It's refreshing to read a piece by a non Irish person (I assume?) that really gets what fairies are and how they are viewed in our culture. I especially like the comparison to the Angler fish...I've seen the lights and it's accurate.
You might enjoy, if you haven't already read Eddie Lenihans book "Meeting the Other Crowd". You may also like the Irish folklore archive, specifically the schools collection, which is first hand accounts. It's all online at www.duchas.ie, just type in fairy, banshee, headless horseman etc and read the tales from the mouths of babes. Its a wonderful resource.
I'm of Irish descent. Well, I'm half Irish. Although the family has been in North America for many generations so we don't have any relatives or connections there. But maybe it's in the blood.
Thanks for the recommendations! I did read Meeting the Other Crowd ages ago, and really enjoyed it. I will definitely check out the Irish Folklore archive.
This article speaks to me so much... I actually also just wrote a stack on my experience and encounters with the magic of Ireland when I went to visit the old monastery in Glendalough, but it's in German.
I was never superstitious, but living in Ireland has made me believe in fairies, I think its something in the soil :D Thank you for recapturing this feeling in your post!
I have visited Ireland a number of times and each time has always felt special. I live in England and that is where I met my lifelong ‘little friends’. Years I wasted trying to keep her and her male entourage of pixies at arm’s length. One ‘shot of glamour’ and it was complete capitulation on my part. During my dream induction, she pointed out how it would have to be if I wanted to hang with her and the gang. I believe she did claim Irish descent but all I could take in was her severe beauty …
A few years later, when we are better acquainted, I happened to express on Quora my interest in the Fairy Queen, Aine. I felt that on nights of the full moon, they were honouring someone like a Fairy Queen and openly wondered if it was this provincial one. Having read the legends of the various queens, Aine was the one I felt closest to.
It seems like that affinity didn’t go unnoticed. I recall having a dream that night, but couldn’t recall any of it the following morning. Just a random dream, it seemed. Yet I felt like I was being ‘nagged’ to remember and was resisting telling them it was futile. I relented and the full dream, with emotions, came back in the greatest of detail.
I was alone in this huge hall (within a sidhe). There were many other grey-shaped devotees like myself. I didn’t know anyone until one of Pixie Q’s male retainers came bounding up to me. Oh, the relief of recognition. I wasn’t alone. They were watching me closely from the sidelines. I made my way to the wall opposite and sat down. I was immediately joined by a female presence. I couldn’t make her out, but we talked a long time, and if a fae says it was along time as Pixie Q did, you know it must have been!
On leaving, we walked up to this lectern positioned at the entrance to the sidhe. It was by invitation only. There stood a figure whose features I was allowed to see for the first and last time. She was a young girl (just as Pixie Q had said she was). She smiled her twinkling smile at me as I recognised her. She wore a crescent moon on a silver chain around her neck - one of the symbols of Aine. My ‘companions’ were quiet and most reverential for once. This was someone important yet unassuming - Aine herself, perhaps, or one of her daughters. It is one of my most treasured memories!
It's refreshing to read a piece by a non Irish person (I assume?) that really gets what fairies are and how they are viewed in our culture. I especially like the comparison to the Angler fish...I've seen the lights and it's accurate.
You might enjoy, if you haven't already read Eddie Lenihans book "Meeting the Other Crowd". You may also like the Irish folklore archive, specifically the schools collection, which is first hand accounts. It's all online at www.duchas.ie, just type in fairy, banshee, headless horseman etc and read the tales from the mouths of babes. Its a wonderful resource.
I'm of Irish descent. Well, I'm half Irish. Although the family has been in North America for many generations so we don't have any relatives or connections there. But maybe it's in the blood.
Thanks for the recommendations! I did read Meeting the Other Crowd ages ago, and really enjoyed it. I will definitely check out the Irish Folklore archive.
This article speaks to me so much... I actually also just wrote a stack on my experience and encounters with the magic of Ireland when I went to visit the old monastery in Glendalough, but it's in German.
I was never superstitious, but living in Ireland has made me believe in fairies, I think its something in the soil :D Thank you for recapturing this feeling in your post!
I have visited Ireland a number of times and each time has always felt special. I live in England and that is where I met my lifelong ‘little friends’. Years I wasted trying to keep her and her male entourage of pixies at arm’s length. One ‘shot of glamour’ and it was complete capitulation on my part. During my dream induction, she pointed out how it would have to be if I wanted to hang with her and the gang. I believe she did claim Irish descent but all I could take in was her severe beauty …
A few years later, when we are better acquainted, I happened to express on Quora my interest in the Fairy Queen, Aine. I felt that on nights of the full moon, they were honouring someone like a Fairy Queen and openly wondered if it was this provincial one. Having read the legends of the various queens, Aine was the one I felt closest to.
It seems like that affinity didn’t go unnoticed. I recall having a dream that night, but couldn’t recall any of it the following morning. Just a random dream, it seemed. Yet I felt like I was being ‘nagged’ to remember and was resisting telling them it was futile. I relented and the full dream, with emotions, came back in the greatest of detail.
I was alone in this huge hall (within a sidhe). There were many other grey-shaped devotees like myself. I didn’t know anyone until one of Pixie Q’s male retainers came bounding up to me. Oh, the relief of recognition. I wasn’t alone. They were watching me closely from the sidelines. I made my way to the wall opposite and sat down. I was immediately joined by a female presence. I couldn’t make her out, but we talked a long time, and if a fae says it was along time as Pixie Q did, you know it must have been!
On leaving, we walked up to this lectern positioned at the entrance to the sidhe. It was by invitation only. There stood a figure whose features I was allowed to see for the first and last time. She was a young girl (just as Pixie Q had said she was). She smiled her twinkling smile at me as I recognised her. She wore a crescent moon on a silver chain around her neck - one of the symbols of Aine. My ‘companions’ were quiet and most reverential for once. This was someone important yet unassuming - Aine herself, perhaps, or one of her daughters. It is one of my most treasured memories!
Excellent
Oh yes!!! I've been to Meon Hill in England and some known fairy hills here in the USA.
Brilliant..
I saw banshees in the bigs around Fintown.