Chapter Nine; Fairy Folk and the Witches

Nobody claims to see fairies anymore. If you come forth with fantastic tales of hauntings or abductions by alien greys you may be believed and interviewed on CNN; if you say that fairies kidnapped you, you’ll likely be drug tested or held against your will for a psychiatric exam.

Yet early in the twentieth century fairy sightings were not uncommon. Even photographic evidence was presented, the famous Cottingly snapshots made with a brownie camera by two little girls. These were pronounced genuine by no less a personage as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. If fairy sightings continue, the witnesses are largely keeping silent about them.

The phenomenom of fairies is relayed by many cultures and the term “fairy” first coined in France during the Middle Ages, adapted from the Latin word “Fata”, referring to the Greek myths of the Moirae or Fates who had servant nymphs. Other names include wee folk, good folk, gnomes, Dione See, Tautha de Dannan, and the Fay.

It is in Ireland that the fairies held the title Tautha De Danann or People of Danu. They arrived in mystic flying ships bearing with them the Stone of Destiny or Lia Fail. They placed it on the Mound of Tara, and the mystic artifact called out only to the true king of Ireland.

What exactly were these fairies? Supernatural beings that were ethereal, some considered them the spirits of the dead. The Gaelic term “Banshhee”, a spirit that haunts graveyards, means for example “fairy woman”.

Witches and fairies were closely associated in popular belief during the Middle Ages and it is evident from the records of numerous trials that they were still so connected in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

In 1431 St. Joan of Arc was questioned about her alleged dealings with fairies who haunted a certain tree and healing well near her home. Local tradition said they danced there and according to once witness at her trial said that witches sometimes danced with them. St. Joan knew these tales and probably believed them but she denied that she had seen or talked to fairies or that her mission was in any way connected with them. She admitted that as a child she had joined with other village children in singing around the fairy tree and hanging garlands upon it but the garlands she claimed were made in honor of Our Lady of Domremy. Her examiners were very persistant concerning these matters which now seemed so childish and innocent yet from their own point of view they were right to be so. For them, fairies were evil spirits and whoever willingly trafficked with them was guilty of witchcraft and heresy.