Located on the Scottish island of Fetlar, the Haltadans is a circle of standing stones that folklore claims were once trows (Shetland's fairy folk). The story goes that they were still dancing in a circle when the sun rose one morning and turned them to stone. #MythologyMonday
In #Folklore, the belief that metal can harm #fairies reflects a captivating intersection of ancient myth and practical symbolism. Pliny the Elder¹ speculated in his Naturalis Historia that iron nails in tombs can repel nocturnal spirits, offering a possible explanation for this mystical connection.
Additionally, the fierce warrior culture of the #Celts, known for their intricate metal craftsmanship and rituals, likely influenced the perception of metal as a potent force against otherworldly beings.
In general, it is still common to hang horseshoes on doorsteps in order to bring luck. You can also read it… to keep fairies, or bad luck, away.
The #Scottish pech was fair-skinned and red-haired and might be mistaken for a human except that these #fairies were extraordinarily short. Like many #Otherworldly peoples, the pechs could not bear sunlight and fled to their residences each dawn. Despite their dwarfish height, they were strong and agile. They formed great lines in order to haul stones from quarries to construct their castles.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
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RT @TessFowler
The Pech. #Drawtober Scottish Folklore.
#Celtic#MythologyMonday: Professor Rhys remarks of #Manannan Mac Lir that "In Irish literature he appears mostly as King of the #Fairies in the Land of Promise, a mysterious country in the lochs or the sea. His character seems to have been a most contradictory one - many tricky actions are ascribed to him.“
Source: https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/fim/fim04.htm
Finished Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett last night, I really enjoyed it. It's the second book in a series about a Cambridge scholar who is an expert on fairies (they can be somewhat murderous). In this book, she visits a remote village in Austria looking for a magic door into a specific fairy kingdom. Phenomenal world building. I hope the author is almost done with book 3 because I want to know what happens next. @bookstodon#Bookstodon#Fantasy#Fairies
My current read thanks to a recommendation from @shannonkay. I really love this book, alternate history set in maybe late 1800s Europe where fairies are real. And not the pretty Tinkerbell types of fairies, the fairies in this book can be menacing. The main character is a brilliant woman who is a Cambridge fairy scholar. The book is about her fieldwork in a remote Scandinavian area and associated adventures. Great imaginative and pretty cozy read. #Bookstodon#Fantasy#Fairies
#FolkloreThursday: Midwives had a special sort of second sight that permitted them to discover when #fairies were stealing human children. A midwife traveling to a late-night birth might encounter such fairies intent on kidnapping. Arriving at the home of the laboring mother, she would discover that the child was dead, stolen by those she had encountered. Legend tells of midwives who traveled to the #Otherworld to steal back such infants.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
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RT @NatRecordsScot
M is for "Midwife" in this week's #ArchiveZ This is Annie Ramsay, the grandmother of Linda, our head of Conservation, in 1943. Annie was a Midwife and District Nurse. Find out more about the history of midwifery in Scotland from our archives here... http://ow.ly/kGpT30r3cla
In Welsh folklore, the border between worlds is often vague. Arthurian knights don't realize they've ridden into the Otherworld until they encounter progressively stranger things, such as one-legged giants or sheep that change colour when leaping across a river. #FairyTaleTuesday
Did you celebrate? But did you do it respecting the traditions and the Hidden People?
For example, in #Iceland, it was believed that New Year's Day was the moving day of the #fairies, or Huldufólk¹. So people lit candles in front of the windows to help them find the way home. 🏠🕯️🧚
Just spent a little down time on the steaming chaos of #Threads of all places, just to see. It’s just post after post of self-marketing and terrible negative takes (proscriptions about everything you can imagine & then crazy bitching about the proscriptions) - a HOW DARE YOU culture gone mead-drippingly Mad; hysterically, nakedly crazy in all the worst ways - where’s the madfast Cody crazy kids? These people are gonna burn out and then burn INTO a kind of unworldly & unsophisticated middle-age…
…want that cold #rationality then go for it but let the dreamers #dream a little, or make bad #poetry or suffer the possibility of pretension or of being ‘away with the #fairies ‘ (who wouldn’t want to be with the #fae ??) or of delving into things we can’t possibly understand - aren’t those things the most fun? We don’t always NEED to understand; often we just need to throw ourselves into the abyss… maybe more #Kierkegaard than #Hobbes or a more accurate, more romantic take on #Nietzsche …
I'm always confused by themed food or drink like this. Are #children meant to think it's made /by/ #unicorns and #fairies or /of/ unicorns and fairies?
#FairyTaleTuesday: The #fairies who screamed through the earth on their Wild Hunt are known by the name Unseelie Court, which means “unseemly” or “unholy.” The trooping fairies of the Unseelie Court were dangerous. Anyone who saw them was a potential victim for #fairy kidnapping.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
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RT @AmandaBergloff
DARK FAE #FairyTaleTuesday
In Scottish #folklore the fairies of the Unseelie Court are the ugly, cruel fae that haunt the bad places of the world. The Queen of the Unseelie Court is Madb, the "Queen of Air & Darkness"-Her consort is known as the Erlking & may also be called Madoc
@dr_dimitra_fimi This makes me wonder if the Rev. Robert Kirk, the good Presbyterian who wrote “The Secret Commonwealth”, also thought #fairies were Catholic.
#Celtic FolkloreThursday: It was vital, in ancient times, to keep the hearth fire alight, for the making of a new fire was an arduous procedure. Borrowing fire from the neighbors was unlikely, as it was believed that this gave the borrower power over the cattle – and thus, the wealth – of the lender.
Only once each year, on #BeltaneEve, was the hearth fire allowed to die. The next day it was relit from one of the festival blazes.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #CelticMythology and Folklore
#Celtic#FolkloreSunday: #Fairies and ghosts were attracted to the hearth, especially at pivotal days such as #Samhain. On that night, ghosts of the deceased would sometimes be seen warming themselves by the hearth-fire or sitting in their accustomed place, calmly smoking or knitting.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore https://todon.eu/@NeuKelte/109178575727497007