Fairys

Love Fairys? Me Too! Enough to draw them like crazy. But what are they? Where did they come from? Is there such a thing as a real fairy?

>Fairies History,
The Realm of the Fairy
and
how their tales grew.

Fairies History tells us that many tribal folk-stories concentrated on the beings of our Earth.

Fairies have been described as...

"the beings of flood and field",

the beings of light... that inhabit the Earth with us.

Peasants passed on the folklore around the campfire and created characters in stories that fit different situations...

and often explained natural events.

Fairy Tales History!

This history is also really fairy tales history, and it shows that as the stories developed over time they also described human relations of many kinds.

If you were to ask people in Wales or many parts of the British Isles, about the old folklore...

they would assure you that no one of this generation really believes in the fae, or of the actual existence of their realm.

But maybe they really did believe!

However...

they would also all assure you that people in previous generations really did believe and lived their lives according to the old stories.

What is interesting is that researchers have reported this attitude in rural areas for quite a few hundred years.

In fact in the last 500 years many people reported that other folk did believe...

but of course they themselves did not.

It is an amusing and intriguing thought that in many rural areas this attitude might still be reflected.

Perhaps we all have an underlying belief in things unseen.

Land of Faerie Or Fairies World

During the supposed reign of King Arthur (another story) the people of South Wales regarded North Wales as the primary Land of Faerie.

They imagined that it was the place inhabited by giants, monsters, magicians, and all the enchanted creatures.

In later times Fairy Land was reported to be located in the Vale of Neath, in lamorganshire.

A steep and rugged crag in a mountain, called Craig y Ddinas, was rumored to be the land of the fairy tribes.

Was there a King?

One King and protector of all the Fairies and Goblins was Gwyn ap Nudd.

Many times his name is mentioned in ancient Welsh poetry.

In other references Gwyn ap Nudd is known to be the King of Annwn, meaning the King of Hell or the Shadow-Land.

So you see that the Fairy folklore is all about good and evil, and the battle between them in the universe.

The Legend Of Fairies

There are also stories of a Fairy Queen named Morgana, from the name Mor Gwyn.

Avalon of Arthurian legends is an excellent example of Fairy Land.

These were islands inhabited by Fairies and would be seen by human eyes only once in a while.

Apparently, they disappeared very suddenly into the mist.

Some sailors reported that they went onto these islands, and when they returned to their ships, the islands suddenly disappeared.

In the 5th Century a British King named Gavran sailed off in search of these islands... with his family and they were never seen again.

Naughty And Nice!

There were scary fairies that were part of great oral traditions and were passed down as folk tales to scare young children into bed at night. Fairies were known to kidnap wayward youngsters.

They could also put spells young men and women - in the form of love spells, or water fairies could actually lure young men to their deaths when they pulled them to their watery depths.

Other nice fairies lived in flowers and adapted to their colors. They have been the subject of many painters, particularly in Victorian times.

Obviously Fairies History is hotly debated, and we can choose to believe what we like.

Fairie The Word

Origins of the Word Fairie evolves from many cultures. It seems to start with Homers name for centaurs, or the last syllable of the word "nympha-fee".

Fee was well known throughout Europeas an origin of Fairie The Word.

The Anglo-Saxon words "to fare" mean "to go".

Others have said that Fairy-Folk is just a quasi way of saying "Fair-Folk". It has also been asked if it were not Celtic in origin.

Fairie or Peri,...which word?

No word has been established, even by Scholars, to prove that Fairie The Word originated with either the English Fairie or the Persian Peri.

The Persian Peri Tales could have come back to Britain as "Fairie Tales" and this adds another aspect to Fairy Tale History.

This Arabian connection is sometimes overlooked.

But who could forget the Tales of the Arabian Nights, and Aladdin.

Maybe there is a reason we all remember those tales.

They are pretty ingrained in our memories

However, there is a theory that since the Arab language has no sound "p"... , it is supposed that maybe the crusaders, who might have enjoyed the Arabian/Persian "Peri-Tales" could have easily translated it into Fairie-Tales.

The languages of English and French referred to this being, as "Faerie, Fairy, or Fairie"...

while the Italians and Spanish said "Fata or Fada or Hada".

In literature these words seem to stand for the same kind of being.

Fatum, possibly the root of the word

Many scholars think that the root of the word is from the Latin "fatum".

While most writers of the 13th century considered the Fada or the Fee to be creatures other than humankind...

another opinion of that time was that the word Fee refers to such a being as nothing more than a woman skilled in magic.

Fee meaning dame or femme, or just female.

That this could be the description of witches.

I am staying away from witches here, only because there is too much to cover on that subject.

Does it mean to enchant?

There is also a latin verb "fatare" meaning to enchant.

Whatever the words mean, the stories of Fairies certainly are enchanting.

The truth about Fairy Tales History is probably lost forever and what exists are only rumors and the wonderful tales themselves.

Enchantment

So whether you believe in them or not, you can see that many people in history believed enough to give them names. The different cultures that had the little fae, proves how important these entities certainly were to human history.

The reason that I have written this whole section is to substantiate and make credible any interest you might have in fantasy art.

I believe that drawing and painting any form of the fantasy found in these pages is a fascinating and worthy pursuit.