Fear the Faerie Folk
Children have heard the stereotypical fairy tales from their elders for generations. Within each story falls certain characters- many of whom seem to share the same archetypal role. The maiden in distress, the clever trickster, the handsome and noble royal. One of these literary tropes is the use of a supernatural spirit- and this character changes depending heavily on where the story is being told as well as its influences. For many children coming from Celtic heritage, a common character to learn from is that of the faerie- a mysterious being who taunts humans and plays with their lives. This folktale-based creature is tied heavily to many of the fears that people have (and fears that they have had in the past). Authors …show more content…
A consistently repeated line urges the listening child to join the fairies in their land (“Come away, O human child!”). This, to any mother’s great fear, eventually seems to place the child into some sort of trance, wherein he or she is snatched away from the earthly human world— “Away with us he’s going, The solemn-eyed.” The final stanza in the poem speaks directly to the mother (or family) of the abducted victim, as the faerie speaker seems to taunt the humans with images of their time together- the subtle sound of cattle lowing, the small mice in their food supply, everyday reminders of their lifestyle, which the child will remember no …show more content…
It is vital to note that “Sidhe” is the term often used in place of “fairies” in Celtic lore; “The Sidhe—also known as the daoine maithe…” (Heininge 101) In this poem, we again see the repetition of the fairies calling out to their human victims, luring them into their world—“ And Niamh calling Away, come away.” Within the writing itself, these spirits seem to admit to their interference in human lives, and give more details on how exactly they interrupt the human world. For example, two lines of the poem read, “We come between him and the deed of his hand/ We come between him and the hope of his heart.” This basically means that the Sidhe can alter what a human does and wants, thus, manipulating them. But how? Well, one source of manipulation is through temptation—namely, sexual. Through images of beautiful bodies, the fairies are often able to get what they desire. In this poem, the imagery of the fairies is wild and highly sexual: “Our cheeks are pale, our hair is unbound/ Our breasts are heaving, our eyes are a-gleam,/ Our arms are waving, our lips apart.” This abrupt adult imagery is something that would have been scandalous in the Victorian era, where sexual actions were often out of the question, and categorized as
Children have heard the stereotypical fairy tales from their elders for generations. Within each story falls certain characters- many of whom seem to share the same archetypal role. The maiden in distress, the clever trickster, the handsome and noble royal. One of these literary tropes is the use of a supernatural spirit- and this character changes depending heavily on where the story is being told as well as its influences. For many children coming from Celtic heritage, a common character to learn from is that of the faerie- a mysterious being who taunts humans and plays with their lives. This folktale-based creature is tied heavily to many of the fears that people have (and fears that they have had in the past). Authors …show more content…
A consistently repeated line urges the listening child to join the fairies in their land (“Come away, O human child!”). This, to any mother’s great fear, eventually seems to place the child into some sort of trance, wherein he or she is snatched away from the earthly human world— “Away with us he’s going, The solemn-eyed.” The final stanza in the poem speaks directly to the mother (or family) of the abducted victim, as the faerie speaker seems to taunt the humans with images of their time together- the subtle sound of cattle lowing, the small mice in their food supply, everyday reminders of their lifestyle, which the child will remember no …show more content…
It is vital to note that “Sidhe” is the term often used in place of “fairies” in Celtic lore; “The Sidhe—also known as the daoine maithe…” (Heininge 101) In this poem, we again see the repetition of the fairies calling out to their human victims, luring them into their world—“ And Niamh calling Away, come away.” Within the writing itself, these spirits seem to admit to their interference in human lives, and give more details on how exactly they interrupt the human world. For example, two lines of the poem read, “We come between him and the deed of his hand/ We come between him and the hope of his heart.” This basically means that the Sidhe can alter what a human does and wants, thus, manipulating them. But how? Well, one source of manipulation is through temptation—namely, sexual. Through images of beautiful bodies, the fairies are often able to get what they desire. In this poem, the imagery of the fairies is wild and highly sexual: “Our cheeks are pale, our hair is unbound/ Our breasts are heaving, our eyes are a-gleam,/ Our arms are waving, our lips apart.” This abrupt adult imagery is something that would have been scandalous in the Victorian era, where sexual actions were often out of the question, and categorized as