May 08 2008
When Did Fairies Get Wings?
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While there are various explanations of the origins of fairies and the nature of them and their lands, there is little explanation in any studies of where the modern conception of fairies has come from.
None of the books suggest that fairies have wings like dragonflies or butterflies. The wee-folk of Celtic mythology are generally thought to be the size of small children or dwarfs, rather than the size of insects as they are thought of today. |
They also tend to be suitably disproportionate, like chunky hobbits rather than the tiny but perfect adult fairies in modern storybooks. It is likely that these modern depictions of fairies sprang more from the minds of individual humans than any specific culture or mythology.
For almost as long as people have been seeing fairies, people have been writing about them. The countries of the world have a wide variety of myths and legends, but the “little people” crop up in a great many of them. Into more modern times, we have Spenser’s “The Fairie Queen”, and Shakespeare’s “A Midsummers Night’s Dream” in Elizabethan times, both of which did much to cement the modern conception of what a “fairy” is.
A wide variety of cultures believe in fairies similar to the Celtic version, and some cultures see fairies as the animistic spirits of nature. None of these fairies bear much resemblance to the modern fairies and if they had wings, it is a detail that is usually left out. Spencer’s fairies were like the Celtic version, Shakespeare’s were like a combination of tall elegant elves and the wee-folk, but it was not until the Victorian era that fairies were established as little winged beings.
Thomas Croker (1789-1854) in his collection of Irish Fairy Tales, described fairies as being “a few inches high, airy and almost transparent in body; so delicate in their form that a dew drop, when they chance to dance on it, trembles, indeed, but never breaks.”
One of the first of these “delicate” fairies to impinge on popular consciousness was probably Tinkerbell in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. Around that time, there was also a large amount of sentimental art, creating cutesy portrayals of fairies and cherubs. There was also a large fuss made about the fairy photographs taken by two young girls in England at Cottingsley. These photographs sparked a world-wide debate that did much to “fix” the image of the small, winged, fairy in the public mind, and if you ask any group of people, there’ll no doubt be someone who remembers seeing the pictures at some time. The Victorians had a soft spot for the “cute”, and much of the modern conception of the little delicate, insect size fairy came from them.
Disney also has a part to play from the 1950s onward, pushing the sanitised Tinkerbell as a sort of happy go-lucky nature sprite, making fairies happy and unthreatening, reinforced even more by having Julia Roberts play her in the live action version.
From these images people have come to see fairies as happy, positive, creatures… a far cry from the baby-stealing wee folk of Celtic mythology from which they derived.
- by Willie Meikle
- Thank you to Willie Meikle for allowing us to post this article on our site
- Willie is a Scottish author now living in Newfoundland. He has written eight novels and over 150 short stories, you can find Willie and his books at
Bylittle people I assume you mean 3 to 4 feet in height. I did not know that. I just read another website which criticizes two books that seemed to be full of misinformaion. I’m glad to be finally learning the truth about one of my favorite subjects – the Celts.
It’s a great pleasure and you’re most welcome. The wonderful thing is that we’re all still learning about these amazing people – I love it!
I just wanted to point out that Tinkerbell is not all that happy-go-lucky, or unthreatening. In Disney’s Peter Pan, and the Movie Hook, in which Julia Roberts plays Tinkerbelle, ths cute little fairy is so feircly jealous that she tries to kill Wendy (via the Lost Boys). She was pretty mean in Hook moeso than Peter Pan.
In another movie, the Labrynth, the fairy Sarah picks up off the ground after being sprayed with bug-spray, bites her. Hoggle tells her “Well, what’d you expect fairies to do?!”
Yes, they are mostly portrayed as lovely lillte creatures with a mischievous character, but sometimes, some poeple get it closer to the probable truth.
P.S. I love your site!
Some really good comments there, Amethyst – thank you!
A lot of people tend to forget that in faerie folklore, there are two Courts – the Seelie and the Unseelie – or as we might call them these days, the Light and the Dark. Not all fey are light and not all fey are dark
Thanks
Truthfully i do believe fairies are real. I believe that there are fairies, like what the Celtics said, and there are the happy dancing truffle sized fairies of tomorrow. I also don’t know a lot about fairies and are eager to learn. My great grandmother came from Ireland, the land of leprechauns, fairies, and other mystical creators.So please update the sight often, because I cant wait to read it!
[...] Did Faeries Get Their Wings?,” Passions Website, 2009 Meikle, Willie, “When Did Faeries Get Wings?,” Celtic Myth Podshow Website, 2008 The Encyclopeadia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, Volume X, The [...]
I saw a fairy in my bedroom window in the top of a four story apartment complex surrounded with hills of scotch pine in Bergen Norway when i was 7. It looked exacly like Disneys Tinkerbell. I was waiting for the tooth fairy and in Norway we leave a little eggholder or glass in the window sill with the tooth and water in it. When i saw it after waiting for it i freaked out and ran out of the room, when i came back it was gone.
That is amazing! What a memory to have! As a kid you must have been very close to the Fey. Norway is one of those places that I have always wanted to visit. What do they call fairies, fey etc in Norway?
Im still confused there is no proof of exsitense of fairies?
But i do Believe in faries…Ive never seen one but where i used to live there were 2 trees that looked as if they had chimneys and doors and windows?
As yet, there is no proof – it is true. But we’re just waiting for the ‘Good Folk’ to come back into the world, rather than interact with us from the invisible world.