Shaaman - Fairy Tale

Peaceful Fairy

Thumbelina

This story was always one of my all time favorites as a child. I use to pretend I was Thumbelina because I was small for my age. The best part of the story to me was when she nursed the swallow to good health and then helped her escape the mole. No wonder I like to work at The American Red Cross!

When the story begins, a woman receives a magic seed from a crone. Once planted, a tiny girl emerges from its flower. The woman names the child Thumbelina.

One night, Thumbelina is asleep in her walnut-shell cradle and is carried off by a toad who wants the miniature girl as a daughter-in-law. Thumbelina escapes the toad and her son, and drifts on a lily pad until becoming the captive of a beetle.

The beetle discards her when his friends reject her company. Thumbelina tries to protect herself from the elements but when winter comes she is in desperate straits.

She is finally given shelter by a field mouse and tends the mouse's home in return. The mouse suggests Thumbelina marry her neighbor, a mole. Thumbelina finds the prospect of being married to a mole unattractive and escapes the situation by fleeing to a far land with a swallow she nursed back to health during the winter.

In a field of flowers, Thumbelina meets a fairy prince just her size and they wed. Thumbelina receives a pair of wings to accompany her husband on his travels from flower to flower.

Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tale Book

Here is a cool site for kids of all ages to enjoy!

This site is wonderful for kids who are just swimming in the ESL literature world. It contains classic folk stories and fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen.

http://www.andersenfairytales.com/en/main

A fairy (also fay, fey, faery, faerie; collectively, "fae" wee folk, good folk, people of peace, fair folk, and other euphemisms) is a type of mythological being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.
The word fairy derives from the term fae of medieval Western European (Old French) folklore and romance, one famous example being Morgan De Fay ('Morgan of the Fae'). "Fae-ery" was therefore everything that appertains to the "fae", and so the land of "fae", all the "fae". Finally the word replaced its original and one could speak of "a faery or fairy", though the word fey is still used as an adjective. 'Fae' is the plural, 'Faery' is the singular.
Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term fairy offers many definitions. Sometimes the term describes any magical creature, including goblins or gnomes: at other times, the term only describes a specific type of more ethereal creature.

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

Fairies and Moon

Our sweet love materializedas from a wizard's wand,
flowered and took rootbeneath the fairy tale moon,
our coming togetheras magicalas nothing ever could bein our fragmented lives,
you my bejeweled princessbathed in satin and lace,
and me the exiled knightfrom beyond the furthest ocean,
loving each otherwith gentle passionen route from Old Europe,
beyond the grim travailsof the cheap,
hateful world,chanting spellsIn heated whispers,
surrendering to the other'smagical touch,
swayed by night spirits,lavished with love's richness,
holding each other tenderlybeneath the fairy tale moon.

From the chapbook, Love The Illusive Emotion, Caro-Lynn Publication, 1995