Fairy Story

This is an RPG computer game wherein you get to choose a character and go around killing stuff in order to save the world.

Here's a vid of someone starting a new character



This is the website http://fs.game321.com/

The Murder of Bridget Cleary

Some of you may or may not know about the case of Bridget Cleary, the woman who, in 1895, was murdered by her own husband because he thought she was abducted by the fairies and a changeling was left in her place. After returning from a brief disappearance, Bridget had changed and her husband worried about her behaviour. He sought doctors and friend's advice but none of these would satisfy him. He ended up burning her and was sentenced to 15 years in prison for manslaughter.

Here is a link to an in-depth telling of the story http://www.controverscial.com/Fairy%20Witch%20of%20Clonmel.htm

And for the skimmers here's a Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridget_Cleary

Margaret Tarrant

An English illustrator. Lived 1888-1950. She is an amazing artist. I really like this style a lot. Enjoy. Images are from http://www.artcyclopedia.com/r/fairies-tarrant-margaret.html

Song of Fairies Robbing an Orchard by Thomas Randolph

This was originally written in latin by Thomas Randolph and was later translated into english by James Henry Leigh Hunt. According to the first provided link, the verses were taken from a drama by Randolph called Amyntas, or the Impossible Dowry. The second link is a poetry site and will have more information on the author.

Song of Fairies Robbing an Orchard or Fairies' Song

We the fairies blithe and antic
Of dimensions not gigantic,
Though the moonshine mostly keep us,
Oft in orchards frisk and peep us.

Stolen sweets are always sweeter;
Stolen kisses much completer;
Stolen looks are nice in chapels;
Stolen, stolen be your apples.

When to bed the world are bobbing,
Then's the time for orchard robbing;
Yet the fruit were scarce worth peeling
Were it not for the stealing, stealing.

http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1086.html

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/fairy-song-3/

Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

Outhwaite (1888- 1960) was an Australian born fairy illustrator. This site further discusses her biography http://www.ortakales.com/illustrators/Outhwaite.html. The art kind of reminds me of Arthur Rackham's work.



All images are from http://spiritoftheages.com/Ida%20Rentoul%20Outhwaite%20Collection.htm

Fairy Tale: A True Story (1997)

The story is about two young girls. Elsie is sent to England to live with her cousin Frances after her father was declared missing in WW1. On the train to her cousin's house Elsie picks up a pamphlet for a seminar on angels, which her aunt finds and attends after she arrives at the house. The subject of fairies and angels and the like has been banned from the house because Frances' brother (who also saw faeries) died earlier in the year due to illness and her mother is still grieving. The girls play in the forest looking for faeries, and eventually they see a couple. They come up with the idea of taking a picture of themselves with the faeries so that Frances' mother will believe they exist and will get over her son's death. The mother takes the photos to the man who ran the angel lecture and he then takes the photos to get them examined to ensure their authenticity. After this he takes the photos to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who believed in the photographs so deeply that he wrote a book on them (and for those who frequent this blog you'll have noticed that I posted this work already here), and to Harry Houdini, who was skeptical of the photos throughout the movie. Eventually everyone comes to interview the girls and either disprove the existence of fairies, or to see them for themselves. There are actual CG fairies in the film that the audience will see flying by and only show themselves only to the girls, but at no point in the film are the photos proven or disproven, which is appropriate because it was only known to be a hoax after the death of Francis and Elsie.

I thought the film did a good job of capturing the story of the Cottingly photographs. The basic facts were present, but there was enough fantasy and imagination to make a story out of the facts and make it an enjoyable film. And because the story is told from a child's perspective, it is allowed to be a little bit more whimsical. There is an 'adult' version of this film called Photographing Fairies (also previously discussed) which is also worth checking out if you are into the subject matter.



Here is a trailer for the film

Herbie Brennan Reminiscing

Author of the children's novels 'Faerie Wars', Herbie Brennan discusses three incidents that influenced his belief in faeries.

Shirley Barber

Fairy artist. I apologize for the text across the pictures, but I got them off of the artist's website and if that's what the artist wants who am I to complain.

http://www.shirleybarbers.com/

Faery Song by Lisa Thiel

Faerie Names

Names are very important in the faerie realm in regards to power. It is a common belief that if you know the true name of something you have power over it.

This belief is not only found in faerie culture either. In some cultures people believe that your middle name is your true name and you have to keep it hidden or the devil will discover it and try to steal your soul. In North American households, a child knows when they are really in trouble because their parent will call out their entire name, first, middle and last, and when that happens I'm sure every child has experienced that electric shock shoot up their spine. Or how you snap out of a daze when someone calls your name.

There is also the common belief that when you put a name to something you're afraid of you stop being afraid of it, when you come to terms with it in your mind and stop rationalizing or running from it. The is illustrated in the children's series Harry Potter. In the novels, there is a very evil wizard named Lord Voldemort and everyone is afraid to say his name, which seems to make them more afraid him. By not being able to say the name, this wizard is out of their power, more powerful than they are and only Harry Potter (the protagonist), a special group of people called the Order of the Pheonix, and his school principle Dumbledore (the most powerful wizard of all time) actually call Voldemort by his name, and it is these people who stand a chance at defeating him because they are able to say his name.

Back to faeries now :p So knowing the true name of one of the fae gives you complete control over it which is why they will go to great lengths to keep their true name a secret. Keeping names hidden not only protect faeries from being controlled, it also protects mortals from being harmed by faeries. An example would be the well known folk tale My Own Self, which you can read here.