Page 122 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

102 Mysterious Creatures

“Fairy Tale: A True are accounts of fairy folk guiding humans to war in heaven, the dispossessed angels materi-
Story.” (THE KOBAL achieve material successes, and stories are told alized on Earth and assumed physical bodies
COLLECTION) of fairy midwives who stand by to assist at the similar to those of humans—those beings
births of favored human children and who declared “a little lower than the angels.”
remain to guide and tutor them for the rest of Eventually, these paraphysical beings took
their lives. humans as mates, thereby breeding a hybrid
species of entities “betwixt Man and Angel.”
Some scholars and researchers of the con-
siderable body of worldwide fairylore maintain William Shakespeare (1564–1616) made
that fairies are entities who belong solely to fairies famous in a number of his masterworks.
the realm of spirit. Many of the ancient texts He is largely responsible for the concept of the
declare that the fairies are somehow of a “mid- wee folk as mostly benign—mischievous, per-
dle nature betwixt Man and Angel.” Some haps, but never evil. Alexander Pope
biblically inspired authorities have sought to (1688–1744) wrote lovely passages idealizing
cast fairies as an earthly incarnation assumed fairies, but once satirically remarked that he
by the rebellious angels who were driven out believed many of the woodland sprites were pos-
of heaven during the celestial uprising led by sessed by the souls of deceased socialites who
Lucifer. These fallen angels, cast from their even after death refused to give up earthly
heavenly abode, took up new residences in the amusements. Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)
forests, mountains, and lakes of Earth. As fall- emphasized the beauty of the fairy realm and
en angels, they now existed in a much-dimin- the struggle of the fairies to achieve humanlike
ished capacity, but still possessed more than souls. The famed poet William Butler Yeats
enough power to be deemed supernatural by (1865–1939) had a nearly obsessive interest in
the human inhabitants of the planet. the supernatural and strongly believed in fairies.

In a variation of that account of the fairies’ It was the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir
origin, other scholars contend that after the Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), who came

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