The Origins of Fairies

Fairies are magical creatures, and all manners of children are obsessed with just the mention of them. Not to mention the Disney-ified version of fairies like ‘‘Tinkerbell’’. But where or what was the was the origination of ‘fairies’? How did people come to call these magical spirits ‘fairies’? And where did the word ‘fairy’ come from, and how has the meaning change over the centuries?

Well, the first question, what are the origins of fairies, or ‘fairyland’? Fairies are most widely mentioned in Gaelic literature, meaning Ireland, and are vastly integral to the people and culture. ‘Ireland is the country of Fairies. Fully to understand the Irish temperament, therefore it is necessary to know Ireland’s Fairy lore. Since the Fairies are mentioned first and most frequently in the literature written in the Irish languages of centuries ago, we must turn for information to the great mass of poems and stories from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. The Fairies of ancient Ireland belonged to a race known as ‘Tuath De Danaan’ came to Ireland, legend says from the ‘northern isles of the world, where they had been learning lore and magic and druidism and wizardry and cunning until they surpassed the sages of the arts of heathendom.’ ’’

Why then, have the mention of fairies been connected to the feminine, and feminine ideals? Because beauty standards rely heavily on gender, and ‘fairies’ with their magical art forms, have become twisted and their original ‘conquering form’ forgotten, and what better way to reinforce this than by using children’s fairy tales, which emphasizing women’s beauty and passivity, which serve to legitimize the dominant gendered system. ‘‘Research since the early 1970s has shown that children’s literature contains explicit and implicit messages about dominant power structures in society, especially those concerning gender. Fairy tales written during the eighteenth and nineteenth were intended to teach girls and young women how to become domesticated, respectable, and attractive to a marriage partner and to teach boys and girls appropriated gendered values, and attitudes.’’

Finally, where did the word ‘fairie’ come from? ‘‘They were at first, as established up above, called the ‘De Dannans’, who came to conquer those who were already in possession of Ireland, but were overcome with the ‘Mileasans’, a mythical race said to be the ancestors of modern Irishmen, and settled in a seperate part of the island, retiring into the green hills, where they required a new name: People of the Fairy Mound, or Aes Side (Ace Shithe, or Shee). As clouds are shot through with lightning, so is early Irish literature with accounts of invaders who became the Fairy Folk. ‘In Ireland, the Fairies have never been forgotten’: Brian Merriman, the last Gaelic poet of prominence, speaks of them as the treasure of his country in time of trouble, and Patrick MacGill, the Donegal poet, expressed the same idea when, amid the terrors of the battlefield, he wrote, ‘If we forget the Fairies,

And tread upon the rings,

God will perchance forget us,

And think of other things.

When we forget you, Fairies,

Who guard our spirits’ light:

God will forget the morrow,

And Day forget the Night’’.

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The tricksters

Those characters are always up to mischief. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, of course. Sometimes you need to start trouble in order to inspire change. Those who carry the title of ‘the trickster’ are usually seen in a bad light because of their actions, which if you read some of the myths about these archetypes, can sometimes be nefarious at best, but they usually teach social, ethical, and political values through puzzles, games, or twists of fate. A trickster can be an animal, spirit, or sometimes a god.

This particular trickster, which is very popular with the show American Gods on Starz, is the god Anansi, generally referred to as the god of stories of West African mythology. My favorite myth is how he got that title. The story goes as follows, Anansi the spider threw a web up into the sky, to confront the sky god Nyame, asking him to share all the stories of the world. So Nyame gives Anansi a challenge: If Anansi could bring to Nyame’s court Python the snake, Cheetah the fanged, the nests full of Hornets, and the fairy Mmoatia, then Anansi can have the box of stories. So Anansi agrees to this deal, thinking up new and clever ways to get the creatures to the sky court over the next four days. With the help of his wife Aso, and his son Ntikuma, Anansi goes into the forest to look for Python, and, waving a big stick in the air proclaimed that the stick was much longer than the Python. The Python slithered from the branch over their head, slithered down and stretched it’s long body alongside it, so that Anansi could easily wrap his strongest web around the thrashing web, then turned the big snake over to the sky god. Next, was the capture of the Cheetah. Appeasing to it’s ego, Anansi got a basket and claimed that the Cheetah was too small for it, but the Cheetah, undeterred, tried it on for size. Anansi quickly tied the bag around him, and dropped it off at the sky court, going after the hornets next. To catch the hornets, Anansi and his son go back into the forest, and carrying two big jugs of water, a empty gourd, and rope, they find the hornets nest, where very quietly they lift up both buckets and dump the water into the nest. The hornets, aggravated, came swarming out which brings Anansi to hold open the gourd, which he then sealed over and sent again to the sky court.

The final task that plagued Anansi was how to trick Mmotia, who was magic, into the sky court. His wife Aso had them both carve a wooden doll, and cover it in thick layer of sap from the nearby gum tree. Then they put the doll in a nice clearing and waited a long time. Then, they heard Mmotia scream at the doll because she thinks the doll is another fairy. Because it’s a doll, and is unresponsive, Mmoatia smacks it, claiming the doll’s rudeness. The doll’s sap causes Mmoatia’s hand to get stuck, and soon enough Anansi can bring a stuck Mmoatia to the sky court, winning the box of stories from a displeased Nyame, who didn’t believe he would win, and took it back to Earth. There goes the story of Anansi and the Box of Stories.