Fairy Magic; Have you met any of the Good People?

        Image credit: magical landscape-with-waterfalls by ateliersommerland / 123RF Stock Photo

0My most recent book release, Some Enchanted Waltz, is a story that takes place in 18th century Ireland. As part of my research for the book, I delved into Irish folklore and found some wonderful tales about Fairy Magic, along with various beliefs about Irish fairies of the time period. Here is the premise for the book. As you can see, it's ripe with potential for a love story between Fey women and Mortal Men. 

      “At certain seasons of the year, Fairy Queens make Great Efforts to carry off the fine stalwart young men of the country to the fairy palace in the cleft of the hills. Or they attempt to lure them to their dancing grounds, where the men are lulled into dreams by the sweet, subtle fairy music and forget home, kith and kindred, and never desire to return again to their own people. Even if the spell is broken and they are brought back by some strong incantation, they are never the same; for everyone knows by the dream look in their eyes that they have danced with the fairies on the hill, and been loved by one of the beautiful race, who, when they take a fancy to a handsome mortal lover, cast their spells over him with restless power.”

The Book of Irish Cures, Mystic Charms & Superstitions

By Lady Wilde,  1896

In Some Enchanted Waltz, Lord Dillon rescues a woman from British soldiers. As an 18th century Irish lord, he is convinced Tara is a member of the Fey Race. Tara, a 21st century woman, scoffs at his assessment--but is he deluded--or has he recognized something in Tara that is very beautiful and unique? 

 In Irish folklore, there are stories of encounters with the Good People, The Other Folk or the Fairy Folk. I've read several accounts of people traveling along deserted roads at night and having met strange folk who took them to other realms, both in past centuries and even in the present one. Sometimes the mortals had trouble getting back to their realm, and had to do some very quick thinking to outwit their enchanted hosts. 

A very good book I recently found regarding encounters with the Fae Folk in Ireland is Meeting the Other Crowd; the fairy stories of hidden Ireland, [collected and edited by Edie Lenihan with Carolyn Eve Green]. In this book I read countless tales collected from interviews of people being contacted or abducted when walking home alone a road. 

Even today, in Ireland, it is bad luck to say anything derogatory about the Good People. In one such incident from Meeting the Other Crowd, two women were driving down a winding country road in their car one night, discussing the Fae. The driver scoffed at the idea, and within seconds of her derisive laughter, their car stalled, dead--nothing--nada. Now they were two women stranded alone on a dark, winding country road. After the woman profusely apologized to the other folk,  her car started again! This is recent account, from our century!  

                      Image credit: trail-in-the-misty-forest-at-dawn by nature78 / 123RF Stock Photo

So, what ever you do, don't talk ill of the Good People. They'll hear you, and you'll be sorry. In my house, we respect the Fae. If something is missing and we cannot find it, we say the fairy folk have borrowed it, and we ask them politely to return it when they are finished with it. And usually within the day, the item is recovered. Think what you will, but I do believe in fairies!

Now it's your turn. Have any stories to share, or a tidbit of folklore? I'm dying to hear your stories.