In the last of the four-part post about “the cousins” (start the series here), I raised the question of what do fairies look like.
Here is the man who knows, says the (Irish) Independent:
“I kind of expect it. When I was younger if I hadn’t seen them, you’d think there was something wrong. I’ve seen them on a good few occasions after that.”
Galway farmer Pat Noone is used to encounters with the Good Neighbors, and he says they sent him a message.
“I was coming down after looking at the cows in that 16-acre field. I heard the music and saw the fairies dancing and I went over and got talking to them. They talked English to me, I had no problem talking to them. They told me they just wanted me to keep the land the way it was, and told me not to take any of the bushes out. I listened to the music and I went home.
“I have great luck with the stock, with farming, you’ll have your ups and downs with sick animals and nature takes its course, but overall I’ve had very good luck with the farm. And I don’t use any chemicals or sprays. That’s what the fairies told me. I use no weed killers at all whatsoever. It’s not the modern farm that people expect, I let the ditches grow naturally and then trim them back with the saw. It’s left naturally here.”
Chemical-free farming. That is what They want, and you should know better than to cross them.
My more or less lifelong sense is that Fairy beings came right along with human beings from Europe to the Americas. Immigrant folks. Immigrant Fairies. Who got along or not with the folks and Fairies already well-established and deep-rooted in the Americas.
In practice, my sense has become something along the lines of–the more you get to know Fairy beings, the less you can be really certain that you know anything about Fairies. Yes, some may favor all that’s wild of life on the Earth.But then some may intrigue themselves with technological endeavors and how to nudge them askew. Often, I think, it’s difficult for us humans to tell. And we, lots of times, don’t want to talk about Fairies adapting to changes humans have brought about.
As opposed to coming across Berengia with the Really Old Time People? Or just appearing in the Americas on their own?
At least successful fantasy novelist Alex Bledsoe thinks like you do.
WOW! I’ve not heard of him but I wonder if he’s influenced by Sharon McCrumb who’s been writing about NE TN for decades now, especially focusing on myths, legends, etc. of the area. I’ll have to pass this guy’s writings onto a friend who’s a really Sharon McCrumb fan. Thanks for the info!
I backed into his books too, you might say, after hearing the band Tuatha Dea performing songs that were based on them.
A few items for context: a.) My family immigrated to Northern California shortly after the Gold Rush, and that’s where I grew up; b.) it was apparent to me that Fairy beings of European character were present and active in Northern California, and I later gathered that post-Gold Rush practitioners had more or less done things to make these Fairy beings feel at home; and c.) it was apparent to me that the European settlement of the Americas–and particularly the European settlement of California–had massively, catastrophically disrupted Native American lives and cultures and those of resident Fairy beings known to Native Americans. In my experience, at least, contact with Fairy beings of Native Californian character was complicated and chancy.
My own sense is that Fairy beings and other entities exist and have existed independent of human beings and other hominids. Whenever and however and on how many occasions human beings arrived in the Americas, some Fairy beings were already present. Others, I imagine, accompanied human beings to the Americas.
Let me be clear, I don’t have much evidence for this outlook (probably because however daunting is the archeology of humans, the archeology of Fairies is far, far more). But it works for me in practice, where I don’t want to dig my assumptions too deep.
So sure, when human beings or other hominids journeyed across Berengia, I believe Fairy beings did too, Same goes for human beings journeying along the West Coast or across the Atlantic or via flying vehicles of uncertain origins. Fairy beings came along.
But I also think that Fairy beings resided in the Americas prior to and regardless of any human presence. And probably still do. There’s lots of human and Fairy populations, communities, and cultures interacting or not so much over plenty of time.
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