Information on Fairies, Elves, Goblins and Mythical Creatures

This page has been designed to assist children with their art exams and dissitations. We hope this will help all students currently studying for exams and GCSE`s.

After many hundreds of enquries regarding information on fairies and the methods and design skills of Myrea we have included new information in this FAQ section.
See also How to Draw a Fairy

The Spanish word hada comes from the Latin fata which, in turn, derived from fatum, meaning fate or destiny. In the Middle Ages, it was defined by the gentiles as a divinity or unknown force which had a fascinatig effect on the other divinities and on men and events. The French word fée has a similar origin and resulted in the English words fey and fairie which, as time went by, suffered spelling variations from fayerye, fayre, faerie, faery, and fairy. According to its ethimology, it is a fantastic being pictured as a woman known to have magical powers. For the Saxons, the word ferie refers to the world of fairies as an entity, being a geographical location. In Spanish it turned out to be féerico, depicting something wonderful or fantastic, as applied for example to música féerica (fairy music).

At the outset of the third millennium, in a globalized world concerned more about geopolitics and amassing large fortunes, and supported in an imposing technological development, inhabited by a man immersed himself in city stress and an endless whirl of activities, you might as well ask why speak about something so far away from the real world, making up the universe of illusion and fantasy? May be the answer is that those magical beings encourage the hope that the innocent imagination of childhood is still present in our hearts just drowsy awaiting for a fresh breeze of a pure heart, deprived of all evil to find the ideal conditions to see, talk and believe again in fairies like when he was a child.

Could anyone ever introduce us to a fairy? Or are they who freely decide whether they accept a human being or not?

The world of Fairies is a mixture of a mysterious enchantment, a charming beauty, but also of a huge ugliness, of insensitive shallowness, humour, malice, joy and inspiration, fear, laughter, love, and tragedy. It is richer than what we are usually induced to think by literature. In addition, extreme caution should be exercised to penetrate into this world, as nothing is more irritating to fairies than several human beings curiously moving around their extraordinary dominions, like spoiled tourists. Love, but also abandonment and death, may follow under their spell. Like human beings, they live in a universe of contradictions
As stated by the brilliant English playwright William Shakespeare in his Hamlet, there are on earth more things than those that can be perceived by imagination. It could also be added that, by a high percentage, the fantastic is invisible to the naked eye. The belief in the existence of fairies is common to the most diverse cultures. It origin dates back to myths and legends of each culture.

One of those legends assures that fairies are fallen angels or dead pagans not good enough to be admitted in the Eden, or not wicked enough to go to hell. That is why they were compelled to live eternally halfway.

Another legend read that once Eve was on the bank of a river bathing her children when she heard God who spoke to her. Fearful, Eve hid her children who had not been bathed so that God could not see them. God, who sees everything, asked her whether all her children were there. Eve lied and bowed. God warned her that those children that had been hidden from Him would be ever after hidden from the eyes of men. Those where the children who turned out to be fairies or elfs.

Location of these elementary beings has varied throughout time and cultures. For the Irish, sometimes it was found in the horizon; other under their own feet; on other occasions, on hills, or in a magical island in the high seas or under the ocean.

Other cultures state that the world of fairies may be found in nature, a plant, a tree, the earth, a lake, the breeze, the sun, the perfum of flowers and all that is natural around us. Summing up, air, water, earth, and fire are the four elements where Elementary Spirits are contained.

THE HISTORY AND FOLKLORE OF FAIRIES

Have you wondered where fairies are from? Is it another dimension?

Click here to read information about a recent BBC Radio 4 programme discussing the history and cultural implications of Fairies and Fairy Folklore.