Episode 6 - Fairies

As the sun sets on a sleepy town, you prepare your evenings offering.

You place the saucer of milk on your front step, just outside the door.

You make sure the basin of water is clear and cold.

The eggshells from the morning’s breakfast are shattered finely, leaving no large pieces intact.

And finally, you check the remnants from dinner. Each wine glass has been left with a few sips, each plate with a few bites.

Everything is in order, and you make your way to sleep.

Fairies, the Aos Si or the Sidhe, are central to the folklore of many regions in Europe.

And stories about them range the gamete from comedy to tragedy.

Horror stories, love stories, they demonstrate the wide expanse of human emotion.

And they provide roots for a number of superstitions.

The fair folk come out at night, that is known.

And they find their way to the smoldering embers of the houses near their sidhe mounds.

They drain the wine-cups, and finish the scraps of dinner left for them.

They drink the fresh milk and bathe in small vessels of pure water.

And if they are pleased with the offerings, they return the favor of hospitality with luck.

They are not ungrateful after all.

However, visits from fairies are one thing.

Other superstitions warn about how to keep them from roosting within your home.

The presence of such a spirit can cause all manner of mischief or misfortune.

To prevent such a disturbance, you must ensure that you have shut and locked all the drawers in your home, lest they dwell within them.

And you must make sure to completely break apart any egg shells within your home. An intact half-shell can serve easily as home to a small and mischief making spirit.

This is a story about fairies.

More correctly, this is many stories about fairies.

There are so many varieties and groupings of fairy, I will not even try to cover them all, but hopefully I can offer some small slice of insight into these rich stories.

Fairy Stories are a mirror. Fairies are exaggerated versions of us, of humanity, in many ways. And they often serve to teach valuable lessons.

Join me as I travel to the Otherworld and back. Today we fly with the fairy hosts, deal with the royal Courts of the Otherworld, and pay our respects to an ancient tree.

I am Andrew Eagle. And I would like to invite you to follow me as I go Through the Veil.

At the most basic level, scholars of folklore define three distinct groups of fairy.

The first are the Trooping Fairies.

Trooping Fairies form large processions, organize into courts, and generally live in large groups in the Otherworld.

All fairies are, to an extent, mischievous and can be dangerous.

In general, though, the Trooping Fairies are represented as kind-hearted, willing to warn humans who risk offending them and to return kindness with favors.

Additionally, Trooping Fairies include the nobility and aristocracy of the fairy world.

These rulers are often found leading long processions of fairies across the land under the light of the moon.

The second are the Solitary Fairies.

They tend to be malicious and downright malevolent toward humans, although there are exceptions.

The third are the domesticated fairies.

These are fairies that for one reason or another have chosen or been recruited to live in a human household.

Domesticated fairies often serve some role, or provide a service to the household where they dwell.

Examples of the domesticated fairy would include brownies.

A fairy spirit that would come out at night to perform simple chores around the house and farm in exchange for the offering of a bowl of milk or cream.

If they feel insulted or disrespected, a brownie would leave the home forever.

They are prideful things.

You know better than to be caught out on the road after dark.

Somehow though, you lost track of time.

Maybe the way was longer, or the day shorter.

And so, you find yourself still hurrying down the road as the sun sets.

You crest the hill just as twilight settles across the countryside, and you see them.

A whole line of them, stretching back along the road.

At least fifty, more. Beautiful and terrible, tall and tiny.

The fair folk cross the land. They wear gold and green, red and orange. Brilliant splashes of color.

As they draw near, several of the smaller members of the procession flutter forward on gossamer wings.

They alight on your shoulders and your head, tugging lightly at your hair, and giggling.

You are utterly enchanted in the moment. How could you possibly resist?

Shortly, you are walking with the procession. Without any regard for direction or the home you are trying to return to.

You have been caught in a fairy rade. And you know it. But you do not care.

You laugh with them, and drink with them. You remember enough not to eat of their food. To eat of the fairy world is to be trapped there.

But you are also careful. When you refuse, you do so with the utmost respect.

Suddenly, you know it is time for you to leave. You bow to your wondrous companions and wish them well.

They call you friend and thank you for your kindness before vanishing into the woods as fast as they had come.

You wait for a moment, and then, with a sigh, begin to try to find your way home.

You find the road before you hear the sounds.

At first, you cannot discern them. It sounds like… maybe… voices.

Shortly they gain definition, hoots and cries and screams and laughter.

It is an ugly cacophony of sound. And with it comes a deep, cold fear.

The Unseelie host is stalking the land.

You do the only thing you can. You run.

You can hear them catching up. You know if they reach you they will lift you into the air.

Assault you with heavy sticks. Perhaps worse. They may even carry you all the way back to their Otherworld.

Your breath burns in your lungs, your legs are already heavy with exhaustion and you can hear their laughing and hissing grow closer.

Then, just as you think you will surely be caught, a figure pulls you into the woods.

The host streams by, hideous forms and monstrous creatures, rushing without noticing your disappearance.

You turn to see your rescuer and see one of the green-haired members of the glorious procession.

“You are a friend to us,” the figure says, “The Unseelie will not harm you this night.”

A concept more common in Scottish fairy stories than their Irish counterparts, some fairies are separated into one of two courts.

The two courts are the Seelie Court and Unseelie Court.

Seelie is a Middle English and Scots word meaning happy or lucky.

Which means Unseelie means unhappy, cursed, or unholy.

The Seelie Court is known by several other names across literature.

The Shining Throne, the Golden Ones, or the Summer Court are among the more common titles.

In general, the Seelie Court is friendly to humans.

They are likely to seek the help of humans, and repay kindness with kindness.

If a human offends them accidentally, they are often shown to warn the offender, rather than punish them.

This is not to say they are “good.”

Fairies of the Seelie Court are prone to mischief and enjoy to pull pranks on humans.

In addition, if they feel they have been truly offended, they will take vengeance against the perpetrator.

That still puts them a fair step better than the Unseelie Court.

Otherwise known as the Winter Court, the Unseelie fairies need no motivation to cause havoc on humanity.

They often gather a large host at night and assault travelers, carrying them along into the air, beating them and forcing them to commit dangerous acts.

Just as the Seelie Court is not always benevolent, there are stories of Unseelie fairies becoming fond of a particularly respectful or interesting human.

They tend to keep such people as something of a pet.

Your new friend, beautiful and strange, with the green hair, leads you through the woods.

They walk with a casual grace that reminds you of the farm cats that prowl the farms near your home.

You realize, after no short time, that they are leading you toward your home.

It is a winding, circuitous route, but nonetheless, it will bring you to your front door in time.

When you ask your companion how they know where you live, they shrug and respond.

“My home is there too.”

You do not press anymore. You sense that to do so would be rude.

As night continues toward dawn, you are exhausted, but press on behind your guide.

Then you break through the trees once more.

In the distance, you can see home.

The modest house, the small stable, the pasture nearby.

The humble stretch of well-kept fields interrupted in their very center by a massive ash tree.

The tree has been there as long as you can remember. Since before your parents built the house and tended the fields.

You step from the trees and into the farmland.

The sound of light footsteps behind you give you pause and you turn to see your fairy guide following you now.

They continue to follow until you pass near the tree, you give it a wide berth as usual.

You know what happens to those who damage a fairy tree.

Your traveling companion stops at the base of the tree, laying their hand upon its bark gently.

“This is where we part ways for now.”

You smile at them. And nod.

“You have tended our tree well, and for that you have been part of our procession. You are friend to the Seelie Court.”

Then they vanish beneath the roots of the tree, back to their otherworld before the light of the sun begins its crawl along the land.

You finally make your way home. Bewildered, and tired, but safe.

Fairy Trees hold within their roots, or perhaps their branches, doorways to the Otherworld.

These doors are layered with protective magic, to keep the sidhe’s access between worlds safe.

They are almost always a Hawthorn or Ash tree, and are often surrounded by a circle of stones surrounding the base.

The source of the stones is up for debate, with some claiming the locals placed them there, and others saying it is the wee folk themselves.

Should someone damage a tree protecting such a gateway, they are cursed with a lifetime of misfortune.

This means that believers in these stories are leery of even touching such a tree.

To this day, these fairy trees are left alone, even when it is inconvenient.

It is not uncommon to see a perfectly cultivated farm with a Fairy tree standing untouched in the center.

There are also several reports from around Ireland of road work stopping entirely if the proposed route would require removing a Fairy Tree.

Workers have refused to touch the tree, and more often than not, the road is rerouted slightly to by-pass the tree entirely.

There is one story in particular that I enjoy with a more modern setting.

Although I could not find any evidence of the event, the story goes that DeLorean, the car manufacture, cut down a fairy tree to construct a manufacturing plant.

Suffice to say that some blame that action for the immediate decline and eventual failure of DeLorean.

Fairies are present in one form or another in many regions’ folklore.

They are friend and foe, ally and enemy.

They are mischievous and chaotic, but always repay their debts.

Fairy stories present to us an attractive version of the world.

A version where kindness to a stranger may be repaid with magic.

Where respect for nature, and those that dwell there can change your luck for the better.

A version of reality where doing good is rewarded and doing bad is punished.

The appeal, to me, is obvious.

I hope that you have enjoyed this episode of Through the Veil.

If you found your time well spent, I encourage you to subscribe to hear new episodes weekly wherever you listen as we continue our exploration of folk stories, myth, and magic.

If you are enjoying the show, and you have topics you would like to hear covered: Please email me at throughtheveilpodcast@gmail.com or reach out on  Twitter @ThroughVeil

As always, thank you, for listening.