Can all fairies grant wishes or do magic? I was asked this question by a kindergarten child and to be honest, I didn't know the answer.
Looking online the answer seems to be yes, all fairies have magic. The difference occurs with the type of magic and the type of folklore the fairies belong to. The magical powers could be teleportation, telekinesis, object manipulation, enchantments, nature manipulation, and many more.
In European folklore, the word 'fairies' was used to describe a wide variety of creatures. These creatures included the elves, goblins, gnomes, dwarfs, and sprites. These creatures were not entirely friendly to humans and were known as evil tricksters that were sometimes deadly. They are famous for playing mean tricks on humans, leading travelers astray, kidnapping children, and stealing valuable things from one’s house.
On the other hand, according to Irish folklore, the fairies were the kindest and most loving creatures. The narrative of fairies in Irish folklore is widely famous in today’s world. The fairies are a part of many movie franchises and novels and have gained very positive popularity over time.
According to a famous legend, fairies get their magic from the dust of rare magical rocks and moonstones that are around them. These stones and rocks are found in the deepest cores of the mountains and are mined by the dwarfs. Some fairies radiate magic from within themselves and some might need an external beacon like a wand.
Fairies can fly. Fairies can put enchantments on people to get what they want. These can be positive enchantments or negative, depending upon the fairy’s intention. They can break, mend and vanish any object with their magic. They can travel between space and time, ie. they can shift themselves from one place to another in a second or less and fairies love to move objects without touching them at all. No wonder children like fairies!
In my new book, The Bedtime Book of Magical Creatures it says (page 96 and 97)
There are good fairies who are helpful and kind, and there are wicked fairies who are always on the lookout to make trouble. Fairies pop up in many stories sprinkling stardust and kindness.
For children under eight that is probably all they need to know. The fairies that they read about will meet this criteria. Unfortunately, children usually meet these fairies first, in a Disney movie so their version of the fairy will be quite saccharine and romanticised.
In Sleeping Beauty there are both kinds of fairies. This story can have as many as eight fairies in it, depending on the version. The princess is cursed by an evil fairy to sleep for a hundred years, but then a good fairy, knowing the princess would be frightened if alone when she wakens, so uses her wand to put every living person and animal in the palace and forest to sleep, to awaken when the princess does.
In Cinderella the Fairy Godmother of the the Perrault version, is a kind and helpful fairy who acts as a 'stand in' mother for the motherless child.
In Beauty and the Beast, depending on the version there will be fairies. An evil fairy turns the young prince into a beast and Belle is the offspring of a king and a good fairy.
Thumbelina is the result of a woman's need for a baby and a fairy grants her her wish, similar to Rapunzel where the wish giver is a witch instead.
The Blue Fairy in Pinocchio gives friendly advice to the wayward puppet. Walt Disney has made her a far more benevolent and crucial character than Collodi wrote her as.
Tinker Bell, the fairy in Peter Pan is described by the author J.M. Barrie as a common fairy who mended pots and kettles, an actual tinker of the fairy folk. Her speech consists of the sounds of a tinkling bell, which is understandable only to those familiar with the language of the fairies. Though sometimes ill-tempered, jealous, vindictive and inquisitive, she is also helpful and kind to Peter. Walt Disney turned Tinker Bell into a very well known 'good' fairy.
There are lots of famous fairies...The Sugar Plum Fairy from Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker, the tooth fairy, the psammead or sand fairy from Edith Nesbit's Five Children and It, Puck appears in many stories but is well known because of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and you could even include Santa's elves and the elves from The Elves and the Shoemaker.
No comments:
Post a Comment