Fairies | Ep. 97
The Legend Of Fairies: Fairy Myth, Fairy Folklore, And Beliefs
Have you ever seen a tiny person in the bushes?
What does “bite no bite and drink no drop” mean?
Who is responsible for that one sock always going missing from the dryer?
What Is up Bizarros?! This week we dive into one of Charlie’s Favorite topics, Fairies, and these aren’t fairy tales or fables, this week we’re looking at stories and traditions of the fairy folk.
Join us as we learn about fairy folklore and examine the belief in fairies.
What Is The History Of Fairies?
We are talking about the classic fairy. Not Irish fay creatures that are technically fairies like leprechauns or banshees. We’re looking at fairies that are more like Tinkerbell.
The word fairy has roots in Latin meaning fate. It’s fitting because fairies are mischievous entities. They do good and bad.
Every culture has a word for the small people or the wee folk. The ancient Greeks called them Nymphs. This was one of the first names for fairies.
From the 1300s those that studied the unknown broke fairies down to elementals; fort fairies, water fairies, earth fairies, and wind fairies.
British people believed that fairies lived underground in the earth deep in the forest. The British feared these creatures. They thought if you built your house on a fairy path they would come after you so people built around these paths.
Religion mixed its way into fairy folklore and the belief about them became that they were fallen angels that were cast from heaven like Lucifer
Fairies are believed to live between 1000 and 1500 years.
There are many different types of faeries. Like we said they were considered elementals (earth fairies, water fairies), but there are many different types of fairies.
Let’s take a look at a few of these different types of faeries.
What Are The Different Types of Faeries?
Faerie mythology has many different types of fae creatures. Let’s take a look at the different type of fae folk one can encounter.
Utburds are faeries that are believed to be the revived spirits of babies who passed during harsh winters. They tend to haunt anyone who hangs around the sites of their demise – misery is their mission.
Utburds are even known to transform into large and terrifying owls that prey on night travelers.
Bean-Fionn faeries are also known as “drowning faeries.” They’re said to pull children to their underwater doom. If you’re searching for a Bean-Fionn fairy, you’re advised to look around dark waters where drownings have occurred.
These creatures were likely devised by parents looking to keep their kids from playing in the water, but that doesn’t make them any less creepy.
Typically illustrated as haggard and old, Red Caps are said to be armed with razor-sharp teeth and claws, which they use to eat humans and faeries alike.
Their name hints at their vicious nature – Red Caps mop up their target’s blood with their cap after they commit a slaying. These are certainly one of the more terrifying faeries.
Virikas gather outside the homes of dying people while happily chattering to each other. These 18-inch-tall harbingers of doom are instantly recognizable, thanks to their vivid red color and bloodstained teeth.
According to folklore, they can be appeased – but it isn’t easy. Virikas require a shrine filled with daily burned offerings of flowers and spices to leave you alone.
Bendith, a clan of Welsh faeries, are notorious baby-nappers. They nab human babies and replace them with their deformed offspring, known as “crimbils.” Sometimes, the Bendith will return the baby after teaching it about music, but more often than not, parents require the assistance of a witch to get their child back.
When they aren’t taking children, the Bendith get their kicks riding horses and tangling up their manes.
Brownies are typically guardian faeries who do chores and help around the house. While that may sound sweet and endearing, folklore says that they are hideous to look at.
In some regions of Scotland, they have no separated toes or fingers; in other areas, they have a hole in their face where the nose should be.
Fairy Food Myths
The idea behind fairy food is that if a human (usually a kid) falls into the fairy world (the fairy’s dimension) they are doomed if they eat the food fairies offer them. If you eat fairy food you are trapped in their world, and can never leave.
But if fairies offer you food in our world and refuse their hospitality fairies take it very personally because they will attempt to kill you.
in one Scottish account, a ploughman felt thirsty and, hearing a butter churn, wished out loud for a drink from it. A woman in green appeared and offered him some fresh buttermilk.
He refused this because her clothing made him suspect her supernatural nature. She told him that, after a year had passed, he’d not be needing a drink at all and, sure enough, within twelve months he was dead.
Modern Day Fairy Folklore
If you have misplaced things that don’t make any sense maybe it’s a fay spirit.
But how do you fix it?
You can apologize by leaving little offerings like fruits, milk, or water. They like natural honey pears, melons, and sweetened butter.
They also like trinkets. Shiny things like quarters or thimbles but they can’t be made of silver or iron. They enjoy small wheels and marbles too. And even singing can attract them.
The comparison is like this. You get a pet chimpanzee. It’s a baby, it’s cute, you love it, it loves you. You are living in sync for a while but eventually, it tears your face off because you smacked their butt.
The same idea goes when living with fairies.
It can be a nice relationship until they are destroying your life because you forgot the whole milk one night
What Are Some Tips To Survive Fairies?
These tips were provided by Venus from Reddit.
1. Don’t eat anything. Don’t eat anything you brought with you. For all you know, they may have exchanged your food for some of their own.
2. Never say your name. If they ask for your name, give them a nickname. Or better yet, if you know their name, say theirs.
3. Don’t stand inside the fairy rings. Time is different there, second may pass for you while centuries pass outside. Not to mention, they’re portals to the other world. They will take you, and they most likely won’t want to give you back. (This especially applies to humans, although some exceptions may be made for changelings)
4. Never accept a gift. If you accept, you owe them. Don’t say thank you. Don’t take the gift. Politely decline.
5. Be kind. The fae don’t take too kindly to those who are rude.
6. Don’t make deals.
7. Remember that all magic has a price, what’s yours?
8. Don’t give them blood, unless you actually want to be a slave.
9. Remember the fae can’t stand iron.
10. Do not trust them. Ever. But DO NOT BE RUDE.
11. Never lie to a fae. You will be punished.
12. Don’t invite them anywhere. Don’t invite them to your home. Don’t summon them. Don’t invite them to your mind.
13. Don’t fall in love. They will enchant you, but they don’t feel the same. Trust me. (editor’s note: I would like to know more about this. You can’t say something like don’t fall in love with a fairy, Trust me. Did you date one? Did you marry one? Were they slovenly and didn’t appreciate the sacrifices you made to the relationship? How do you divorce a fairy? Do fairies make you mixtapes? There are just so many questions.)
14. Never dance with them.
15. If you must make a deal, be careful, fae can be tricky. There’s always a price and there’s always a catch.
16. You never want to owe the fae. Ever.
17. Balance is everything. A life for a life.
Much love, Venus. Good luck.
Fairy Personal encounter from the early 1900s
This comes from Garth Harlan from livestream who collected some great encounters with fairies.
It was a strange morning, to say the least. One day in May 1913, young brothers Silbie, Sid, and Clyde Latham were chopping cotton on their family’s farm near Farmersville, Texas when their dogs started to bark frantically at something.
The boys went to investigate and found the two dogs barking furiously at a small man, only about 45 centimeters (18 in) tall, who was green all over and looked like he was wearing a green sombrero.
His arms hung at his sides as if they were attached there, and the green appeared to be some sort of rubbery suit that covered his entire body.
That was about all the boys saw of the little man before the two dogs attacked and tore him to pieces, spraying red blood and humanlike organs all about.
The boys retreated to their work, unsure what to think and a bit horrified. The dogs followed and stayed near them for the rest of the day, as if frightened.
The brothers checked a couple of times to be sure that the body actually existed, which it did. But when they told their parents, they didn’t believe the boys’ story. By the next day, all evidence of the little man’s existence and death was gone as if he’d never been there.
Fairy Encounter #2
It was a summer evening in 2005 when a man identified only as “J.F.” claimed that he and his girlfriend were part of a group visiting a friend’s house in Chicora, Pennsylvania. The house was in a thickly wooded area, and they had watched the sunset from the back deck of the house.
They continued to chat and hang out as the night grew darker and cooler, the deck lit by a single spotlight. Then they heard a noise in the potted plants near the spotlight, and everyone turned to look as something shot into the air from the pots.
The creature was about 30 centimeters (12 in) tall. It appeared to have a human head with long, pointy ears and something wrapped around its body. It paused for a moment in midair, just between the spotlight and the people. Then its wings opened, unwrapping from around the apparently female being’s body.
The wings were batlike in that they appeared to be a membrane stretching from her fingers to her toes, and veins could be seen where the spotlight was shining through. But in overall shape, the wings resembled that of a butterfly. The whole little being seemed to lightly glow with a greenish light.
After hanging in space a moment more, the little being fluttered across the deck like a butterfly over the heads of the group and off into the dark woods. The only word that the group could agree to call the strange creature was, not surprisingly, “fairy.”
More Fairy Lore
I wanted to end with something creepy so here is an expert from a story on Reddit
Growing up, whenever my brother would get hurt, I’d blame it on my fairy friends. My parents never believed me and I’d get punished. It didn’t help that my brother said I was the one who pushed him or punched him or scratched him. No matter how much I protested, at the end of it all, I was the one who got in trouble. So, at a young age, I learned I was the only one who could see the fairies.
For some time, it was a mixed blessing. Having friends only I could see meant there wasn’t anyone who could tell them to leave me alone or that they had to go home because I needed to go to bed. It was nice to never feel lonely. The issue, unfortunately, was that the fairies were mischievous. They’d rarely listen when I told them to stop doing something. They would just laugh and flit about and continue with their fun.
Most of the time it was harmless, albeit obnoxious. They’d flutter their little wings under someone’s nose and make them sneeze or they’d knock someone’s elbow against a glass and spill their drink all over the table. That kind of thing. On occasion, however, their activities were more serious – especially when it came to my older brother.
The fairies didn’t like how Todd would talk to me. I didn’t think much of it; I was the younger sister and he was my bratty teenage brother. I just thought that’s how the world worked. The fairies begged to differ. And they wanted to make it known. That’s why they’d scratch and hit him. It went on for years as his treatment of me got worse and worse.
On a Saturday morning when I was in bed being lazy and listening to the rainfall outside, I heard a muffled scream from Todd’s room on the other side of the wall. The scream was followed by retching and gagging and Todd streaked past my doorway and into the bathroom where he vomited loudly. My parents noticed the commotion and came to his aid. Mom’s shout was loud enough to cut through the sound of Todd’s puking and Dad swore. That scared me. He never did that.
I stood in the doorway while the fairies giggled and floated in an iridescent orbit around my head. I knew whatever they’d done to my brother had to be worse than things they’d done in the past. My father stormed from the bathroom and entered Todd’s room. He came back a second later with his fist full of something. He stood in front of me, eyes glazed with rage and disgust.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he hissed and opened his hand.
I shrieked with surprise and disgust when I saw what he held. It was the body of a small bird, a sparrow, maybe, that was cut up and bleeding. Dislodged feathers stuck to the blood and greasy white discharge oozing from its truncated rear half.
“Do you have any idea how sick your brother can get from this?” Dad asked. Behind his rage was a tone of deep concern and even fear. His fear only amplified my own.
“I…I didn’t,” I stammered, and my eyes darted back and forth as I followed the hysterically-laughing fairies as they swept back and forth across the carnage in my father’s palm.
“Stay here,” Dad ordered.
“But…,” I tried to interject, but he grabbed my shoulder hard with his free hand and held me against the doorframe. The din of giggles stopped. I heard them whispering amongst themselves.
Dad leaned down and pushed his forehead against mine. When he spoke, his words were clear and smelled like the coffee he’d been drinking.
“You are not to say another word. You are not to leave this room. I am taking your brother to the doctor, and if your mother tells me you’ve said anything or set foot outside, I promise you will regret it.”
He squeezed my shoulder harder and I winced and tried to fight back tears. He stared at me for a full ten seconds without saying anything, then he let me go.
Dad turned the corner to head downstairs and I saw what was coming but was too afraid to speak up. As he started down, I saw the fairies hurl themselves against the bottom of his foot before it had made contact with the first step. His foot landed awkwardly and his ankle twisted, sending him face-first onto the uncarpeted wooden steps. The sound of his face impacting the stairs seemed louder than anything I’d ever heard.
Mom called from the bathroom where she was still attending to Todd. Dad didn’t answer. I peeked around the corner. He was on his belly at the bottom of the stairs. He was moaning and weakly flailing his arms against the hardwood. His legs were still on the steps, but they didn’t move at all.
Mom came out and down the hall, glaring at me before turning the corner and seeing her husband. She gasped and rushed to his aid. Not wanting to make them any angrier than they already were, I turned back into my room. I winced when I put pressure on my right ankle and limped back to bed, where I sat and stared at the fairies.
They were laughing again. They flew like a shimmering, animated constellation around the room, weaving in and out of closets and drawers and galoshes. My ankle throbbed. The fairies formed a line in the air and held the formation for a moment, then they made a beeline for the dusty corner behind my dresser. They burst into peals of uproarious laughter and blinked out of view.
As the faint sound of sirens in the distance entered my ears, I gingerly walked to where the fairies had gone. I noticed a tiny feather. And then another. And another. When I reached the dresser and peered behind it, there was a clump of feathers and some blood right next to a small knife from our kitchen. I felt a pang of confused, disconnected recognition, but was shocked back to my senses by a fresh wave of pain from my foot and ankle.
I sat on the floor with my back against the dresser. I pulled up the leg of my pajama pants and examined my ankle. It was swollen and red. The top of my foot hurt, too, and I drew my knee to my chest so I could get a closer look. Again, I felt confused and out of place. The sirens were loud and close but I wasn’t paying attention to them anymore.
I looked around for my fairy friends, but they were nowhere to be seen. For the first time, when I desperately needed to ask them a question, they were gone. My confusion grew teeth and fear pricked the skin of my back and neck. My ankle hurt, but that wasn’t what was scaring me. It was my foot. Because even though I watched the fairies trip, my dad, for some reason, the imprint of his work boot was etched in the skin of my foot – and my heel was stippled with tiny handprints.
What Do You Think About The Fae Lore?
What do you think Bizarros?
Are Fairies real? Do they inhabit the woods near where you live?
If you saw one would you talk to it? Or avoid it at all costs?