What is a Fairy?

It’s my last in Dublin, and I have quite a bit planned… I hope to visit Trinity College and the Book of Kells, the Irish Traditional Music Archives, and the house that Bram Stoker lived in today. At this point, it’s all going to depend on the weather. (Will this rain let up?)

Over the last several weeks, I’ve traveled to three of the five ancient provinces of Ireland. I think it’s time to put together a short list that describes what a fairy is, and what a fairy is not.

1. Those cute little bright, docile and delicate fairies that flitter around children’s and new age stories DON’T EXIST in Irish folklore. In Ireland, fairies are dark, savage, and mischievous. Think ‘scary fairies’ from now on.

2. The term ‘fairy’, or sídhe, refers to a family of mythic creatures that, depending on one’s set of beliefs and upbringing, may include figures such as the leprechaun, brownie, pookah, banshee, clurichaun, and selkie. Many call them the wee folk. (These creatures may be found elsewhere in the world, but all are found in Ireland.)

3. Cultural anthropologists and folklorists believe that the pre-Christian deities of Ireland, the Tuatha de Danaan, are based upon chieftans that once ruled different tribes, the tuatha, in prehistoric Ireland. Over time, the Tuatha de Danaan morphed into the spirits known as fairies. In other words, there is a fairly linear relationship between the tribal chieftans (tuatha) of prehistoric Ireland, pre-Christian deities (Tuatha de Danaan) and fairies (sídhe).

4. Fairies are neither alive nor dead. They live on the margins of life and death. They reside in the Otherworld.

5. Many Irish went to great lengths to keep fairies far from their homes. If someone disturbed a fairy mound or rath, trouble was to come. (Even today, people will take steps to not build upon, or destroy, a rumored fairy fort.)

6. Fairies often kidnapped humans and livestock, and substituted them with changelings. Babies were especially vulnerable to fairy abductions. It was possible to rescue those kidnapped.

7. Fairy changelings could be “chased away” by various means. The administration of herbal medicine to the shapeshifter, along with threats of iron, salt, Christian symbols, and fire, were common.

8. Fairies are often invisible. They reside in the ground, water, and air.

9. Fairies are sometimes depicted as being slightly smaller than humans. Other times, they are, as Angela Bourke wrote, “so tiny that a grazing cow blows hundreds of them away with every breath.”

10. Belief in fairies in Ireland seemed to dissolve for the most part by the beginning of the late 19^th century and early 20^th century. Still, there are those in remote areas of Ireland that still believe them to exist.

11. Fairylore has woven its way into pop culture in every generation.

12. Variants of the supernatural creature known as the fairy exists in societies around the world.