It is perhaps not unnatural that in England, the land where the love of the delicate and fine has often reappeared in art, fancy should in this matter turn towards the dainty and diminutive, as in France it went to court and put on powder and diamonds. The diminutive being, elf or fairy, is (I guess) in England largely a sophisticated product of literary fancy. Of old there were indeed some inhabitants of Faerie that were small (though hardly diminutive), but smallness was not characteristic of that people as a whole. I have often thought that it would be interesting to try to find out how that has come to be so but my knowledge is not sufficient for a certain answer. The road to fairyland is not the road to Heaven nor even to Hell, I believe, though some have held that it may lead thither indirectly by the Devil's tithe.Īs for diminutive size: I do not deny that the notion is a leading one in modern use. For it is man who is, in contrast to fairies, supernatural (and often of diminutive stature) whereas they are natural, far more natural than he. But to fairies it can hardly be applied, unless super is taken merely as a superlative prefix. Supernatural is a dangerous and difficult word in any of its senses, looser or stricter. Especially so, if we accept the lexicographer's definition of fairies: “supernatural beings of diminutive size, in popular belief supposed to possess magical powers and to have great influence for good or evil over the affairs of man.” Not too narrow for an essay it is wide enough for many books, but too narrow to cover actual usage. The last two senses would obviously make my topic hopelessly vast. In the Supplement, fairy-tale is recorded since the year 1750, and its leading sense is said to be (a) a tale about fairies, or generally a fairy legend with developed senses, (b) an unreal or incredible story, and (c) a falsehood. It contains no reference to the combination fairy-story, and is unhelpful on the subject of fairies generally. What is a fairy-story? In this case you will turn to the Oxford English Dictionary in vain. For instance: What are fairy-stories? What is their origin? What is the use of them? I will try to give answers to these questions, or such hints of answers to them as I have gleaned-primarily from the stories themselves, the few of all their multitude that I know. There are, however, some questions that one who is to speak about fairy-stories must expect to answer, or attempt to answer, whatever the folk of Faërie may think of his impertinence. And while he is there it is dangerous for him to ask too many questions, lest the gates should be shut and the keys be lost. In that realm a man may, perhaps, count himself fortunate to have wandered, but its very richness and strangeness tie the tongue of a traveller who would report them. The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there shoreless seas and stars uncounted beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords.
#Grim dawn meddling witch full
I have been hardly more than a wandering explorer (or trespasser) in the land, full of wonder but not of information.
And overbold I may be accounted, for though I have been a lover of fairy-stories since I learned to read, and have at times thought about them, I have not studied them professionally. Faerie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold. I propose to speak about fairy-stories, though I am aware that this is a rash adventure.
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