Spirituality
Nature Spirits, Faeries, And Elementals
The children of Mother Earth
Fairy Stories
I found an old notebook, in it were the musings of my Victorian granddad, now long dead. He was born in 1888 and he was already very old when I was born. He came from the West Riding of Yorkshire and knew about ‘the old ways’. He spoke in the Old English dialect of those parts.
Granddad believed in faeries He would sit me on his knee and recite to me the Old English faerie tales that were told to him — not those usually told to children, and definitely not those found in popular culture. He knew them all off by heart. They were stories about faeries, sprites, brownies and elves. Some of the tales he told me were really frightening such as Childe Rowland and The Yorkshire Boggart.
The fairies in Granddad’s stories were always trying to steal human children. I spent my early childhood worrying about being kidnapped by some form of Elemental, remembering not to walk ‘widdershins’ around churches in case I woke the elves.
I’m sure you are all acquainted with the seven dwarfs in the Snow White story, the Little Mermaid, Rumplestiltskin, and Tinkerbelle from Peter Pan. Here in the UK there is enduring folk-lore around the fairie and nature spirit realms — this…
