Friday, October 11, 2013

Merrows

Merrows, also known as murdhuacha /muroo-cha/, are the Irish mermaids. The females are beautiful, with fishes' tails and webs between their fingers. They tend to appear before a storm, and so are dreaded, but overall, they tend to be kinder than most mermaids and often fall in love with human fishermen. The offspring of a fisherman and a merrow sometimes are covered with scales. 

The male merrow is ugly, with green skin, a sharp, red nose, and pig-like eyes. However, they are amiable and jovial. Crofton Croker adds in Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland that the male merrows also have green hair and teeth, as well as short arms that are more like flippers than arms. 

Merrows will sometimes come ashore in the form of little hornless cattle, but generally wear read feather caps, which are their means of going through the water. Like selkies, who cannot return to the water without their skins, merrows cannot return to the sea without their red caps. 

We consulted Katharine Briggs' An Encyclopedia of Fairies for this post. Picture courtesy of Google Images: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=643&oq=merrow+&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1866.3513.0.3759.7.7.0.0.0.0.55.331.7.7.0....0...1ac.1.27.img..0.7.330.umVrw8pIfIg&q=merrow.


Friday, September 27, 2013

Selkies

Though not very popular in modern lore, selkies are a type of fey we've been fascinated by for some time now. 

Selkies are beautiful maidens and men who, when they wear the magical pelt of a seal, turn into seals themselves. If their pelt is taken from them, they cannot return to seal form, or to the water from whence they came; it is in this fashion that men sometimes capture the females for wives. 

In Orkney, England, the common seal was thought to belong to the animal world, but larger seals such as the great seal, the grey seal, and the crested seal, were known as 'the selkie folk.' It was thought that their natural form was human, and that they donned seal skins and the appearance of seals so that they could travel through the waters from one region of air to another. They were said to live either in an underwater world or on lonely skerries. The selkies of Shetland are very similar. 

In Orkney and Shetland, it was believed that when the blood of a selkie was shed in the sea, a storm would arise that was often fatal to shipping. The death of a mermaid was said to have had the same effect. 

Tanya Huff's The Wild Ways is the only current fiction book we've read that deals with selkies, and she does an excellent job of describing the selkies and creating a selkie society (though we may wish she did even more with them); she stays true to the old legends, which we liked. In this book, oil drillers have stolen the selkies' pelts in order to get them to stop protesting the drilling of oil near a seal rookery. If you're interested, this is the second book of the series, the first being The Enchantment Emporium, which does not deal with selkies. 

We consulted Katherine Briggs' An Encyclopedia of Fairies for this post. We got the picture courtesy of Google Images, https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=600&q=selkies&oq=selkies&gs_l=img.1.0.0l7j0i5j0i24l2.1061.2202.0.5639.7.7.0.0.0.0.43.279.7.7.0....0...1ac.1.27.img..0.7.277.Cj3oPR6CDrk.  

Friday, August 30, 2013

Hob

Hob, or hobthrust, is the general name for a hobgoblin, a kindly but mischievous type of fey. The brownie is a kind of hob. Usually found in the North Country or northern Midlands of England, hobs can be more sinister. One tale related by William Henderson in Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties says there was one called Hob Headless haunting the road between Hurworth and Neasham. 

However, more often than not, hobs appear to be benevolent, as in the case of one attached to Sturfit Hall in Yorkshire; he churned milk, stoked fires, and performed other brownie-type tasks until he was offered clothing, and vanished. The reason hobs disappear when offered clothing varies on the tale. The hob attached to Sturfit Hall seemed to have been so satisfied with this payment that he decided he need work no more; however, another hob, who worked at a farm in Danby, was insulted by the quality of the clothes he was given. Of course, if the regular payment of food was ever forgotten, the hob would also leave. 

Friday, August 23, 2013

Hobgoblins

According to Katharine Briggs' An Encyclopedia of Fairies, hobgoblins are friendly folk related to brownies. From the Puritans on, the word was used to refer to wicked goblins, but in Shakespeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' Puck is referred to as a hobgoblin and does not protest. 

One type of hobgoblin is the Will O' the Wisp. Briggs says that hobgoblins are generally good-humoured, though they do love practical jokes, and must not be crossed. Wikipedia says they're small, hairy men who do small, odd jobs round the house just as a brownie would. In return, they expect food; but offer them clothing, and they will depart. They can, if Puck is to be believed, shape shift. 

In JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit, the Uruks or Uruk-hai were originally written as hobgoblins, back before Tolkien realised hobgoblins were of small stature. Perhaps following this mistake, the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) uses hobgoblins as a larger, more menacing type of goblin. Other role-playing games have also followed suit. 

For more information, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobgoblin.

Image from Google Images: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=600&q=hobgoblin&oq=hobgoblin&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1577.3776.0.4880.9.4.0.5.5.0.88.304.4.4.0....0...1ac.1.25.img..0.9.327.D8Vb_1UOxo4#bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=d750b992d784f8&hl=en&q=Puck&sa=1&tbm=isch&facrc=0%3Bpuck%20midsummer%20night's%20dream%20drawing&imgdii=_&imgrc=_.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Elves

Elves were sometimes thought to be male faeries -- in England, this especially applied to small faery boys. In general, the term 'elf' in England referred to the smaller trooping faeries, although in Scotland, elves were human sized, and Faeryland was called 'Elfame.' 

In Scandanavia, faeries were also called elves, and were either light elves or dark elves, similar to the Scottish Seelie and Unseelie Courts. The light elves were like England's trooping faeries, and in Christian times, Scandanavian elves (or huldre folk) destroyed cattle, stole humans away, and avenged any injuries done to them in the same way that the Scottish faeries did. Huldre maidens dressed in grey with white veils, and were beautiful but had long cows' tails. If a man was dancing with a huldre girl and noticed her tail, he must not betray her, but instead tactfully mention that she was losing her garter. He would then be rewarded by perpetual prosperity. 

Danish elves loved to steal human food, such as dough. Though beautiful from the front, Danish elves or ellewomen were hollow from behind. 

Publications such as Goedys' Lady's Book, published by Louis A Goedy, popularised the idea of the Christmas elf in the nineteenth century, and JRR Tolkien's famous The Hobbit brought elves into high fantasy in the twentieth century. 

Bibliography: An Encyclopedia of Fairies, by Katharine Briggs.

Webography: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elves.

Picture courtesy of Google Images: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=600&q=elf&oq=elf&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1727.1949.0.2324.3.3.0.0.0.0.112.264.2j1.3.0....0...1ac.1.24.img..0.3.264.r2OyC5CcxgE.    

Friday, July 26, 2013

Cowslips

Cowslips are another flower that is guarded and well-loved by the fey. Also known in the west of England as Culver's Keys, they are thought to be keys to unlock the way to faery gold. According to Answers.com (http://www.answers.com/topic/cowslip), where we got the above image, they're also known as Fairy Cups.

In Medieval times, according to Wightdruids.com (http://www.answers.com/topic/cowslip), it was called Herb Peter and Key Flower, and frightened faeries were said to hide in it. It was also said to have the ability to split rocks with treasure inside.   

Bibliography: Faeries, by Brian Froud and Alan Lee. 

Friday, July 19, 2013

Bluebells

Bluebells, known as 'Deadmen's Bells' in Scotland, are a flower favoured by faeries and associated with danger. The Scots give the bluebell their moniker because to hear a bluebell ring was to hear one's death knell. It is said to be one of the most powerful of all faery flowers; a bluebell wood is a place of enchantment and faery spells -- and is an extremely hazardous place to be.  

It is believed that anyone who steps into a ring of bluebells will fall under a faery spell and soon die. It is also said that bells rang out to summon the fey to their gatherings. 

Other names for bluebell include Auld Man's Bell, Wilde Hyacinth, Wood Bells, Calverkeys, and Jacinth. 

Bibliography: Faeries, by Brian Froud and Alan Lee. 
Webography: Woodland Trust (http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/our-woods/views/Pages/bluebells.aspx?wood=4293#.Uci2ufmUQng).

We found these pictures on Google Images (https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=600&q=bluebells+close+up&oq=bluebells&gs_l=img.1.2.0l10.1318.4454.0.6517.9.8.0.1.1.0.42.299.8.8.0...0.0.0..1ac.1.17.img.7_I0SZCZ5AM).


Friday, July 12, 2013

Pixy-Led

To be pixy-led is to be misled by faeries. In Ireland, stepping upon a tuft of grass or stray sod will cause one to be pixy-led, although if one has angered the fey, or if a pixy is feeling mischievous, one may also be led astray. 

One may discover that an exit that was clear upon entering a specified area is suddenly gone; and nothing one does will reveal the exit. Or it may be that one finds oneself suddenly heading in a different direction to the path he wishes to take, and be unable to right himself. This spell may be broken by turning one's coat inside-out and wearing it. One may wonder what one is to do if one is not wearing a coat to begin with . . . 

It is possible that one may turn other clothes inside-out and wear them that way (we have also read that even turning a pocket inside-out works); it may have been thought that this changed one's identity or otherwise confused the faeries. However, this trick does not always work. Other methods for breaking faery spells include the use of St. John's wort, red verbena, daisies (especially little field daisies), or a staff made of rowan wood or ash. 

Bibliography: An Encyclopedia of Fairies, by Katharine Briggs; Faeries, by Brian Froud and Alan Lee.  
Above image found at Google Images (https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=600&q=pixies&oq=pixies&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1484.3017.0.3593.6.5.0.1.1.0.50.220.5.5.0...0.0.0..1ac.1.17.img.wdIa7Vq44aw#hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=pixie+fairy&oq=pixy+fA&gs_l=img.1.1.0j0i10l9.666937.672418.5.674911.26.15.1.0.0.5.74.616.14.14.0...0.0.0..1c.1.17.img.8uLA8iYGG5A&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.48293060,d.eWU&fp=4bdfcf4ffb0aa612&biw=1024&bih=600).

Friday, July 5, 2013

Faery Rings

Faery rings are toadstools growing in a circle. Step inside a faery ring, it is said, and you will travel to Faerie -- perhaps never to return. The rings are made by faeries or elves dancing in circles. 

Stepping inside the ring compels a human to join the wild dance, which may seem to last minutes or a couple of hours or a whole night -- but in fact would last seven years or longer, and the victim may be forced to dance to the point of exhaustion, death, or madness. Some say anyone who steps into a faery ring will die at a young age. 

Faery rings are also known as elf rings, faery circles, elf circles, or pixy rings. In the Welsh and Manx tradition, the faery rings grow overtop underground faery villages. One must not violate a faery ring by collecting dew from the grass or flowers growing there, else he risk misfortune. Destroying a faery ring is fruitless (it will only grow back) and also causes bad luck. 

Humans who are held captive in a faery ring may be rescued by someone who follows the faery music but keeps one foot outside the ring and pulls the dancer out whilst others hold onto his (the rescuer's) coat-tails. 

Other methods for rescuing someone trapped in a faery ring include tossing wild marjoram and thyme into the ring, thus confusing the faeries; touching the victim with iron; or a stick from a rowan tree may do the trick. 

Bibliography: Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee
Webography: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_ring).
The above image was found on Google (https://www.google.com/#gs_rn=17&gs_ri=psy-ab&gs_mss=faery%20ri&tok=8idwsvsGPsHmvQCaqJX9gA&suggest=p&cp=11&gs_id=1e&xhr=t&q=fairy+rings&es_nrs=true&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&oq=faery+rings&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.48293060,d.eWU&fp=d0df36031120a59a&biw=1024&bih=600).

Friday, June 28, 2013

The Gruagach

We first were introduced to the gruagach (GROO-ghee) when we read C.J. Cherryh's fantastic The Dreaming Tree. In that book, we discovered gruagachs were a type of hairy brownie who attached themselves to farms (the gruagach is pictured on the left) and traditionally helped with chores. 

We found information on the gruagach in Katharine Briggs' An Encyclopedia of Fairies, C.J. Cherryh's The Dreaming Tree, and a book we inherited from our father, Dwelly's Illustrated Gaelic to English Dictionary, compiled by Edward Dwelly, in which gruagach or gruagaich refers to a brownie or a man with long hair.    

The gruagach is a Highland creature. In the Highlands, they were also called grogans or grogachs; in northern Ireland, they were known as grogans. In the Highlands, male gruagachs were sometimes handsome, slender youths, and richly dressed in green and red, but more often they were naked and shaggy. In Ulster, they were also naked and hairy, and about four feet tall. 

In the Highlands, gruagachs often had golden hair and watched over cattle; the females were faeries with long, golden hair, dressed in green. Sometimes they were beautiful, other times pale and haggard. They, too, watched over cattle; they were connected with water, and travelled extensively. However, it has been suggested that this type of gruagach is actually a glaistig, and that the term gruagach is an epithet attached to her. Offerings of milk were made to both the female and the male gruagachs. In The Dreaming Tree, food was also given as an offering to keep the gruagach happy. 

Just for a change of pace, the gruagach in southern Ireland was actually a supernatural wizard, often a giant. 

Friday, June 21, 2013

The Seelie and Unseelie Courts

There are two broad types of faery: the Seelie Court and the Unseelie Court, 'seelie' and 'unseelie' being Scottish in nature. The Seelie Court are the 'good' faeries (though one would never want to anger them, and even 'good' faeries can be vengeful), whilst the Unseelie Court are the 'bad' faeries. 'Seelie' means 'happy,' 'blessed,' or 'lucky,' according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seelie_Court).

'The Shining Throng,' 'The Golden Ones,' and 'The Light Court' are other names for the Seelie Court, according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classifications_of_fairies#Seelie_and_Unseelie_Courts). 
Seelie are (mostly) benevolent, asking humans for help and helping them in turn. They are most often seen at twilight.  

'The Host' are members of the Unseelie Court who fly through the night, capturing hapless victims, beating them and forcing them to participate in the Unseelies' activities, which include shooting other men and livestock with elf-shot. 

There is also a collection of 'weird and terrifying monstrosities' who belong to the Unseelie Court, according to Froud and Lee (Faeries); these monstrosities are often associated with particular localities. 



Friday, June 14, 2013

On Faeries

According to Katherine Briggs in her book An Encyclopedia of Fairies, the term 'faery' (also 'fairy,' 'faerie,' 'fayre,' 'fairye,' 'faierie') comes from 'fay-erie,' a state of glamour or enchantment, and was later applied to the creatures able to use those powers of illusion. (Brian Froud and Alan Lee in their book Faeries also used the term to describe a geographical location, and we, too, use it as such.) 

'Elf' and 'faery' can be synonymous, although 'elf' can refer to a male faery. Faeries, at least in America, and at the present time, are widely thought of as small, winged, human-like females, but the term can refer to any denizen of Faery, with the possible exception of hags, monsters, and bogies. Even goblins, hobgoblins, and the like may be put in this category. Conversely, various names may be given to the same species of faery according to the region. For example, the Will O' the Wisp is also called Jacky Lantern, Spunkie, and Ellylldan. 

Faeries are also known as 'good neighbours' (called such to avoid their considerable wrath), 'fey (folk),' 'the honest folk,' 'the little folk,' 'the wee folk' (a term which implies harmlessness), 'the gentry,' 'the fair folk,' 'the hill folk,' 'the forgetful people,' 'the men of peace,' 'mother's blessing,' and 'good people.' Again, many of these names were used in order to keep from offending the fey, who would sometimes take deep umbrage at something which we (at least in the modern day) would consider a minor infraction. They did not always, for example, take to being called 'faeries' or 'elves.' An old Scottish rhyme goes something like this:

Gin ye call me fairy,
I'll wield yuir muckle tarry.
Gin ye call me elf,
I bid ye look weel to yerself.
Gin ye call me guid neighbour, 
Then guid neighbour I will be.
But gin ye call me Seelie wicht,
And I'll be yuir friend baith day and nicht!  

Friday, June 7, 2013

The Elves of 'ElfQuest'

Wendy and Richard Pini's ElfQuest, which we got when we were in high school, is another favourite of ours. Rather than depicting elves as the ethereal sort found in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (another favourite) or going with the legendary, dual-natured type of fey, the Pinis took an altogether different route. They based the culture of their elves in American Indian tradition, giving them names like Dewshine, Cutter, and Skywise; the elves have a tribal culture, as well, and a deep connexion to nature.

That connexion is so deep that they are bonded to their riding animals, the wolves of the elfin Wolfrider 'pack.' Other tribes of elves, encountered later in the series, also have a connexion to animals; there are the deer-riding 'Go-backs' and the giant eagle-riding 'mountain folk.' However, the Wolfriders take it a step further; their culture is centered around the wolves (they refer to spouses as 'mates' and have a ritual wherein a young Wolfrider gets his or her first wolf). They would kill for their wolves. Only the Sunfolk don't have riding animals, nor is there any indication that they are particularly connected to nature at all. 

The Wolfriders usually find mates through Recognition, during which the two mates-to-be learn each other's 'soul names' (names which describe all that they are) and become permanently bonded. All Wolfriders can 'send' thoughts to each other, and we learn that some elves can do even more. 

This is a detailed series with complex characters and three-dimensional cultures. We're drawn to this version of elves because we relate to the Wolfriders' earthy quality and their passion for nature and freedom. The Wolfriders aren't as magical as legend maintains, but that doesn't matter. They also don't have quite the dualistic nature the legends portray, though the Pinis have hinted that they do, in fact, have a darker side. 

We would rank this as one of the best versions of elves found in fiction. 

Friday, May 31, 2013

The Faeries of Froud and Lee

Brian Froud and Alan Lee's Faeries presents a more realistic look at the denizens of Faerie. The pair give an in-depth look at some legends of faeries from all over Europe, and add their own artwork for punctuation. To us, this is the quintessential book for faery lovers; it has always evoked the atmosphere of Faerie, both in words and in illustration. 

For example, Froud depicts fey in collages of natural settings -- toadstools, briers, dead or dying leaves. It is perhaps because of seeing these images when we were younger that autumn tends to give us the feeling that Faerie is a mere heartbeat away, lurking under some dark brush or brier patch. Froud's colour scheme in browns, blacks, and blues, with few vivid colours,   lends an earthy, organic feel rather than the airy frill so many contemporary artists have. One of his collages is pictured left. 

Lee, too, draws with a realism not often found when dealing with faeries. His line sketches call the viewer back to an earlier time, when people believed in faeries and feared as well as loved them. His drawing of the spirit of the birch is pictured below. 

Here one will find denizens both beautiful and strange, ugly and alluring. There are water faeries, brownies, goblins; there are adult faeries and child faeries; pixies and faery rings. Froud and Lee expertly depict the dual nature of Faerie as it is in the legends: danger and fascination both in one terrible package. 




We often look to this book for inspiration, both with our artwork and our writing.