And in seventeenth century England, fairies were believed to scare people to death. In real fairy country well into the 20th century, ‘a fairy place’ was rarely some remote piece of special landscape: the fairies were everywhere, and feared by all. Although these murmurs were probably just tides on pebbles, something more mysterious may have been occurring elsewhere on the island. In this sense, the dualism of the fairies (powerful beings who can easily tilt from good to bad) fits perfectly. | THE TRUTH | Faery FolkloreIn fairy country, the notion of the changeling child was far from being just whimsical folklore.

Source: The Nation March 15, 2021 07:09 UTC