The original fairies, or faeries, bestowed gifts upon newborn children, such as
beauty, wealth and kindness. In the subsequent centuries they continued this
original function, but expanded their activities into other types of meddling in
human affairs.
Fairies can only be seen clearly by animals and
seldom by humans, although if one is fortunate enough, one might catch a
fleeting glimpse. There are a few exceptions however. The first is when fairies
use their power (known as 'glamour') to enable a human to see them. Also, during
a full moon on Midsummer Eve a mortal witness fairy dances or celebrations. And
finally, by looking through a self-bored stone (a stone in which a hole has been
made by tumbling in the waters of a brook; not found on a beach) one can see
fairies distinctly.
The rulers of the race of fairies are Queen Titania and her consort Prince Oberon, their court being in the vicinity of
Stratford-on-Avon. Other synonyms and euphemisms for fairies are: the Little
People, the Green Men, the Good Folk and the Lordly Ones.
The name is probably a
combination of the words fae "friend" and eire "green." So Faerie
means "Green Friend."
All of us, when we were children,
believed in fairies. Here, JOE COOPER tells the extraordinary story of two
little girls who not only believed in fairies, but made friends with them–and
even captured them on film. IN THE WEEK BEFORE the end of the First World
War, the 11-year-old Frances Griffiths sent a letter to a friend in South
Africa, where she had lived most of her life. Dated 9 November 1918, it ran:
Dear Joe [Johanna],
I hope you are quite well. I wrote a letter
before, only I lost it or it got mislaid. Do you play with Elsie and Nora
Biddles? I am learning French, Geometry, Cookery and Algebra at school now.
Dad came home from France the other week after being there ten months, and we
all think the war will be over in a few days. We are going to get our flags to
hang upstairs in our bedroom. I am sending two photos, both of me, one of me
in a bathing costume in our back yard, Uncle Arthur took that, while the other
is me with some fairies up the beck, Elsie took that one. Rosebud is as fat as
ever and I have made her some new clothes. How are Teddy and dolly?
An ordinary and matter-of-fact letter from a
schoolgirl to her friend, one might say, apart from the rather startling
reference to fairies. But, as both Frances and her cousin Elsie Wright have
since pointed out (they are now grandmothers), they were not particularly
surprised by seeing fairies; they seemed a natural part of the rural countryside
around the `beck' (stream) at the bottom of the long garden in Cottingley, near
Bradford, in West Yorkshire.
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The original fairies, or faeries, bestowed gifts upon newborn children, such as
beauty, wealth and kindness. In the subsequent centuries they continued this
original function, but expanded their activities into other types of meddling in
human affairs.
Fairies can only be seen clearly by animals and
seldom by humans, although if one is fortunate enough, one might catch a
fleeting glimpse. There are a few exceptions however. The first is when fairies
use their power (known as 'glamour') to enable a human to see them. Also, during
a full moon on Midsummer Eve a mortal witness fairy dances or celebrations. And
finally, by looking through a self-bored stone (a stone in which a hole has been
made by tumbling in the waters of a brook; not found on a beach) one can see
fairies distinctly.
The rulers of the race of fairies are Queen Titania and her consort Prince Oberon, their court being in the vicinity of
Stratford-on-Avon. Other synonyms and euphemisms for fairies are: the Little
People, the Green Men, the Good Folk and the Lordly Ones.
The name is probably a
combination of the words fae "friend" and eire "green." So Faerie
means "Green Friend."
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