Book review: The Fairies in Tradition and Literature by Katharine Briggs
A nature book of mystical wildlife
If you intend to write any kind of fiction rooted in folklore, you’d do well to read this examination of British fairy theories first. Far from being a collection of wispy whimsy, it reads like a nature book of wildlife that just happens to be mystical.
As the former president of the Folklore Society, Katharine Briggs was well equipped to gather and analyse reports of fairy sightings, long-held beliefs and general hypotheses about these curious creatures.
Originally published in 1967, the text is presents example after example, from the idea of fairies as celestial beings, diminished gods or even devil’s aids. There are few floaty fluffy fairies mentioned here - indeed, they’re more often “small, wizened and shaggy.” They’re also malevolent as often as they’re benign, often flipping from one to the other without warning. In fact, the etiquette surrounding them is so contradictory and they’re so easy to offend that it might be safer to avoid them at all costs.
I loved the chapter on fairy animals, ranging from magical red and white cows who bring luck to farms and are identifiable by their rounded ears, to monstrous worms and dragons that eat everything in their path.
I was intrigued to find that the further I ventured into the book, the more familiar the stories seemed, though often I felt the version I’d grown up with had been sanitised almost beyond recognition. For example, I’m sure fewer parents would happily send there daughters to become brownies if they knew that this “industrious and helpful household spirit” is just as often destructive and violent, “generally grotesque to look at”, not to mention naked.
The idea that a brownie or pixie can be laid by a gift of clothes occupies almost an entire chapter, and seems to mean that when one of them was given clothes to cover their naked, hairy flesh, they’d leave and never come back. It seems clear that JK Rowling’s house elf, Dobby, freed by the unwitting gift of a sock, was inspired by this once popular belief.
An earlier book by the former president Tales by Kipling and JM Barrie (though Katharine hastens to discount Peter Pan) draw on the ancient tales too, imbuing their writing with an earthy magic.
Katharine is delicate enough never to state whether she believes in the tales she reports so faithfully, leaving us to draw our own conclusions before launching into the literary portrayals of fairies, on the whole shifting from the sometimes evil, often ugly stunted people our ancestors had to contend with, to shining winged weaklings evoked by Rose Fyleman and Enid Blyton, who Katharine Briggs openly abhors.
The more I read, the more I felt my eyes being opened, as though anointed with a fairy ointment. Bringing together elements of anthropology, botany, literature, sociology and history, and even religious studies, the book reveals that the residue of fairy beliefs reside in every aspect of life - providing a luxuriant seam of inspiration that will enrich any work of fiction.
The Fairies in Tradition and Literature by Katharine Briggs (Routledge £9.99) is available from Amazon
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