Faerie Tales

And a fairy song. Arthur Rackham (1908).

Many tales of olden days
Regale of the good folk with tricks to play
Some are good and wish no ill
Some give lessons as a bitter pill
The fae abroad oft at night
They invite us to dance in the flickering light
The daoine sidhe living within the mound
The bean sidhe wail one going to ground
The good folk are said to exist side by side
With humans though from our eyes they hide
They’re said to be capricious
Sometimes giving boon, sometimes bane
And for those who forget to honor them
They can be quite a pain
To the modern mind the fae are from time long past
Superstition has no place in this world moving so fast
But I think it might be wise, just in case
To set out bread and honey in the faeries’ space.

Many cultures have tales of supernatural beings that can be beneficial or malicious. The old tales are often a way to explain natural phenomena or sometimes explanations of the vagaries of human behavior. Sometimes the old stories are morality tales to encourage people to behave themselves… No matter, the yarns told round fires or in flickering candlelight are good for a thrill up the spine. Personally, I love a good spooky tale that gives a shiver. If you didn’t have the opportunity in your own experience to hear these stories from an elder, look some up. In honor of St. Paddy’s, you might check your online streaming services (Celtic Monsters on Amazon Prime is a good one) or audiobooks for a collection of the old folk tales told or read in the accents where they originated. There are some wonderful traditionals out there to get into the spirit of the fae.