fairy

Supernatural being found in mythology and folklore around the world. Fairies are often represented as tiny, winged sprites, sometimes good, sometimes evil, who possess a mysterious power over human destinies. They also often appear in full-sized human shape.

Fairies are soulless beings, but by marriage with a human they can gain immortality. If they leave their own country to marry and live with humans they are usually bound by some condition, which, if ignored, brings disaster. According to another superstition, fairies have to pay a yearly tribute to the powers of hell, and for this purpose they are always trying to steal children, leaving changelings in their place. Adults, too, have sometimes been lured into fairyland, and are rarely able to return. A human is doomed if he or she eats fairy food.

Fairies have traditionally been divided into good and bad. For example, in the European fairy tale ‘The Sleeping Beauty’, there are six fairies, five of whom give good gifts, but the sixth curses the child.

Origins and forms of fairies The fairies of Germanic and Celtic folklore probably owe much to the sirens, nymphs, and fauns of classical mythology. They have also often taken the form of beautiful women who beguile men by their charms. Such were the Sicilian sirens, whose singing had a fatal attraction for seafarers. There are fairy lovers in Homer, elf-maids in Scandinavian literature, and Robert Louis Stevenson, in Island Nights' Entertainments, says that they are not uncommon in Samoa.