THE WORLD OF FAERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20762, 3 January 1931, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE WORLD OF FAERY.

LEGEND AND FOLKLORE.

BY ALICE A. KENNY.

There must always have been oral entertainment for children in traditional songs, rhymes and folk tales, but as soon as juvenile literature appeared, for some reason joy and beauty, fantasy and fun, were left out in favour of serious, improving, moral and instructive tales. " Little Henry and his Bearer," " Sandford and Merton," " The Fairchild Family," and earlier ones, now happily forgotten, were all the children of the past had to brighten life between their inordinately long lesson hours. Fairies were a discredited class then. Imagine Ernest Pontifex, to go no further back, being permitted to waste his* time on such light fare. Even in my childhood there was a regrettable perponderance of stories which dealt with tho religious life of small servant girls, and their noble influence on their worldlyminded mistresses. Stirring stuff, that! It is rather odd that Shakespeare's fairies should bo the same delicate, lightsome, flower-haunting spirits that abound in children's literature to-day after an eclipse of a good many generations. Ariel, though ho is not called a fairy, has tho manners and habits of the race: Where the bee sucks, there suck I; ]n the cowslip's bell I lie: On the bat's back I do fly After summer merrily: Merrily, merrily shall I live now Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

Some Gay, Some Grave. Titania's fairies in " A Midsummer Night's Dream " are the same gay creatures, busy about woodland matters. I must go and seek some dewdrops here And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear, says, one, and on another occasion Titania gives her orders. Come, now a roundel and a fairy song; Then, for tho third part of a minute hence; Some to kill cankers in the musk rose buds; Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings To make my small elves coats; and some keep back The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots and wonders At our quaint spirits. Later she instructs her fairies to rob bees and glow-worms for her love, to Pluck the wings from painted butterflies To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes. These fairies, prankish but essentially amiable, dwellers in flowers, manipulators of small charms, spells and deviltries, and friendly to children, have come into their own again of late years. They figure largely in children's stories,, in picture books, where they are most decorative, and in verse. In Peter Pan they came to life, and the screen version was a joy to every child who saw it. There are few fairies of this kind in tho stories of the beloved Hans Andersen. A tinge of sombreness seems natural to the Scandinavian mind, and instead of butterfly-winged elves of graceful manners we get eerie marsh kings, gnomes and ellwomen from their folklore. In the pages of Grimm a stark and earthy brood of gnomes and witches share the honours with princesses, assassins, swindling tailors and talking animals. Homicide is so much a matter of course that it ceases to appal. These two juvenile classics had great value, in an age that knew not E. Nesbit, in giving relief from an unvaried diet of moral improvement. Even Robinson Crusoe and the numerous members of the Swiss Family Robinson frequently held up the action of the story to instruct and moralise. Many Species.

It is interesting to reflect on the many species of supernatural creatures fairy and folklore reveal to us. It is time' some scientist took the matter up seriously and classified them. I have studied the subject to some extent, but I feel that my information is far from complete. Elves, fairies and pixies seem to be all the same kind of little creature, small, wood-haunting nature spirits, generally pretty and often clad in shining green. They are much given to dancing and music and casting spells, and are mildly mischievous. Tricking and misleading human beings are the only really evil things of which they are accused. Brownies are definitely kind and useful little beings« frequenting kitchens, where, unseen, at night, they will sweep the hearth and knead the dough for the tired housewife. Goblins, or hobgoblins, are mischievous, dark, ugly little fellows who live in woods and caves, and also frequent houses because they love to tease and frighten human children. Gnomes are ugly, deformed earth fairies, with large heads and long beards. They live underground a good deal, haunting caves and mines; they work hard, but are not at all friendly to the human race. Trolls are something tho same, and both are of Scandinavian origin. Puck is a half goblin, half fairy being, a merry, teasing, clever fellow, sometimes friendly with mortals of the kind who see fairies; he is quaint and humorouslooking, the " lob of spirits." The Irish leprechaun is rather like him, but is more shy and wild.. Ho is said to have a hoard of gold, which is perhaps the reason ho prefers to keep away from people. The phooka is another shy Irish fairy of strange appearance. He haunts beautiful, wild spots, but is afraid of people. The jack-o-lantern or will-o-the-wisp is a brainJess, malicious imp whose one idea is to lead lost people into danger. Our Own Fairies. Very little is known about ell-women, but they resemble some people in this respect, that they look very well at a front view but on examination are found to be mere shells. Also, when entertaining friends, they have a disconcerting trick of taking a wood shaving in their mouths and walking under themselves. It seems perplexing, hut in ell circles it is recognised to be a matter of having the knack, and the right sort of shaving. There are many other varieties of these peoplo all over tho world,' mermaids and lorelei, unscrupulous females with a habit of drowning their admirers; dryads and naiads, gentle phantoms, mid the earnest Neckan, who worries about his soul and plays 011 a primitive musical instrument, two tendencies that should render him a valuable convert to the Salvation Army. Our own fairies, Ihe patupaiarehe, seem not unlike the European ones. They too cast spells, and will lead pretty maidens away into the woods, or spoil a woman's weaving if she leaves it uncovered at night. In appearance they are small, fair and red-haired. Tho advance of civilisation has driven them back to the wilder wooded mountains.