Editing Fairy (section)

== Legends ==
Sometimes fairies are described as assuming the guise of an animal.<ref>Briggs, K. M. (1967) ''The Fairies in English Tradition and Literature''. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. p. 71.</ref> In Scotland, it was peculiar to the fairy women to assume the shape of deer; while witches became mice, hares, cats, gulls, or black sheep. In "The Legend of [[Knockshigowna]]", in order to frighten a farmer who pastured his herd on fairy ground, a fairy queen took on the appearance of a great horse, with the wings of an eagle, and a tail like a dragon, hissing loud and spitting fire. Then she would change into a little man lame of a leg, with a bull's head, and a lambent flame playing round it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/flat/flat01.htm|title= The Legend of Knocksheogowna|publisher=Internet Sacred Text Archive |work=Fairy Legends and Traditions |first1=Thomas |last1=Crofton Croker |date=1825 }}</ref>

In the 19th-century [[Child ballad]] "[[Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight]]", the elf-knight is a [[Bluebeard]] figure, and Isabel must trick and kill him to preserve her life.<ref name="ChildBallads">Child, Francis ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads''.</ref> The child ballad "[[Tam Lin]]" reveals that the title character, though living among the fairies and having fairy powers, was, in fact, an "earthly knight" and though his life was pleasant ''now'', he feared that the fairies would pay him as their [[tithe|teind]] (tithe) to hell.<ref name="ChildBallads" />

"[[Sir Orfeo]]" tells how Sir Orfeo's wife was kidnapped by the King of Faerie and only by trickery and an excellent harping ability was he able to win her back. "Sir Degare" narrates the tale of a woman overcome by her fairy lover, who in later versions of the story is unmasked as a mortal. "[[Thomas the Rhymer]]" shows Thomas escaping with less difficulty, but he spends seven years in Elfland.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch037.htm |title=The Child Ballads: 37. Thomas Rymer |publisher=Sacred-texts.com |access-date=2012-08-15}}</ref> [[Oisín]] is harmed not by his stay in Faerie but by his return; when he dismounts, the three centuries that have passed catch up with him, reducing him to an aged man.<ref>Briggs (1967) p. 104.</ref> King Herla (O.E. ''"Herla cyning"''), originally a guise of Woden but later Christianised as a king in a tale by [[Walter Map]], was said, by Map, to have visited a [[Dwarf (mythology)|dwarf]]'s underground mansion and returned three centuries later; although only some of his men crumbled to dust on dismounting, Herla and his men who did not dismount were trapped on horseback, this being one account of the origin of the [[Wild Hunt]] of [[European folklore]].<ref>Briggs (1967) pp. 50–51.</ref><ref>De Nugis Curiallium by Walter Map, Edited by F. Tupper & M.B Ogle (Chatto & Windus, London 1924)</ref>

A common feature of the fairies is the use of magic to disguise their appearance. ''Fairy gold'' is notoriously unreliable, appearing as [[gold]] when paid but soon thereafter revealing itself to be leaves, [[gorse]] blossoms, [[gingerbread]] cakes, or a variety of other comparatively worthless things.<ref>Lenihan (2004) pp. 109–10.</ref>

These illusions are also implicit in the tales of ''[[fairy ointment]]''. Many tales from [[Northern Europe]]<ref name="kerven">''Northumberland Folk Tales'', by Rosalind Kerven (2005) Antony Rowe Ltd, p. 532.</ref><ref>Narváez, Peter (1997) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=DLmoKKkxAX0C The Good People: New Fairylore Essays]''. University Press of Kentucky. p. 126</ref> tell of a mortal woman summoned to attend a fairy birth — sometimes attending a mortal, kidnapped woman's childbed. Invariably, the woman is given something for the child's eyes, usually an ointment; through mischance, or sometimes curiosity, she uses it on one or both of her own eyes. At that point, she sees where she is; one midwife realizes that she was not attending a great lady in a fine house but her own runaway maid-servant in a wretched cave. She escapes without making her ability known but sooner or later betrays that she can see the fairies. She is invariably blinded in that eye or in both if she used the ointment on both.<ref>Briggs (1976) "Fairy ointment" p. 156.</ref>

There have been claims by people in the past, like [[William Blake]], to have seen fairy funerals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Woodyard |first=Chris |date=2022 |title=Poets, Pipes, and Petals: Some Accounts of Fairy Funerals |url=https://www.academia.edu/81837759 |journal=Fairy Investigation Society Newsletter |volume=16 |pages=17–25}}</ref> [[Allan Cunningham (author)|Allan Cunningham]] in his ''Lives of Eminent British Painters'' records that William Blake claimed to have seen a fairy funeral:
<blockquote>
'Did you ever see a fairy's funeral, madam?' said Blake to a lady who happened to sit next to him. 'Never, sir!' said the lady. 'I have,' said Blake, 'but not before last night.' And he went on to tell how, in his garden, he had seen 'a procession of creatures of the size and colour of green and grey grasshoppers, bearing a body laid out on a rose-leaf, which they buried with songs, and then disappeared.' They are believed to be an omen of death.
</blockquote>

=== {{lang|ga|Tuatha Dé Danann}} ===
{{Main|Tuatha Dé Danann|l1={{lang|ga|Tuatha Dé Danann|nocat=y}}}}
The {{lang|ga|Tuatha Dé Danann}} are a race of supernaturally-gifted people in Irish mythology. They are thought to represent the main deities of pre-Christian Ireland. Many of the [[Irish mythology|Irish]] modern tales of the {{lang|ga|Tuatha Dé Danann}} refer to these beings as fairies, though in more ancient times they were regarded as [[goddess]]es and [[god]]s. The {{lang|ga|Tuatha Dé Danann}} were spoken of as having come from islands in the north of the world or, in other sources, from the sky. After being victorious in a series of battles with other otherworldly beings, and then being defeated by the ancestors of the current [[Irish people]], they were said to have withdrawn to the {{lang|ga|sídhe}} (fairy mounds), where they lived on in popular imagination as "fairies".{{citation needed|date=March 2012}}

They are associated with several Otherworld realms including {{lang|ga|[[Mag Mell]]}} ('the Pleasant Plain'), {{lang|ga|[[Emain Ablach]]}} ('the place of apples'), and {{lang|ga|[[Tir na nÓg]]}} ('the Land of Youth').

=== {{lang|ga|Aos Sí}} ===
{{Main|Aos Sí|l1={{lang|ga|Aos Sí|nocat=y}}}}
The '''{{lang|ga|aos sí}}''' is the Irish term for a supernatural race in [[Irish mythology|Irish]], comparable to the fairies or elves. They are variously said to be ancestors, the spirits of nature, or goddesses and gods.<ref name=Wentz>[[Walter Evans-Wentz|Evans Wentz, W. Y.]] (1966, 1990) [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/ffcc/ The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries]. Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe Humanities Press {{ISBN|0-901072-51-6}}</ref> A common theme found among the Celtic nations describes a race of people who had been driven out by invading humans. In old Celtic fairy lore the {{lang|ga|Aos Sí}} ('people of the fairy mounds') are immortals living in the ancient barrows and cairns. The Irish [[banshee]] ([[Irish language|Irish Gaelic]] {{lang|ga|bean sí}}, previously {{lang|ga|bean sídhe}}, 'woman of the fairy mound') is sometimes described as a ghost.<ref name="Briggs5">Briggs (1976) p. 15.</ref>

=== Scottish {{lang|gd|Sìthe}} ===
{{Main|Aos Sí|l1 = {{lang|ga|Aos Sí|nocat=y}}}}
In the 1691 ''The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies'', Reverend [[Robert Kirk (folklorist)|Robert Kirk]], minister of the Parish of [[Aberfoyle, Stirling]], Scotland, wrote:

<blockquote>
These Siths or Fairies they call {{lang|gd|Sleagh Maith}} or the Good People...are said to be of middle nature between Man and Angel, as were Daemons thought to be of old; of intelligent fluidous Spirits, and light changeable bodies (lyke those called Astral) somewhat of the nature of a condensed cloud, and best seen in twilight. These bodies be so pliable through the sublety of Spirits that agitate them, that they can make them appear or disappear at pleasure<ref name="Kirk">{{cite book|last=Kirk|first=Robert|author2=Lang, Andrew|title=The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies|publisher=Forgotten Books|location=Aberfoyle, Scotland|date=28 December 2007|series=Easy Reading Series|page=39|chapter=1. Of the subterranean inhabitants|isbn=978-1-60506-185-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LjVWCbtiTbEC&q=clouds|access-date=30 April 2010}}</ref>
</blockquote>