstiltskin doesn’t just want any baby he wants to raise, or have someone else raise a king, while removing the child and future king from what is quite possibly a long line of tyrants or, at the very least, from his currently greedy father. We see something similar happen in a French fairy tale in which a fairy tells the king and queen:

“If I left him (your son) to you to bring up... you would be certain to make him as foolish as yourselves. I do not even intend to let him know that he is your son.”

So at least in one instance a fairy claims to be removing a child from their parents to help insure that they are raised properly. While one can’t always trust fairies, of course, we must again recall that the fairies don’t have to give any explanation. They can just take the child if they want it and leave. Further, we must also consider that because Rumpelstiltskin may potentially be able to see the future, that he is actually after the child he knows he loves more than “all the treasures in the world.” As an ancestor or deity, he could be the either the child’s grandfather or seeking a way to help his descendants by putting a better king on the throne.

Possibility 2 - Rumpelstiltskin is the spirit of a conquered people or one of their gods. In this possibility, Rumpelstiltskin might be after a mixture of revenge or is attempting to help his people rise up to their former glory by raising the future king of the land. In this he could be a Merlin-like figure of a conquered people who, just as Malagigi the wizard of Charlemagne’s court, was later derided as a devil by later people. Rumpelstiltskin might be a hero to a conquered people still hiding in the woods thus making him an enemy to the kingdom.

Possibility 3 - Rumpelstiltskin is a nature spirit or a simply a unique fairy. It is more challenging to understand the reason a nature spirit or unique fairy would be interested in a specific human child except that perhaps they are aware that they do love the child because of divination. Another possibility comes to us from the story of Powell in Wales in which a human king aids the fairies by slaying an enemy they couldn’t. Thus, it’s conceivable that a nature fairy could desire to take a specific child because it knows that it loves or could help that child.

Possibility 4 - Rumpelstiltskin is a devil/fallen angel or witch. Although I’ve chosen to leave this theory of fairy nature out of this book because it is a much later addition to the fairy theory and so ultimately doesn’t fit within a book explaining the motivations of fairies in more original traditions, it is still conceivable that Rumpelstiltskin is meant by the storytellers to be a devil trying to tempt the girl into the sin of giving away her child. Ultimately, however, while this idea could be workable, after thousands of years of Christianizing the people, telling this story would likely jump on the opportunity to accuse a creature of being a devil if they thought it was so.

Through this simple review we can now see that Rumpelstiltskin is after the baby for four possible reasons:

1 - Rumpelstiltskin wants the baby because he knows that he loves him.
2 - He sees the baby’s future and realizes that it can be a good king finally bringing peace to the land of his ancestors.
3 - He seeks revenge or a way to protect his fallen people.
4 - He knows he’ll need the baby’s help at some future date.

To understand which of these answers makes sense, we must find an answer to the second question: Why doesn’t Rumpelstiltskin just take the baby? Again, there are a number of possible answers which present themselves:

1- Rumpelstiltskin doesn’t simply take the baby in order to mock the miller’s daughter. It’s possible, of course, given the capricious nature of fairies that Rumpelstiltskin is simply teasing the girl, mocking her as mischievous fairies often do. However, if this is the case, why not simply take the child even if she is successful in guessing his name?

2- Rumpelstiltskin seeks to lead the miller’s daughter into sin. The girl is the only good character in the story. If Rumpelstiltskin can get her to give her child to a devil, then he has caused her to sin. The problem with this theory, however, is that if his goal is to cause her to sin, why give her any chance to redeem herself? Why not simply take the child as per their first agreement? Further, why would he suspect the devil of telling the girl his name as he accused when she discovered it if doing so would cause him to lose her soul? In general, this answer makes no sense so it further eliminates the possibility that he is a devil or fallen angel.

3- Rumpelstiltskin has a conflict. Rumpelstiltskin knows what he needs to do; he knows that he can make the kingdom better, gain help from the child, have a child of his own, etc., but he has a conflict about his method of doing it. So he doesn’t simply want to take the child from its mother. He wants her to accept the loss. In the end, however, he realizes that this is impossible and so he symbolically tears himself in two, ripping his dual nature in half.

4- Rumpelstiltskin is after something more than the child. In a similar story, that of Tim Tom Tat, a little, hairy creature offers to weave for a girl in return for her child. In a similar vein, it’s possible that Rumpelstiltskin is hoping by giving the girl a second chance to save the baby he’ll be able to make her feel so defeated that she agrees to come with him. In this case, he is after both the future king and the queen.

5-In another similar story, the Scottish Rumpelstiltskin Whuppity Stoorie tells the girl that fairy law requires that she give the girl three days to guess her name. This is a confusing requirement as, again, fairies take babies without asking all the time. So why do they have to give a person the chance to get out of it unless there is something else at play because of the girl or the child’s relationship to the fairy world?

It seems most likely, given all the possibilities, that Rumpelstiltskin gives the girl a chance to get out of giving him the child because he is in a conflict about what he’s doing. Recalling also that fairies can be multi-natured, we must also consider the possibility that part of him is perhaps trying to force the other part of him to allow the girl to keep the child because he feels sorry for her. This makes even more sense considering what Rumpelstiltskin is. The German version of the Rumpelstiltskin’s fairy tale uses the word “männlein” to represent him as opposed to the word  Zwerge (dwarf) or some other word it could use.

Männleins in fairy tales have a history of helping girls marry the prince. In the story of “The Three Männlein of the Woods” a young girl is sent by her evil stepmother into the snowy forest to pick strawberries. As she searches for a way to complete her impossible task, she stumbles upon a cottage of three männlein who, in return for her kindness, make gold coins fall from her mouth whenever she speaks, cause her to grow ever more beautiful, and bless her that she’ll marry the king. In other tales, männlein offer advice to princes, or to young men, in order help them rescue a kingdom and save the princesses.

Zwerge, on the other hand, feature promptly in two other stories. These are “Snow White” and the “Snow White and Rose Red.” In one of these stories the Zwerge while helpful are essentially helpless bystanders as a wicked witch descends on the also helpless princess. In other words, the Zwerge are essentially subject to fate as much as anyone else. Their home simply seems to be a safe place to hide out. In the other story, the Zwerge is the villain though he is not that impressive in his abilities as he keeps getting his beard caught in bushes and stumps which means that he requires a young girl to rescue him.

Männleins, on the other hand, tend to appear as knowledgeable. They are the creators of fate. Rumpelstiltskin himself is so good at spinning he can spin straw into gold, spinning ultimately being the activity used to help control fate. Rumpelstiltskin was also showed just when the girl needed him and is also capable of doing the impossible to help her. So he clearly is able to manipulate the future. What we must presume then is that, at least to an extent, Rumpelstiltskin is attempting to create fate. However, neither his ability to tell when someone needs his help nor his ability to do the impossible prevents him from giving the girl the chance to get out of having her baby taken from her. So obviously he’s in a conflict about what he’s doing. So it’s likely that like the other Männlein he is kind and is essentially attempting to make the world a better place. However, in doing so he has stepped outside of his usual role of helping damsels in distress and princes on quests and is now trying to steal a prince from a damsel in distress.

Rumpelstiltskin then is most likely some form of deity or ancestor spirit seeking to help his people by raising a king who will actually be good and a child which he loves. Unfortunately, in order to do this properly he must play the role of a villain, a role at least half of his dual nature is not comfortable with. This is why he tries at first to give the miller’s daughter a chance to keep her baby.



Writing Prompts

The Nursemaid.
Tell the story about a young nursemaid in a fantasy world where evil spirits exist that really might snatch away the child she is watching.

In folklore most evil spirits which people feared such as boggarts, boogie men, Jenny Greenteeth, witches, the laima, and more were primarily interested in taking children. Even the spirits which made the crops grow would snatch children away if given the chance. Yet despite the fear such creatures caused it was most often very young girls who were often employed to care for children or given the task of watching their younger siblings. In Russia for example peasant girls who were too young to be much help at home or on the farm were sent off to watch over their younger siblings, and indeed this happened throughout most of Europe for a long time.

Given the economy which existed in rural farming communities this arrangement made sense, serfs after all, barely made enough to eat and in some years would actually starve even with all the hard work they put in. So the valuable work of an adult couldn't be sacrificed if a family wanted to survive. The question then is how would the existence of dangerous spirits which haunted barns, fields, and so forth change things? And if young girls still watched the children how would they do so?

There are some possibilities;
If evil spirits exist that means good spirits which would protect children such as tomte and domovoi exist (see the entries for tomte and domovoi). However tomte and domovoi aren’t the best role models. In many stories tomte spend their time playing pranks with children and stealing from neighbors. Domovoi also love to play pranks on and steal from the neighbors. In other words these spirits would encourage children to get into mischief, so how would depending on these spirits not only change childhood and the way children are viewed but also how would they change a society where everyone grew up stealing and causing mischief?

Another option would be to have the spirits only communicate with a few nursemaids or children, so that not all the children are influenced directly by them.

It is also possible that the nursemaids wouldn’t see them but would know a few religious-magical rituals to keep the good spirits around and help drive the bad spirits away - most of the time. How effective these rituals would be and how they would function would be up to you.

It is also possible that the raising of children would work a little like the raising of sheep, in which one or two strong adults would watch over all the children, keeping them safe, while the young nursemaids still fed them, changed, them, etc. as the ones protecting them wouldn’t have time to actually care for all the children of a village.


The Knight of the Manor
What if instead of taking the villagers money and labor without really providing protection the knight of the village manor and his men-at-arms really did have to deal with goblins, dragons, als, boggarts, giants, ettins, and other things that plague a small village.

Lords of a Manor often swore an oath to protect the serfs who worked their land, but the truth was that they rarely provided any real protection. Yes there were bandits and the like, but serfs were required to take up arms against any criminal who came to their village so most of the time they ran off criminals before any help could come. The real function of serfdom was to allow those of the warrior class to live a life a leisure while they waited for the next war (which if there wasn't a war for a long time meant the warrior caste eventually became purely lazy aristocrats).

In a fantasy world, however, this warrior caste, their men-at-arms, as well as the monks and priests (who could act as religious-magico wizards) might actually be important as they would be the ones protecting villagers from sorcerers, monsters and raiders. In such a world the fiefdom might actually be the best system there was as it might require a lot of fighting men to provide for the common defence, even if giants were rare when they showed up it would require a lot of people to try to deal with them.

In these stories the warriors would protect peoples crops from marauding monsters which would seek to eat grain, sheep, chickens and the like as well as from mischievous sorcerers which would blight crops and people. Although this doesn't seem heroic at first glance it’s important to remember that food is one of the greatest motivators. Further people’s lives could be threatened directly by some things, on occasion.


The Ogre’s Brother
There are many fairy tales, such as Puss in Boots, in which a trickster character becomes a lord by tricking some ogre, ettin, giant, etc. What happens, however, if that monster had siblings who seek revenge?


The Serfs Secret
In Puss and Boots the cats master tells the King he has always been the lord of a manor which had actually belonged to an ogre. But the people who work his new land would know the truth. This could bring him into conflict and risk derailing his new life of leisure.


The Nymphs Husband
Write about a person who is possessed by a nymph. This person can either be sent forth by the nymph to help heroes, a city, to protect artists or they could simply act as an oracle making this something other than an adventure story.

In the ancient Greece and to an extent Rome as well certain men were believed to be possessed by nymphs. Such possession always occurred to men because possession was in some ways believed to sexual in nature (Thus the reason that the oracles who were getting their knowledge from male deities such as Hermes and Apollo were all female).

Early in history possession by nymphs was entirely believed to be positive in nature as those who were thus possessed were given certain divination powers. Further because nymphs were muses those possessed by them gained great inspiration and became extremely eloquent. Because of this people would travel to the wilderness caves where they lived to seek advice.

Later on possession began to be seen as more and more ambiguous and finally as entirely negative. For people started to believe that nymphs caused hysteria, madness and illness in those they possessed. Part of this might be due to influence from previous or other shamanistic traditions in Eurasia as in such traditions the spirits could cause hysteria at until the person they possessed finally learned to control their new found powers. In this case the nymph might be considered both a negative and a positive force, this makes sense given their dual nature.

Further despite the fact that they are primarily nature spirits nymphs are also the raisers of heroes and the founders of cities which they then seek to protect. In other words those men who work for them would become their voice in protecting a city and aiding heroes. As muses nymphs could also be protectors of the arts and artists, and so might also send their servants out to help protect artists during war or some other calamity. Of course the person married to the nymph might just act as an oracle and advisor to people.



The Dough boy
In some parts of Russia people would attempt to strengthen or heal weak and crippled children by wrapping them in a special dough and putting them in the large oven which was heated just enough to make the dough rise but not hot enough to seriously hurt the child. (In parts of Russia people used these large ovens as a sort of sauna for Pregnant women or those about to be married as well, so placement of the oven wasn’t uncommon or in any way dangerous).

Such folk magic could lead to the child being obstinate so that like the Gingerbread Man of folktales they would run away from home. Further these children would  trust those they shouldn’t while not and not trusting those they should.

Write the story of parents who try to heal their crippled child only to have him turn into an obstinate child. Or alternatively write a story about the child who was a cripple and is now magically faster and stronger than most but who is unable to tell who he or she should trust. How might this person be manipulated by unscrupulous people and would they be able to figure out what the person manipulating them was doing before it was too late?

Imagine that this now magically fast and strong person wants to be a hero and so does good when they can, but since they can't determine who's lying to them they are heroic only when they work on their own. Unfortunately part of their curse is that they can't see this.


Into the Swamps
Write the story of a people fleeing into the swamps where they found a village in order to avoid an invading force. Within the swamps these people attempt to make a new life for themselves, but while they are safe from the enemy armies they must now contend with other dangers. For in a fantasy world the swamp would be filled with many nasty and dangerous creatures. Fens and bogs are home to hags, ghosts and many other spirits in folktales after all.

Rather than being the story of some specific heroes seeking treasure, however, this would be the tale of a village of refugees trying to find and make a new home in a dangerous land. Such refugees might be from multiple hamlets, farmsteads, cities, and the like so they would have no set system of organization. This lack of organization would lead to a lot of social problems, just like refugee camps which tend to have high rates of crime as tempers flare over and people grow more desperate. So in addition to dealing with the dangers of the swamp the refugees would likely have to try to form a working system as well.l.



The Money Fairy
During the Victorian Era there was a fairy who was much like the Tooth Fairy, except instead of trading teeth for money this fairy would put money in the shoe of hard working maids and servants.

Imagine if there really was a fairy which put money in the shoes of hard working and nice people How would this change society? By the same token, how would it change society if their really was a Santa giving gifts to only good people?




Goldilocks and the Three Mobsters
Write a story set in the twenties about a poor girl who enters a house in the woods in search of food. Only the house turns out to be the hideout of three rich mobster.






List of Common Fairy Traits


Lovers of the Arts and Beauty

It’s the fairies that make the flowers blossom, the sun shine, the mountains rise and fall (over the course of thousands even millions of years). In essence, it is fairies that make the world beautiful, but this is beauty as they define it. While people believed that it was fairies who allowed life to exist, people didn’t believe that fairies were creators simply for the sake of creation. Fairies are artists, and they love what they consider beautiful which is shown by their obsession with song, poetry, and dance. Elves were irresistibly drawn to song and dance while for the water sprites:

“Dancing and song are their delight, and by their songs they draw mortals into the water with them... The fossegrim entices men by his music and instructs them in the fiddle and other stringed instruments.”
(Jacob Grimm)

This is not to say that they are whimsical artists. Indeed, looking at the nature of artists throughout history we see that they are rarely whimsical. Fairies are strict with their art as shown by the example of the fossegrim (a male waterfall fairy). In order to learn to play music from the fossegrim, a person would sacrifice a he-goat to him by throwing it into the waterfall. If the fossegrim accepted the gift he would grab the person’s hands and guide their playing so violently and for so long that blood would spurt out of the human’s fingertips. With their hands bursting apart and spurting blood, the humans in the tales would beg the fossegrim to stop to allow them to take a break, but the fossegrim would ignore their student’s cries of pain as they continued to force the human to play this way for as long as it took for them to perfect in his art and play so that the trees will dance. (Jacob Grimm)

It should be clear from the amount of brutality in the way the fossegrim teaches music that fairies are demanding artists, that they do not accept weakness or pain when it comes to their art. So they love beauty and art to an extreme degree. Worse still beauty in and of itself is a complex issue. It is more than simply in the eye of the beholder. The same artist who admired sculptures of neoclassicism can become Picasso who himself created more than just frilly art. He created works of both love and sorrow. Picasso painted scenes of war and pain, of sadness and depression alongside his works of happiness and joy. The same writers who carefully craft jokes and allow the boy to get the girl in their stories, will also kill major characters in horrible ways in another tale just as Shakespeare did. So if humans and nature are the art of the fairies what does that mean for us?

Creation is an enigmatic, often confusing process, not simply because beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but because sometimes beauty is not what artists seek to create. Even those appreciating the arts are not always after beauty. They instead can be after tragedy or horror. Fairies, like human partakers of beauty and creators of art, seek fulfillment through the arts. As (Briggs, 1967) points out, it is from them that the gifts of song and poetry spring. In Germanic mythology, Wotan is the provider of the gift of poetry and song. Unlike human artists and poets, however, fairies are not limited to writing about the beauty of nature; they create it. In the same way they are not limited to trying to understand the nature of life, love, or pain by writing on these subjects. They are able to create the events that further the understanding of these things.

In other words, because of their powers and their nature, fairies manipulate humanity and nature to create the ultimate art. To some fairies then, all the world really is a stage, and they are the scriptwriters and directors. It should be telling, for example, that the god of poetry in Germanic and Norse mythology (Wotan) is also the god who determines who will be victorious and who will lose a battle. It is just as telling that among the Celts:

“Smiths have everywhere been regarded as uncanny--a tradition surviving from the first introduction of metal among those hitherto accustomed to stone weapons and tools. St. Patrick prayed against the ‘spells of women, smiths, and Druids,’ and it is thus not surprising to find that Goibniu had a reputation for magic even among Christians.”
(Religion of the Ancient Celts)

What we see then is that the act of creation, the act of art is magical. The difficulty and danger is that much like human artists and geniuses, fairies appear strange in their actions. They create, destroy, and manipulate for ends that don’t seem to make sense to anyone but themselves. Like humans, it may simply be that they are acting in strange and seemingly arbitrary ways to create an interesting poem or painting. If it were only the works of fairies that were difficult to comprehend, things would be challenging enough. However, fairies, like human artists, are quirky and odd. Artists are prone to violent bouts of rage. When Michelangelo didn’t like his work on the Sistine Chapel, he tore down a painting he’d been creating for years. Mozart was often reported to be half mad and would grow angry at his band for not hearing music that wasn’t actually playing. Van Gogh cut off his own ear in a fit of rage.

Genius and an extreme, intense interest in one subject create bizarre quirks among humans so we should anticipate that the people who gave human traits to fairies would believe that this situation would be the same among fairies.
When separating fairies from purely human artists, there are a few additional factors we must take into account. First is that fairies are the creators of fate. Hence, a fairy artist knows the outcome of their actions before they perform them. This allows them to manipulate very complex things. Further the outcomes which they seek to achieve, because of their immortal nature may occur hundreds if not thousands of years in the future. So what they might be trying to create may not be something that is even foreseeable by humans. They may, for example, be working on a drama that will play out thousands of years in the future rather than in the present. In addition, the advantage of immortality is that an immortal does not have to seek an outcome at all. Thus, while human art has and is defined by endings, aka; songs with finales, paintings with exhibition, and plays with curtains closings many fairies do not like such destinations, and as immortal beings they never have to actually seek an ending. Their art can be a journey which never ends but continues on forever.

Finally, because for many fairies death can be likened to birth, they may seek the death of a human as the beginning of that person’s story by timing it so that the person’s soul enters the “Other World” at just the right time.  

Prefer to be In-between Rather Than at a Destination

As previously mentioned, many fairies come into being because they died in a time in-between. Humans meet them on journeys or in states of transition. Fairies in many cases then love the journey and not the destination. They exist betwixt and between. So it is that they prefer to leave things unfinished, unspoken. This could explain why so many times they give advice in the form of rhymes because they are not seeking to bring people to the answer but are seeking to set people on the path to discover the answer.

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? Why can’t fairies simply reward people? The answer to this question may not be readily available. It may be that it’s nearly impossible for fairies to be straightforward. It may be that their trickster nature is never turned off or, perhaps, these are the remnants of the faith tales of the fairies. Remember that fairies were once worshiped. Just as many religious figures would tell someone to do something seemingly arbitrary in order to test their faith, so too could the fairies have sought to test human faith. Whatever the reason, however, what this does show us is that things around fairies are not as they seem. 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. We see this idea repeated in modern fairy tales. For example, in the tale of “Peter Pan,” every time someone says they don’t believe in fairies, a fairy dies and we must show our belief to bring them back to life.

Of course, MacCulloch’s assertion that deities and fairies altered to match human culture doesn’t guarantee that they are the ones being altered. It may be that they were altering the societies which they led in order to achieve their own ends. What’s most likely, however, and perhaps the most interesting possibility as far as stories are concerned, is that humans bend fairies just as they are bent by fairies. Michelangelo stated that he was simply bringing out of the rock the sculpture which God had put in it. Great directors adjust their work to fit the scripts, actors, and other challenges and opportunities they are given. For a purely amorphous artist, it may be that art creates the artist even as they create their art. So with fairies there may not be any creator, only that which is created.

More in the book......







Oh Ye Poor Soldiers
Write a story about a group of poor soldiers after the war they were sent to fight in ends and so now they must return home together.

Rather than the story of heroes this is an ambiguous tale as these soldiers, though they still have human compassion, are bitter and desperate. With no money, traveling through strange lands they steal peoples chickens, fruit, vegetables and perhaps some money.

At the same time they would help people and do some heroic things. They might do these as part of odd some jobs killing wolves, bandits or supernatural creatures in order to get money or because they feel sorry for people or most likely for both reasons. The amount of greed they exhibit is up to you, but they shouldn't be superhuman saints after fighting for years without pay, and walking for days without food.

There was once on a time a soldier who for many years had served the king faithfully, but when the war came to an end could serve no longer because of the many wounds which he had received. The king said to him, "You may return to your home, I need you no longer, and you will not receive any more money, for he only receives wages who renders me serve for them." Then the soldier did not know how to earn a living...

The Blue Light”


One of the most common fairy tale characters is that of the poor soldier, with the war ended they must return home or find some other way to make a living. But having been a soldier for years they don't know how to do anything else. In addition they are sometimes a very long way from home. From the beginning of the Medieval Period up through to the 19th Century it was very common in Europe for soldiers to be sent away on long campaigns without any actual pay. Instead they were only paid with the right to loot the countryside and cities of their enemies. Of course looting peasants who have no money in a war zone can quickly become very unprofitable work. This meant that many soldiers would turn to looting even after the war had ended to make money. In fact the word brigand originally meant a foot soldier who wore leather covered in metal rings (which was called brigandine).

Such looting was so common in fact that the Mari-El assign this activity to one of their folk heroes. Nemdə kurək kuga jen is a Kermet (see Kermet) who was once a great military leader that was so powerful he never died. Instead he sealed himself away and told the people only to get him in time of great need, when he would come to save his people. In the past when cattle began to die from an epidemic the people think that his soldiers are stealing the food they need.

This is one reason their are so many folk tales about poor former soldiers traveling through the countryside. It's clear from these tales, as well as the fact that there weren't as many brigands as their had been soldiers that not all soldiers became brigands. Indeed it was common in such fairy tales for these soldiers to save a village from a vampire which had been plaguing it or to stay in a haunted castle or mansion. Still despite the fact that most soldiers didn't become brigands, or even at times may have acted heroically doesn't mean that starvation didn't lead them to steal. After all they were often looked on as pathetic figures. In the folktale “Wolf and Man” a fox and a wolf are waiting for a man to come along a road when “First came an old discharged soldier. Is that a man, inquired the wolf? No, answered the fox, that was one.”

Given their pathetic state and desperation it seems common that many, if not most soldiers would likely have resorted to stealing food when they got hungry enough, which was likely often with no money or prospects. In the Russian folktale “The Soldier's Christmas Carol” a soldier uses his carol to distract the owner of a house so that his partner can steal a goose from them. Desperate soldiers in folk tales would also get so hungry they would make deals with the devil for food. In “The Devils Sooty Brother,” a poor soldier encounters a little man and “the little man said to him, "What ails you, you seem so very sorrowful?"

Then the soldier said, "I am hungry, but have no money."

The devil said, "If you will hire yourself to me, and be my serving-man, you shall have enough for all your life.

Such dishonesty leads to trouble for former soldiers, however. Not simply because they might get chased and potentially arrested for their thefts but because most villages had few if any inns that the poor could afford to stay and so travelers would often pay a small amount such as a loaf of bread, in order to be able to stay in someone's house for a night. Often such payment was actually in the form of a tip which was paid after the soldier had spent the night. Such arrangements were common as it was considered a good form of alms to offer a traveler a place to stay. Alms were important to the fabric of Medieval life and it would be important for a poor soldier to know what he could expect and were. For example, early in the morning the poor would seek leftovers from the bishops kitchen as they were handed out. Yet there wouldn't very often be enough of these for all the poor, nor would the bishop offer a poor soldier a place to stay. Often those giving alms would also often be leery of strangers. After all Bandits (brigands) would often force their way into peoples houses in order to steal from them. Such thieves had few compulsions against killing people and the records indicate that in addition to men they killed a number of children and women. When the sentence for theft is death it was best for such criminals not to leave any witnesses alive who can testify against them..

Because of the danger of having an armed person enter their house peasants would require the soldier to give up their weapons before entering. Indeed, it was very bad manners not to present ones weapon to the innkeeper, the owner of a house, or the head of wherever the soldier was staying. The person who the soldier presented the weapons to would often keep them for the duration of his stay in the village because the person the soldier was staying with was responsible for his actions and could be punished if the soldier misused these weapons. These weapons would be returned to the soldier when they left of course, but for the duration of their stay in the village the soldier wouldn't have them.

Write a story about a soldier who gives up his weapons to the owner of a house and goes out to stretch their legs, buy ale, etc. when the village is attacked.

The advantage for a writer in having a soldier stay in villagers homes, rather than in inns, is that it would give the characters an opportunity to learn the lay of the land and even come to care about people a little. At the same time the soldiers will be challenged to find a place to stay much of the time and so will have to learn how to negotiate to make it home.

Write a story about a poor soldier trying to make his way back home. On the way he might encounter wolves, sorcerers, and other similar sorts of things. He might also help villages a time or two. But rather than being a purely noble hero he is an ambiguous character who steals for food and on the occasions when he earns a lot of money he often squanders it on women and ale.

In addition to peoples homes former soldiers might stay in inns, where they would likely have to share beds with others, sometimes strangers. However, staying in such an inn would likely be more expensive than many soldiers could afford as the price to stay in an inn was often equal to the amount a laborer earned in a day, and this didn't include food. Inns were not entirely friendly places anyways. Inn keepers were strong surely men who had to be able to throw anyone out of the inn who was causing trouble. Further if a person couldn’t pay his fees, which were determined after the stay, the inn keeper would confiscate everything they had even their clothes if necessary. Thus a person might be cast out of the inn stark naked. Of course innkeepers often didn't think this worth their time so they would refuse to serve anyone who looked too bedraggled. Further many villages wouldn't have inns for anyone.

Soldiers could also stay in monasteries for relatively cheap, of course how such monasteries are set up in a fantasy world would be up to you, but they were an important part of the fabric of Medieval travel. Those who were very wealthy would share quarters with the abbot. But of course the soldier wouldn't be wealthy, so instead they would share a room above the stables in which the monasteries laborers would stay along poor pilgrims and vagrants such as the soldier. This room would likely be very cramped, and would smell foul, but there were worse places to stay. During the Medieval Period hospitals were monasteries built for travelers to stay in. But it wasn't just pilgrims and the poor who stayed in these, lepers and those who had long term illnesses would often live in the single long hall which was crammed with beds and in which travelers would stay. Its important to remember first and foremost that such hospitals were monstrosities so travelers would need to pray at their chapel on arriving and before they left. Further the ones who attended to peoples needs were chaplains, church wardens and a few women.

Of course where to stay could be the least of a person's troubles, being far away from home it's possible that the poor soldier couldn't even speak the language of the region he found himself in. Even strong accents within ones own country could be confusing and difficult to understand. Such problems could easily exacerbate the fact that the poor soldier might not even know how to get home. Most people after all didn't have access to maps, so unless the soldier recalled the route they had taken sometimes years before they would likely have spent a lot of time wandering around lost. Worse still a soldier might not have a home to go back to. For example in the story of “Bearskin;”
“There was once a young fellow who enlisted as a soldier, conducted himself bravely, and was always the foremost when it rained bullets. So long as the war lasted, all went well, but when peace was made, he received his dismissal, and the captain said he might go where he liked. His parents were dead, and he had no longer a home, so he went to his brothers and begged them to take him in, and keep him until war broke out again. The brothers, however, were hard-hearted and said, "What can we do with you? You are of no use to us, go and make a living for yourself." The soldier had nothing left but his gun, so he took that on his shoulder, and went forth into the world.
He came to a wide heath, on which nothing was to be seen but a circle of trees, under these he sat sorrowfully down, and began to think over his fate. I have no money, thought he, I have learnt no trade but that of fighting, and now that they have made peace they don't want me any longer, so I see before hand that I shall have to starve...”

In the story of “Boots of Buffalo Leather” a poor soldier wanders from place to place and “begged alms of kind people. However eventually he got lost in a forest where he began to travel with a huntsman (who was really a king in disguise). Soon they saw a light shining in the distance and the soldiers first thought was, perhaps there is a house where we can find something to eat. Even when the house turns out to be owned by bandits who the old lady living their warns them will kill them the soldier still goes in, preferring to die inside then hungry. The Soldier has some tricks up his sleeve and is able to set it up so that he can magically freeze the bandits in place so they cannot move.

It's interesting to note that in both these stories (“Boots of Buffalo Leather” and “Bearskin” as in the aforementioned “The Devils Sooty Brother” It is only through magic that the soldiers escape their situation. This was fairly standard thinking in folklore, that only magic would help one improve their situation. Of course since most people were stuck and many starved this would seem to have been the case most of the time. This of course makes the use of forbidden magic all the more tempting, which is one reason why magical beings so often show up to make deals with soldiers.

In the case of “Bearskin” the soldier encounters a strange but stately looking man with a green coat and hideous cloven foot. The man gave the soldier his coat which would always be filled with money, however, in return the soldier could not wash himself, cut his nails, or his hair for seven years. Worse still if he died during that time his soul would belong to the strange man. Of course the soldier was brave and had gone to meet his death so often, plus starvation will drive a person to do nearly anything so he took the deal. Nott bathing or grooming for years makes the man so horrific that he ends up having to pay a fortune to stay in an outhouse (though with nearly unlimited money the money isn't the concern here). Eventually this turns into a “Beauty and the Beast” tale in which the soldier, appearing as a monster, is betrothed to an old mans youngest daughter because of the help the soldier provided him.

In the story of “The Devil and His Grandmother,” some soldiers agree to serve a dragon for seven years in return to its aid in escaping military service as they aren't paid enough to live on. They are hindered in their escape by the fact that the army doesn't move on while they are hiding like they had expected it to and that's when the dragon comes to them.

But even if the army had moved on the soldiers would still have had to face a lot of challenges to get home. For example in the past places made a lot of their money by charging people tolls to cross major bridges, go through gates, enter towns, and possibly at a few other major points as well. Being unable to afford these things the soldier would constantly have to find a way across rivers without taking the bridge, sneak past toll points, and go around towns. Further in the world of fairy tales soldiers can run into many other dangers. As already mentioned the soldier in “Boots of Buffalo Leather” came to a house of bandits, in the tale “The Blue Light” a soldier encounters a witch. In the story of the “Wolf and the Man” a wolf is waiting to waylay and steal the strength from a man.

In the story of “The Two Corpses” a soldier on leave is chased by a corpse (vampire) and tries to escape into a small chapel, but there was a corpse inside laying on the table, so the soldier had to hide. Soon the first corpse comes running into the chapel after the soldier, Thereupon the one that was lying on the table jumped up, and cried to it:

"What hast thou come here for?"

"I've chased a soldier in here, so I'm going to eat him."

"Come now, brother! he's run into my house. I shall eat
him myself."

"No, I shall!"

"No, I shall!"

And they set to work fighting; the dust flew like anything.They'd have gone on fighting ever so much longer, only the cocks began to crow. Then both the corpses fell lifeless to the ground...”

Similarly in the “Soldier and the Vampire” a soldier meets a vampire like sorcerer who brings him to a wedding feast where the two of them can eat to celebrate the nuptials. The vampire doesn't just eat the food offered, however, he kills the people at the wedding as well. Knowing that the people can only be revived if the vampire is killed the soldier sets out after him. So in this story at least we get to see the heroics of a soldier, however, this is the exception, and even in this story the soldier was desperate for food. So desperate that the vampire in this story treats him as if they were friends, kin even. And perhaps in a way they were, this perhaps is the second reason why so many of those beings which live on the fringes and in the realm of between approach soldiers in tales, because former soldiers are people in transition, who don't really have a place in the human world.