Fairies Weren't What You Think ｜ The Dark Truth Behind British & Irish Folklore

When I first sat down to prepare this episode I realised I'd stepped into one of the biggest subjects in folklore. Fairy was never a species, it was a label people used for whatever lived nearby, didn't belong to the human world and could ruin your life if you treated it carelessly. That's why fairies can look beautiful in one story and murderous in the next. For this episode I'll be focusing on the fairy traditions I know the best, those of Britain and Ireland, specifically England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Welcome to the Mysteries of Mythology. Fairies Fairies have been part of my mythology awareness for as long as I can remember. Honestly I think most people in Britain could say the same. They're built into childhood stories, place names, obscure warnings from elderly relatives and the sort of countryside folklore you only encounter when someone tells you don't walk there, there's a fairy place. And if you grew up with fantasy novels, films or children's stories, fairies were simply there, colourful, mischievous, sometimes sparkly, sometimes sinister, but always familiar. It's almost impossible to grow up here without them. But familiarity doesn't mean simplicity. The fairies of folklore are often nothing like the fairies of modern fiction. And that's where our story begins by looking at the modern fairy image then working our way backwards through the layers of belief, history and myth that gives rise to it. Before we travel back into older beliefs, it helps to start with the fairy images that most people recognise today. These modern versions are not especially old, in fact they're largely creations of the last few centuries, shaped by children's literature, the Victorians and of course popular fiction. If you think about fairies right now, your mind probably goes through one of two main types. To explain them clearly I'd like to use two familiar examples, Tinkerbell and Queen Mab. They represent almost opposite ends of the modern fairy spectrum and both have deep roots in how fairies are portrayed today. The first type is what I call the Tinkerbell type, the tiny glowing fairy that darts around too quickly for the eye to follow. She's usually only 10 or 15 centimetres tall, bright as a spark and trailed by shimmering light. When she does stop long enough to be seen she appears as a small, beautiful young woman with wings that resemble either a butterfly or a dragonfly. Those wings often glow and the glow itself is sometimes explained as magical dust. This image became widespread through the early 20th century, especially after the Disney adaptations of Peter Pan. From that point onwards fairies like Tinkerbell became the Friendly, sweet, sometimes mischievous, always helpful. This type of fairy also became one of the most commonly connected to the Tooth Fairy, a figure who exchanges lost teeth for coins when a child sleeps. The Tooth Fairy is widely known in Britain and America, though it's less clear how strong she appears in other parts of the world. If you have a Tooth Fairy where you live then let me know in the comments. In many modern stories for young audiences this type of fairy is not just a magical creature but a companion. Think of Navi from Legend of Zelda who guides the hero and serves a constant presence. These fairies form a bond with a particular person, usually a child, and serve them as an advisor or helper. Oddly enough this was not quite the original intention behind Tinkerbell. In the original Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie wrote that fairies were so small they could feel only one emotion at a time. As a result, when angry they became actively dangerous. After growing up watching the Disney animated movie I was really surprised when I later read the original that at one point in the story Tinkerbell tries to kill Wendy. This is a detail that Disney quietly left out because it would be difficult to market a character who behaves like a sparkling assassin. So that's our first archetype. Tiny, magical, luminous, sentimental and ultimately a very modern creation. The second major archetype is what I think of as the Queen Mab type and it's almost nothing like the first. These fairies are tall or human-sized, breathtakingly beautiful but distinctly otherworldly. They're often referred to as fae and they're usually organised into courts, hierarchies and political structures. Their behaviour is governed by strict rules, riddles, oaths and traditions that seem simple at first but become dangerously complex once you interact with them. Queen Mab is a good figure to represent this type. She appears in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in a long speech where she is described as the bringer of dreams. Later fiction expanded her role and character enormously. One well-known modern portrayal is the Dresden Files where Queen Mab rules the Winter Court. In these stories the fae are bound by ancient laws. The fae are bound by strict bargains and literal wording. They keep their oaths but often in ways that feel technically honest and still manage to turn everything against you. And they often seek ways to bind humans into arguments that look harmless at first but tie them into long obligations. They can wield immense magical power but usually only over those who have already accepted some connection to their world. This archetype also contains the idea of the fae knight or chosen servant. Queen Mab for example has a knight who receives great power in exchange for serving her. These relationships are never equal. The fae gains loyalty and the human gains ability but the cost is always steeper than it seems. Unlike the tiny faeries these beings are not good or evil. They're fixed in their personalities and their roles and they follow their own logic. Any deal with them becomes a test of language, caution and intent. They are the masters of half-truths and perfect honesty still misleads. Folk warnings about faeries almost always come down to one thing. Never make a deal unless you're prepared to lose more than you gain. This type of faerie also includes the creatures that fill their courts. Pixies, sprites, goblins, brownies, knockers, selkies and many more. Some are beautiful, some are strange, some are small, some are monstrous. In modern fiction they often serve as the lesser ranks of the grand fae courts. Of the two the Queen Mab type is far closer to traditional faerie belief. Real folklore rarely describes faeries as tiny winged creatures. The glowing insect-sized faerie is almost entirely a Victorian creation shaped by illustrators, poets and children's writers who wanted faeries to feel gentle, harmless and safe. In folklore faeries are usually human-sized or close to it. They live in parallel worlds that overlap with our own. They form courts, families and communities. They follow strict rules that make perfect sense to them and almost none of us. They bargain, reward, punish and deceive and sometimes destroy, all without seeing themselves as cruel or kind. That does not mean faerie law is consistent, in fact it's the opposite. Faeries contradict each other because they were never meant to be the same. The word faerie was not used to describe a single species or type of being. It was a human label applied to whatever lived nearby, did not belong to the human world and could cause serious harm if you treated them without care. Different regions used the same word for very different beings because the word itself was doing practical work not scientific classification. What mattered was their behaviour. When folklorists later began comparing traditions across Britain and Ireland they noticed a loose pattern. Some faeries moved in groups. They were in courts, the hosts, the processions that ride at night, dance in rings and live under hills ruled by kings and queens. Others were solitary. These were tricksters, predators and tempters, the ones you meet alone on the road, by the river or at the edge of the forest. And then there were the household faeries, the brownies, the hobgoblins who attach themselves to farms and families, helping them when respected but becoming dangerous when offended. These categories overlap and none of them are safe but they help explain why faerie stories feel so chaotic. People are not describing one kind of being, they're describing repeating patterns of threat, help and interference. The tiny winged faerie fits poorly into the older world. Wings appear rarely in British and English folklore and when they do they're not central. The image of faeries as glowing delicate creatures belongs to a much later period when faerie belief was being reshaped into entertainment rather than lived experience. What survives from older traditions is not appearance but attitude. Faeries are not good or evil, they are fixed in their nature and bound to their rules. They punish disrespect, they reward courtesy, they twist language, enforce their bargains literally and treat human assumptions as irrelevant. This is why folk warnings about faeries almost come down to the same advice. Never assume they think like you do and never make a deal unless you're prepared to lose more than you gain. Now that we've looked at how modern faerie images differ from folkloric roots it's time to travel backward into the older beliefs and see how they developed region by region. To do that we begin in England. When we look at faerie lore in England the first thing to understand is the word faerie itself arrived quite late. It doesn't appear in English until the end of the middle ages around the 14th century but long before the word existed England already had beings that later became strongly associated with faeries. These were the elves or in old English depending on the form. Elves appear in Anglo-Saxon sources but the references are often brief, scattered or contradictory. Because of that scholars have tried to interpret them by comparing them with similar figures in Norse and Germanic traditions where the lore is more complete. In the Icelandic sagas for example elves are described as human-shaped supernatural beings. They're distinct from giants, ogres and dwarves and they're often divided into light elves and dark elves. The light elves are described as beautiful and radiant while the dark elves are more mysterious and dwell underground. However in England the surviving evidence suggests that elves were viewed in a much more negative way than their Norse counterparts. They were often blamed for illness, misfortune and mysterious pains in both humans and livestock. Medical texts from the ancient Saxon period include charms meant to cure ailments caused by elf shot which was believed to be a kind of invisible attack. Names from the period like Alfred, Alfwine contained the elf element but it's not always clear if these names were meant in a positive sense or a form of protection. Even in literature elves were not always benevolent. In the poem Beowulf elves are listed among the monstrous descendants of Cain along ogres, giants and other supernatural beings. This suggests that in early English belief elves were not gentle or helpful but part of a darker more dangerous world. Interestingly elves were also sometimes linked to beauty and seduction. In a few medieval manuscripts scribes translating letting texts use the old English word elf to explain the word nymph, suggesting that elves could be imagined as attractive female spirits rather than purely malevolent beings. But overall the Anglo-Saxon picture is inconsistent. It's not clear whether elves were always supernatural or not or sometimes seen as a mysterious form of human. The tradition is scattered and we simply don't have enough surviving material to form a complete picture. It's only after the Norman conquest that we start to see clearer fairy-like images appearing regularly in written English sources. Between the 12th and 13th centuries several writers recorded stories of encounters between humans and magical beings that resembled later fairies. These appear in texts by Gerald of Wales, Walter Mapp, William of Newburgh, Ralph of Coggeshall and Gervais of Tilbury. Although these writers often approach the stories as curiosities rather than as full folklore they give us valuable glimpses into early fairy belief. Certainly motifs reoccur again and again in these tales. These beings are often described as long-lived and somewhat superior to humans. They inhibit either underworld realms or parallel worlds, they can bless or curse humans, sometimes reward hospitality, and they occasionally steal children. They're frequently associated with the colour green which becomes an enduring trait in British fairy lore. One memorable example appears in Gerald of Wales' account of a younger boy named Elidor. According to the story Elidor fled his strict tutor and hid under a riverbank. While there he encountered two tiny men dressed in green who led him through a dark tunnel into an underground world. This world had meadows, rivers, forests, but no sunlight, moon or stars. Everything was dim but pleasant. The people there were small, beautiful and well-proportioned. They fed on milk-based dishes and had no interest in meat, fishing or human religious practices. They had Eventually Elidor made the mistake of stealing a golden ball from the underground people and running home with it. They chased him, retrieved the ball and after that every entrance to the world vanished. Elidor grew up, became a priest and could still remember the language in his old age, although the memory brought him to tears. The story contains many features that become standard. The underground realm, the beautiful but strange beings, the taboo against stealing from them and the disappearance of the entryway and the sense that contact with their world brings both wonder and loss. Another reoccurring figure in medieval fairy tales is the supernatural woman encountered in secluded places. These beings often appear dancing or singing at night, especially around lakes or forests. A man might attempt to court or capture one and the story usually ends one of two ways. Either she escapes back to her world or she transforms into something monstrous at a crucial moment, leaving the man terrified or even driven mad. Gerald records one such case in which a man embraces a beautiful woman only for her to turn into a hairy, terrifying creature in his arms. Stories like this blur the line between fairies, demons and shapeshifters and they reveal the uncertainty medieval people felt about supernatural encounters. While folklore preserved the fairy beliefs through oral tradition, literature began shaping its own version of fairies, especially through the romance tradition of medieval France. These romances introduced human-like fairies with great beauty, magical power and an affinity for lovers and kings. A key figure in this development is Oberon, a dwarf king who appears in the 13th century French tale Juan de Bordeaux. He is tiny, magical, wealthy and powerful and his name becomes strongly associated with fairy royalty. These literary fairies were not always small, in fact most were human-sized, but the romances did formalise several ideas that later became a standard. Fairies lived in parallel worlds, they interacted with humans, sometimes romantically, and they operated under mysterious rules that humans did not fully understand. Over the next few centuries, especially by the late medieval period, England developed the concept of the fairy kingdom. Fairies were imagined as having courts, rulers and hierarchical societies. The Wife of Bath in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales mentions that Britain was once filled with fairies and led by a fairy queen. By the 15th century, the term fairy had largely replaced elf in English writing. Fairy queens, kings and courts became a popular motive. The association of fairies with dancing, music and mischief grew stronger and fairies became favourite subjects for poets and playwrights. Fairy belief reached a new level of popularity in Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. These were the decades when fairies became playful, mischievous and theatrical in public imagination. Shakespeare played a huge role in this. His play A Midsummer Night's Dream gave us an iconic fairy court, ruled by Oberon and Tatiana, surrounded by attendants and tricksters. Here we find Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, the playful prankster who delights in confusing mortals. This is the only period where fairies became more involved in moral tales. They rewarded good behaviour, punished wrongdoers and received offerings from households who hoped to stay in their good side. A belief in household fairies, helpful but sensitive to insult, becomes common. Interestingly, Queen Elizabeth I herself was sometimes depicted in fairy imagery as a fairy queen surrounded by ethereal attendants. Edmund Spencer's poem The Fairy Queen takes this even further, blending national myth, Arthurian lore, Christian allegory and fairy symbolism in an effort to praise Elizabeth. By the time the Victorians arrived, fairies had become beloved figures of children's stories, illustrations and theatrical productions. This period finally gave the world a tiny winged fairy that dominates modern imagination. But beneath all the Victorian sweetness, the older, stranger fairy traditions never truly disappeared. They remained tucked inside the folklore of each region, waiting for someone to collect them. The 19th century saw an explosion in folklore collecting, greatly inspired by the Brothers Grimm. Their work encouraged scholars across Europe to record local legends before they completely vanished. In England this produced a wealth of regional lore rather than a single national collection. Each county had its own fairy types, names and variations and they did not always match one another. This shift from oral tradition to written record preserved many of the fairy beliefs that might otherwise have been lost. It also revealed how widespread and varied fairy lore truly was. Now that we've explored the historical development of fairies in England, the next part of this section will look at the specific English fairy types, their behaviours and the stories attached to them. These vary wildly from region to region, even neighbouring counties might have similar creatures but with different names, habits or personalities. There is no unified English fairy tradition, it's more of a patchwork. But there are some traits that show up again and again in English stories. Many fairies wear green, many dance in rings or circles, many borrow tools, food, milk or household items, usually without permission, and many dislike salt or iron. One early and consistent feature is the fairy ring. These are circles found in fields, often marked by mushrooms or patches of unusually lush or unusually pale grass. Today we know these rings form from fungal growth patterns but in folklore they were almost explained as the result of fairy dancing and stepping into one was never recommended. This is where trouble began. You could also encounter fairies around ancient monuments, prehistoric sites in England from barrows to standing stones were often considered fairy places. The fairies were said to inhibit them or guard them and wandering near these places at night was a known risk. It's a belief that survived strongly in Ireland as well. To explore all these elements more clearly I want to look at a few specific English fairy beings that represent the breadth of the tradition. The first is one of the most recognisable English fairy types, the pixie. Pixies or in older form piscies, pigsies or piscies are found mainly in West Country, especially Devon, Cornwall and Somerset. They share some traits with other English fairies but form a very distinct tradition of their own. Descriptions do vary. Some say pixies have pointed ears, upturned noses and red hair. Some say they look like small people wearing green. Others say they resemble normal humans but are unmistakable once you see them up close. Some tales describe them as tiny, others as simply shorter than humans. This inconsistency is a hallmark of the pixie lore. Pixies are known for their mischievous nature. Their favourite pastime is leading travellers astray, especially at night or on moorlands. If someone becomes disoriented, wandering in circles unable to find their way home, they're said to be pixie led. One of the traditional remedies is to turn your coat inside out. Another is to carry bread or a cross made of rowan or willow. They're closely associated with ancient burial mounds or natural hollows in the landscape known as pixie holes or pisci crows. These are structures that are entrances into their underground dwellings. Pixies also create their own distinctive fairy rings by riding horses in circles at night. According to folklore, if you find a horse with its mane tangled or its sides foaming, for no clear reason, pixies may have borrowed it for a midnight ride. And if you step into one of these rings you may see the pixies dancing, but stepping in with both feet is said to trap you entirely. There is also a belief in some parts of Cornwall that pixies are the soul of unbaptised children. That is a theme that appears in several traditions of the British Isles where the unbaptised or unclaimed dead become wandering spirits or members of fairy bands. It's not universal across the country but it does appear repeatedly in the West Country lore. Pixie stories blend mischief with morality in interesting ways. Sometimes they help people as a reward for good behaviour. Sometimes they punish those that are careless or disrespectful. One example comes from the tale of a farmer who awaits to find all of his corn threshed and neatly stacked even though he had not done the work himself. When he discovers the small pixie responsible, he decides to reward it by sewing a new set of clothes. The pixie tries on the clothes with great pride, announces that he is far too fine to work anymore and disappears forever. The farmer then loses the magical help he once took for granted. Another story tells of Nanny Norrish, a washerwoman known for her good humour and stubborn belief in pixies. She insists that pixies do not exist or at least none worth worrying about. One night she walks home across the moor and the pixies decide to make an example of her. They gather in towering stacks, one standing on the shoulder of another forming shrieking pyramids of tiny figures. They surround her making a deafening noise until she finally accepts that the pixies are real. They let her go unharmed but thoroughly humbled. Pixies embody the relationship between humans and fairies in England. Unpredictable, occasionally helpful and always ready to assert their presence when disrespected. Another major English fairy being is the changeling. This is the idea that fairies steal human children, especially unbaptised infants, and replace them with their own offspring or with enchanted objects that appear to be a child. The changeling is often described as wrinkled with age, unhealthy, bad-tempered or strangely odd-looking for an infant. It never thrives, it cries constantly, eats excessively or refuses to speak. There are different explanations for why fairies steal children. Some say they want the beauty of human infants, others say they want to strengthen their own lives by raising children in a fairy world. Others claim the changeling is simply a decoy while the real child is carried away to serve in the fairy realm. There are many folk stories that describe how to expose a changeling. A common method is to place unusual objects before the child. In one such a the supposed baby explains in a voice far too wise for its age that it's never seen so many milk pans in all its years. This reveals that the creature is not a child at all and once confronted it flees or vanishes up the chimney. Sometimes the real child then reappears at the door. In other stories the parents must take more forceful action such as threatening to burn down a fairy dwelling or perform a ritual outside the fairy mound to force the fairies to return the child. These stories existed in England, Ireland and across Europe often with remarkably similar details. There was a darker side to the changeling legend. Throughout history some children with disabilities or chronic illnesses were tragically mistreated or killed because their families believed they were changelings. In 1895 in Ireland a woman named Bridget Clearley was killed, more specifically set on fire by her husband and relatives because they believed she'd been replaced by a fairy. Bridget had been diagnosed with bronchitis. Her condition was severe enough that she had a priest administer her last rites. With the sudden change in her condition her family believed she'd been replaced by a changeling. In an attempt to cure her of this condition she was thrown into the fireplace because it was believed that doing so would cause the changeling to escape up the chimney and return the missing woman. While pixies were the most iconic English fairies there is an entire family of solitary fairies or spirits that share certain traits. They are tricksters, mischief makers, household helpers and sometimes malevolent pests. Hobgoblins and goblins are related figures. The hobgoblin is usually imagined as a small hairy human-shaped sprite who helps with chores at night. The brownie is a more famous example of this helpful household spirit. Brownies do farm work, clean kitchens, herd animals and repair tools all in exchange for a bowl of cream or a loaf of bread. But there is an important rule. You must never attempt to pay a brownie with clothing or any formal gift. Doing so offends them and they immediately leave. This trait will show up again in Scottish fairy lore. If a brownie becomes offended or mistreated it may transform into a boggart. A boggart is a household spirit turned sour. It moves objects, breaks dishes, pinches people at night, pulls blankets off beds and occasionally threatens to harm. One story from Yorkshire describes a boggart living in a closet throwing back anything pushed through the hole in a wall until the family finally abandons the house entirely. In the broader regions between England and Scotland there's also the redcap, a particularly violent type of goblin who lives in ruined towers and is said to dye his cap in the blood of those he kills. This figure blends fairy lore with the ghost lore and history of violent border raids. He is one of the darkest figures in the entire fairy catalogue. Now that we've covered England it's time to cross the border and explore the fairy traditions of Wales. In this section I'll be pronouncing most of the names incorrectly so apologies to my Welsh followers in advance. Wales has a deep and distinctive fairy tradition shaped by its landscape of mountains, lakes, mists and valleys. While English fairy lore is sprawling and varied, Welsh fairy lore often feels more cohesive especially when it comes to fairies or as they call it Tlwydd Teg, usually translated as fair family. The name Tlwydd Teg appears in written sources beginning in the 14th century although many of the beings associated with the term are The phrase itself reflects a common belief found across the Celtic nations. When speaking of fairies one should do so with politeness. Calling them the fair family or the blessed ones was a way to avoid giving offence. Fairies in Wales as elsewhere were thought to react strongly to disrespect. The earliest Welsh literature also contains otherworldly beings who resemble fairies even if they weren't given that name yet. The Mabinogion was a collection of mythological and heroic tales compiled from older oral traditions and contains several encounters with supernatural figures who live in a separate realm known as Anwen, the other world. Anwen appears in multiple Welsh texts as a land connected with death, magic and abundance. In the first branch of the Mabinogion Anwen is ruled by a supernatural king, Arwen. The human prince, Puil becomes lost in the forest and stumbles into Arwen's realm where the two men exchange places for a year. This alliance brings prosperity to both lands. In these stories Anwen is the magical otherworld, strange and dangerous but not evil. Later traditions, especially in Christianised belief, treat Anwen as a realm of spirits or even devils but in the older tales it's beautiful, rich, dangerous in equal measure. A later poem, Pray Thee, Anwen describes King Arthur's journey into Anwen to seize a magical cauldron. The cauldron will not boil meat for a coward, symbolising its connection to honour and supernatural power. These early tales are filled with fairy-like characteristics, enchanting realms, time passing strangely, magical gifts and beings who walk between worlds. But the most famous and distinctively Welsh fairy tradition focuses not on ancient gods but on lake maidens. Lake fairies are among the most captivating in Welsh folklore. They're always female, always beautiful, always tied to a specific lake and nearly always generous at first but bound by strict conditions. The pattern of their stories is so consistent that they form one of the clearest fairy archetypes in the Celtic world. The most detailed example is the story of the maiden of Dlinr Fanfac, the lake of the small peak located beneath the Black Mountain. It's a story that goes back many centuries and its influence extends beyond folklore in Welsh history. The tale begins with a young man who works as a cattle herder. One day, while tending his livestock, he sees a woman gliding across the surface of the lake. She is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. He offers her bread hoping to win her favour but she rejects it because it's baked too hard. He tries again with unbaked dough which she also refuses. Only when he offers bread that is baked just right does she accept. He asks her to marry him and she disappears beneath the water without answering. The next day she emerges again accompanied by her father and her identical sister. Her father sets a condition. If the young man can correctly choose which of the identical women is the one he met, he may have her hand in marriage. The young man looks closely and sees the faint difference in how she ties her sandal and he chooses correctly. Her father grants her to him as a wife and offers a dowry of cattle, goats and horses. But there is one condition. If the husband ever strikes her three times without cause, she will return to the lake taking all her animals with her. The couple marry and live happily for years. They have three sons but one day, while preparing to attend the christening, the husband lightly taps his wife with a glove to urge her to hurry. She warns him that he struck her once without cause. Later, at a wedding, she weeps while others celebrate. When he touches her shoulder to ask why, she reminds him that this is the second blow. Finally, at a funeral, she laughs when others mourn. He urges her not to behave so and she tells him a third blow has been struck. She walks out of the house, calls her animals by name and every last one follows her, even those that had been slaughtered for food. The cattle rise from the earth and join her as she returns to the water, disappearing beneath the lake. This would be a powerful story even if it ended there but in this case it continues. Her sons grow up visiting the lake hoping to see her mother again. Eventually, she appears to the eldest son and teaches him the art of healing. He becomes one of the legendary physicians of Muthba, a historical line of healers whose descendants practiced medicine in Wales for centuries. Their medical texts survive, blending herbal knowledge with a sense of inherited supernatural wisdom. This story, with its focus on marriage, taboo and supernatural blessings, is echoed across Wales. Many lakes have their own version. In some tales, the maiden vanishes at the touch of iron, reflecting their belief that fairies cannot abide by it. In others, the breaking of the taboo always comes in threes. A shorter tale from Hilin Urvurwin, The Maiden's Lake, follows a similar pattern. A man courts a lake woman, marries her, prospers thanks to a magical livestock and eventually loses her when he violates her conditions. These themes are constant. Fairy blessings bring abundance but only if humans behave with care. The fairy world is generous but also fragile. One careless action, even unintentional, can end a connection forever. It is these lake maidens that seem similar across European culture. They resemble Arthurian figures like the Lady of the Lake, though that tradition is much later. They also resemble the great fairies in the modern fantasy, especially those connected with water who offer gifts and enchantments. Although the lake maidens are the standout tradition, Wales has other fairy figures as well. Some stories describe fairies dancing in rings on moonlit nights, dressed in flowing robes of blue, green, white or red. Others mention household fairies resembling brownies. In mining regions, small underground beings called knockers appear, similar to those in Cornwall which I did a video about recently. But these traditions are more scattered. Now that we've travelled through Wales, it's time to explore the fairy beliefs of Ireland, which form one of the richest and most influential fairy traditions in the world. If the fairy traditions of England are varied and the fairy traditions of Wales are cohesive, then Ireland offers something else entirely. Irish fairy lore is vast, deep-rooted and so culturally significant that it becomes impossible to separate fairies from the broader mythology of the country. Irish fairies are not just small spirits playing tricks at the edge of the village. In Ireland, the beings most commonly called fairies today are known as the Ishi, which means people of the mounds. The name is connected to the older term Shi, referring both to the beings and the mounds or hills in which they dwell. These mounds are often prehistoric structures such as passage tombs and ring forts, and they were believed to serve as entrances to the other world. Ireland is full of these sites and almost every one of them has a fairy association. To understand the Irish fairies, we need to look briefly at the Tuatha Dé Danann, a supernatural race of beings in medieval Irish literature. They're portrayed as powerful godlike beings associated with war, magic, crafts and sovereignty. According to the legend, the Tuatha Dé Danann were defeated by the Milesians, the ancestors of the Irish people. After their defeat, they retreated into the hollow hills, becoming the Ishi. In other words, some strands of the Irish tradition treat the fairies not as small, whimsical creatures but transform gods. This interpretation does not appear in England or Wales, it's distinctly Irish in development. Because of it, Irish fairy lore feels grander, older and more dangerous. The Ishi are often beautiful, immortal, gifted in magic and fiercely territorial. They represent the remains of the mythological order that never truly faded. One of the most important Irish beliefs is that fairy dwellings should never be disturbed. A ringfort, or a wrath, a standalone stone, a burial mound, a lone hawthorn tree or a place known as a fairy path must be avoided. If a structure lies in a fairy path, you must not build there. If a fairy tree stands where a road is planned, you move the road. There are stories of modern construction projects rerouting around the single hawthorn belief to belong to the fairies. It's not a joke belief either. Farmers, builders and entire communities have long avoided offending the Ishi. The consequences vary from illness to accidents to misfortune that strikes the entire household. The central idea is that humans dwell in their world and fairies dwell in theirs. Crossing those boundaries without permission leads to trouble. The fairies in Ireland appear in many forms. Some resemble stunning beautiful humans, bright and more immaculate than any mortal. These are often connected to fairy royalty or noble families. Others appear as solitary beings with specific habits or functions. Some protect households, some take children, some attach themselves to particular families and warn of death, and some are simply wild forces of nature. One common type of encounter is the abduction or imitation into the fairy mound. A musician, for instance, might hear music on the wind and follow it to a fairy gathering where he plays for the Ishi. He may return with incredible musical gifts or find that years have passed in the human world while only a night passed for him. Time behaves strangely in fairy company. Another encounter involves the fairy cavalcade. On certain nights, especially during festivals like Samhain, the fairies ride across the land. Anyone who sees them risks being swept along in the procession, carried great distances or even taken permanently. This sounds a lot like the wild hunt that I did a video on earlier. There are also the fairy women who appear at wells, rivers and crossroads. They might bless a man who treats them with courtesy or they might seal his doom if he insults them or refuses their requests. Beauty and danger are inseparable in Irish fairy encounters. Although changelings appear in many other countries, the Irish stories are some of the most detailed. Irish fairies are said to steal healthy babies or replace adults with fairy substitutes, especially those believed to be exceptional, talented or blessed in some way. Infants not yet baptised are considered especially vulnerable. The changeling left behind often behaves strangely or declines in health. It might display unnatural knowledge, excessive hunger, sudden fits of laughter or eerie silence. Folk remedies for revealing a changeling include surprising or startling the suspected child. If it reacts in a way no human infant should, the truth is revealed. As in England, some changeling stories are tragic and reflect misunderstandings about disability and illness. One of the most iconic figures in Irish fairy lore is the Banshee from Beanshee meaning Woman of the Mound. She is not a ghost in the modern sense, she is a fairy woman tied to specific families, especially those with surnames beginning with O or Mac. Her purpose is to warn of impending death. The Banshee may appear as a young woman, a matron or an old crone with streaming hair and red eyes from weeping. She may comb her hair with a silver comb, a wail with a piercing cry that chills the blood. Hearing the Banshee is terrifying not because she harms anyone but because her presence means death is near. In some rare stories she mourns not with a scream but with a soft singing, a keening that echoes the traditional Irish funeral lament. She is a grief figure, not a monster as modern versions depict her. Another major fairy woman is the Lenanshee, often described as a muse who inspires poets, musicians and artists. She is stunningly beautiful and bestows great talent but at a cost. Her lovers often waste away physically, drained by the intensity of her influence. In some tales she's vampiric, feeding on the vitality of those she inspires. I'm sure there was an episode of Star Trek Next Generation where there was a similar creature to this. Let me know in the comments if you've seen it. The Dullahan is a darker fairy appearing as a headless rider dressed in black. He carries his own head beneath one arm and rides a horse whose eyes burn like embers. His appearance is an omen of death. He does not scream or speak but when he calls a person's name that person dies instantly. He's one of the most frightening figures in Irish folklore and is often compared with the later headless horsemen of American stories. The Pooka is a shape-shifting fairy who can appear as a horse, goat, dog, hare or human. The horse form is the most famous. The Pooka may tempt travellers to mount him then carry them on a wild ride across the countryside before dumping them in mud or a ditch. But not all Pookas are malicious. Some help farmers, warn of dangers or offer prophecies. The Pooka is unpredictable, a creature of chaos and transformation. The Leprechaun is perhaps the most internationally famous Irish fairy, though the modern image is just a caricature of the original. In older lore the Leprechaun is a solitary shoemaker known for guarding hidden gold. Capturing him might force him to reveal the treasure but he always finds a way to escape. The Clericorn is either a relative or a variation depending on the source. He is associated with wine cellars and appears drunk, mischievous and fond of feasting. He resembles the Leprechaun but behaves more chaotically. Next we head north to explore the fiercely vivid fairy traditions of Scotland. Scottish fairy lore is some of the most vivid and dramatic in the British Isles. It contains beauty, terror, romance and danger in equal measure and it features some of the most striking fairy beings ever recorded. If Irish fairy lore feels grand and ancient, Scottish fairy lore feels sharp, wild and unpredictable, shaped by rugged landscapes, deep locks and vast stretches of moorland. One of the most important ideas in Scottish folklore is that fairies are not small. Many Scottish fairies are human-sized or even larger, often indistinguishable from humans unless you know the signs. They're divided into two major groups, the Seelie Cult and the Unseelie Cult. These two cults shape much of Scotland's fairy worldview. The Seelie Cult consists of fairies who are not inherently hostile to humans. They're not safe but they're more inclined to They may warn travellers of danger or intervene when someone behaves honourably. These fairies are still dangerous but their intentions tend to be more balanced. The Unseelie Cult is far more threatening. Members delight in tormenting humans. They swoop down on travellers at night, causing illness or madness and drag people into deadly situations. The idea of these two opposing cults is almost uniquely Scottish. It doesn't appear in England or Wales in the same way. Each cult contains its own ranks and species of fairies including beings as varied as beautiful nobles, monstrous airborne predators and household spirits who teeter between loyalty and rage. The Scottish fairy host is one of the most dramatic images in the tradition. At night, especially around Samhain, the fairies of the Unseelie Cult sweep across the sky as a storm-like host. They travel in the whirlwinds, clouds or thunderous gusts. Anyone caught in their path risks being carried away, harmed or transformed. These hosts are sometimes confused with the world hunt which appears across North Europe but in Scotland the fairy host has its own distinct identity. They're not hunting souls, they're simply moving and humans in their way suffer their consequences. The sound of the fairy host passing might be described as the beating of wings, the roaring of the wind and the clamour of many voices. Those who heard it often hid indoors, sealed windows or lay flat on the ground until it passed. One of Scotland's most famous fairy beings is the brownie, a household helper similar to the English brownie but with some unique traits. Scottish brownies assist with chores, clean barns, watch over cattle, churn butter and perform other tasks at night. They expect no payment but appreciate small offerings like milk and oat cakes. However, like English counterparts, they detest being offered clothing. The gift of a garment offends them and makes them leave permanently. A well-known Scottish rhyme surmises the idea. A brownie, a brownie, I working late and early, give him milk and give him a meal and he'll be living rarely. But give him a coat or give him a sock and he'll get over his brownie work. For he'll think you're paying him for his pains and he'll never be seen in your house again. The Bavon She is one of the most striking figures in Scottish lore. She is sometimes described as a fairy vampire, a beautiful woman who appears to lone hunters or travellers at night. The typical story begins with a group of hunters seeking shelter in a remote glen. They wish aloud for female company and moments later a group of women appears, beautiful and seemingly lost. The hunters offer them warmth and begin to dance with them but the women are not human. They dig their long fingernails into the men's flesh and drain their blood. The Bavon She kills by drawing life out of their victims, not through fangs but through supernatural touch. She vanishes at sunrise and she avoids iron which offers some protection. Many tales end with only one hunter surviving after taking refuge behind iron-bound materials or managing to flee through the night. Scotland is home to several supernatural water beings but most famous is the Kelpie, a shape-shifting horse that haunts rivers, locks and streams. A Kelpie often appears as a beautiful black horse tempting people, especially children, to climb on its back. Once they do, its skin becomes adhesive and they cannot escape. The Kelpie then charges into the water and drowns its riders before devouring them. Some Kelpies take human form, often appearing as dark brooding men with water trickling from their hair. In these forms they lure individuals to isolated places near water. The Ek Uskja, or water horse, is an even more dangerous relative. While the Kelpie tends to haunt rivers, the Ek Uskja lives in deep freshwater locks and is considered almost unstoppable. Humans are warned never to approach a strange horse grazing near a lock, no matter how harmless it appears. Although Selkies are sometimes associated with Orkney and Shetland rather than mainland Scotland, they form an important part of Scottish fairy lore. Selkies are shape-shifters who live as seals in the water but they can shed their skins and become human on land. They are usually described as gentle and melancholic. Many stories involve a man stealing a Selkie woman's skin, preventing her from returning to the sea and forcing her to become his wife. She bears children and lives on the land for years but she never really stops longing for the sea. Eventually, she finds her hidden skin, puts it on and returns to the water, abandoning her human family. If she ever revisits them, she remains distant, speaking from the waves but never staying. Selkie tales are some of the most tragic in Scottish folklore. They convey the constant pull between the two worlds. Scottish fairy tales work similarly to those in Ireland. Many are real prehistoric burrows associated with fairy dwellings. Some humans hear fairy music coming from them within the hills. Some Scottish fairies reward humans who help them, especially when humans act with compassion. Others punish those who interrupt their dances or refuse their requests. Many stories warn against eating fairy food which binds a person to the fairy realm. Now that we've travelled through the fairy traditions of England, Wales and Ireland and it becomes much clearer why the modern image of the fairy feels so inconsistent. Each of these regions contributes something different and together they form the foundation of what we now call fairies. There's also something deeply human in the persistence of fairy stories. They reflect the landscapes where they appear. The misty hills of Wales, the deep locks of Scotland, the ancient mountains of Ireland and the quiet forests of England. They give personality to the strange, the unexplained and the beautiful. They speak to the belief that the world is more alive than it seems. That hidden forces exist just out of sight and that wonder and fear often walk hand in hand. Even today in rural parts of Ireland and Scotland people still hesitate to cut down a fairy tree or disturb a fairy mound. Not because they fear pixies but because the beliefs carry cultural memory. They remind people of the importance of respecting the land, its history and its unseen possibilities within it.