Journey to the Faeries- Llewellyn

This CD is a tinkling, spa-like collection of songs that could be used as meditation music or just a calming collection of songs.

Here's a website that has http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/36554617-journey-to-the-faeries

Fairy Recipies

Fairygardens.com has put together a collection of fairy recipes, submitted by site visitors, that you can try at home! Be sure to check it out there are some cool ideas to try.



http://www.fairygardens.com/colorbook/cookbook.html

A Suburban Fairy Tale by Katherine Mansfield

This is a short story about a small family sitting down to breakfast. All of a sudden the little boy hears birds outside of his window and asks his parents if he can feed them. The parents say no but the boy keeps on about it. Then when he goes to the window he sees the little birds transform into little boys. His father finally gives into his pestering and tells him to get his shoes, but by the time he gets back the boys have changed back into birds.

http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org/assets/KM-Stories/A-SUBURBAN-FAIRY-TALE1919.pdf

Sophie Gengembre Anderson

I think we've all seen this picture by this amazing artist. She was born in France and later moved to Britain and lived from 1823- 1903 and did mostly portraits of women and children, but this painting here, Take the Fair Face of Woman, has wings, which is fairy enough for me. Here is a short biography http://www.theworldsartist.com/sophie_anderson.asp

http://www.theworldsartist.com/sophie_anderson.asp

Image from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SophieAndersonTakethefairfaceofWoman.jpg

And this one, The Head of a Nymph... because it's a nymph

Image from http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artwork.php?artworkid=12232&size=large

The Fairies

The Fairies is an Australian tv show ranging from the time period of 2000 to roughly the present, but was made in 2007 on imdb. It's a children's television show with very simple plots and a lot of song and dance.



Here's an example of one of the songs

Here's the website http://www.thefairies.com/

Image from http://www.thefairies.com/media/11636/0002.jpg

Fairy-Land by Edgar Allen Poe

Dim vales- and shadowy floods- And cloudy-looking woods, Whose forms we can't discover For the tears that drip all over! Huge moons there wax and wane- Again- again- again- Every moment of the night- Forever changing places- And they put out the star-light With the breath from their pale faces. About twelve by the moon-dial, One more filmy than the rest (A kind which, upon trial, They have found to be the best) Comes down- still down- and down, With its centre on the crown Of a mountain's eminence, While its wide circumference In easy drapery falls Over hamlets, over halls, Wherever they may be- O'er the strange woods- o'er the sea- Over spirits on the wing- Over every drowsy thing- And buries them up quite In a labyrinth of light- And then, how deep!- O, deep! Is the passion of their sleep. In the morning they arise, And their moony covering Is soaring in the skies, With the tempests as they toss, Like- almost anything- Or a yellow Albatross. They use that moon no more For the same end as before- Videlicet, a tent- Which I think extravagant: Its atomies, however, Into a shower dissever, Of which those butterflies Of Earth, who seek the skies, And so come down again, (Never-contented things!) Have brought a specimen Upon their quivering wings. Here's a video on youtube that unfortunately uses the tinkerbell movie for visuals, but it's better than nothing

Elfabet by Jane Yolen. illustrated by Lauren Mills

Elfabet is a cute little fairy alphabet book. Each letter has a page dedicated to it and only has things on that page that begin with that letter and has a short rhyme. For example. the letter A has a picture of an acorn, an apple, and ant and an apple blossom and a little sprite. And in the border of the picture there is an aardvark, an alligator, and alpine asters. The rhyme describes the elf's action and for A is as follows, A is for Acorn Elf always acrobatic. Fun for all ages.

Theodore Kittelsen

Theodore Kittlesen is a Norwegian artist who does paintings of nature and of fairytales. http://kittelsen.efenstor.net/

Photographing Fairies (1997)

Photographing Fairies is a sci fi/ fantasy film set in the early 1900's exploring the idea behind the cottingly fairy hoax. The story is about a young photographer named Charles Castle who looses his wife soon after they are married, and of course he is lost in his grief. He goes off to war and is employed as a photographer in the trenches, and after the war he is still consumed with death as we see him cut and paste photos of dead soldiers into new photos of their loved ones for a living. One day he finds himself at a supernatural convention of sorts and comes upon a lecture of a man telling people of the cottingly photographs and supporting the existence of faeries because of them. Charles then proceeds to interrupt the man, telling him that there is no way the photos can be real, both from a photographers perspectives and as one who has lost faith with all things the eye cannot see. The character of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle makes an appearance in the film, as he was a supporter of the photos, even though he wasn't so supportive of them in the film. So, after attending the lecture, a woman comes to his studio and shows him some photographs that were supposedly of a real faerie standing on her daughter's outstretched hand. Of course Charles doesn't believe this any more than he believed the Cottingly story, but after closer inspection he finds that there is something not quite right about the photo and goes off to find the woman and ask her about it. The woman lives in the countryside with her husband, a pastor, their two daughters, and the governess for the girls. He finds the woman and tells her that he may believe her story, but she just smiles at him and tells him that the photograph doesn't matter anymore because she has seen them. The details after this point I will not go into because that is where the real mystery lies.

Charles struggles throughout the movie with his wife's death and cannot seem to get beyond the hold it has on him. Maybe because of this he has lost all faith in an after world or possibilities of another world within ours, until of course he goes in search of the faeries. When he does find a way to see them (whether or not he's hallucinating is debatable) he clings to this connection ferociously and uses this to try to get in touch with his wife. At the end he is somewhat set free of this, and embarks on an adventure of sorts.

This is not a film for children, or if a child does see it, it should be monitored by a parent. There is both nudity and death in the film, and though neither appear in excess, I would say this is a 14 and up movie.

Fairy Wings By Lauren Mills

Fairy Wings is a story about a fairy named Fia who was born without wings, and because she isn't flying around with the other fairies and instead plays with frogs and rats and crows, she is ridiculed and outcast. One day while she's playing along the river, a boy fairy finds her and asks her to play. He tore one of his wings and is grounded for the time being. Fia tells him that she can fix his wing and they play together for a while. when Fia returns home that evening her family tells her that the royal family has come and is throwing a ball. Her sisters don't want Fia to come because of her winglessness but her father says that she could attend. The night of the ball her friends frog and rat bring her a chair floating on a lily pad with wings on it and pull her to the centre of the ball. as it turns out the her friend who happens to be the prince sent over the chair to her (and her friends added the wings). He lifts her out of the chair and dances with her, but when he lifted her everyone sees that she doesn't have wings, especially the king and queen and they are outraged and they send her away. Right after this happens however, a troll comes by and captures all of the fairies at the ball in a net and walks off. Fia scrambles around to find help and comes across some woodkins. Normally woodkins don't like fairies because fairies are mean to them, but the like Fia because she doesn't bully them. They do not go with her because they feel that it's bad luck to help a fairy, but one of them tells her a riddle about trolls that will help her. And the riddle goes like this, the old troll's home is a rat like place. his greed is a frog like thing. but when crow wakes, troll hides his face, or gather moss not wing. Fia then goes to save the fairies with only her friends rat, frog, and crow and solves the riddle, turning the troll into stone. Then all the fairies fawn over her and the royal family want her to marry their son.

This story is somewhat predictable and almost feels a bit overplayed because of the every popular Cinderella story line, but I do like this story because unlike many stories these days, Fia doesn't gain wings at the end of the story. The fairies just accept her as she is, she doesn't have to change her form to become acceptable, which is where the story deviates from the Cinderella idea. The prince takes time to notice her and like her when she is playing in the mud and being herself, and the rest of the fairies only accept her after she saves them even thought they've treated her so poorly, but no ugly duckling transformation takes place. This is really rare in children's books, and adult books too, and is really discouraging to people with disabilities or differences. There are very few stories saying that you don't need to change your physical state of being to be accepted. She still ends the story getting married, not so great, but it's still really refreshing that she remains wingless.

There's a preview on google books http://books.google.ca/books?id=0xckim28fDIC&dq=Fairy+Wings+By+Lauren+Mills&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=0ZEnTIiDA8H_lgfsm7XVAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false