Feelings
A fairy tale quite hairy!
By Emmanuelle
THE word fairy is a more modern English adaptation of the Middle English term fairie meaning fairyland or the enchanted beings, which reside within. In turn, fairies was maybe a variation of the old French word faerie which traced its root way farther back to fae which also meant fairy. Fae was maybe the vulgar Latin reference to Fata, goddess of fate, from the Latin Fatum, fate.
The word was first used in folklores of medieval Europe but, most especially, in and around the cold, wispy, seemingly eerie Celtic villages of Ireland, Cornwall, Wales and Scotland. Fairies were believed to be clever, mischievous, supernatural beings with magical powers. And the rather nasty habit of meddling with the lives of poor defenseless humans, as if having to contend with electric-less households and working places and wooden-wheeled carts for transportation were, yet, not miserably frustrating enough.
They, the fairies not the poor defenseless humans, can be visible or invisible to the eye according to their will or whim. When visible to the eye, they take on heights, or lack of, of the little people measuring just a few inches, young, winged, angelic as Julia Robert’s likeness in Peter Pan.
Or they may choose to be as nor mal and undistinguished as you and me.
On the other hand, they can decide to be horrid and take on other unimaginable shapes. Such as a toad or a tree. Or you and me when angry and nauseatingly hateful.
In modern children’s stories, they come out more friendly than your next-door neighbor, because, more than your friendly neighborhood, the fairies are givers of luck and special skills and even instant prosperity to humans whom they especially favor. Traits I require my godmother to hopefully possess. And which our sexily wiggly neighborhood fairy has learned to dispense around in increasingly liberal doses.
In olden times though, the fairies enjoyed the reputation of goodness or deviltry every now and then. They can be notorious as pranksters and troublemakers. In extreme instances, they were considered as demons, although embarrassingly minor in rank. People point to the fairies as having brought them illness, or for having stolen their babies, replacing these babies with changelings, impostors to you and me.
To this time, no one has pointed yet to our resident fairy as guilty of the latter crimes, no matter how jealous and possessive he can be at times.
(To be continued.)
Share your Comments or Reactions
Powered by Facebook Comments
