The story begins with a king naming his daughter Fairer-Than-A-Fairy. The story states, "such a name was certain to call down the hatred and jealousy of the fairies."
According to Celtic lore, the act of calling fairies "Good folk" or something of the sort would prevent harm and ill-will from coming down upon you. The same can be said in reverse. If you stated something that insulted them, the fairies would seek to harm, through various means of course. In this case, the king had named his daughter a name that insulted the fairies. If he hadn't have named her such, she would not have drawn the jealousy and hatred of the fairies in this story.
This story reveals quite a bit about the various different natures of fairies. The other crowd, though all fairies, are vastly different from one another. They are the extremes of each other, and the complete form of chaotic senselessness compared to our own ways.
"The eldest of their tribe was entrusted to carry out their revenge. This Fairy was named Lagree; she was so old that she only had one eye and one tooth left, and even these poor remains she had to keep all night in a strengthening liquid. She was also so spiteful that she gladly devoted all her time to carrying out all the mean or ill-natured tricks of the whole body of fairies," vs this "These houses belonged to three sisters, all endowed with fairy gifts, and all so alike in mind and person that they wished their houses and garments to be equally alike. Their occupation consisted in helping those in misfortune, and they were as gentle and benevolent as Lagree had been cruel and spiteful.
The third Fairy comforted the poor traveller, begged her not to lose heart, and assured her that her troubles should be rewarded."The Fae are creatures known for both aiding and harming mortals.
In fact, three fairies within the story seek to aid Fairer-than-a-Fairy. It is not fully known as to why these fairies helped the young girl exactly. They could have sought to have aided her in order to thwart the tribe of fairies that Lagree originated from, sought to aid her because of their connection to the Rainbow Prince that Lagree had trapped, or if they merely wished to help the young girl with her troubles. It is clear that not all fairies seek to thwart mortals, and in fact it is clear that not all fairies will ally with one another.
The gifts that the three fairies had given do indicate that they were aware of what situation was at hand, but it still doesn't entirely reveal their motives. It is a belief that fairies can see into the future and have a very powerful intuition.
This tale does show the importance and power behind fairy gifts no matter what their outer form may be. Their gifts might hold magical power, be worth quite the pretty penny, or may even hold importance to certain events in your life.
Fairies can be very prideful creatures, so when a gift is given they want it to be the absolute best. Fairies want to be anything, but bland. Though a fairy might not always give a gift, they will be certain that it is one to be receiving amazed reactions.
The story ends with Fairer-than-a-fairy freeing the Rainbow Prince from a deep sleep. He awakens and a fairy court appears from this event, "...he was wide awake, and transported with joy threw himself at the Princess's feet. At the same moment the walls of the room expanded and opened out, revealing a golden throne covered with jewels. A magnificent Court now began to assemble, and at the same time several elegant carriages filled with ladies in magnificent dresses drove up. In the first and most splendid of these carriages sat Prince Rainbow's mother... the Queen taking the two lovers in her carriage set off with them for the capital of the kingdom. Here they were received with tumultuous joy. The wedding was celebrated without delay, and succeeding years diminished neither the virtues, beauty, nor the mutual affection of King Rainbow and his Queen, Fairer-than-a-Fairy."
Though the story doesn't outright say it, I believe the court of the Rainbow Prince and his mother were all fairy court. The story states that the court appeared from no where with the Queen stating, "the anger of the Fairies was at length appeased."
The Rainbow Court [what I will call it for now] could have been at odds with the Fairy Tribe of Lagree. Their Prince might have [or perhaps wasn't him at all] caused the situation to worsen, which only could be solved by the Queen giving up her son. Or perhaps, the fairy tribe had placed a curse on him, without the agreement of the Rainbow Queen, to get their revenge. Either way, its uncertain to whether or not this is true. For now, I'll save my rambles on Fairy Courts for another time.
This story touches a bit on mortal travels to Faery, and the effects of being in Faery. Fairer-than-a-fairy had been taken away by the fairy Lagree. During this, the girl's pets, a cat and a dog, had followed her into Faery itself. This somewhat hints at the idea that animals have a strong connection to the Otherworld, and not just Faery itself.
As time progressed, the girl forgotten her mortal home and became entranced and taken by the tasks Lagree had given her. Not once had she tried to escape, it suggests that she had little awareness of time. Folklore, the belief of others, and my own experience reveal that Faery has strange effects on perception of time. And, it does not follow the "rules" and order of our own world. What a moment is here is a lifetime there. An eternity there is a blink here. It is uncertain when one will occur and not the other. Time does not exist in Faery, and though it is believed to mirror our own [as our neighbors] realm of existence.
{Comments}
This piece of literature provides helpful insight and information when it comes to fairies, Faery itself, traveling to Faery, the interactions between fairies, fairy court dynamics, and the effects of Faery on mortals. I do hope to provide more detailed posts on these subjects separately.
No comments:
Post a Comment