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Comment
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lucysnyder
Registered User
(5/24/05 12:46 pm)
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Flying fairies?
Hi everyone,
I'm working on a piece relating to fairies and am having trouble nailing down specifically which types of fairies (according to most-commonly-accepted legend, anyway) typically fly and which don't.
For instance, I'd been under the impression that brownies don't fly, but then I've seen brownies represented as having wings. (Of course, a visit to any convention art show will reveal a plethora of creatures endowed with wings, but still...)
Thoughts?
Thanks in advance,
Lucy
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http://lucysnyder.blogspot.com/ |
AliceCEB
Registered User
(5/24/05 4:40 pm)
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Re: Flying fairies?
Have you checked out Faeries
by Brian Froud, Alan Lee and David Larkin (editor), or Good
Faeries, Bad Faeries by Brian Froud and Terri Windling (editor)?
They might be helpful.
Best,
Alice
Edited by: AliceCEB at: 5/24/05 4:41 pm
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lucysnyder
Registered User
(5/24/05 5:09 pm)
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Re: Flying fairies?
No, I hadn't seen those; I'd mainly been relying on an encyclopedia of fairies I have written by ... shoot, can't remember, and I don't have it in front of me. It's a thick black clothbound hardback.
(/me flashes back on tales from bookstore employees: "Do you have that book by that guy? It was on Oprah! And it was red.")
I'll certainly seek out those books ... thanks for the suggestion!
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http://lucysnyder.blogspot.com/ |
neverossa
Registered User
(5/24/05 5:12 pm)
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Re: Flying fairies?
Check even on Briggs' Encyclopedia of Fairies.
The Boggart (Brownie's wildest counterpart) is fast like the wind and so the Cornish Pixies.
Will o' the Wisp sways in the air, I'd say...
There's the Wild Hunt (a Germanic tradition regarding ghosts) -it's not really related to fairies but maybe it can help.
About winged fairies: you find them in illustration (Froud and Victorian Art: Rackham).
Traditionally fairies aren't winged: Victorian culture play an important rule in this idea.
Witches do fly more, usually with the help of some magic object, like a blue hat in an English tale.
Edited by: neverossa at: 5/24/05 5:27 pm
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neverossa
Registered User
(5/24/05 5:21 pm)
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Encyclopedia!
Well probably the Encyclopedia that you are using is Briggs' one. Katherine Briggs is one of the better sources for fairies.
Another book (always a kind of dictionary) is Carol Rose: Spirit, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins (1996).
Finally: if you are interested in Brownies you can't miss a primary wonderful source of the seventeenth century: The Secret Commonwealth by R. Kirk. It's on second sight, brownies in Scotland and it has been written by a Scottish clergyman!
It has been reprinted recently in an expensive hardcover collection on second sight (sorry I don't remember the title!) but you find something here:
www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/sce/
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redtriskell
Registered User
(5/24/05 9:55 pm)
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winged fairies
Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy book by Brian Froud has some lovely- though squished- fairies in its pages. Added bonus- it's very funny.
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aka
Greensleeves
Registered User
(5/25/05 1:24 pm)
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Re: winged fairies
Diane Purkiss's TROUBLESOME THINGS is a good primer on fairy "evolution," addressing their varied appearance through the ages. It's fairly serious criticism, though; don't expect pretty pictures or fanciful descriptions. Likewise Briggs's THE FAIRIES IN TRADITION AND LITERATURE takes a similar approach, although with a bit more forgiving view.
You may find that Nancy Arrowsmith's A FIELD GUIDE TO THE LITTLE PEOPLE, with its natural history approach to the subject, has more of the type of information you're looking for (entries include "habitat" and "identification"). Check used bookstores or libraries, as it's an older title and may be hard to find.
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Nalo
Registered User
(5/25/05 2:34 pm)
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Re: winged fairies
*have nothing helpful to add; just wanted to wave at Lucy; hey, Lucy!*
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lucysnyder
Registered User
(5/25/05 6:02 pm)
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Re: winged fairies
*waves back at Nalo*
Everyone else: it is the Briggs that I've got. Thanks for all your suggestions!
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http://lucysnyder.blogspot.com/ |
Drakwn
Registered User
(5/25/05 7:48 pm)
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winged fae
Pixies I believe are said to fly. Possibly Sylphs.
You might look into some of the New-age/Wiccan sources, as some of them have things neatly partitioned off on the basis of an elemental compass.
There is even a 'Ruler' of each direction and each element. Usually East is related to wind/air and winged creatures. Not sure what the name is Arida or Paralda I think.
Oddly enough, some of the most precise descriptions of exactly whaat creature can do what can be found in various role-playing game literature, Dungeons and Dragons in particular. They are constantly coming out with source books and I am certain at least one of them is about the Fairy folk.
Used to have an Ars Magica sourcebook about the fairie. very nice, as it took a 12th - 13th century approach to it all...
good luck
Jonathan
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Writerpatrick
Registered User
(5/26/05 8:50 am)
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Re: winged fae
Pillywiggins are the traditional winged fae that most think of.
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Rosemary
Lake
Registered User
(5/28/05 11:22 pm)
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Re: winged fairies
----------
Diane Purkiss's TROUBLESOME THINGS [....] Briggs's THE FAIRIES IN TRADITION AND LITERATURE
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I haven't read those, but there's an interesting brief overview in Lewis's THE DISCARDED IMAGE, chapter on "The Longaevi."
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neverossa
Registered User
(5/29/05 2:54 am)
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Purkiss and other books
Purkiss's one is a wonderfully written book on the evolution of fairies... I found just some theories a bit strange (like the one that links incest to the relationship with fairies, but that's another subject).
There's another quite recent book on Scottish fairies by Lizanne Henderson. I have it, but I still haven't read it, anyway you can give a look:
Scottish Fairy Belief: A History from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century .
If you have time to do a brief research in libraries you could find interesting two sources, regarding English fairies, that K. Briggs used:
HENDERSON, WILLIAM Notes on Folklore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders (London: Folklore Society, 1879)
LEWIS, SPENCE British fairy origins (London: 1946)
Last, on Eastern Europe, there should be the book by Eva Pocs: Between the Living and the Dead, but I don't think there are so many flying fairies...
One illustrated book, nice and FULL OF REFERENCES! is the one by Pierre Dubois: The great encyclopedia of fairies. He has written even one on "lutins" (pixies, brownies, etc.) but I don't know if an English version is available. (I read the Italian translation).
... Just my thought on new age sources: I'd be very careful with them, you can't trust them. They're good only if you want to see them as a cultural contemporary (and disgraceful)phenomenon, but not for the "real" ideas on fairies, that belong to previous periods.
Generally new age is a terrible malediction, completely misleading in a lot of things... I'm a historian working on early modern Europe and witchcraft, probably this explains my allergy.
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pelly14
Registered User
(5/31/05 9:25 pm)
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Re: Flying fairies?
theres a website that all they types and a briff summary of wat they look like, im not saying its all true but it may help you so here ya go...
jksalescompany.com/dw/fairies.html
quickly love, evils afoot.
pelly14
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mpmann
Registered User
(6/4/05 2:08 pm)
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Re: Flying fairies?
Hi, I think you will find different answers to this depending on where you look. If you use the old 'elemental' approach, then slyphs (air) fly, undines (water) don't, salamanders (fire) don't and gnomes (earth) don't. If you look into different cultural traditions, I think you'll find that most of the Folk don't actually have wings... but then, they can pretty much go whenever and wherever they like, which looks a lot like 'flying'!
I guess it'll depend on the context... Are you looking at wings, or travel ability?
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