Friday, March 27, 2009

Fairy Facts


Many people use an old-world spelling: faery or faerie or even faeree. This spelling is perhaps more "authentic" as it comes from the French around the Tudor period .

Some other traditional spellings are: fayerye, fairye, fayre.
I have also noted MANY more variations...especially from the younger contributors to the journals/guestbooks. Keep in mind that this group has the highest percentage of fairy sightings, so I would not discount their interpretations out of age bias.

The list includes:
Fary, Faries, Fairys, Fairieys, Farie, Faires, Fiairys, Fare, Fareys, Farys, Fairey, Fariey, Fairs, Fire, Firye, Faireas, Faeires, Farries, Fers, Fiary(s), Farees, Fariys, Fearies, kabouter (Dutch).
Other than the Dutch contribution...the unifying elements are an "F" followed by an "R" and one or more vowel; a, e, i and/or y....with an "S" for pluralization.
Fary & Faries are the second most common spelling(s) in the journal/guestbooksafter the "common" spelling: Fairy or Fairies.

The Fae or the Fey; The WORLD of the Faerieand the inhabitants which include, but not limited to:
Fairies (regardless of spelling): At one time a "fairy" was a woman with magical powers.

Later "fairy" also meant "elves". Early on "fairies were much larger (4-5 feet tall...some MUCH larger) than our popular conception. Some say that the notion of little winged Fairies is a literary embellishment from the Victorian period. Regardless, as with most things of the magical-imagined world...they change. Folk tales/songs change with telling...they grow and shrink and become richer with time.ALL of the following beings exist in the Fairy Rhelm. Their attributes and characteristics can be debated ....(elsewhere).
Elves, Pixies, Brownies, Gnomes, Sprites, Leprechauns, Goblins, Trolls, Dwarves, Ogres.....etc

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