Why Fairies?

Fairies- 

noun

(in folklore) one of a class of supernatural beings, generallyconceived as having a diminutive human form and possessingmagical powers with which they intervene in human affairs. (Dictionary.com)

Ever since I first saw Tinkerbell from the book Peter Pan, I've always been intrigued by the life of the little humans with wings known as Fairies. In my childhood they were depicted as being tiny magical creatures that could fly with the help of pixie dust, which they produced. Another example would be The Fairy Godmother from Cinderella. From this I'd deduced that all fairies were the same until I had English Literature with Ms. Olivier. In this class I learned the history of fairies from the Celtic mythology point of view. Their myths seem to say that there are many types of fairies and most of them are nothing like Tinkerbell. I learned about many different types of fairies that come in all different shapes and sizes. "Fairy comes from the Old French word faerie. The word has been overused to describe a supernatural being. There is a great deal of difference in classifying a being as a fairy from the medieval literature and those from modern literature, especially those belonging to the Celtic tradition. The fairies are supernatural beings that can be best described by the Greek word - daimon, which means "spirit". They are not divinity, ie. god or goddess, in the usual sense of the word, and yet they are not mere mortal; often, it is easier to classify them as minor divinity." (Jimmy)

References

"fairy." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 05 Dec. 2012. <Dictionary.com

              http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fairy >. 

Jimmy, Joe. "Faeries." Timeless Myths. N.p., 1999. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

Dullahan

The Dullahan was a headless death spirit coachman that is sometimes seen with his head under one arm. He is "known as coach-a-bower (cóiste-bodhar), sometimes drawn by headless horses. In the coach, there is a coffin; Thomas Crofton Croker called it the Death Cart. The Dullahan were usually accompanied by the banshee, wailing as if in the funeral. Sometimes, this banshee is also headless. In other tradition, the Dullahan doesn't ride in a coach, but ride a headless horse." (Jimmy) He is the appears as an omen of death just like the Banshee in Ireland. The Dullahan's skin is a moldy cheese color and his"head has a large mouth and huge eyes that dart around like flies. And in some of the stories his horse has a head too. Its head is longer than its body by 6 yards and has flaming eyes and short ears."(Charles). He usually carries around his whip which is said to be made from human spines which he uses to remove the eye's of anyone who is spying on his ventures. It is said that wherever he stops is where someone is about to die. 

"There are antecedent to headless phantom or person are scattered throughout older Celtic literature. The best known was Curoi (or Cu Roi), a king of Munster, who was involved in a beheading games with three Ulster's champions in the tale of Fled Bricrenn (Feast of Bricriu). A similar beheading tale is found in Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." (Jimmy)

References 

Charles Welsh. Irish Fairy and Folk Tales. In Irish Literature, ed by Justin McCarthy. Volume III, pg 19.
MacKillop, James. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. Print.

Jimmy, Joe. "Faeries." Timeless Myths. N.p., 1999. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

Rose, Carol. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia. W. W. Norton & Company, 1998. Print.

Brownie

Brownies were known as house elves that look liked miniature, brown shaggy humans with large eyes and oversized, pointed ears who would clean a person's home during the night when everyone's asleep. They became extremely attached to their human family. If the family moved, so would they. Usually the Brownies were rewarded them for their service with cream, cake or bread. Not giving them a reward or rewarding them with clothing was an insult and they usually vanished or caused havoc in an already clean home by destroying and ruining property. Their name "derives from the earlier ‘little brown man’. The brownie wears a brown hood, attaches himself to families, and may reside in farm-houses or barns. He does the chores at night when people sleep; he has even been known to assist in childbirth. If criticized the brownie may revenge himself by breaking dishes, spilling milk, driving the cows astray, or spoiling the crops." (Mackillop) Brownies seldom spoke with humans and were said to be "invisible". They could only be seen by children.

References 

Jimmy, Joe. "T." Faeries. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

MacKillop, James. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. Print.

Rose, Carol. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia. W. W. Norton & Company, 1998. Print.

Banshee

Banshee is a shapeshifting fairy that, according to Irish myth and legend, is usually seen as a floating old hag or young, fair woman and is the most feared because she is believed to forewarn the death of a person with her piercing scream. She was usually accompanied by the Dullahan who was a headless fairy on a horse. "Originally in Irish literature, banshee actually means "woman of fairy mound" or just simply as "fairy woman". Ban or bean meaning "woman". The various spelling or pronounciation of the word for fairy mound referred to the Otherworldly realm, which the Irish referred to as shee, sid,sidh or sidhe. word banshee may have originated from East Munster, and there are many ways it can be spelt. In Irish Gaelic it could be spelt as banshie,bean sidhe and ben side. The Scottish words are ban-sith, bean-shith and bean sith. The Manx form is ben shee." (Jimmy) It is believed by celtic mythology that the Banshee myth was "developed due to the Irish tradition of the lament; women would sing a lament for the dead at funerals, and for some in the village, this song would carry through the air and become the first signal that someone had died." (O'Brien)

References 

"Fairy And Fairy Tale." (n.d.): Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. Web. 6 Dec. 2012.

Jimmy, Joe. "Faeries." Timeless Myths. N.p., 1999. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

O'Brien, Ciara. "Irish Mythology: The Banshee." Irish Mythology: The Banshee. Irish Celtic Jewels, 27 Apr. 2010. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

Rose, Carol. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia. W. W. Norton & Company, 1998. Print.

Changelings

The most interesting fairy I learned about are the changelings. A changeling is a fairy or stock (wooden figure) made to exactly resemble a human and left in their place, while the real human is abducted and taken to the land of fairies. Fairies most often take children, either to raise or to make work as slaves, or young women to be servants, midwives, or wives. Many people never returned to the land of humans, although some stories relate successful rescues of the fairy captives. The human mothers on the other hand are left with a fairy baby  and they usually find out because the child is usually sickly, disfigured or of poor temperament. The changeling myth was mostly used to forewarn expecting mothers to properly take care of their children. A child that was not properly taken care of was believed to be kidnaped by a fairy and then become a changeling.  The Fairies in place of the human were ofter described as abnormal and the changeling myth was a way to explain why certain children didn't fit in. "many changelings are so called merely because of some bodily deformity or because of some abnormal mental or pathological characteristics capable of an ordinary rational explanation" (Tim) This usually meant that these odd children who were thought to be changelings were subject to cruel and bizarre treatment

References

Ashliman, D. L. "Changelings." Changlings An Essay by D. L. Ashliman. N.p., 3 Sept. 1997. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.Stainton,

Jimmy, Joe. "Faeries." Timeless Myths. N.p., 1999. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

MacKillop, James. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. Print.
Rose, Carol. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia. W. W. Norton & Company, 1998. Print.

 Tim. "Changeling." Encyclopedia of Disability. Ed. Gary L. Albrecht. Vol. 1. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference,      2006. 235-236. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Dec. 2012.