Fairies

by Morgan Daimler

  Times of Day

  Fairies are best known for appearing at liminal times, especially dawn and dusk, but also midnight. The turning points of the day, like those of the seasons, are important times of fairy influence and these include dawn, noon, sunset, and midnight (Briggs, 1967). Night in general is a more common time for fairies to be seen, but they are not limited to this of course. We see just as many stories of fairy encounters that happen during the day as during the night, demonstrating that the Fey Folk are in no way bound to the dark hours.

  Days of the Week and Tides of the Moon

  There are several days of the week that are known be special to the fairies and to be times when they have more influence and are more active than others. Wednesday by some accounts is such a day (Briggs, 1967). According to Lady Wilde, the fairies are most active on Fridays and have the greatest power on this day; it is also on Fridays that they are most likely to abduct people (Wilde, 1888). Briggs refers to Friday as ‘the fairies’ Sunday’ and agrees that it is the day they have the greatest power over Earthly things (Briggs, 1967). It is uncertain why exactly this day has such great significance to the Fey Folk, but one might surmise that the belief is rooted in a Christian world view that sees Friday as an unlucky day because of its association with Christ’s crucifixion. I suspect that the folk beliefs surrounding Friday as unlucky, perhaps shaded with the idea that it was a day with the least divine influence from a monotheistic perspective, lent itself to the view that it was the day when the fairies had the most influence. It is believed that on Friday the fairies approach houses from the west and may enter as they please, going so far as to get into whatever might be cooking for dinner (Campbell, 1900). Because they have special power on this day and are actively abroad, many folk traditions are aimed at either appeasing them or warding against them especially on this day.

  Just as there was a day that was seen as almost belonging to the fairies, other days are believed to offer some protection against them. In Scottish lore the fairies were prohibited from being abroad on Thursdays, as that was Saint Columba’s Day, and so Thursday was the day a person was safest from fairy interference (McNeill, 1956). In the Highlands it is said that on Thursday the Good People cannot hear anything said about them, and in these areas all the days from Thursday through Sunday are seen as safe from fairy influence (Briggs, 1967). More generally Sunday was viewed as a day that was anathema to the Good People, and they seem to be offended by the mere mention of it (Briggs, 1967).

  The fairies are also apparently tied to the cycle of the moon. The full moon and the days immediately before and after it are days of fairy activity (Briggs, 1967).

  Holidays Associated with the Fairies

  There are several holidays throughout the year associated with the fairies, usually as times when they were known to be more active or more present in our world. Some of these include the quarter days of Bealtaine, Lughnasa, Samhain, and Imbolc1, as well as June 24th (Saint John’s Eve), and New Year’s Eve. The importance of Bealtaine and Samhain as turning points of the year, as well as the time around the solar turning points of the solstices, all being significant to the Good People suggests that the fairy beliefs we have today may have once been beliefs from two separate groups, one based on farming and one on herding, which became joined at some point (Briggs, 1967). The fairies are keenly interested in both cows and crops so there is a logic in them being drawn to holidays that focus on such things.

  Bealtaine

  Bealtaine has many different themes and associations in folklore, but one of the strongest is the idea that fairies are especially active at this time. For example, one belief was that on Bealtaine day it was wise not to lend out any milk, salt, butter, or a coal from the fire, especially to a stranger, lest the person be one of the Good Folk in disguise and take the family’s luck for the year (Wilde, 1888; Evans, 1957). A household’s luck was intrinsically tied to the items that symbolized it – milk, butter, salt, and fire – and to give any of these to supernatural beings such as the Fair Folk was to voluntarily give them power over you; to do this particularly on Bealtaine or the other fire festivals, when spirits of all kinds were abroad and their powers especially strong, was the height of foolishness.

  Every sí was believed to open and the inhabitants to travel out across the land, a process repeated as well at Samhain. Bealtaine was also the time when babies and young brides were most likely to be taken and a person had to take great care when travelling, especially alone. Bealtaine and Samhain were liminal rimes, turning points of the year from one season to another and times traditionally when the rent was due. Because of this shifting there was an association with the time of year and the Good People moving their homes, meaning that they were abroad in greater numbers and more times than usual. At other times of the year a person might still be at risk of running afoul of the Fair Folk – or, if one was lucky and clever, of earning their blessing – but at the turning points like Bealtaine the presence of the Other Crowd was ubiquitous, to the point that it was almost expected to see or experience something Otherworldly. To quote Danaher:

  Supernatural beings were more than usually active about May Day, and the appearance of a travelling band of fairies, of a mermaid, a púca or a headless coach might, indeed, cause unease or alarm but certainly would occasion no surprise, as such manifestations were only to be expected at this time.

  (Danaher, 1972, p121)

  There were two main, possibly interlinked, approaches to dealing with the fairies on Bealtaine. In the old days – and perhaps still in some places – it was traditional to make offerings on Bealtaine morning of milk poured at the base of a fairy thorn or on the threshold of the house, and to take the cows to the sí and bleed them, with some of the blood tasted by the people and the rest given as an offering to the fairies (Evans, 1957). I personally try to avoid making blood offerings during most of the year, but some exceptions may occur on the major holy days, and we see a precedent in both Irish and Norse belief of offering such to the Aos Sí or Elben (Elves) respectively2. Any offering of food or drink, left on the doorstep of the house or at any known Fairy place, whether it’s a lone fairy tree or fort, was also done and was thought to convey some protection on the person (Danaher, 1972). I would also suggest that offerings of butter, bread, or cakes would be in line with tradition and acceptable. Offerings are an important part of creating a positive reciprocal relationship with the powers of the Otherworld and of averting any potential harm or mischief from them.

  Midsummer

  Midsummer and the closely related Saint John’s Eve on June 24th are days that have a lot of associations with fairies. Generally the encounters with fairies on midsummer in folklore are of a more benevolent or playful nature, although the Amadán na Bruidhne roams in June and is decidedly dangerous. A good theatrical description of fairies around this time of year is seen in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream where much mischief occurs while the fairies are mingling with mortals in the woods, but ultimately no harm is done. In the story of Oíche na Féile Eoin we see the same theme, with a group of boys who are overheard by the fairies claiming not to believe in them being lured away from the bonfires and turned into horses for the night then ridden hard across the country by the Good People only to wake up as boys again under a fairy thorn in the morning (MacLiammóir, 1984). Although the boys endure an unpleasant night they are not truly harmed and afterwards come to believe in the fairies they formerly joked about.

  Bonfires are lit at midsummer for luck, blessing, and protection and the ashes of these fires have many uses in protective charms. Similarly bonfires are also lit on Saint John’s Eve for the same reasons, with fire-leaping practiced for fertility and good luck. The fairies may appear as a whirlwind and try to extinguish the fires (Wilde, 1888). There were also some older beliefs that several harvest traditions, once associated with Lughnasa, were moved to Saint John’s Eve with the advent of Christianity in Ireland, including offering beef into the fires (MacNeill, 19
62). People celebrating at the bonfires, such as those held at Cnoc Áine, told stories of seeing the fairies joining in the celebrations.

  Lughnasa

  Fairies have a vested interest in the harvest although they tend to be more active at the end of it, Samhain, than at the beginning. An anecdotal tale from 1879 said that the ‘Sídhfir’, the fairy men, used to work the fields during the harvest alongside humans until Saint Patrick declared during a holy mass that the Good People would not achieve Heaven until Judgment Day; from that moment on the fairies would do no work to help take in the harvest (MacNeill, 1962). A similar story recorded in 1942 claimed that the hosts of the air used to help gather the harvest hoping to earn their way back into Heaven, but as in the first story they asked someone to go to the priest with a question. In this case they wanted to know the three groups who would never gain entry to Heaven, and of course their number was included in the answer the priest gave, which caused them to turn from helping people to causing trouble instead (MacNeill, 1962). Although this is clearly given to us through a Christian lens, and with the idea of fairies as fallen angels seeking re-entry to Heaven, it nonetheless ties in with older pagan themes as well, specifically of the strong connection between fairies and the success or failure of the harvest. We can also perhaps see in these stories a reflection of an older idea that fairies once actively aided in the autumn harvest, until they were offended in some way.

  There is another very old belief relating to the harvest, that is that the fairies took a tithe of all that was gathered and that the best of what was gathered belonged to them. These two quotes from The Festival of Lughnasa illustrate the belief:

  The top pickle [best] of all grain belongs to the Gintry [Gentry]; sometimes they claim it, and sometimes not, accordin’ as it’s required.

  County Antrim 1859

  The tip-top pickle [best] of all the corn [grain] belonged to them [the Good People]. That was collected from one and all.

  County Armagh, 1938

  This process is not nearly as peaceful or smooth as it may sound and some of the harvest beliefs hinge on the idea that the Irish fairies, who live in various courts led by an assortment of Queens or Kings, will fight each other for the best harvest of each area. The Good People of County Kerry and County Cork fight each other for the harvest of both counties, for example, and the fairies of Connacht and Ulster fight each other, and whoever wins the crops gathered in that county will be good while the crops of the other county are not (MacNeill, 1962).

  Both the Fairy Queen Áine and King Midir have associations with this holiday. It is said that around this time Áine is the consort of the chthonic being Crom Dubh or Crom Cruach, and appears in a very fierce aspect. Midir is known to take children who wander on his sí in the first week of August. The Fairy King Donn is also said to have some connection to Lughnasa, as some folklore recounts offerings of a roosters being made to him at his sí on this date (Logan, 1981).

  Samhain

  On the night of Samhain the many supernatural beings, including ghosts, roamed freely and the fairy hills were opened, allowing all the creatures of fairy into the mortal world (Estyn Evans, 1957; McNeill, 1961). Just as all the dead were free to return to Earth to visit on Samhain so the realm of Faery was given free rein, reiterating the blurry line between faeries and the dead. As at Bealtaine the denizens of fairy were more likely to be encountered now and it was said that should a person meet a Fairy Rade or the Slua Sí and throw the dust from under his feet at them they would be compelled to release any humans they had taken (Danaher, 1972). This night was one of celebration and merry making, but people preferred to travel in groups, fearing that to walk alone on Samhain risked being taken forever into Fairy (Danaher, 1972). It was thought that dusk and midnight were particularly dangerous times, and that the fairy troops passed to the west side of homes and along waterways, making it best to avoid these times and places (McNeill, 1961). It was also a long time custom to shout out ‘seachain’ (beware) or ‘chughaibh an t-uisce’ (water towards you) if one was tossing water out of the home so that any passing fairies would be warned (Danaher, 1972). This was meant to avoid accidently throwing dirty water on the fairies, which would certainly anger them and result in retribution from the offended being.

  This is the time that all the fairy sí open up and the inhabitants parade from one hill to the next in grand processions playing music, which some people claim to hear (Danaher, 1972; McNeill, 1961). Anyone who had been kidnapped to Fairy could be freed within the first year and a day from when they were taken, but the spells to do so were strongest on Samhain, as we can see in the ballad of Tam Lin (McNeill, 1961). Because the faeries were all abroad it was also the custom in many places to leave them food offerings, but unlike the plates of food left for the dead, the food offerings for fairies might take the form of a rich porridge that was made and then placed in a small pit dug in the ground (Sjoestedt, 1949).

  All produce left in the fields after this time belonged to the Good People and it was taboo to gather it or eat it. By many accounts the Púca was said to either spit or urinate on anything left out, especially wild berries, while in other accounts it is the fairies more generally that spit on them (MacNeill, 1962; Danaher, 1972). This may be a way to keep people from eating fruit that has gone bad or a way to be certain that the fairies are left their proper due of the wild harvest.

  New Year

  We don’t have any strong midwinter solstice traditions relating to the fairies that have been clearly preserved in folklore, but we do have beliefs from that general time of year. New Year’s Eve was another point when the fairies were thought to be more active and more likely to be encountered. In Irish belief it was said that the fairies were likely to be out and about and people should avoid traveling on New Year’s Eve to avoid danger (Evans, 1957). The house is decorated with holly on New Year’s Eve to ward off the fairies, and the last of the wheat is dressed us a harvest maiden with the belief that this will keep the fairies away until the next harvest (Campbell, 1900).

  Fairy Roads

  When the Good People travel out, whether in Fairy Rades or otherwise, they do so on established routes. These are known as fairy roads or paths and great care must be taken to avoid them on the festival days and at night, and it is also dangerous to build on them. In Ireland there were several methods for divining if the location of a new house might intersect with such a road, and these were employed before building was begin to ensure the Other Crowd weren’t angered. A small shovel might be left in the ground at the site overnight, or a line of stones set up, and if either were disturbed the next morning it indicated that the site should not be used (Evans, 1957). If a person was foolish enough to build on a fairy road anyway than the family who lived in the home would have nothing but bad luck. The milk from the cows would all be spilled, there would be noise at all hours, and in some cases people would even die (Logan, 1981). There was nothing to be done to get the fairies to change their course or reroute their road, it was the humans who had to be aware and be careful not to build on or too near them.

  Dependence on Humans

  Human and fairy life is intertwined in complex ways, and has been, I believe, possibly forever. There are aspects of this dependence that is obvious and will be discussed in greater depth in the next chapter, including the need by the Good People to take humans for both breeding stock and servants. This dependence is more complex than just what they take from us, however. It has long been a belief, for example, in homes that use fire for heat, that the fire should be kept banked but burning at night for the fairies who come in during the dark hours to warm themselves (Evans, 1957). Why do they do this? No one is certain, but it speaks of a personal level of interaction. They not only expect to be able to enter at will, but to receive a warm welcome (literally) when they are there.

  Perhaps one of the most famous areas in which the Other Crowd are known to be dependent on humans relates to childbirth, specifically the skills of the midwife. Whil
e we see Queen Mab referred to as the midwife of the fairies, generally speaking it would seem that midwives were a rare commodity and when a woman was ready to deliver a baby the fairies looked to humans for assistance. In some cases this went well, with stories of women called out into the night to deliver such babies being richly rewarded for their efforts, until – after several such deliveries – they finally realized it was a fairy and not a human child they were delivering and they were never called on again. However, in many other versions of these stories, both folkloric and anecdotal, it does not end as well with the human midwife accidentally touching one of her eyes with an ointment she was asked to anoint the newborn’s eyes with and gaining true sight into Fairy. Once this occurred and she made it known she could see the Fey Folk for what they were, if she was lucky, only the single eye that possessed the special vision was put out; if she was not lucky she would be blinded entirely. Why do they need to borrow human midwives? We could surmise that the birthrate is so low compared to human birthrates that they have no professional midwives of their own and are forced to borrow from humans to meet this critical need.

  In some cases fairies also seem to require human presence or participation in order to engage in specific activities in our world. In Celtic Twilight, W. B. Yeats relates a tale of two groups of fairies who want to have a hurling match, but need to find a human willing to play with them in order to be able to touch anything in our world. Similarly, in The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries, W. Y. Evans Wentz gives several anecdotes discussing the fairies’ need for human participants in order to have games of hurling or for two factions of the Good People to fight each other. It is possible in this case that the idea of needing a human represents the need for an anchor in world, something of this world to tie them here while they focus on competing. However, I find this somewhat questionable since in many other accounts the Fey Folk can easily go from insubstantial to substantial at will and choose to interact with things in our world, even picking people and animals up and carrying them off. It is also possible, I think, that this need for a human participant has nothing to do with making them more corporeal here and in fact represents the introduction of a neutral third party to witness the competition. A method, if you will, of keeping both sides honest.