The Fairies in Tradition and LiteratureFairies fascinate young and old alike. To some they offer tantalizing glimpses of other worlds, to others a subversive counterpoint to human arrogance and weakness. Like no other author, Katharine Briggs throughout her work communicated the thrill and delight of the world of fairies, and in this book she articulated for the first time the history of that world in tradition and literature. From every period and every country, poets and storytellers have described a magical world inhabited by elfin spirits. Capricious and vengeful, or beautiful and generous, they've held us in thrall for generations. And on a summer's morn, as the dew dries softly on the grass, if you kneel and look under a toadstool, well ... |
Contents
Historic Survey | 3 |
The Fairy Realms | 14 |
Tutelary Spirits | 30 |
Regional Differences | 105 |
The Fairy Dependence | 113 |
The Double Strain | 127 |
Fairy Wives and Fairy Lovers | 146 |
Human Opinions | 168 |
The Eighteenth Century | 183 |
The Nineteenth Century and After | 204 |
The Foreign Invasion | 219 |
Folklorists and Collectors | 236 |
Something to Bite On | 255 |
A LIST OF BOOKS CITED AND CONSULTED | 301 |
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Common terms and phrases
beautiful Black Dog Blake Border Brownie Cailleach Bheur Celtic century changeling child Classics Cornish Cornwall County Folk-Lore creatures dancing dangerous dead Denham Tracts devils elves England English Evans Wentz evil eyes F. S. Wilde fairy beliefs fairy stories fairy tradition Fairyland Fuath Gervase of Tilbury ghosts giants gift Gill girl goblin green haunted heard Henderson Highland hill hobgoblin horse human Hunt Ibid Ireland Isle J. F. Campbell kelpie kind King Lady Wilde lake Legends Lincolnshire lived London looked Mackenzie magical Manx mermaid mortal mother never night Nuckelavee Oberon old woman Orkney pixies poem Puck R. L. Tongue Ralph of Coggeshall Rhys Robin Goodfellow Romances round Scotland Scottish Second Manx Scrapbook seems seen Shellycoat Shetland Sikes Somerset sometimes supposed tale thing told tree Tuatha De Danann Wales water spirit Welsh witches Wright Yorkshire young