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Woah! What a page. You've done a phenomenal amount of work - well done. I'll pass on the url to the Storytell email list (storytellers in the oral tradition), I'm sure many will be interested.
I am loking for information on an illustrator of fairy works by the name of Harold Gaze approx. 1946 several works. If you know of him please let me know. thanks diana
found you using yahoo. not a faerie buff by far, but i found the pictures enjoyable. i'll be sure to show this to my son. two thumbs up !!!!!!!!!!!!! mark
As enchanted as I am by this page (I had to slog through nearly 200 pages that weren't useful at all--I'm currently working on an urban faerytale and am searching for workable ideas to implement in my Otherworld), I question several of the books you have on your "top ten" list. Of the four that I've read, I found Little, Big and Tam Lin to be... how does one say this politely? I didn't find them very good faerytales. Of course, I found Crowley's prose to be very dense and hard to follow; and Dean's setting and sense of time was rather skewed. I would suggest either Mythago Wood or Lavondyss by Robert Holdstock. While his prose is dense as well, his characters are *real*--i.e., they sweat and bleed and die. No fey tripping about in the moonlight for them...
You are the second person to object to the placement of Tam Lin on my list. I do have a couple of problems with the book myself, notably the pacing of the story, but I found it a warm-hearted novel and the characters were very endearing. Plus all the elements of the folk ballad are there, presented in imaginative ways.
I wanted all the works on my list to have explicit links to faeries or fairy lore. Hence I would not find Mythago Wood to be appropriate, though it is one of my favorite works of modern fantasy. On a list of my favorite mythopaeic works of the last 20 years it would find a high place.
One other book I've considered placing on the list, one with prose denser than Little, Big, is Greer Ilene Gilman's Moonwise. The writing is witty, beautiful, startling at times, and always inventive. It draws on many sources in folklore and myth. The following reference to "Tam Lin" left me rolling in laughter:
"Blecch," said Sylvie, uncrumpling a sodden wodge of newsprint. "`Teen Mom in Rock Star Shock: He made me his love-slave.' Deea. Arval strikes again."I've only hesitated because I'm not sure if it has enough faerie elements to warrant being on my list."A maid betray'd," said Ariane. "let me see."
"`Kidnapped by space aliens!' Geez Louise."
"Same as Tam Lin," said Ariane. "You know. Hold me fast and fear me not, I'm the father of your blob."
The Faerie Lore site is extremely beautiful and well done. The links you have provided will be very helpful, as I have had a hard time finding much on the faeries on-line. Thank you very, very much! I believe in faeries! Valerie
I really like your page on faeries. It portrays faeries very well. However, according to A Field Guide to the Little People by Nancy Arrowsmith and Geoge Moorse, faeries are a certin kind of "little people", as she calls them. If you need anymore stories A Field Guide to the Little People has good stories of each kind of fairy that she has in the book.
Greetings from a not very sunny faerie glen in South Africa. My daughter Lauren was enchanted with your page.
This home page was interesting,I liked it very much.
Allen, I caught your comment regarding your page. Very cute.:) I was reading through the other comments and i saw one that inquired about the Kelpies, I can help with that too. Get back to me?...
I found this page really useful and interesting. I loved the fairy song .wav excerpt - what's it from? I'm also interested in the "accuracy" of Raymond E. Feist's book "Faerie Tale" - he has silver as the metal to kill/ward off fairies, where did he get that from, everywhere I've looked I've seen iron as the metal of choice. Also, I'm particularly interested in any information about Amadan-na-Briona, the Fool. I'd really appreciate any sources of information. This is a great page.
The song is from Loreena McKennitt's first album, Elemental. The poem is Yeats' "Stolen Child".
I've read Feist's book. Though I don't recall seeing silver used anywhere as a weapon against fairies, it would not surprise me to find a few traditional stories where it is used as protection against fairies. Silver is efficacious generally against werewolves in particular, and against witches sometime and their ilk. It is not unusual to find stories and attributes mixed up. For instance, generally witches and demons cannot cross running water, but I've found a couple of Scottish tales wherein fairies cannot cross streams or rivers.
As for Amadan-na-Briona, I've only seen his name in one place, and that is Lady Gregory's Visions and Beliefs of the West of Ireland, which contain a few anecdotes on his fearsomeness, and how a stroke from him cannot be cured.
The creature that was left behind is a typical changeling. It is named a "fetch", which is a name for a Doppelganger sort of creature. Sometimes fetches are considered fairies; sometimes not.
The character Wayland Smith is an ancient figure of Britain. The only time I've seen him linked with Puck is in Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill, a really marvellous book.
Thomas the Rhymer appears at the end of the novel. There are many tales linking him with faeryland. In some it was said he was taken (or left willingly) to be the Queen's consort ere his death.
Your page is wonderfully informitive regarding the lives of the Good People. As I know you have allready been informed, some information on the Wee Folk is missing. I have a multitude of resources regarding the Good People readily availible to me. If you are looking for information i would be glad to help.
I just wanted to let you know your faery page is WONDERFUL! I was so excited to find it here with all the great information. Also Im glad you took the time to put all of this together.Thanks so much.
Nice page! All for a trip to Faeryland..... Can I suggest chapter two of "The Books of Magic" by Neil Gaiman (Titan Books/DC Vertigo) and a books to bring faeries firmly into the '90's....."The Good Fairies Of New York" by Martin Millar (Fourth Estate).... Both utterly wonderful althogh you may find "Good Fairies" a touch heretical :-) Astroheffer...............Moooo!
...and my heart's ease. Well done, my friend. Have you read any other books and stories by John Crowley? This unregener- ate Crowleyphile has devoured them all. Perhaps there is some- thing more you can do on this fine writer.
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Well ... what can I say? I've only just discovered this page and the little that I have read I am delighted with already! I've quite recently completed a reasearch paper on faeries folklore, so I'll be keen to pick up on any similarities. Feel free to email me if you have any impending inquiries. (Though, admittedly, I'm no faerie guru and I might well be wrong.)
Faerie Lore is great! I am writing a paper compaering Yeats's Sidhe to the Cherokee Little People, and I found a lot of interesting bits of information here. Thanks for a wonderful page with good links!