Irish Fae: The wee folk
“…when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.” J. M Barrie
The Irish Pantheon is very rich with faeries, monsters, demons and other denizens of the imagination. When I was little I remember going on Leprechaun hunts when my friends and I would see a rainbow, although I haven’t found that pot of gold yet!
My first faerie, of course, was Tinker Bell who was a benign sort of sprite. It wasn’t until later when I learned more about the fair-folk and how some are good and others are dark and dangerous.
A few of the faeries, and I’d love for readers to add their own descriptions or describe their favorite faeries:
Changeling: The child of a Faery, usually left in the bed of a human baby when the human baby is taken away to live in the land of faerie.
Brownie: Helpful house hold spirit, who fixes things. (Think of the shoemaker’s elves)
Boggart: A brownie who has gone to The Dark Side. He breaks things and causes mischief. (Mugwai after the water drops on them!)
Banshee - Sometimes considered ghosts, these are the harbingers of the dead and often appear to people just before they die. They have a scream that when heard lets the village known that someone died.
Leprechaun - Traditionally they used to wear red, not green. They were also known as cobblers (shoe makers) and were said to hide their pots of gold from their earnings, because they are very hard working spirits. The Leprechaun would reveal where his gold is, if you hold his gaze without blinking. If you look away, the Leprechaun can escape.
Sidhe/Esidhe: These are the Queens and Kings of Faeryland, or Elfland, usually the most beautiful and bewitching creatures that mortal man can behold. Many of the dark sidhe use this beauty to bewitch and entrap men for nefarious purposes.
“True Thomas lay oer yond grassy bank,
And he beheld a ladie gay,
A ladie that was brisk and bold,
Come riding oer the fernie brae.
Her skirt was of the grass-green silk,
Her mantel of the velvet fine,
At ilka tett of her horse’s mane
Hung fifty silver bells and nine.
True Thomas he took off his hat,
And bowed him low down till his knee:
‘All hail, thou mighty Queen of Heaven!
For your peer on earth I never did see.’
‘O no, O no, True Thomas,’ she says,
‘That name does not belong to me;
I am but the queen of fair Elfland,
And I’m come here for to visit thee.”
From FAERIESBy Brian Froud and Alan Lee
(Kristen)
