Wilderness fairies are quite simply those among the Other Crowd who prefer to live in the most inaccessible and untamed places. These can be moors, marshes, hills, forests, any place that is far from human settlement and human interference. Those Fey Folk who prefer to live in the wilds are generally either antagonistic towards people or coldly indifferent, although in some rare cases they seem to avoid humans out of shyness or fear. This group can include fairy animals as well, such as the various Cu Sí or Black Dogs, as well as different fairy deer.
The final general grouping that can be made based on locations would be the mountain fairies. As with all the others this group includes both the kindly inclined, like the gentle but shy Ghillie Dhu, and the vicious, like the Gwyllion. Mountain fairies may live on any part of a mountain or in the mountain itself, the key being their preference for being near mountainous terrain.
These three approaches are the most common ones I am aware of in traditional folklore. They represent different specific cultural approaches, although there is a lot of crossover between them as well. The two courts are mainly a Scottish viewpoint, while trooping and solitary is an Irish view, and location-based is often seen in Wales. Each approach has its own merits and can be applied to all fairies, but each also has drawbacks and limitations that should be kept in mind.
End Notes
1. Wicht or wight is a general term in Scots that means both any living being as well as any supernatural being. It is often used as a generic term to describe a fairy.
2. Scots is also known as Doric and was formed from a blend of Middle and Early Modern English, Gaidhlig, and Norse derived languages.
3. Although I believe in recent decades the idea of the two courts has spread to Ireland, it isn’t found in older material to my knowledge and I was unable to find a single reference to the two courts in any of my Irish folklore books. The Irish system is based on a multitude of sí (fairy hills) ruled by different kings and queens, with each being its own kingdom in a way. All the Irish Fair Folk, it seems, are ambivalent in nature and cannot easily be placed into a grouping of ‘good’ or ‘wicked’. When I visited Ireland recently, however, I did hear someone in Armagh retelling the myth of Fionn and Sadb who mentioned the Unseelie Court, so the concept does seem to be spreading.
4. That is, those who prefer to live in human homes or other areas such as mills or farms inhabited by humans.
Chapter 4
The Kings and Queens
But as it fell out on last Halloween
When the seely court was riding by
The queen lighted down on a rowan bank
Not far from the tree where I wont to lie.
The ballad of Alison Gross
Whether or not there are two set courts of Fairy, one thing that is clear is that the social structure does seem to operate as a hierarchy ruled ultimately by Kings and Queens. When we look at the bulk of the folklore it is usually a Fairy Queen who holds power, often with an unnamed King at her side or else ruling alone. In only a few Irish examples do we see solitary Fairy Kings. In the later folklore and ballads the Fairy Queens and Kings are often unnamed, going simply by their titles, but in older mythology and some local folklore we do have examples of named Fairy Queens and Kings, often beings who we know were once Gods. It also became fashionable in later poetry and theater to name Fairy monarchy, using names that may or may not be rooted in older fairylore.
The Fairy Queen is usually said to ride a white horse, something we see in both the ballads of Tam Lin and Thomas the Rhymer. It would seem that in the great Fairy Rades the colors of the horses have some hierarchical significance, with white as the most important1. In the ballad of True Thomas, the Queen of Elfland is described dressed in green velvet, while Scottish witch Isobel Gowdie described the Fairy Queen as finely dressed in white (Acland, 1997; McNeill, 1956). Accounts of Fairy Queens usually describe them as extremely beautiful, often irresistible to human men they seek to enthrall. These Queens are also described as having powerful magic, able to break spells laid on people and to weave enchantments that are not easily set aside. They can give the gifts of true vision or true speech, but they can also lay powerful curses on those who offend them.
Fairy Kings appear less often in folklore than do Queens. Isobel Gowdie described the Fairy King she met as ‘a braw man, weill favoured’ (a splendid man, good looking) (McNeill, 1956). The ballad of Alice Brand describes the Fairy King as moody and protective of all that he considers his. When Kings appear alongside Queens it is generally the Queens who seems to have the most authority.
Unlike some other spirits or even Gods, the monarchy of Fairy is well known for interacting with humans, both directly and through intermediaries. Many of the Scottish witches who claimed to have dealt with the Good People said that they met with the Fairy Queen, and sometimes with the King as well (Wilby, 2005). Isobel Gowdie said that the Fairy Queen gave her an abundance of meat to eat, as well as equipping her with elfshot (McNeill, 1956). In several accounts confessed witches claimed to have been given a fairy as a guardian, a type of familiar spirit, usually at the explicit direction of the Fairy Queen2. Although the Fairy monarchy was much more directly involved with humans than might be expected, often including sexual dalliances with them, nonetheless the overall relationship was still a formal one. The Fairy Queen or King would summon the person to be brought before them in most cases and would give or withhold gifts as they saw fit. One cunningman described being brought to a great hall where he said the Fairy Queen was seated on a throne holding court, and a 17th century Scottish witch said that when she was brought before the Queen of Fairy she was instructed to kneel (Wilby, 2005). When a Fairy Queen appears in a story or ballad to personally kidnap a human they usually make that person their servant for a period of time, often seven years.
As I mentioned previously though there are a selection of Fairy Queens and Kings who are named. Below is a list of some of the more common ones and their folklore.
Áine
Áine was a Goddess, a member of the Tuatha De Danann in the earliest mythology, but in later folklore she was said to be a Fairy Queen whose sí was Cnoc Áine (Knockainey) in Ireland. Her name means ‘bright’ and she was seen sometimes sitting in or near Lough Gur combing her blond hair (Evans-Wentz, 1911). In much of her later folklore, Áine is reputed to have love affairs with mortals and several Irish families claim descent from her. The most well known of these human descendants is the third Earl of Desmond, Gearoid Iarla. It is said by some that Gearoid did not die but was taken into Loch Guir and would return one day (Berresford Ellis, 1987). Other tales say that he lives still within the lake and can be seen riding beneath the water on a white fairy horse, while still other stories claim that Áine turned him into a goose on the shore of the lake (Berresford Ellis, 1987). In the story of the Cath Maige Mucrama Áine was the daughter of the Fairy King Eogabul and she and her father emerged from their hill one Samhain night only to be ambushed by a mortal king and his servant; her father was killed and she was raped. She cursed the king, a man named Ailill Olum, and swore that she would take away all his possessions and his kingship, which eventually came to pass.
Aine’s special holiday was midsummer and people would hold torchlit processions on her hill on that night. In one story a group of girls met Áine on her hill on midsummer and she had them look through a ring; peering through its circle they saw her hill covered in fairies celebrating (Evans-Wentz, 1911).
Aoibhill
Queen of the north Munster fairies, she is associated with Craig Liath (Evans-Wentz, 1911). There are many variants of her name including Aibell, Aebill, Aoibheall, Eevell, Ibhell, Aibinn, and Eevin; her name means ‘radiance, spark, fire’ (McKillop, 1998, p 5). Aoibhill is sometimes described as a rival to the Fairy Queen Cliodhona, who once enchanted her into the form of a white cat (McKillop, 1998). Like many Fairy Queens, Aoibhill was known to favor poets; she also had a reputation for predicting deaths, both of her lovers and others (Logan, 1981). Aoib
hill appears as a character in Merrimen’s poem Cúirt an Mheán Oiche as a Fairy Queen advocating for justice and fairness and sitting as a judge over a fairy court.
Bodb
King of the Munster fairies. He is usually given the epithet ‘Derg’; his name – Bodb Derg – probably means ‘Red Crow’. His father is the Dagda and he is said to have two different homes, one at Sidhe ar Femen and one at Sliabh na mBan (Slievenamon). He has magical pigs who are tended to by a pigkeeper, also a man of the fairies, and the friendship and later enmity between Bodb’s pigkeeper and the pigkeeper of the King of the Connacht fairies3 is featured in the tale of De Chophur in Da Muccida. Bodb was renowned for the wisdom of his judgment, and in the myth Aislinge Oenguso he helped the Dagda and Aengus find a mysterious woman of the sí that Aengus had been dreaming of (McKillop, 1998).
Cliodhona
Cliodhna is one of the Tuatha Dé Danann in the mythology and also a Fairy Queen in modern folklore associated with Cork in Ireland. Her epithet is Ceannfhionn (fair headed or fair haired) and she is sometimes called ‘the shapely one’; her name may be related to the idea of territory or being territorial (O hOgain, 2006; MacKillop, 1998). She is said to be extremely beautiful.
Cliodhna can take the form of a wren, a bird that may be generally associated with her, and she is also often connected to the Otherworldly Bean Sí (Banshee). By some accounts she herself is considered to be such a spirit, or their Queen, although in other folklore she is more generally the Queen of the fairies of Munster. She has three magical birds that eat Otherworldly apples and have the power to lull people to sleep by singing and then heal them (Smyth, 1988; MacKillop, 1998).
She is strongly associated with the shore and with waves, and the tide at Glandore in Cork was called the ‘Wave of Cliodhna’(O hOgain, 2006). In several of her stories she is drowned at that same location after leaving the Otherworld either to try to woo the Tuatha De Danann Aengus mac ind Og or after running away with a warrior named Ciabhán. She has a reputation in many stories for her passionate nature and love of poets in particular, and she is known to abduct handsome young poets or to appear and try to seduce them. In folklore she known for seducing and drowning young men (Smyth, 1988). Several mortal families trace their descent from her including the McCarthys and O’Keefes and she was well known for taking mortal lovers.
The Dagda
The Dagda was one of the premier Gods of the Tuatha De Danann in Ireland, and after the Gods were driven into the fairy mounds it was with him that humans had to reach an agreement to get their crops to grow and cows to give milk. By some accounts it was the Dagda who divided up the sí among the Tuatha De Danann and decided which Gods would live in which fairy mound. In the story Aislinge Óenguso the Dagda is called ‘the King of the sidhe of Ireland’ establishing his authority over the other fairy hills and by extension their inhabitants.
Diana
Most familiar from Roman and Italian mythology, the Goddess Diana found a place in later fairylore and was said to be both a Queen of the Fairies and a leader of witches. The name Diana became a common one associated with a leader of the Fey Folk in the post-pagan period (Purkiss, 2000). This may be an example of a form of the interpretatio Romana in action, where native Celtic Goddesses were called Diana by outside observers and literati seeking a more familiar name for the Queen of the Fairies. It could also reflect a Christian interpretation that simply homogenized everything under Diana’s name in connection to the Good People and the night-roaming dead (Purkiss, 2000). King James I, for example, says this about her in his work Demonologie: ‘Diana, and her wandering court, and among us was called Pharie [fairy]…or our good neighbors’. It is possible that Shakespeare’s Titania is actually a corrupted version of the name Diana.
Donn
Donn was originally a figure from mythology, one of the Milesians who won Ireland away from the Tuatha De Danann. Donn died before his people reached Ireland, and many people say that he was the first human to die in Ireland and is the first ancestor. His special place is a small island called Tech Duinn (Donn’s House) off the Irish coast; besides Tech Duinn (present day Bull Rock, County Cork) Donn is also connected to Cnoc Fírinne in county Limerick and Dumhcha in County Clare.
Donn of Cnoc Firinne had strong aspects of a lord of the Aos Sí, being called Donn Fírinne and was said to kidnap people into his hill who were thought to have died (O hOgain, 2006). It was also said when the potato crop showed any signs of damage or blight that it was because Donn Fírinne and his Fairy Host had fought there the night before, or had a game of hurling, and taken away the best of the crop (MacNeill, 1962). Like many other Irish deities, Donn shifted rather seamlessly from a God – or perhaps primordial ancestor – to a Good Neighbor, albeit a very powerful one. In County Clare, Donn was Donn na Duimhche, Donn of the Dune, and was believed to ride out as a fairy horseman with his army (O hOgain, 2006). Donn Fírinne was viewed with both trepidation and fondness, as he was known to carry off young people and to stir up storms, but he also often helped to guard the crops of the people in his area and seemed inclined to bless those whose paths crossed his rather than to cause mischief (MacNeill, 1962). By some accounts the Maguires trace their ancestry back to Donn (Logan, 1981).
Donn may or may not always have been seen as a deity, but he certainly seems to have been understood as one from at least the 8th century onward, until his shift into an Otherworldly horseman. Some believe that the house of Donn is where the dead go before moving on to the Otherworld (Berresford Ellis, 1987). Folklore tells us that Tech Duinn is a place where the dead go, but not necessarily their final destination. In the 8th to 10th centuries Tech Duinn was seen as an assembly place of the dead, and a place that the dead both went to and left from (O hOgain, 2006). Donn’s association with the dead is strong and even his habit of taking people usually assumed the form of young people dying mysteriously, going to his hall one way or another as it were.
By some accounts people used to make offerings to Donn at Cnoc Firinne at Lughnasa, Samhain, and on Bealtaine (Logan, 1981). These offerings could reflect an older view of Donn as a deity or they could be a way for people to show respect to a Fairy King, who like all such Kings, could influence the success of the harvest. These offerings included eggs, flowers, and meat, and on the old date of Samhain (now St. Martin’s Day) a rooster would be sacrificed (Logan, 1981).
Ethal Anbual
In Old Irish his name would possibly mean ‘Pure Great-Healing’. According to Katherine Briggs he is the King of the fairyfolk of Ulster, although Mackillop calls him the King of the Connacht fairies and says his sí was at Uaman (Briggs, 1976; MacKillop, 1998). In the story of the Aislinge Oenguso he is the father of the woman of the sí who Aengus loves and he is captured by the Dagda and forced to reveal her whereabouts.
Finnbheara
King of the Connacht fairies who makes his home in the sí of Cnoc Meadha (Knockma) in Galway with his Queen Una. In one story he was described as appearing on Samhain night in a coach pulled by white horses; he wore all black and was attending a fair filled with the dead, leading Lady Wilde to suggest that he was the King of the Dead (Briggs, 1976). Finnbheara was well known for his love of beautiful mortal women, although his wife was said to be more beautiful than any other woman, mortal or fey. In another tale he appeared as a man on a black horse and invited a mortal back to his home where they shared a meal with all those the man had known who had died during the his life (Briggs, 1976). Although the man ate fairy food and drank the wine offered to him he was allowed to leave and the only harm he came to was a burn around his wrist given to him by one of the dead, a woman he had planned to marry who had died before the wedding (Briggs, 1976). This story, as with the other one on Samhain, again ties Finnbheara strongly to the dead. It is said that when he is present in Connacht the crops flourish, but when he is not there the crops don’t do well (MacKillop, 1998). He is known to reward mortals who please him, including smiths willing to shoe his horse, which has only three le
gs; in one story he healed a woman who was ill and accepted food in payment (MacKillop, 1998).
Gloriana
The name of a Fairy Queen in Spenser’s epic poem The Faerie Queene.
Grian
Sister of Áine, she lives in the fairy hill of Cnoc Grian. Not much is known about her. In one story she turned five brothers who had attacked her father into badgers and she had a reputation for her magic and skill with Druidism (Logan, 1981).
Gwyn ap Nudd
Once a Welsh God of the underworld he eventually became a King of the Plant Annwn, the underworld fairies (literally ‘children of the underworld’) and the Welsh fairies more generally. His name means ‘White son of Nudd’4. He is described as having a blackened face and he rides out hunting with the Cwn Annwn (dogs of the Otherworld), a fierce pack of fairy hounds (MacKillop, 1998).
Gyre-Carling
A Fairy Queen in Fife, Scotland. Gyre is a term for a dangerous type of fairy or giantess, and carling means an old woman (DSL, 2016). So the Gyre-Carling then is a supernatural hag-like figure, said to rule over the fairies in her area. She is strongly associated with spinning and with winter, and it is said that all spinning must be finished before the end of the secular year or the Gyre-Carling will take whatever is left undone (Briggs, 1976).
Fairies Page 7
