Fairies & Elves

Villagers who protested that a new housing estate would “harm the fairies” living in their midst have forced a property company to scrap its building plans and start again.Marcus Salter, head of Genesis Properties, estimates that the small colony of fairies believed to live beneath a rock in St Fillans, Perthshire, has cost him £15,000. His first notice of the residential sensibilities of the netherworld came as his diggers moved on to a site on the outskirts of the village, which crowns the easterly shore of Loch Earn.He said: “A neighbour came over shouting, ‘Don’t move that rock. You’ll kill the fairies’.” The rock protrudedfrom the centre of a gently shelving field, edged by the steep slopes of Dundurn mountain, where in the sixth century the Celtic missionary St Fillan set up camp and attempted to convert the Picts from the pagan darkness of superstition. “Then we got a series of phone calls, saying we were disturbing the fairies.

I thought they were joking. It didn’t go down very well,” Mr Salter said. In fact, even as his firm attempted to work around the rock, they received complaints that the fairies would be “upset”. Mr Salter still believed he was dealing with a vocal minority, but the gears of Perthshire’s planning process were about to be clogged by something that looked suspiciously like fairy dust. “I went to a meeting of the community council and the concerns cropped upthere,” he said. The council was considering lodging a complaint with the planning authority, likely to be the kiss of death for a housing development in a national park. Jeannie Fox, council chairman, said: “I do believe in fairies but I can’t be sure that they live under that rock. I had been told that the rock had historic importance, that kings were crowned upon it.” Her main objection to moving the rock was based on the fact that it had stood on the hillside for so long: a sort of MacFeng Shui that many in the village subscribe to. “There are a lot of superstitions going about up here and people do believe that things like standing stones and large rocks should never be moved,” she said. Half a mile into Loch Earn is Neish Island. From there the Neish clan set forth to plunder the surrounding country,retreatin......

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.

Remember feeling strangely guilty at the bit in Peter Pan where it was said that every time a child announced "I don't believe in fairies" a little fairy dropped down dead? Or did you go "Oh, puh-lease" when your parents tried to persuade you that the tooth fairy was too tiny to carry a 50 pence piece - so you only found 20 pence under your pillow."No wonder children are sceptical when presented with commercialised toyland fairies," says Alicen Geddes-Ward, acknowledged as Britain's leading exponent on faeries. "They've never been encouraged to experience the magic of looking for faeries as part of the natural world."Alicen andhusband Neil are aiming to rectify this with their book Faeriecraft which coincides with the opening of the UK's first faerie museum on the Orkney island of Westray.

"The proper study of faeries in folklore has got nothing to do with the the trivial things associated with the popular interpretation," adds Alicen, pointing out the difference in spelling when it comes to the genuine article. It's all to do with listening to the spirits of nature and what they can teach us about encouraging harmony between mankind and the environment. And no, you don't have to believe to benefit."People need escapism from the harsh edges of the modern world, and that's what I hope we can do in some small way. We aim to bring a bit of magic and innocence back into people's everyday lives by providing an enchanting experience for them."Orkney Enterprise reckoned the proposed Orkney Faerie Museum and Gallery, exploring faerie folklore and legends, could be a definite crowd puller, and were quick to back the novel idea. The current popularity of Harry Potter's wizardry and Lord of the Rings shows that people are indeed happy to escape, and a boat trip across to the island of Westray is an added attraction."We've been wanting to do this for some time," says Neil, a television transmission controller turned artist, "but the setting had to be right."Originally from Buckinghamshire, the couple knew Scotland was the right place but could never find the perfect location. Then they saw Cameron Stout's home video on Big Brother."That was it," Neil continued, "I just knew Orkney was the place it had to be."Alicen needed noconvincing......

A Magic spell will be cast over the Orkney island of Westray today with the opening of Britain's first museum and gallery dedicated entirely to fairies.The conversion of an old croft is a dream come true for self-proclaimed fairy princess and writer Alicen Weddes-Ward and her husband, Neil, a pagan and artist.The couple knew that Westray was just the place for theventure when they moved from Buckinghamshire last September. "Cornwall and Orkney are known as the places that are most rich in fairy folklore in the UK," said Alicen, who is recognised as an expert in the subject. "We just knew that Orkney was the place for us. "When we first came here we loved it. "It just seemed natural." The fairy museum and gallery next to their house has been made possible thanks to a £4,000 grant from the local enterprise company. It focuses on Orcadian fairyheritage, as well as having 3D displays, a children's pixie playhouse and crafts and storytelling. The gallery will show Neil's artwork as well as that of other artists. Alicen said: "We have had a lot of e-mails and phone calls from people saying say they are coming to Westray especially to see the museum, so that is good for the island."Article Source .