The word "faeries" does not appear until
relitively late, around the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. It derived from the
earlier fays, which was borrowed from the Old French faes. The origin of the latter word
is disputed, but the largest consensus is that it derived from the latin Fatae, the three
fates who sometimes attended the birth of great men and made pronouncements as to their
fate. This motif was still present when Perrault and others recorded their courtly French
faerie tales, in the form of the fairy godmother.
Faerie (in various spellings, for instance, fayerie) originally
meant a state of enchantment or glamour. For instance in Chaucer's tale of the Wife of
Bath:
"In th' olde dayes of the kyng arthour,
Of which that britons speken greet honour,
Al was this land fulfild of fayerye."
In Spenser's time the word still had a trisyllabic pronunciation
(see the definition of Faerie in the Oxford English Dictionary for more information). Now
the term fairy includes a wide range of spirits and beings. A list (by no means all
inclusive) might include the following:
The Daoine Sidhe of Ireland and the Highlands, and their ancestors the Tuatha de Danann.
The Seelie Court and the Unseelie Court of Scotland. The elves (aelf, aelves) of
Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian myth. The tylwyth teg of Wales. The pixies of Devon and
Cornwall. The previous are often called trooping fairies, for they are often seen in
groups dancing on moonlit moors, riding about in a fairy rade, or in other courtly
activities.
There are also the solitary fairies, and this group
includes countless beings, such as (and again, this list is certainly not complete): The
domestic fairies, such as the brownie, bwca, and the hobgoblins. The trickster fairies,
exemplified by the Shakespearean Puck, and including the Irish phooka, the Welsh pwca, the
Fir Darrig and the ignus fatuus (will-o'-the-wisp) and Robin Goodfellow. The malicious
redcap of Scotland. The lonely banshee of Ireland and her Scottish sister, the bean-nighe.
The well-known Lepracaun.
Many other species are trouble causers, such as the boggart, the bogie, and the bogle.
There are aslo the kelpie and the mermaid and the many
spirits of the lakes, rivers, lochs, and seas of Europe. There are many other spirits or
monsters that sometimes are classified among the fairy folk, such as the English giants
(and the Irish Firbolgs), the hags and witches, the ghosts of the dead, and other spirits
like the fetch.
There are also fairy animals, such as black dogs and
fairy dogs; fairy cats or fairies taking the forms of cats, and the fairy cattle of
Ireland and elsewhere.
For a detailed listing of these faeries and more, go here.
