Editing Fairy (section)

== In literature ==
[[File:Johann Heinrich Füssli 058.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.3|''Prince Arthur and the [[The Faerie Queene|Faerie Queene]]'' by [[Johann Heinrich Füssli]] ({{c.|1788}}); scene from ''The Faerie Queene'']]

The word ''fairy'' was used to describe an individual inhabitant of Faerie before the time of [[Chaucer]].<ref name=Kready />

Fairies appeared in [[Chivalric romance|medieval romances]] as one of the beings that a [[knight errant]] might encounter. A fairy lady appeared to [[Sir Launfal]] and demanded his love; like the fairy bride of ordinary folklore, she imposed a prohibition on him that in time he violated. [[Sir Orfeo]]'s wife was carried off by the King of Faerie. [[Huon of Bordeaux]] is aided by King [[Oberon]].<ref name="Lewis129-30">Lewis (1994) pp. 129–30.</ref> These fairy characters dwindled in number as the medieval era progressed; the figures became wizards and enchantresses.<ref name="Briggs132">Briggs (1976). "Fairies in medieval romances". p. 132.</ref>

The oldest fairies on record in England were first described by the historian Gervase of Tilbury in the 13th century.<ref name=Castelow>{{cite web|url=http://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Origins-of-Fairies/|title=The Origins and History of Fairies}}</ref>

In the 1485 book {{lang|fr|[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]}}, [[Morgan le Fay]], whose connection to the realm of Faerie is implied in her name, is a woman whose magic powers stem from study.<ref>Briggs (1976) ''Morgan Le Fay'' p. 303.</ref> While somewhat diminished with time, fairies never completely vanished from the tradition. ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]'' is a 14th-century tale, but the Green Knight himself is an otherworldly being.<ref name="Briggs132" /> [[Edmund Spenser]] featured fairies in his 1590 book ''[[The Faerie Queene]]''.<ref>Briggs (1976) ''Faerie Queen'', p. 130.</ref> In many works of fiction, fairies are freely mixed with the [[nymph]]s and [[satyr]]s of classical tradition,<ref>Briggs (1967) p. 174.</ref> while in others (e.g., [[Lamia (poem)|Lamia]]), they were seen as displacing the Classical beings. 15th-century poet and monk [[John Lydgate]] wrote that [[King Arthur]] was crowned in "the land of the fairy" and taken in his death by four fairy queens, to [[Avalon]], where he lies under a "fairy hill" until he is needed again.<ref>''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fairies'', Anna Franklin, Sterling Publishing Company, 2004, p. 18.</ref>

[[File:Sir Joseph Noel Paton - The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania - Google Art Project 2.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.3|''The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania'' by [[Joseph Noel Paton]] (1849): fairies in [[Shakespeare]]]]

Fairies appear as significant characters in [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'', which is set simultaneously in the woodland and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the Moon<ref>{{cite book|title=The Arden Shakespeare "A Midsummer Night's Dream"|last=Shakespeare |first=William| editor=Harold F. Brooks| publisher=Methuen & Co. Ltd.|year=1979|page=cxxv |isbn=0-415-02699-7|no-pp=true}}</ref> and in which a disturbance of nature caused by a fairy dispute creates tension underlying the plot and informing the actions of the characters. According to Maurice Hunt, Chair of the English Department at Baylor University, the blurring of the identities of fantasy and reality makes possible "that pleasing, narcotic dreaminess associated with the fairies of the play".<ref>Hunt, Maurice. "Individuation in A Midsummer Night's Dream". ''South Central Review'' 3.2 (Summer 1986): 1–13.</ref>

Shakespeare's contemporary [[Michael Drayton]] features fairies in his ''Nimphidia'', and from these stem [[Alexander Pope]]'s sylphs of the 1712 poem ''[[The Rape of the Lock]]''. In the mid-17th century the French literary style {{lang|fr|[[précieuses]]}} took up the oral tradition of such tales to write [[fairy tale]]s, and [[Madame d'Aulnoy]] invented the term {{lang|fr|contes de fée}} ('fairy tale').<ref>Zipes, Jack (2000) ''The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm''. W.W. Norton. p. 858 {{ISBN|0-393-97636-X}}.</ref> While the tales told by the {{lang|fr|précieuses}} included many fairies, they were less common in other countries' tales; indeed, the [[Brothers Grimm]] included fairies in their first edition but decided this was not authentically German and altered the language in later editions, changing each {{lang|de|Fee}} ("fairy") to an enchantress or wise woman.<ref>Tatar, Maria (2003) ''The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales''. Princeton University Press. p. 31 {{ISBN|0-691-06722-8}}.</ref> [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] described these tales as taking place in the land of Faerie.<ref>Tolkien, J. R. R. "On Fairy-Stories", ''The Tolkien Reader'', pp. 10–11.</ref> Additionally, not all folktales that feature fairies are generally categorized as fairy tales.

The modern depiction of fairies was shaped in the literature of [[Romanticism]] during the [[Victorian era]]. Writers such as [[Walter Scott]] and [[James Hogg]] were inspired by folklore which featured fairies, such as the ''[[Border ballad]]s''. This era saw an increase in the popularity of collecting fairy folklore and an increase in the creation of original works with fairy characters.<ref>Briggs, (1967) pp. 165–67.</ref> In [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s 1906 book of short stories and poems, ''[[Puck of Pook's Hill]]'', [[Puck (folklore)|Puck]] holds to scorn the moralizing fairies of other Victorian works.<ref>Briggs (1967) p. 203.</ref> The period also saw a revival of older themes in [[fantasy]] literature, such as C.S. Lewis's [[Narnia]] books, which, while featuring many such classical beings as [[faun]]s and [[dryad]]s, mingles them freely with [[hag]]s, [[giant]]s, and other creatures of the folkloric fairy tradition.<ref>Briggs (1967) p. 209.</ref> Victorian [[flower fairies]] were popularized in part by [[Mary of Teck|Queen Mary]]'s keen interest in fairy art and by British illustrator and poet [[Cicely Mary Barker]]'s series of eight books published in 1923 through 1948. Imagery of fairies in literature became prettier and smaller as time progressed.<ref>"Lewis pp. 129–30".</ref> [[Andrew Lang]], complaining of "the fairies of polyanthuses and gardenias and apple blossoms" in the introduction to ''[[The Lilac Fairy Book]]'' (1910), observed that: "These fairies try to be funny, and fail; or they try to preach, and succeed."<ref>Lang, Andrew [http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/lilac.htm Preface ''The Lilac Fairy Book''].</ref>

A story of the origin of fairies appears in a chapter about [[Peter Pan]] in [[J. M. Barrie]]'s 1902 novel ''[[The Little White Bird]]'', and was incorporated into his later works about the character. Barrie wrote: "When the first baby laughed for the first time, his laugh broke into a million pieces, and they all went skipping about. That was the beginning of fairies."<ref>J. M. Barrie, ''Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens'' and ''Peter and Wendy'', Oxford Press, 1999, p. 32.</ref> Fairies are seen in [[Neverland]], in ''[[Peter and Wendy]]'', the 1911 novel version of [[J. M. Barrie]]'s famous [[Peter Pan]] stories, and its character [[Tinker Bell]] has become a pop culture icon. When Peter Pan is guarding Wendy from pirates, the story says: "After a time he fell asleep, and some unsteady fairies had to climb over him on their way home from an orgy. Any of the other boys obstructing the fairy path at night they would have mischiefed, but they just tweaked Peter's nose and passed on."<ref>J. M. Barrie, ''Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens as well Peter and Wendy'', Oxford Press, 1999, p. 132.</ref>