The Fairies: A History - Mythillogical Podcast

On today's episode Charles and Crofty run the risk of being trapped in fairy land on a quest to understand the origins of its famous denizens. Together they trace the history of these mysterious creatures throughout Britain and Ireland, examining how they evolved from elusive elves in Anglo Saxon times, to the regal fairy courts of Elizabethan literature, before finally take their iconic forms amongst the Victorian folklore craze.

Join this channel to get access to perks:

Help support us elsewhere at:

This video is also available as a two part podcast, you can find it on all good podcasting platforms, including:

Mythillogical logo and Cover art by Ettore Mazza. You can find more of Ettore's artwork below:

Video editing by Byron Lewis:

Sources for this episode included:

‘Elves in Anglo-Saxon England’ by Dr Alaric Hall

‘The Making of the Early Modern British Fairy Tradition’ by Professor Ronald Hutton

‘Folklore and Nation in Britain and Ireland’ by Dr Matthew Cheeseman and Dr Carina Hart

Both ‘An Encyclopedia of Fairies’ and a few small bits from ‘A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language’ by Dr Katherine Mary Briggs

'The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore' by Professor Patricia Monaghan

‘The Motif of the Mermaid in English, Irish and Scottish Fairy- and Folk tales’ by Stephanie Kickingereder

‘The Banshee: The Irish Death Messenger’ by Professor Patricia Lysaght

'When did Fairies get their Wings’ by Dr Simon Young

'Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx' by Sir John Rhys

'Folklore of West and Mid Wales' by J. Ceredig Davies

'British Goblins: Welsh Folklore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions' by Wirt Sikes (debunked)

'Welsh Fairy-Tales and other stories' by PH Emerson

'Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries' by W Evans Wentz

'Scottish Fairy Belief, A History' by Lizanne Henderson and Edward J Cowan

'Daemonologie' by King James VI of Scotland

'The Romance and Prophecies of Thomas of Erceldoune' by Sir James Augustus Henry Murray

'Ballads of Mystery and Miracle and Fyttes of Mirth' by Frank Sedgwick, for Tam Lin

'Scottish Fairy and Folk Tales' by Sir George Douglas

'Witch, Fairy and Folktale Narratives in the trial of Bessie Dunlop' by Lizanne Henderson

[dktqqbd]

Drinking game!! Whenever Charles says "they're often associated with the colour green" take a hearty swig. 🍻

[aaronfleisher]

I tell my nieces that fairies used to be tall and could not fly. Then they discovered fairy dust, which made them little and let them fly. This lets me tell them older fairy stories.

[CailinRuaAnChead]

Regarding if banshee is a fairy or not, the Irish spelling is bansidhe, or ban Sidhe, which literally translates to fairy woman, ban mean woman and Sidhe is fairy

[grimslade]

My favourite part of Bram Stoker's Dracula is when he peers through that window and says: "Dude! Let me in. I'm a fairy... What? Don't you believe in fairies!?"
-- Also, thanks for another great video 🖤

[Sarcasmhime]

The fairy wife who leaves when the husband does something wrong is very similar to Japan's Yuki-onna or France's Melusine. Would love for a future episode to compare fairy stories from around the world, but I appreciate that's a lot of even more work 😅

[thurayya]

Re: disneyfication of stories: Bambi. Bambi was written by Felix Salten in the twenties as an anti-hunting treatise. The chapter where Bambi's father dies is very traumatizing to small children. Disney cleaned it up to an incredible degree for the movie and it still makes children cry.

[Aemond]

I recognize a similarity between that Welsh story of the woman leaving her husband and a Japanese one: A man is saved in a snow storm by a beautiful woman. She spares his life and says that if he tells anyone what happened, she will return to kill him. Later on, he marries another beautiful woman. Years go by and they have children (I believe they have three children as well), until one night he begins reminiscing to her as their children sleep. He is reminded by the woman's appearance from his wife. His wife reveals herself to be the woman in the snow, and cannot bring herself to kill him, so she resorts to leave.

[amber.cartomancer]

Also I really appreciated that you mentioned that fairies or at least "energies" that seem similar appear all over the world and you made the choice to focus on where you would be able to access the information in a language that you speak.

[Magaboon]

In France we do not have a tooth fairy but a mouse of the tooth. A litle magical mouse who trade tooth for money under the pillow.

[yensid]

It's fascinating how certain beings/creatures that were originally considered quite malevolant by pre Christian & early Christian societies evolved in pop culture as child friendly fantasy. Mermaids, Unicorns, Faeries(The Fae), Elves, etc. My inro to faeries was probably Disney? You mentioned Tinkerbell & there was also Cinderella with a Fairy Godmother & Pinochio had The Blue Fairy.

[dktqqbd]

Good things come to those who wait. This will be grand. Thank you.

[anro]

I'm surprised why you did not mention Eddie Lenihan at all in your section on Ireland. He has the largest private collection of Irish fairy stories recorded from the 70's up until today and the man has a podcast here on YouTube as well as several books on Irish fairy folklore.

[curetapwater]

Tinker Bell did also try to kill Wendy in the Disney movie, though Disney doesn't tend to bring it up in her modern appearances.

[annhitchcock]

I was told by a lady from The Isle of Man that it is impolite to call them “ fairies”. They call them “ The little folk”.

[leahcole]

Thank you!!! I was just telling my friends about your channel a few hours ago and then here you are, uploading 3 hours on fairies, God bless you

[a.evelyn]

I have a great knack for finding four leaf clovers. I’ve found hundreds & hundreds over the years, no exaggeration. At one place I lived there was a three by three patch of grass & clovers that was always filled with four leaf & even five & six leaf clovers. I collected hundreds there alone over the two years I lived there. Anyway as a kid I would dig under every four leaf clover I found searching for the leprechaun underneath. I swear as a kid I saw one once (I mean kid self me swore I did). I was amazed by leprechauns but I never believed the teachers in school when the school leprechaun messed up the room. I believed they played little tricks on us individually instead & I often thought they were messing with me.

[FatefulMedia]

0:00 - 5:55: Intro and backstory

6:00: Modern and traditional fairies 

15:33: Fae sections and resources

21:30: Charle's fare part: Early mordern period

46:03: Charle's fare part 2: Modern fairy collections 

50:31 Charle's fare part 3: Fairy traits and traditions + Pixies

1:01:30 ; Flavorful Fairy related creatures

1:19:20 :Crofty's over the border section

1:48:41 ; Crofty's 2nd fae border

2:41:03 Duo on the ending passages

3:31:19 Fae closing remarks

*If this gets 50+ likes, I'll ass in the speific fairy types for each part in order.*

[danibissonnette]

I enjoy listening to these longer episodes on long drives. I also want to add that there is a North American entity called the Kushtaka that resembles early faery myths, particularly the dead who join the fey rather than suffer a mortal death.

[Menthepomme]

Watched the entire thing and found it quite lovely to learn this history! I had to watch it over 3 days off and on, but it was a great treat!

[davidd]

Charles and Crofty are awesome! Thanks for such amazing content! If you guys ever need a 3rd member to the team let me know! I could do work behind the scenes!