Fairy Folk

When Sir J. M. Barrie 1860-1937 first published his famous book Peter Pan in the early years of the 20th century it created an interest in fairies not known since medieval times.

In 1917 the Cottingley fairies were shown in nearly every British newspaper, and most around the world. Alas! the photographs were fake and the young sisters Elsie and Francis were found out. The “fairies” were only magazine cut outs placed strategically around their cottage garden. But nevertheless the hoax revived interest in fairies once again.

Fairy Folk

So what are fairies really?

Collectivelly, they are known as Fairy-Folk, and are the last survivors of a race of tiny beings who inhabited the islands of Great Britain many years ago. They have been within the islands for centuries and much is known about them.

Ancient Brit’s were aware of a presence within their communities; a magical presence who occupied the Other world. Normally they were invisible, but often they would make themselves visible to humans, and not necessarily for the good.

Today, most imagine Fairy-Folk to be small graceful creatures equipped with beautiful gossamer butterfly wings, flitting around waving magic wands, and doing nothing but good deeds for people.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Portunes

They are not a homogenous race; far from it. Their stature and features are very different to humans. The Portunes for example are about two centimetres (about a half inch) in height, and some are even smaller. Other Fairy-Folk are much taller, even reaching to the height of a human.

Fairy Types

There are nice ones, bad ones, beautiful and plain ones. Some have stupid looks, whilst others are downright ugly and repulsive looking. They all make up the fairy race living in the Other world or Underworld. Eventually after much classification and labelling by the ancients, depending on shape size or form; they were called elves, pixies, changelings, gnomes, goblins etc. The list goes on.

Many more exist throughout the British Isles. Ireland have their own little mischievous leprechauns, and the county of Cornwall is home to the lovely little piskies who bring luck to the thousands of “grockles” (holiday makers) every summer, and over the centuries Fairy-Folk have managed to populate countries around the world, by travelling on plants, and herbs. A good many Fairy-Folk found in the United States of America can be traced back to their origins in the United Kingdom.