ABSTRACT

A few commentators identify the peris of Persian mythology and folklore with the fairies—mainly on the basis of false etymology —but they are not truly analogous. Fairies and elves range from the beautiful and godlike Tuatha De Danann of the Irish to the naked, long-nosed, crude, and hairy little creatures known as boggarts. Fairies give birth and, although long-lived, die, but they are not blessed with either fertility or ease in childbirth—which may explain their thefts of mortal infants and their need for human nurses and midwives. Fairies love and reward cleanliness and order, yet have no qualms about stealing from human beings. Equally common was the idea that fairies were a special category of the dead, either those who had died before their appointed time or those who had died unbaptized. Beginning with an ancient Anglo-Saxon charm against elf-shot, fairies have been chronicled in literature. Much of the folklore about fairies deals with the role as kidnappers.