CELTIC MITOLOGY: Origin of the Faeries

Each week, we are going to have a brief summary of one or two  mythical creatures or SPIRITS FROM THE WOOD  that were very important for the Celtic traditions. Just to have a clue of the thousend of magic that is

Fairy comes from the Old French word faerie. The word has been overused to describe a supernatural being. There is a great deal of difference in classifying a being as a fairy from the medieval literature and those from modern literature, especially those belonging to the Celtic tradition.

There are other traditions such as that found in English, German and Slavic folklores.

Today, when we think of fairies, we often visualise them as tiny, supernatural beings with wings and glowing with uncommon light in today's children fairy tales. And they also possessed some sorts of strange magical powers, like Tinklebell in the story of Peter Pan or the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella. The modern fairies, between the 18th and 20th century, comes from oral tradition before they were transmitted into writing.

The fairies are supernatural beings that can be best described by the Greek word - daimon, which means "spirit". They are not divinity, ie. god or goddess, in the usual sense of the word, and yet they are not mere mortal; often, it is easier to classify them as minor divinity.

To understand what they are, we should look at some of those found in Celtic mythology and other Celtic traditions. But, then you would discover that fairies are not just confined in Celtic traditions. Many cultures and civilizations have their own versions of fairies.

There are enough kinds of fairies to confuse anyone, because sometimes writers have associated one fairy with a different kind.

In Celtic religion, there was Celtic deities in Gaul (France and Belgium), Hispania (Spain) and Britannia (Britain) during the Roman occupation of these regions or provinces. But the situation changed when Christianity spread to the west and north. These deities that were worshipped before the conversion to Christianity were reduced to the status of fairies in Celtic mythology and folklore.

So in Ireland the gods in the Tuatha De Danann were degenerated to the roles of fairies (eg. Dagda and Lugh), people living under the dune mound or fabled islands, or even within underwater domains. Similar degeneration occurred with old deities in Wales, Scotland and other surviving pockets of Celtic kingdoms (such as Cornwall, Brittany and island of Man).

These earlier Celtic traditions of fairies, the former Irish or Welsh deities were also not fairies in the usual sense. They looked very much like human, in size and shape, except that they have special magical powers and they seemed eternally young, but they don't have wings. The Dananns or their Welsh counterparts were usually seen as race of fair people. They can die just as mortals can, but their lives could last hundreds or even thousands of years.

The problem is that sometimes, the Christian authors have also turned them into beings serving the Devil, and that the fairies were actually demons. However this view is no longer shared, today.

These medieval fairies are different from the common folklore and fairy tales of today. The Tuatha de Danann is nothing like the brownie, leprechaun and goblin of these later traditions.

FAIRY OF TODAY- BANSHEE

Originally in Irish literature, banshee actually means "woman of fairy mound" or just simply as "fairy woman". Ban or bean meaning "woman". The various spelling or pronounciation of the word for fairy mound referred to the Otherworldly realm, which the Irish referred to as shee, sid, sidh orsidhe.

The word banshee may have originated from East Munster, and there are many ways it can be spelt. In Irish Gaelic it could be spelt as banshie, bean sidhe and ben side. The Scottish words are ban-sith, bean-shith and bean sith. The Manx form is ben shee.

It was only in later Irish and Scottish Gaelic folklore traditions that banshee came to mean a female wraith or spirit, whose keening presages the death of person's in the household. This banshee was tied to a person or family, sort of like an attendant fairy.

She only foretells the pending death of a person. Unlike the Breton fairy woman korrigan

, the banshee doesn't cause a person's death with her power or curse. Related to the banshee is the Washer or Washer-woman at the Ford, known in Scottish folklore as bean sighe  

According to the Irish poet Yeats, banshee was sometimes accompanied by the Dullahan a headless fairy coachman. It is also sometimes believed that on these occasion, the banshee is also headless. It has been reported in 1807 that one headless banshee had frightened to death two sentries stationed at James' Park.

The banshee was sometimes seen as a young, fair woman, especially in Irish texts, while other sources from Scottish tradition described her as an old hag. Her description varied. What is common in both traditions was that banshee had long, unbound hair, and dressed in white, though, sometimes she was seen dressed in a grey cloak over a green dress. Another common tradition is that she can be heard weeping or wailing, that sounds like the keening of mourners. And because of continuous weeping, her eyes were red in colour.