My Notes and Thoughts on "The Origins of the Belief in Fairies"

Well, this post is a little rushed, I do want you all to know that XP

But I want to practice being consistent, so this is what I am going to do. I'm writing this Wednesday night in order to post it on Friday. I will not have edited it or anything, so bear with me.

Starting out in The Fairy Mythology by Thomas Keightley, he explores the origin of the belief in Fairies. I do not believe that I will use much of this part of the book when creating characters for my books, but I suppose I never know and it's better to have information to pull from than nothing at all.

Some key points I want to focus on is that there is always a cause to every effect, and this can lead us to believing that the cause is attributed to some intelligent force. So, whether that leads us to an omnipotent higher being or many lesser beings that have direct influence on different aspects of life, it serves as a basis for the belief in fairies.

One example given in the text is "the sounds resembling the clanking of chains, hammering of iron, and blowing of bellows, once to be heard in the island of Barrie, were made by the fiends whom Merlin had set to work to frame the wall of brass to surround Caermarthen."

Changes in a culture's faith also determines their belief in fairies and whether they hold them to be "objects of [...] veneration" or filled with "dark and malignant attributes".

So, onward with our study of "Fairies, Fays, Elves, aut alio quo nomine gaudent." (trans. ...or by any other name by which they enjoy it.)