The Hidden History of Fairies - Were They Real?

sapien82
reply to post by theabsolutetruth

 

It's interesting that you mention that humans moved from spain to Ireland and Scotland, well my great great great great great grandmother is Spannish I have a black and white picture of her, and she came with the Spannish Armada and moved to Scotland to work here as I have really dark olive skin

although the time period you are talking about was well before this it seems as though humans from that region have been coming to the Isles for a long time

I have recently found I have some recent French ancestry from my mothers side ( my great Grandfather was French) but my fathers surname is more well known in Spain than in the UK and reportedly originates from a Roman leader in Spain that gave his name to places in Galicia in Spain and is also the name of a Spanish saint. The name has been in Scotland reportedly since at least the 12th century and there are other variations including Irish.

Most of my dad's family have olive skin and darkish hair and looking at a group photo of them from the 70's they look very much of Mediterranean appearance. My skin too is light olive but darkens easily in the sun.

The surname is also more well known in Scotland than in England and Galicia is named from Gaulish connections.

reply to post by sapien82


It's also important to remember that peoples could have moved in waves throughout history; there is nothing to insist that they all came en masse from one area. We only have the Roman historian's name for the Picts, (the painted/tattooed ones) and that leads us to think of them as one uniform tribe. It is possible that they were a regionally diverse people sharing common practice.

reply to post by beansidhe


They did and still do, as we know.

The link I gave on the first page has information about a lot of influx from other lands to the UK, which, has to be said is a nation of immigrant origin, even the earliest settlers were immigrants.

There are also a few mentions as to the word origins and historical accounts mentioning the Picts.

reply to post by theabsolutetruth


yeh I have black hair and olive skin and tan really easily I look like Im from spain as well !

They're making a comeback!

reply to post by theabsolutetruth


Absolutely, and I owe you a huge thank you! I was thinking of how to reply to you, and trying to find a way of saying 'yes, and before those timelines too'. That made me think of Skara Brae in Orkney, and how those 'original' settlements from almost 4000 years ago must have witnessed many, many foreigners.

So I looked into Skara Brae, and found out that fairly recent tests have concluded that the Neolithic cairns "have been built to create sonic effects which include what we call today the Helmholtz Resonance - the sound created when one blows across the top of a milk bottle - and also sub-sonic vibrations which may have altered the mental states of worshippers'. In brief, when experimenters tried to recreate these frequencies many described sensations of ascent and altered states of consciousness. Drumming and chanting may conceivably have been used to help worshippers ascend to 'other worlds'.

Is it possible that these tales of other worlds and otherworldly beings could have come from as far back as 4000 years ago?

reply to post by beansidhe


I am incidentally descended from the Scottish Highland, Macleod clan. There is actually a folklore myth about one of our family heirlooms..

The Fairy Flag

It is a pretty interesting little read, and I personally believe there is some sort of semblance to truth in it. We are after all the descendants and sons of Odin. So it wouldn't really surprise me for my family to have multiple paranormal or mythical connections to it. We are the Ui Imair.

reply to post by beansidhe


Thank you.

Interesting that Skara Brae ancient cultures also used sonic resonance in their rituals. There is a thread on the acoustic properties of Stonehenge recent to the site which I think you have perhaps seen already.

I find it fascinating. I love music and art and feel to the core that there is a basic connection between this sort of creativity and experiencing sound and connections on a deeper level as means of communicating with the 'spiritual' or higher levels.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if legends from as far back as 4000 years have permeated the psyche and have re emerged with each generation in various forms that brings to light the ancient pathways and origins beyond the physical dimensions.

Most cultures that have such experiences, tell of experiencing connections with their ancestors and information and awakenings being passed to successive generations in a 'spiritual' manner.

Even watching such tv programs such as ''who do you think you are?'' brings so many interesting parallels between successive generations, surprisingly deep connections and often similar traits. I believe lineage is stronger than just physical appearance similarities, though even these are often surprising in their likeness after many generations.

Discarnate non-human intelligences are a universal experience. Djinns, demons, nature spirits, tricksters, etc can be found in the folklore and myths of every culture throughout history.

Despite Disney, fairies are not tiny winged people. In fact, I have yet to come across any description of winged beings in fairy folk lore. The fairy folk can be very short or extremely tall and depending on the type (specie?) of fairy can be very imposing. I believe the "gentle folk" were tall, aristocratic peeps fond of battle.

I think they are real and are still with us only now they call themselves extraterrestrials. See Jacques Vallee and John Keel. Or just read The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries and compare to any book on modern abduction/UFO encounters. Weird critters kidnapping people in the middle of the night? Being asked to eat and drink weird foods? Half-true prophecies? Time distortions? Glowing orbs of light?

Also, many fairy tales involve inter-marriage with humans and fairies. And why would the fairies need to abduct human babies? Sounds a lot like the prevalent claim that ETs are implanting hybrid fetuses and taking them out of the womb after gestation.

Fairies also live underground, underwater and in the air. How many abduction experiences involve being taken underground? Many. Many also involve other humans who seem to be in cahoots with them. This is also reported in many fairy encounters. And obviously there are UFOs seen in the sky and going into and out of bodies of water.

In the afore mentioned Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, there are also several accounts of cattle/sheep mutilation and abduction.

These beings have been with us since the beginning. From ancestral spirits, to fairies, mysterious airships and their occupants, poltergeists, ghosts and now UFOs and aliens. As our beliefs change, they too change in order to stay relevant. I'd like to know what their agenda is...

I wonder if many on here have read Terry Brooks books. He concentratess on humans, elves, goblins and dwarves etc and his idea is that the faeries were the first on the earth and fought terrific, technological wars. They still exist but in another dimension and are clearly untrustworthy and dangerous. I think its a great idea and wonder if anyone else has read his Shinara novels. I recommend them to anyone.

I noticed that Tolkein did not include the faery in his books, Its funny how writers pick elves, dwarves, orcs about whom there is an amount of folk lore yet the faery seems to have had a huge amount of folk lore and belief, far more than any other group. I wonder why the fantastic writers of ancient stories almost boycott this particular group.

This article is about 'folk tales' rather than directly relating to faeries but none the less tells of ancient origins of stories being similar worldwide and continued with each generation for the purpose of survival. Similarly the Faerie legends would be told for survival purposes.

We know of ''little red riding hood'' being about keeping safe from rape and violation but would be interesting to know if the Faerie legends are symbolic or based on physical beings of a certain stature or ilk.

www.telegraph.co.uk...

A study by anthropologists has explored the origins of folk tales and traced the relationship between varients of the stories recounted by cultures around the world.

The researchers adopted techniques used by biologists to create the taxonomic tree of life, which shows how every species comes from a common ancestor.

The oldest tale we found was an Aesopic fable that dated from about the sixth century BC, so the last common ancestor of all these tales certainly predated this. We are looking at a very ancient tale that evolved over time.”

reply to post by ultimafule


That is a weird link, and one I can't quite get my head round. I told Fylgje a story about my mother's claim she saw fairies on the previous page, and yet if she had had another framework to relate her experience to, I wonder if she would say she had had a visit from MIBs? Or if she were a religious person, angels/demons?
So like you say, contextually, people are still relating fairy stories they just give them a different name depending on their own beliefs and background.
As if fairies were trying to fit in with us too?

VeritasAequitas
reply to post by beansidhe

 

I am incidentally descended from the Scottish Highland, Macleod clan. There is actually a folklore myth about one of our family heirlooms..

The Fairy Flag

It is a pretty interesting little read, and I personally believe there is some sort of semblance to truth in it. We are after all the descendants and sons of Odin. So it wouldn't really surprise me for my family to have multiple paranormal or mythical connections to it. We are the Ui Imair.

edit on 10-12-2013 by VeritasAequitas because: (no reason given)

How strange that you should bring that up, just hours after Woodwytch made the same observation. The first paragraph of R.L.Brown's book says:
"However sophisticated we may think ourselves, each person has a race memory of Scotland's folklore which may be triggered - at any time - by a thought, dream or emotion, that cannot be rationalised by modern standards."

It is curious how near the surface our beliefs in folklore lie, and yet none of us are stupid, entirely ignorant or paralysed by superstition. And yet we happily ascribe those characteristics to our ancient ancestors. It just doesn't ring quite true to me, somehow.

reply to post by theabsolutetruth


"We know of ''little red riding hood'' being about keeping safe from rape and violation but would be interesting to know if the Faerie legends are symbolic or based on physical beings of a certain stature or ilk.

www.telegraph.co.uk... "

That is an excellent point! They are depicted in the sources I've used as human sized or slightly smaller, never tiny.
There seem to be specific groups such as the water fairies including kelpie, the blue men of the Minch, the Cailleach-uisge, and the peallag all of whom have an association with drowning, being dragged to one's death under water etc.
These then fit with your idea that they were beings whose purpose, through story, was to warn of the dangers of water.

Similarly, the Beithir haunted dark, mountain paths and lonely glens and could be said to be a device to personify the dangers of walking alone in such places. Interestingly, beithir is gaelic for lightning.

I'm going to spend a bit more time looking into fairies that don't seem to fit this pattern, or who have specific physical characteristics.

Shiloh7
I wonder if many on here have read Terry Brooks books. He concentratess on humans, elves, goblins and dwarves etc and his idea is that the faeries were the first on the earth and fought terrific, technological wars. They still exist but in another dimension and are clearly untrustworthy and dangerous. I think its a great idea and wonder if anyone else has read his Shinara novels. I recommend them to anyone.

I noticed that Tolkein did not include the faery in his books, Its funny how writers pick elves, dwarves, orcs about whom there is an amount of folk lore yet the faery seems to have had a huge amount of folk lore and belief, far more than any other group. I wonder why the fantastic writers of ancient stories almost boycott this particular group.

Well, that kind of ties in with what Ultimafule said too. These are beings who were here first, and still live here. That seems too creepy! I liked the thought that a group, such as the Picts, could have been responsible for the legends because it makes sense, it's logical and slightly racist so yep, could easily be human nature to have created this.

But there are too many disparities, and in my opinion, at the moment, there does seem to be another, strange side that is possible. I don't know about Tolkein - perhaps he thought the fairies were stealing the limelight! But yes, another good point, I hadn't even thought of Tolkein until now. Thanks Shiloh7.

For example, here is an account of a meeting with a banshee in North Uist:

A young man, whilst going to meet his fiancee, met a beautiful woman just ahead of himself. Unsure of her, he tried to avoid her by winding amongst the houses, but she was always one step ahead just in front of him. At last he stopped and she turned to him and said ''I know where you are going, but you will never marry her. Before a year is out, you will be drowned at half tide, at Sgeir Rois'.
Then she turned and shrieked, and fled to a nearby stream carrying her shroud.
Although disturbed, the young man decided that he should not fear. He knew where the accident would happen, so he would simply avoid the place at half tide until a year had passed.
A month later he and some friends went to a wedding. Taking a short cut, they crossed the ford. But a sudden mist came down and the lad was drowned. It need not be said that it was half tide at the time.

This fairy possesses very human characteristics (Banshees are often said to wear green) with the ability to see into the future.
Other beansidhe tales are similar, although the washer woman is usually seen by a river or stream, rather than fleeing to one.

Shiloh7
I noticed that Tolkein did not include the faery in his books, Its funny how writers pick elves, dwarves, orcs about whom there is an amount of folk lore yet the faery seems to have had a huge amount of folk lore and belief, far more than any other group. I wonder why the fantastic writers of ancient stories almost boycott this particular group.

J. R. R. Tolkien's story Smith of Wooten Major is about a young man who can enter the land of Faery. He also wrote an essay, "On Fairy Stories," which was published in The Tolkien Reader.

And the other type where a description is most easily found is very interesting.

The Seelie Court and Unseelie Court.

"The Unseelie Court consists of the darkly-inclined fairies. Unlike the Seelie Court, no offense is necessary to bring down their assaults.[6] As a group (or "host"), they appear at night and assault travelers, often carrying them through the air, beating them, and forcing them to commit such acts as shooting at cattle."

These are lowland (Borders etc) descriptions of fairies. Good or 'light' fairies (seely) and bad or 'dark' fairies (unseely).
Assault travellers, beating them, shooting? These do sound like humans, and a meeting would be very frightening indeed. The geographic differences are interesting, as Picts were definitely a Northern tribe. This could add weight to the argument that in some instances, fairy myth comes from human behaviours.

Interesting Article about genetically inherited memory of sorts.

We all know our parents have a big impact on our lives, but new evidence is emerging that our parents’ behaviors before we are born may have a bigger influence on us than we previously imagined.

Epigenetic research is a hot-button topic at the moment, generating a lot of attention in both scientific studies and the media. Epigenetics is the ability of genes to be influenced by our experiences, altering our genetic make-up in real time. By changing the chemical signals that course through your brain and body, you can actually turn genes on or off, a process that can then influence your future actions. Thus, in some ways, epigenetics can be thought of as the bridge between nature and nurture—your behavior and environment affecting your biology, and vice versa.

However, the crazy part is that the offspring of these mice, who had never before been exposed to that smell, also showed increased fear and startle responses to the scent. This suggests that the learned association, connecting the smell with danger, was passed down from one generation to the next. And this second group’s offspring also showed heightened sensitivity to the odor. Thus, three generations of mice were affected by the conditioning, even though only one of them had actually experienced it. Behind these behavioral effects were similar changes in the noses of each of these offspring groups, with larger M71 receptors present and an increase in the number of M71 neurons available.

Importantly, these results did not stem from any socially learned behaviors picked up by hanging around the anxious parent. The mice showed no reaction to other smells and had no fear responses to sounds or different types of warnings. To confirm this, the scientists even took sperm from the first set of mice, used IVF to implant them in females from another lab, raised them in isolation away from any untoward influences, and still found an increased sensitivity to the original scent.

But how exactly does this happen?

In an attempt to explain this phenomenon, the scientists turned to the first animals’ genotype to try and figure out what exactly was behind this inherited learning. It turns out that the genes involved in the expression of M71 receptors were less inhibited in these animals, meaning that they were more “turned on,” possibly resulting in a greater proliferation of the neurons. This same effect was found in the mice’s sperm, meaning that this trait would be passed down through to the next generation, potentially resulting in an inherited sensitivity to that same fruity scent.

reply to post by beansidhe


I think your born a fairy. It's not something you choose or learn. I believe that fairies should be treated just like everyone else. Fairies can marry each other, but other type people,? Sure ,
but would they want to?