Fairies are seeing something of a renaissance in fiction particularly genres like urban fantasy and paranormal romance with books including characters, sometimes even protagonists, based on fairy folklore becoming increasingly common over the last few decades. The fairies of fiction vary greatly with some staying fairly close to folklore and others resembling the fairies of folk belief only in the most superficial ways. There are of course many reasons for this but one can be the difficulty authors may have in accessing – or even being aware of – good resources on fairies in folklore. These resources can be a key thing for those who want their fictional fairies to be as close to the fairies of folklore as possible.
The fairies of older literature – even material like Spenser’s Faerie Queene which was a political allegory – usually adhered closely to the fairies of folk belief because they were presented to an audience that had very specific expectations rooted in those beliefs. The fairies of today’s fiction however more often than not come from people without a strong grounding in a living belief system that includes fairies and so reflect the author’s individual opinions or understanding gathered from reading other modern worlds of fiction rather than folklore.
For those that are interested in crafting stories that are based on or adhere more closely to folk beliefs about fairies, the best option is to study the subject and, to do that, I’d like to suggest some possible sources:
Katherine Briggs
One of the main and most reliable go-to’s for fairy information is undoubtedly the esteemed folklorist Katherine Briggs who has multiple books on both aspects of fairylore as well as discussing individual fairies. Her work can be hard to find, as most was printed originally more than 40 years ago, but is worth the effort. Briggs’ A Dictionary of Fairies is a particularly useful reference for writers.
John Kruse
One of the best present-day resources to look to for all things British fairies is author and blogger John Kruse. He currently has a variety of books on fairies generally as well as specific aspects of fairy belief.
Lizanne Henderson
An excellent source to look to for Scottish fairies, in particular, is Lizanne Henderson who has both a dissertation ‘The Guid Neighbours: Fairy Belief in Early Modern Scotland’ as well as a book ‘Scottish Fairy Beliefs’ (co-written with Edward Cowan) that offer an in-depth look at fairy beliefs across Scotland.
Claude Lecouteux
Writing about European fairies generally and including French and German folklore, Lecouteux offers an overview of material that is less often covered in other sources. He writes in French but many of his books have been translated into English.
Simon Young
Another great resource on English fairies is Dr. Simon Young who has written a wide range of articles on specific fairies, such as Boggarts, as well as general fairylore including a discussion of when and how fairies gained wings in the popular imagination. His work can be found shared on Academia.
Eddie Lenihan
A renowned Irish storyteller, Eddie Lenihan has a Youtube channel as well as a book ‘Meeting the Othercrowd’ (with Carolyn Green) where people can learn more about Irish fairies.
National Folklore Collection UCD Digitization Project
Duchas.ie is a site that offers a digitized collection of folklore recorded through a school project in the early 20th century. While not all the material is in English quite a bit is and the search function allows specific types of Irish fairies to be researched as well as fairies more generally in Irish belief.
The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies
This book was written by rev, Robert Kirk in 1691, available in multiple different editions with various editors. Kirk’s humble book may be one of the most well-known resources on fairy beliefs, particularly Scottish, and offers a great quick way to understand the broad strokes of the folk beliefs.
Of course, a writer doesn’t necessarily need to pull from all of these sources and, for fairies in a specific culture that isn’t touched on here, such as Welsh or Manx, you would want to seek out the best options but this is a good place to start. For people who want to insert as much folklore as possible into their fiction, the ideal approach is to use one or more of these resources to understand who and what folkloric fairies are. This can add a depth and nuance to these depictions that can otherwise be lacking and help provide a context for fantastical aspects in stories.
Guest Contributor Bio
Morgan Daimler writes about Irish myth and magical practices, fairies, and related subjects. Their writing has appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies including Pagan Dawn and Naming the Goddess. They have presented papers on the intersection of fairies and fiction for Ohio State University’s ‘Fairies and the Fantastic’ conference as well as the ‘Ill Met By Moonlight’ conference. Morgan is also the author of a variety of fiction and non-fiction books including the urban fantasy/paranormal romance series Between the Worlds, and through Moon Books a selection including bestsellers Fairy Witchcraft, Fairies, Pagan Portals: The Morrigan, and Pagan Portals: Brigid.
The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, is the scholarly sister to Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.
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