Grimm’s Fairies Discovering the fairies of Europe’s fairy tales by Ty Hulse Sylvan Worlds Magazine WorldsRise.com 1 Table of contents What is Fairy Faith & Folk Religion - - - - 1 Many Peoples, One Origin - - - - - - - - - - -10 What are fairies - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -14 What are humans- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -17 What is the soul- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 23 What are deities?- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -32 Fairy Classifications- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 40 Fairies are the dead- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -41 Humans become fairies- - - - - - - - - - - -58 Fairies are nature spirits- - - - - - - - - - - 65 Wells, Springs and Pools- - - - - - - - - - - 70 Trees, Forests, Glens and Plants- - - - - -81 Fairies are animals- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -101 Mountains, Rocks, and Lands- - - - - - -107 Forces of nature- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 111 House, Hearth, and Field- - - - - - - - - 115 Fairies are the gods of the past - - - - - -132 Fairies as their own class of spirits- - - 139 Fairy Motivations- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 167 Common fairy traits- - - - - - - - - - - - - 171 Analysis of the fairies in fairy tales- - -189 Rumpelstiltskin - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -190 Briar Rose- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 201 Puss in Boots- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 208 Spindle, the Shuttle & the Needle - - - - 216 Bibliography- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -222 2 Section I The connection Between Fairies, Deities, Humans and the Souls 3 What is a Fairy Faith And Folk Religion? There is a moment, when your feet touch a chilly wooden floor, your hands brush against a wooden rail. The sunlight streams through a window so you can see the dust danc- ing. It's a moment when everything is perfect, a moment you cannot describe no matter how hard you try. You feel secure and safe within your home, like you're wrapped in a warm blanket yet at the same time connected to everything around you as if you were standing in the middle of the for- est. It is in these moments that you have connected to some- thing ancient, something magical. Fairies at the Threshold The world breaths, for in ancient conception humanity was surrounded by an other world, a world filled beings known by many names; as the Kami in Japan, Numen in Rome and eventually as fairies on the British Isles. These magical beings could watch over us, helping us to survive, to find love, and to achieve our goals. Their world was believed to be a world of astounding beauty, but also of inky darkness which held many dangers. Everything that happened, happened because the be- ings in this parallel world made it happen. So it wasn’t long before humans began to try to build a relationship with this world, and this is what folk religion is, it is hu- manities attempt to form a relationship with what they believed to be the living and breathing world around them. So far from a formal set of beliefs folk religions could be equated to a set of manners, a means of gain- 1 ing allies in the fairies which people believed surrounded them while they avoided making enemies. Because folk religion is about relationships people in an- cient Europe assigned motivations to fairy like beings, motivations and ideas which were passed down through fairy tales. Within their historical context then fairy tales are often as much religious stories as they are tales for entertainment or to pass on culture. These fairy tales of- ten involve peoples relationship with characters we have come to call fairies. Yet folklorist researching fairies and fairy tales have a tendency to try to analyze only the hu- man psychology of these tales and the historical events which surround them. Or they simply to discuss they simply discuss fairies the way a naturalist might discuss an interesting plant. So while there are some wonderful and fun books on fairies by researchers such as Perkiss, Briggs and Grimm - who are all brilliant folklorists - there has been very little on how the fact that people believed in fairies, on how peoples folk religions would impact fairy tales. After all people once assigned motivations to fairies and to some extent personalities which impacted peoples ac- tions and the stories they told each other. For this rea- son one cannot take peoples belief in fairies or their as- signed motivations out of our understanding of fairies, fairy tales or Europe’s history. Rather one must seek to understand the motivations which people assigned to fairies to gain a clearer picture of the meaning of fairy tales. This book attempts to understand not only the rituals and general ideas about fairies, it attempts to under- stand the motivations people assigned to them in order to better analyze the meanings of fairy tales as the arti- facts of ancient folk religions. 2 Why Understanding Folk Religion is Important What makes folk religions so interesting is that in addi- tion to the religion which was sanctioned by the upper classes, the nobles, the priests, the warriors and the wealthy; peasants would often have their own sets of beliefs, rituals and spiritual beings within these socie- ties. After all a farmer wouldn’t really have much to say to gods of war such as Zeus or Thor. Further peasants continued to retain their folk beliefs even after Christi- anity became the dominant religion of the upper castes. People still sacrificed to the spirits of the harvest, still danced and feasted to appease fairies, and still con- cerned themselves with what the spirits of rocks felt over a thousand years after the noble classes had con- verted. The survival of the folk religion even after people con- verted to Christianity means that its also very likely that in addition to continuing after Christianity became the predominant religion of the noble class, folk religions retained elements of Pre-Indo-European, Pre-Altaic and Pre-Uralic belief systems. Because of this Folk Religions are often times as close to the original belief systems of a region as we can get, after all they have been passed down from parent to child for thousands of years. It is true that Folk Religions have adapted and changed, tak- 3 ing in elements of other religions, but some of the origi- nal belief system likely remains in many of Europe’s folk religions. In other words we can come to a better under- standing of ancient cultures by understanding the folk religions which were passed down to their decedents. Main Features of Folk Religions Although there are some exceptions to the following points the majority of Eurasian Folk Religions have the following things in common. Folk Religions are About Relationships The goal of a folk religion for the adherents of the reli- gion is to develop and maintain a good relationship with the millions of magical beings which surround them such as; spirits, fairies, kami, keremet, the universe it- self, etc. This means maintaining a good relations with nature and ancestors, being respectful and ‘unpolluted.’ Internal Duelism Unlike Christianity in which the Deity has an external opposite (Satan). The nature, ancestral and other spirits within a folk religion often didn’t have an opposing be- ing, rather they acted as their own opposite. Hermes, who was likely a Ugric folk religious figure before be- coming a major Greek figure, was the deity of bandits and merchants. The fairies who helped the crops to grow were also dangerous and would cause farmers to grow ill. Just as with the Chinese Concept of Yin and Yang most beings had opposing forces within them- selves. Multiple Souls Many of the Eurasian folk religions believed that nearly everything including humans and most especially kami, fairies, etc had multiple souls. In Japan one of these souls was creative, another was neutral and the last was destructive. 4 Altering the Mood of the Spirit Because most supernatural beings are internally dualis- tic and have multiple souls its important to make cer- tain that their creative, or most helpful soul manifests itself rather than the destructive one. Thus the rituals, prayers and actions taken in folk religion are about making these spirit beings feel creative, while avoiding causing destructive feelings within them. Practical Purposes Are Key Many of what have become the mainstream religions fo- cus on spirituality with regards to the afterlife, even the actions taken in life are meant to be rewarded or pun- ished in death. Folk Religions focus primarily on the life in which we are living. They are about honor, purity and most especially about accomplishing immediate tasks such as bringing in a good harvest, crafting good metal work, etc. Supernatural Beings Aren’t Much Greater Than Hu- manity Supernatural beings are often not much if at all greater than humanity in physical strength or even ability. In many ways the supernatural beings which people build relationships with in folk religion could compared to the idea wizards, witches and shamans. So they aren’t wor- shipped as all powerful beings, rather they are respect- ed as one might respect a wise person. They are also of- ten loved intimately as many of them are local beings or ancestral spirits. Humans Can Become These Magical Beings Ancestor worship is common in folk religions, what’s more human souls can become tree, water, and other nature spirits. In other words humans can become the spiritual beings of folk religion, both in the after life and before it. 5 Contracted Relationships are Important People often make contracts with deities, spirits, kami, fairies, etc. which specify what a person must do and for the being and what it must do for the human in return. Thus rituals and offerings can be considered to be the fulfillment of a contract. 6 A Search for Deeper Understanding Fairies lend their good names to perhaps the most pow- erful tales of all, yet these tales are almost never about them. Indeed, fairies are often no more than stock char- acters in fairy tales that move the story along.