The History of Fairies

Fairies are said to be small, human-like, magical creatures with wings. Also known to have not only magic powers, but also the ability to fly and live very long lives. They are also said to be mischievous by some and warded off as bad luck. Different cultures and countries have come up with different origins of the myth. As any myth, there are many stories and claims behind it.

The Irish believe that fairies are of the Tuatha De Danaan, which means "People of Goddess Dana", who were drove into hiding out when the Celts invaded Ireland long ago. They believed that the Pagan Gods went and hid underground to live in mounds that they had built, away from anyone to see. Eventually they grew smaller in size and imagination took over and they became fairies. The Irish were said to believe that fairies lived all over their countryside in these mounds. They also believed that fairies, being the magical little creature they are, were able to pass freely from Earth, Heaven, and Hell.

In Wales, Fairies are thought to live in a magical, and invisible world of their own among ours. A different dimension. Some cultures believe fairies are "fallen angels" or angels that were cast out of Heaven. This "invisible world" of their own is referred to as "Tir Na Nog" and is considered to be very dangerous and life risking if entered by a human, as spoken about in Brownwen Skye's fairy history.

Fairies have stories behind them to be beautiful, mystical, wonderful little creatures and other stories support that they were more mischievous than anything. Evil, some trying to lure humans into their world only to meet their death. Many believed of this evil and began using things such as bells and crosses to ward off all fairies. Some even hung iron horseshoes from their door tops to prevent and fairies from entering into their home. It is even said if you pick a four-leaf clover it will protect you from any spells a fairy may use against you, and if you lie very still with the clover in your hand you may even make them appear visible to the human eye. This is all spoken about and more of protecting yourself from fairies from actual believers in a group called "The Fairy Faith".

Some of the fairy believers believed that fairies were actually descended from elves. There are so many different explanations and stories to explain the myth of fairies and where they came from. People claimed sightings and from the eighteenth century and since there have been less and less of these claims.

The most interesting and famous story comes from to young girls who were cousins who claimed to play with fairies in a garden outside of a home in Cottingley, Yorkshire, which their parents did not believe them so they decided to take pictures one day to prove it to them. They took photographs in 1917 to show their parents they really had been playing with fairies in the garden, as they had been claiming all along. The pictures showed the young girls posing and playing among little fairies as they danced around them. One of the mothers took the photographs to a photographic expert and he claimed them to be genuine, not retouched in any way. This got everyone in a stir and the myths and rumors soured through Britain. The most famous picture of them all was the one titled: "Fairies and Their Sun-Bath", taken in August of 1920. This was the only one with no humans in the photograph, just the fairies. It had appeared to have a cocoon sitting in the middle of the grass. Fairy experts of Scotland however claimed it was a magnetic bath, woven and used after dull weather to refresh them.

In 1978 a researcher on the topic noticed that the fairies used in these pictures were identical to fairy characters in a children's book called, "Princess Mary's Gift Book", which was published two years before the pictures were taken. Many years later, as the two little girls grew older, they both confessed that the fairies in the four of the five pictures were indeed cutouts from the children's book long ago. The girls made this confession in 1981. They said they held them in place for the photographs with hatpins. However the most famous sunbath fairy picture that contained no people in it they say was real. Photographer experts can easily tell in present day that those four photos were obviously fakes, however the fifth one is harder to tell. Many may never know if that fifth picture was fake or not. It is a myth, fairies are that is, but we can leave it all to our imagination.

The Fairy Faith, Fairy History