As is customary, I wanted to gift my readers and visitors with new fiction to mark the ending of the calendar year. Fortunately, this was possible! Two new stories have been posted in Domus Exsulis and they may or may not be read in sequence. They do complete the set of events that spiralled out of the Festival of Songs stories and which meandered into Kieran’s part of the storytelling web before intersecting with other stories. I never really planned for Erna’s story to barrel through so many other stories this way, it just happened. If you’d like to make her acquaintance within sequence, do consult the storytelling index.

The two new stories:

In which a fortuitous projectile fractures something other than its target
House Slippers and a Swerving Corridor

*

In other news, I have updated Myth, Folklore and Fairytales Online: An Annotated List, as well as the latest edition of Anansi’s Trail. I’ll probably bring out another edition next week as I’ve recently been made aware of some very lovely faerie tale blogs that I’d like to share! Also, the Mythic Folk Treeboards is now open, and members have started posting their fiction, poems and reviews. Due to a minor influx of human spam-mongers, I have closed member registration, but if you are really interested in being a part of the community as well as being a possible contributor, do email me your preferred ID and what your focus/interest is. I’ll register you and provide you with a password that you can change. My email ID at gmail is mythopoetica.

If you’re getting these posts via RSS, do be aware that all three sites have now been given a facelift! I am still working on the background for Domus Exsulis and Growing Fins, though, so it is a work in progress and there may be tiny changes from week to week!

When I think of electronic fiction back in the nineties, I think of illumined words in darkness and sparkling lights. Doubtless, some of this would be caused by what is becoming a nineties web-page joke: animated gifs, embedded midis and texts that sometimes glistened with starling truths but which often fell down, sluggish with over-glittered kitsch and clichés. Some succeeded, some didn’t. Over a decade has passed. Some of the texts that I enjoyed and I would have liked to link to have disappeared into the ether. Some of the authors remain, but have either moved on to print media or have done other venues and projects on the internet. But works of magic still exist, and still glisten on this world of wires, signals, binaries and hexadecimals. They will continue to inspire and be inspired by print media, and there will be crossovers in either direction.

Storm-etched Phonemes

I have been writing in this medium for over a decade now, and when I began, my ultimate goal was, as it is now, the print media. My own vision of a faerie isle bathed by the light of the storm, which I began in 1997, owed something to various manifestations of the Amor and Psyche story, as well as the Countess d’Aulnoy’s Laidronette. As with many other purveyors and lovers of myth and fairytales, this expanded into its own tale, with its own set of mythologems. It was not perfect, I was very young and very inexperienced when I started writing about a mad dwarven perfumer named Ipede Dwinkum, and an equally mad young princess who disappeared through a muggy green swamp in search of her Serpent. The stories went through several changes and revisions, and my world grew as I grew up.

Things have changed substantially in this arena. While lay-people and clueless academics deride online fiction, they still mine the internet for ideas and the random fiction of unknown writers, to use as examples on courses about online fiction, or for other purposes best not discussed in polite company. There is a wealth here which to me is a second coming of all those anonymous oral storytellers who used to walk up and down immeasurable byways through the corridors of time and culture. While self-publishing and online publishing will continue to be viewed with suspicion and stigma by some quarters, I believe that the cross-over between mediums will contribute to, if not legitimization, at least a partial acceptance. As with other mediums, certain venues are more reputable than others and certain types of online fiction will gain more credibility than others. What is the key? It is really the same as other mediums, first, there has to be a certain standard, secondly, a form of peer-review. Basic rule of thumb seems to be that if it is accepted by a certain group or level of peers, it’s legit.

Where does it leave the rest of us who are somehow in-between, not quite legit or peer-reviewed? I don’t know. There are days, when being a writer on these frontiers for over a decade is more painful than other days. Days when you feel your work is cannibalized, your effort is thankless and futile. But at the end of it, all I can see are positive outcomes. It is good if there are crossovers and more and more people are aware of web fiction as a new and dynamic medium in which the boundaries of the text can be challenged, where a true hyper-textual model is possible, beyond what Joyce could envision. It was because of this delirious possibility that, armed with myth, literary theory and a deep love of James Joyce, I started my own hypertextual, storm-tossed web in 1997. I wanted to dive into text; my desire was for a living breathing textual world to wrap around me and my I-narrators. I wanted to do strange things with point of view and tenses. This in turn, led to an M.A. in Literature with a thesis on postmodern fairytale appropriation vis-a-vis Angela Carter, which in turn, informed my current phd research on phenomenology in the postcolonial gothic. Perhaps someday, I will reach the holy grail of a book deal and more respectable publications, but even when I reach that goal, I will still remain fiercely proud of my independence and autonomy as a self-published creator of hypertextual electronic fiction.

There is a fluidity here that allows writers to bridge the gap between text and performance, taking us into myriad possibilities with regards to story arcs, points of view and how both reader and writer is re-defined by the hypertextual experience. In the end, this isn’t a story about peer review, the relative obscurity of hypertextual authors or any of our many defeats and occasional triumphs. For me, I delight in the fluidity. A story could start in one section of my web, and end in another, while cross-referring an earlier note, posted several years ago. Text bogles or dragons could meander from the actual fictive spaces to my editorial ramblings. There are so many gaps, gashes and crevices available to people who delight in this arena. And there are so many ways in which the narrative voice can develop which simply cannot be done in more traditional mediums.

So, if you ask me why we write, weave and sometimes dream about the manner in which we are going to present this content to you, I will assert that this is a by-blow of all the permutations of experience that we undergo as storytellers, mythmakers and word-children. The nature of who we are has not changed. The arena has. The medium shifts. While my tale is hardly a success story as much as it is a rite of passage experienced by someone who grew with the internet and who passionately loves it, it remains an example of how diverse web-published fiction can be and how many paths lead here and depart from here.

Online fiction on the Web: Crossovers and Success Stories

Online fiction and literature has been the subject of literary and narrative theory for the past few years but it still remains fairly obscure and on the fringes of acceptability. I would suppose some of the reasons for this include the wide diversity in both subject matter and quality. However, over the past decade or so, there have been notable cross-overs between print authors and online fiction. One of the earliest to test the fluidity of this form was Tad Williams, notable author of Memory, Sorrow & Thorn and the Otherland books. While not the first to create episodic online fiction, he was arguably one of the first pioneers of this medium who was also an established author. The Shadowmarch community was initially formed so that fans of Tad Williams would be able to subscribe and pay for instalments of the stories. The stories overlapped both a traditional fantasy world and the eerie interstices of the world of Faerie. Eventually the Shadowmarch project was canned and we got the Shadowmarch print series, with two books out and the first part of the third book in the works (and much anticipated by his fans!). Other established authors who have published online include Elizabeth Bear, whose Shadow Unit is an imaginative episodic collaboration with writers Sarah Monette and Holly Black. Shadow Unit still has an active audience and fairly efficient business model. Another example of electronic fiction that succeeded in gaining both critical acclaim as well as a working pay model is Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl, a feminist retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I would be remiss and unscholarly, if I did not mention one of the more recent and more interesting cross-over endeavours, by the fairly established fantasy writer, Catherynne M. Valente. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is a novel, posted in episodic form, which is (still) offered free but is fueled by donations which one can offer via the tip jar on her site. Valente is apparently no stranger to online fiction, from a brief visit to her site, I note that she has both an intriguing Omikuji project as well as The Ice Puzzle (2005). Like many of more recent fantasists such as Jeff Vandermeer, John Scalzi et al, word of Valente’s new novel exploded through the blogverse/web 2.0-verse sometime in June and is a testament to how blogging, tweeting and internet culture has evolved, creating more than one bridge between traditional fiction and its online manifestation.

Notable Examples of Online Hypertextual Literature

This list is not exhaustive; there are numerous directories with works of online literature, ebooks, `zines with short stories and other examples of novels published in episodic form online. Some of these are more prominent than others and I will leave for you the pleasures of discovery! For this particular list, however, I limited myself to sites with complete stories, linked by hypertext, which were free to read and which were self-sufficient examples of what hypertextual fiction can do, and which crossed the frontiers of fiction by making full use of the hypertextual experience. Novels published on blogs or websites alone do not count for this list. If you know of any other websites which fit this bill, please let me know.

1. The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot by Stephanie Strickland
2. Through the Cobweb Forest by Connie Toebe and Lisa Stock
3. Odysseus She by Katherine Phelps
4. eNigMa by Vixen Lilith Phillips

You might also want to browse the Electronic Literature Organization’s Showcase of Electronic Literature.

Critical Reading, Electronic Literature Advocacy and Literary Theory

1. Electronic Literature Organization
2. Booting the Binary Bard by Katherine Phelps
3. Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media by Marie-Laurie Ryan (book)
4. Materiality and Matter and Stuff: What Electronic Texts Are Made Of by Matthew Kirschenbaum
5. “Do you want to hear about it?”: The Use of the Second Person in Electronic Fiction by Ruth Nestvold
6. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace by Janet H. Murray (book)

Fair warning, the new background is a work in progress and I’ll be tweaking at both the graphic and the css for the next couple of days or so. Ergo, things are in a wee bit of a disarray. Everything is accessible and readable and I’m really very happy with this graphic, which is so not what professional and businesslike web-development people would go for. It has that element of nostalgia for websites long gone I was searching for as well as some of the things I love best about playing with digital light. It’s not perfect but I’ve been working on photoshop the whole day so it’ll have to wait for when I wake up! Cheers and be careful that you don’t step on some of the helpful web-gnomes that are around!

I am done reposting everything that needs to be reposted, for now. This includes two bits of poetic prose, the essays and annotated links. Most of these are in desperate need of updates. The internet has evolved, as has your humble hostess, and the site needs to reflect the amount of research waded through for both for phd and personal purposes. No idea when I have time to do all this, but for now, read this as a gentle caveat lector.

In other news, the multi-talented and awesome Erzebet Yellowboy has invited me to join the team over at Cabinet des Fees, and since I’ve been a fan/follower of that fairytale magazine/project, I gleefully accepted. There are fairytales a-plenty there, and other good stuff pertaining to folktales, fairytales and folkpulk, so do pay a visit! I will, as soon as possible, update all the folklore and fairytale links on this site. And do excuse the prefab site template. It will suffice for now, but I will be reshaping and redecorating as soon as I can!

(c) Nin Harris 2007-2010

There is an intrinsic tie-in between myth and narration. Perhaps, one may say that the very "orality" of the transmission of stories shape myth. In some ways, we try to capture this in the myriad ways of narration today, via media, visual or textual. But what is the relevance? I think in the past few years we’ve seen more and more myth-themed elements entering popular culture via games, movies, series and yet in a certain way the meaning gets diluted. Pretty stories, a feeling of something "bigger" than you, but nothing much beyond. A need for escape? Perhaps. Perhaps for some these mythic pantheons are nothing more than stories of a fantastical otherworld – a benchmark that people "long ago", needed.

But, let’s consider the delineation between the mythologies of established, occidental entities known as countries; with those of newly emerging nations. We see in postcolonial and cultural theory a wholly diffferent set of baggage with regards to myth. These are very much tied into the immediate narration. We could look at older instances: creation myths, stories linked to rituals. Or we could consider the myths that revolve around nationhood, identity, displacement.

(continue reading…)

In an interesting introduction to his excellent compilation of Classic French Fairy Tales Jack Zipes noted that Moliere and Corneille’s production of Psyche

“played a role in the development of the beauty-and-the-beast motif in the works of Mme. d’Aulnoy.”

The tale referred to is “Laidronette” written during the period of the French `salon’ faerie tales during the reign of the Sun King(Louis XIV) (which in its turn inspired a delightful movement in Ravel’s ‘Mother Goose Suite’). However, that isn’t the only tale that has been influenced by this legend. The beauty and the beast motif may in fact be found in various folktales. This tale type requires a quest, and an act of redemption via love and/or forgiveness. This includes the different variations of “The Beauty and the Beast” and the Norweigen folktale “East of the Sun, West of the Moon”. If we draw the connection even farther then indubitably, my favourite Scottish ballad “Tam Lin” also falls within this category of mysterious, magical lovers in beastly-or not so beastly garb. Coincidentally, all of them needed to be rescued, in some way. Which is probably what drew me in the first place, the very idea that fairytale damsels are not totally in distress. In fact, in an inordinate amount of tales they seem to be the hero!

One of the earliest, if not the first instance of the tale, or rather, allegory of Cupid and Psyche, appeared in Lucius Apuleius’s “The Golden Ass”. This is related in the manner of a tale within a tale. The allegory here is of the human soul being tormented and then led into the road to love. ‘Psyche’ is also the Greek word for ’soul’ while the Latins call love ‘Cupido’. I’ve always found it interesting that the embodiment of the human soul comes in the guise of a woman while love comes in the guise of a man (or an older woman, if you take into account the role Venus plays in these proceedings).

(continue reading…)

Note: This is a repost since my original database died. Original post for this issue dated May. 31st, 2009 at 2:42 PM

Once upon a time, mythopoetica.com’s Afterimaginings newsletter had a Webbed Feet category to share unearthed web-treasures. This web-adventurer’s notion of binaried and pixellated beauty may not be yours, but that’s besides the point. The point is that there has lately been an over-reliance on Web 2.0 which obscures, rather than enables our finding these hidden pockets of beauty, be they visual or intellectual.

Needless to say, Webbed Feet is now back and renamed Anansi’s Trail! Not sure of the frequency of these editions, consistency is not my forte, so I’ll just post them when I post `em. If any of you would like to curate your own Anansi’s Trail edition, do let me know via my gmail addy. The id is mythopoetica, of course. I’d love to have other people also share sites of quality. Let’s break past the binary lockdowns and walled gardens

The Art of Daniel Conway
I discovered Arcipello (Daniel Conway)’s art on deviantart and love the way he works in the motif of floods and water into his visually stunning dreamscapes. His website is a visual treat and should be explored.

The Modern Historian
Kevin is a bona fide historian, since he’s pursuing a phd in history and has a passion for what he does. His “this day in history” daily posts are a treat to read as they’re both informative and visually appealing. They’re also available as twitter and rss feeds. If you’re a history geek or love these bits of information, I highly recommend this site.

The Faery Crossing
Originally, a lot of the sites that I looked for on my Anansi’s Trail postings would be faerie sites. Over the years it got harder to find the sites that spoke to me of faerie without being tacky or twee. This site was one of them and I am glad to see it is still around and still possesses visual magic. Also, the font-lover in me goes “squee” at this site.

Design is Kinky
Art and design news, and well-curated exhibits. Design is Kinky indeed.

Aunt Violet’s Book Museum: (a home for decayed gentlewomen)
If you love old books, old dust-covers and decorative binding, then this website is a treat to visit. The collection includes literary ghost stories, swashbucklers, the novels of H. Rider Haggard and the e-zine The Weird Review. Run by the author Jessica Amanda Salmonson, this site is a reminder of how a simple, no-frills html design which is well-curated is a visual treat on its own merit – even more so!

Since the internet slowly became accessible to many in the 1990’s, there has been an explosion of sites dealing with Faeries. It evolved into a culture of its own, splintering into different groups as diverse as the Gothic to the Wiccans. There are also those interested in the Faerie stories of their youth, associating these entities with benign, angel-like spirits representing innocence and goodness. This list is by no means exhaustive, as I have only picked out what I considered to be the most relevant for this list, as well as those providing the most information. (2009 update: This list is no longer up-to-date and needs a vigorous edit. Stay tuned)

Articles, Essays and Other Relevance

Abducted by the Faeries?

A fascinating essay by Jeremy Harte about faerie abduction. It is a relief to bump into articles and essays such as these which actually cite sources and sound like some thought has been put into it considering the pages upon pages of poorly researched sites I’ve had to wade through! Other essays by Harte found on the `Net include Hollow Hills which is about the fabled dwelling places of Faerie, the intriguing Dark Green – Some Disturbing Thoughts about Faeries and Medieval fairies: Now you see them, now you don’t.

Lost in Faery: Wandering in the magical thorn thickets of the mind

An interesting article linking faerie belief to the landscape of the mind: inclusive of Jungian psychoanalysis, by Elisabeth Oakland. Also an essay which contains citation, which gets this site’s nod of approval.

The Faery Tradition
Another essay highlighting a wholly different aspect and kinds of believers in Faerie.

Tumuli, Tumps, Humps and other Bumps

Article about Tumuli and faerie linkage.

Arthur Conan Doyle, Spiritualism, and Fairies

Article by Donald E. Simanek about the ever-controversial and ever-discussed Cottingley fairies. I like it because it contextualizes the affair with the interesting Spiritualism movement which arose at the end of the 1800s.

E-texts and other valuable resources

Geman Changeling Legends

Translated by D. L. Ashliman who is arguably the `Net’s most valuable source of information on folklore and fairytales with his exhaustive library of texts.

Fairy Legends and Traditions by Thomas Crofton Croker [1825]

The complete e-text of Croker’s hard to find book.

The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W.Y. Evans Wentz [1911]

Another e-text: an ethnographical study of the Fairy Faith.

Subcultural Visuals: The Professionals

Much of the current craze in Faeries is fueled by the work of fantasy and mythopoeic artists who have made their vision of the Otherworld accessible to the masses. This section lists the more popular “usual suspects”, who are also the largest victims of copyright infringement. Fame, apparently, is a mixed blessing.

The World of Froud

The art of Brian and Wendy Froud. Brian is perhaps one of *THE* most influential figures in so far as conceptualizing Faeries in this current age is concerned. His art and art derivative of his vision can be found everywhere on the `Net. A beautifully designed site. For more information read Faeries and The World of Froud, an article by Terri Windling.

The Faerie Bibliography

An extensive bibliography listing faerie music, books and more by the fine arts and mythic artist and writer, Aria Nadii. One of the oldest and most valuable faerie resources on the WWW.

Shadowscapes

Stephanie Pui-Mun Law’s site is more than just Faerie pictures. Mythic contexts abound, and is a true feast for both the eyes and the mind of mythopoetically inclined visitors.

Subcultural Proponents: Examples of Faerie Subculture online

Lavendise
One of the first sites that incited the formation of an online Faerie Subculture. This site created a networking system for those Faerie-inclined and brought forth the idea of humans somehow being Faeries. This made this site very popular (as well as much-imitated).

The Wiccan & Faerie Grimoire of Francesca De Grandis

In the Twentieth (and 21st) century, it seems as though belief in faeries encompasses so many different arenas of thought and practice. I have included this link to illustrate another facet, Faerie Wicca or Faerie Shamanism.

Faerie Websites of Note

Sites which are a happy marriage of attractive design, interesting information, and that something extra which makes them worth revisiting.

The Fairy Museum

I was utterly charmed by the whimsy of this unpretentious site. It features pictures, sculptures and does not focus on faeries from just one culture. I also appreciated the text that accompanies the exhibits since they show that some thought has been put into them with interesting write-ups about “fairies in advertising” and “fairies in politics”.

Hidden Ireland – A Guide to Irish Fairies

A well designed and comprehensive site detailing several denizens of the irish faerie pantheon. Interesting and intelligent write-ups coupled with lovely art.

Pook’s Hill

One of the oldest resources on faeries on the web, dealing with Puck and other tricksters who have made their way into popular culture via folklore and literature.

Bluepixie’s Realm

An informative site which is a visual treat to the eyes. Featuring art galleries, faerie information and a comprehensive array of faerie links.

Italian Faery
Providing a glossary of the Italian Faerie Pantheon.

(c) Nin Harris 2006-2010

i

I remember poems discovered as I chased the trail of words down to seek the grappling between known and unknown. Some of these I discovered on my own, happy accidents waiting to happen that I may never forget. And then there are poems that were quoted to me like chocolate-covered, liquor-soaked fruits arrayed in guise of jewelled flowers on a silver tray dusted with fairy-sparkled sugar. A dainty treat set out to capture seaweed-blinded merpoets. Later, as an acolyte of the written word, more. Poems and prose pored over, studied in earnest along with letters as depths are spiralled into, past midnight.

I wonder about these gifts brought to the word-sea and those that the sea gifts back in return. Kelp, seaweed, sand-dollars, shells, mollusc, current-swept crabs, messages in jewel-green bottles from damp cellars hidden from provencal sunshine. Fins escaping nets, arms flailing in evasion of reefs. Mermaids lured by sunken treasure, glittering combs and words in caskets, left yawning open like oyster shells ready to clamp shut upon glistening pearls.

(March 3, 2006)

ii

On acquiring Anne Carson’s If Not, Winter

“You paid this much for a book consisting of blank pages?” a parent asks with incredulity.

Perhaps merciful that she knows not of Anaktoria with whom comparisons have been made, though I remain yet of the tribe that would sing of phaon, actaeon, tammuz, and would sail on a barge only with wyrd sisters towards isle of apples, ever-beating at breast-bone.

Perhaps coldness is spawned from much salt-yearning,
Perhaps heat spliced from rivers of magma,

Perhaps these are textual spurnings
of nature-flouted gifts
from the not-sea.

(March 3, 2006)

iii

Stacks and stacks of books are balanced on other books which are balanced on piles of papers, empty or with words printed on them. I am like an island surrounded by a sea of textual carnage. Head whirling with Yoruba, Obeah, Celtic tales, with wild sargasso seas and dreams on monkey mountains. And then of course, there’s Yeats, good old Yeats. Interesting thing about poets. Some, you may outgrow. Others, you will discover grow on you with more frequent usage, like Seamus Heaney. And with Yeats, I find as I “mature”, different poems strike different resonances with me. There’s eternity for you. It’s in the lines that shift, adapt, mutate with the experience of the reader/beholder. Kind of like how Hesse’s Steppenwolfe has different layers everytime I read it.

(March 7, 2006)

iv

I was going to quote more Yeats, but stopped myself. Instead, I meandered back to the forest of words in the other room (dubbed my “study”) and stalked the poetry shelf, looking for old friends. I found Edna St. Vincent Millay, whom I love well, and I found Rabindranath Tagore. And then I picked up a book of poems by Jorge Luis Borges. I think Borges and I are going to get along very well indeed.

I like typing out my own freeform words and random poetry. But there is something very comforting and immediate about typing out the words of someone else’s poem, as though making it part of you in a wholly different way from reading it aloud or clutching the words behind your breastbone, like a lump of liquid gold you’ve swallowed. I have spent hours thus, with this gold welling up from behind my breastbone, to tease my esophagus in the way reflux now creeps upwards at odd moments of the night when I’ve had something too acidic or pungent to eat.

In teenhood, a strange girl, clutching anthologies of dead poets to her, reading, still reading words of cowslipped meadows, dancing fairies in the luminescent darknesses of the woods, dreamers and mystics all. Words, words. Just words, that are the world and everything around it. What I wouldn’t give to be reading some of those poems for the first time again, just feeling the beauty of that moment arrowing into me with merciless precision, never missing, as the moment shoots sharper than any marksman.

(March 8, 2006)

(c) Nin Harris 2001-2007

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy”

-Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5-

The idea that we share this planet with otherworldly beings exists in more than one culture and belief-system. It is a part of the cultural makeup of most ethnic groups. As such, these beliefs are as diverse as the human race itself.

One of the more popular names for these entities stem from the same root-word for “Fairies” or Faeries. What are these creatures, and what is the origin of this belief? Keightley, in The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves and Other Little People comments that the word “Fairy” most probably originated from the “Persian Peri”. He makes this fascinating observation:

“It is said that the Paynim foe, whom the warriors of the Cross encountered in Palestine, spoke only Arabic; the alphabet of which language, it is well known, possesses no p, and therefore organically substitutes an f in such foreign words as contain the former letter; consequently Peri became, in the mouth of an Arab, Feri, whence the crusaders and pilgrims, who carried back to Europe the marvellous tales of Asia, introduced ito the West the Arabo-Persian word Fairy. It is further added, that the Morgain or Morgana, so celebrated in old romance, is Merjan Peri, equally celebrated all over the East.”

While the source may well have been Middle-Eastern, the term itself has been associated with the denizens of more than one country, the origins of which are as diverse as the people who tell these tales. What seems apparent is that they seem to defy all human attempts to classify them, and a linear interpretation would claim them to be either one of the following classifications or the other.

Fallen Angels and Spirits of the Dead

There are those who consider “fairies” fallen angels, those of the host who were `cast out of heaven for their sinful pride’. This was also quoted in Lady Wilde’s Ancient Legends of Ireland. Noted folklorist Katherine Briggs cites this following passage from volume I of Lady Wilde’s work as an explicit explanation of this belief in Ireland which seems to go hand in hand with the more pagan belief of Diminished Deities.

“The islanders, like all the Irish, believe that the fairies are the fallen angels who were cast down by the Lord God out of heaven for their sinful pride. And some fell into the sea, and some on the dry land, and some fell deep into hell, and the devil gives to these knowledge and power, and sends them on earth where they work much evil. But the fairies of the earth and the sea are mostly gentle and beautiful creatures, who will do no harm if they are let alone, and allowed to dance on the fairy raths in the moonlight to their own sweet music, undisturbed by the presence of mortals.” [Wilde:169]

Faeries are also associated with the spirits of the dead. As a matter of fact, there are a fair number of folktales that seem to associate faeries with the spirits of those who have passed on. Briggs has cited some of these sources in The Vanishing People. However, she also notes that there is a variant where the faeries are captors and guardians of the dead rather than the dead itself (31). A rather striking parallel between Faerie and Hades emerges. (see the next section for more).

Diminished Deities and Subterranean Dwellers

In Ireland, faeries are also associated with the `Tuatha De Danaan’ (Folk of the Goddess Danu/Don) and who believe that many of the names of the faery chiefs are in fact the names of old Danaan heroes (see Yeats, Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland). The pantheon of the `Tuatha De Danaan’ include the likes of Duada son of Dana, Dagda, Birgit, wife of Dagda, Angus, Mider, Ethain, Blathnat, Ogma and Camullus. They were said to have retired temporarily beneath the earth after the coming of the Milesians, some of them later venturing to lands beyond the sea, following the people of Lir. Others were said to have sought out new homes in the hills and were henceforth known as the Aes Sidhe, the People of the Hills. In The Vanishing People, Katherine Briggs talks about these folk of the Goddess Don:

“There seems no doubt that the children of the Goddess Don were the Dana O`Sidh and there, conquered by the invading Milesians, took to the hollow hills and became the Daoine Sidh or ‘Deeny Shee’. The Fianna Finn and their contemporaries fought, loved and mated with these Daoine Sidh. Originally of human or more than human size, they dwindled through successive generations from the small size of humans to the size of three-years children, and sometimes to midgets.”

W.B. Yeats explains the terminology of the sidhe as follows:

“The Irish word for fairy is sheehogue [sidheog] a diminutive of “shee” in banshee. Fairies are deenee shee [daoine sidhe] (fairy people).

Who are they? […] ‘The gods of the earth,” says the Book of Armagh. “The gods of pagan Ireland,” say the Irish antiquarians,” the Tuatha De Danan, who, when no longer worshipped and fed with offerings, dwindled away in the popular imagination, and now are only a few spans high.”

Which leads us to another idea concerning the Sidhe, that they are possibly indigenous, subterranean beings. Briggs notes that:

“One of the most clear-cut [theories] is the suggestion made by David MacRitchie that the fairy beliefs sprang from the memory of an earlier race of rather dwarfish people, pre-Neolithic dwellers in caves or earthworks, who used flints arrows, had much knowledge of the hidden paths in their country and were credited with power over weather and other magical skills. The chief works of David MacRitchie which uphold this thesis are The Testimony of Tradition(1890) and Fians, Fairies and Picts. In these he equates the Picts with the Fians and Fairies. Passages in J.F. Campbell’s Popular Tales of the West Highlands first suggested the theory to him, and some of Campbell’s tales could be plausibly ascribed to the existence of a conquered race, lurking in woods and mounds and hanging round farms, doing casual service for gifts of food, but distrustful of their conqueror’s clothing as a badge of service.”

W.Y. Evans-Wentz, in The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries makes the following observation:

“O’Curry says : ‘ The term (sidh, pron. shee), as far as we know it, is always applied in old writings to the palaces, courts, halls, or residences of those beings which in ancient Gaedhelic mythology held the place which ghosts, phantoms, and fairies hold in the superstitions of the present day.’ (1) In modern Irish tradition, ‘the People of the Sidhe,’ or simply the Sidhe, refer to the beings themselves rather than to their places of habitation. Partly perhaps on account of this popular opinion that the Sidhe are a subterranean race, they are sometimes described as gods of the earth or dei terreni, as in the Book of Armagh; and since it was believed that they, like the modern fairies, control the ripening of crops and the milk-giving of cows, the ancient Irish rendered to them regular worship and sacrifice, just as the Irish of to-day do by setting out food at night for the fairy-folk to eat.”

Within an archaelogical/anthropological context, there seems to be an interesting amount of evidence being amassed concerning the linkage between otherworldly beings, rocks and hollow hills. (See this page, and this page for instance). Nor are the British Isles and Ireland the only places on earth where this belief in subterranean beings exist. In the Malaysian Peninsular, for example, there is a very strong, active belief in Orang Bunian also known as “Voice-Folk”(See Porteous for this translation). They are also known as “Echo-People” and have been said to inhabit caves and stones. Their subterranean existence also mutates time. This seems to be a rather common thread between mythologies dealing with the Otherworld. Porteous gives a fascinating description of the Bunian:

“The latter invisible supernatural people inhabit the forest, and in one place there is a cave which is supposed to be their home. Their voice is said to be very similar to the human voice, and they are often heard calling to each other in the forest depths, which may easily be mistaken for the tones of a human voice in distress. Tales are often told of those who under this impression have answered the call and proceeded towards the voice, but having done so, they could not retrace their steps. The unfortunate one is lured ever farther on into the dark recesses, until at last the Voice-Folk become visible to him, and his doom is to become on of them and invisible to man, only his voice betokening his presence.”

I read a psychological link between this view of subterranean dwellers, with that of the Underworld of the Dead. Thomas Rolleston has commented that the tumulus of New Grange can be:

“regarded on the one hand as the dwelling-places of the Sidhe[…] and they are also, traditionally, the burial-places of the Celtic High Kings of pagan Ireland.”

The linkage between a burial mound with the dwellings of the Sidhe very clearly delineates a link between these entities and the Underworld. It should be noted that there are many parallels between the often subterranean land of Faerie and the Greek Underworld Hades. In fact, in a medieval poem “The Romance of King Orfeo”, the tale of Orpheus and his Eurydice is reset in the land of Faerie with Pluto (Hades) being cast as a Fairy King. (published in Ritson’s Fairy Tales, Legends and Romances illustrating Shakespeare).

This is very fascinating and relevant from a psychological/mythological point of view. Macleod Yearsley in The Folklore of Fairy-tale noted that:

“Universal superstition has postulated an underworld peopled by the dead, and this has resulted in the belief that death may be vanquished and the dead restored […] The entrance to fairy-land is to be found by penetrating into a sepulchral mound, by passing through a cave (since cave burial was practised), down a well, or through some deep cleft in a rock. […] In the early myths the lords of the underworld were gods; in late folk-tales they developed into trolls, erl-kings, monsters, or sea maidens;”

It would therefore be pertinent to close this section with an excerpt from James Hillman’s The Dream and the Underworld since that groundbreaking tome deals with the importance of this “Underworld” process within our psyche. The following quote segues rather interestingly with the next section:

” “Entering the underworld” refers to a transition from the material to the psychical point of view. Three dimensions become two as the perspective of nature, flesh, and matter fall away, leaving an existence of immaterial, mirrorlike images, eidola, We are in the land of soul.”

Elemental Spirits

The idea that faeries are elemental spirits can be seen most notably in Eastern cultures. The Persian peri, which I have mentioned previously is one such being. The Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary lists these peris as being

“representative of those classes of conscious, self-conscious, and quasi-conscious beings who range all the way from simple sprites in the lower ranges, up to and including the classes […]which are the psychological and even physical ancestors of the human race.”

This line of thought is in harmony with the idea that most, if not all, forms of life consists of energy.

Another form of elemental, or nature spirit is that of the deva. According to the Hindus, these devas, or “shining ones” belong to two categories, the higher and the lower and are involved in the shaping of the universe and the earth. The lower kinds, according to the Theosophist include the gnomes, fairies, sylphs and djinns. This parallels the Irish belief that the Sidhe are fallen gods- the Tuatha de Danaan. These “devas” (also known as “Dewas”) inhabit Malay mythologies (which are generally hybrids of animism, Hindu and Islamic/Middle-Eastern myths) and ancient epics, as demi-gods who cavort across the pages and narratives of these ancient penglipur lara. They are described as a kind of aerial nobility who hunt, live in palaces in the sky and transport themselves in flying vehicles (particularly in the Hikayat Raja Muda or “Annals of the Young Prince” where seven princesses utilize a strange “flying chamber” which bears a striking resemblance to a helicopter.)

Within the Malay mythos, creatures such as the penunggu, whose life is very much connected to the life of the host tree or animal, the different kinds of djinn which are connected either to the air or to the earth have connotations which fill one with superstitious dread even till today. These are obviously more sinister manifestations of these elementals, which, as with the rest of the Faerie pantheon, are not necessarily disposed towards goodwill to humankind. Whether things such as morality or good or evil would ever carry much currency with these elemental beings is, as always, open to speculation, based upon the different cultures of the world and very probably, the different types of entities which inhabit each region.

Conclusion

In the end it may be surmised that there have always been myths of entities which exist outside of the material world of each society/culture. They have been named different things and have had different characteristics. One theory behind this commonality hinges around the migratory patterns of the Faerie Folk. One might venture to add that although there are similarities in the characteristics of these entities from culture to culture, there are also marked differences. It is submitted that perhaps there should not be a unifying theory, because to place a blanket definition over the mythical denizens of this planet would be to whitewash them of the diversity of various definitions. Almost as self-defeating (and boring) as trying to convert humans everywhere to a single, hegemonic, cultural framework.

As to why these stories and beliefs exist, despite the attempts of literalists, hard-nose skeptics and other parties to stamp them out: my personal conviction is that like all mythic/folkloric dialectics, they fulfil an important psychological function. As such, belief in this hybrid enigma should not be under-rated, regardless of whether one is a believer or a sceptic.

Perhaps it is an act of reaching out. Perhaps it is an awareness that there is something gracing the liminalities dividing the realm of the dead and the living, material and immaterial existence. Whatever it is, the difference and similarities line that space of ambiguity which separates these beings from us. This then, is the Enigma, that feeling of alien-ness, or Otherness, that haunts the most ineluctable of moments which graces this drama of human existence.

Works Cited and Additional/Recommended Reading

• Bhabha, Homi K., The Location of Culture (re: cultural hybridity)
• Blavatsky,Helena. Petrovna, Elementals, (an article found here) 1893
• Bord, Janet, Fairies:Real Encounters with Little People
• Briggs, Katherine, The Fairy Encyclopedia
• Briggs, Katherine, Fairies in Tradition and Literature
• Briggs, Katherine, The Vanishing People: a study of traditional fairy beliefs
• Evans-Wentz W.Y., The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
• Hillman, James. The Dream and the Underworld
• Keightley, Thomas. The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People (A Compendium of International Fairy Folklore).
• Porteous, Alexander, The Lore of the Forest
• Ritson, Joseph, Fairy Tales, Legends and Romances illustrating Shakespeare
• Rolleston, Thomas, The Celts.
• Spiritweb, Elementals and Devas(an article found here) 1893
• Yearsley, Macleod, The Folklore of Fairy-tale
• Yeats, William Butler, Mythologies
• Yeats, William Butler,Folk and Fairy Tales of Ireland

Malay Epics/Annals

• Hikayat Hang Tuah
• Hikayat Raja Muda
• Sejarah Melayu