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The Real World of Fairies: A First-Person Account PDF

209 Pages·1999·24.79 MB·English
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THE ~AL WO~D OF FAI~ES THE ~AL WO~D OF F AIR!_ES A First-Person Account DoRA VAN GELDER_ A publication supported by THe KHN FOUNDATION Quest Bool<s Theosophical Publishing House Wl,calon, Illinois • Chcnnai (Madras), lndi<> Learn more about Dora Kunz and her work at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Dora_Van_Gelder Findmorebookslikethisatwww.questbooks.net Copyright(cid:1)C 1977,1999byTheosophicalPublishingHouse SecondEdition1999 Fourthprinting2011 QuestBooks TheosophicalPublishingHouse POBox270 Wheaton,IL60187-0270 Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publicationmaybereproduced,storedinorintroducedintoaretrievalsystem,or transmitted,inanyform,orbyanymeans(electronic,mechanical,photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher of thisbook. Thescanning,uploading,anddistributionofthisbookviatheInternetorviaany other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law.Pleasepurchaseonlyauthorizedelectroniceditions,anddonotparticipatein orencourageelectronicpiracyofcopyrightedmaterials. Whiletheauthorhasmadeeveryefforttoprovideaccuratetelephonenumbersand Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibilityforauthororthird-partywebsitesortheircontent. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Kunz,Dora. The real world of fairies: a first-person account / by Dora van Gelder.—2nd.ed. p. cm. ISBN978-0-8356-0779-7 1.Fairies. I.Title. BF1552.K86 1999 133.9—dc21 99-12297 CIP ISBNforelectronicedition,PDFformat:978-0-8356-4082-4 ~~ CONTENTS ~-e FOREWORD BY CAITLfN MATTHEWS VII 1 INTRODUCTION TO FAIRY WORLDS 1 2 DIALOGUES WITH LITTLE PEOPLE 13 3 A TYPICAL FAIRY 31 4 FAIRY LIFE 47 5 EARTH F AllUES 63 6 GARDEN FAIRIES 81 7 TREE SPIRITS 93 8 MOUNTAIN FAIRIES 111 9 WATER FAIRIES 125 10 FIRE FAIRIES 137 11 AIR FAIRIES 147 12 THE HURRICANE 157 EPILOGUE: PRESENT CONDITIONS 169 ROSTER OF FAIRIES 177 ~~ FOREWORD ~-e CAITLIN MATTHEWS BY t is my pleasure to introduce the reader to the I visionary encounters of Dora van Gelder in this new edition of The Real World of Fairies. The openhearted experiences of the writer reveal a wondrous realm which many will recognize from their own childhood, wherein each tree was inhab ited by its native spirit and certain mysterious places held the possibility of joyful communion with our companions and neighbors of the natural world: beings unseen to most adults. It is my place in this foreword to help set the author's writing within the context of our contem porary understanding of the fairy realms. Within Dora van Gelder's lifetime-a span that includes most of the twentieth century-fairies have undergone an interesting transition in popular consciousness. In 1907-10, when W. Y. Evans-Wentz of Stanford University visited Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Brittany for his outstanding study, The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries, he VII CAl fLfN M ATTHEWS learned that belief in and encounters with fairies was a living tradition still.1 These fairy traditions are still a daily part of people's everyday experience in Celtic countries. They are the latter end of a long fairy tradition stretching back beyond the Middle Ages into the Celtic past. First-person documenta tion of this tradition is sporadic but consistent. Here are two instances of fairy encounters which involve clergymen-one Catholic, one Protes tant- to demonstrate that seeing fairies has little to do with one's spiritual orientation! A thirteenth-century account by the chronicler Gerald of Wales tells of Elidyr, a Welsh boy who went into the fairy hills. He found the subter ranean realm of the fairies, a sunless realm of great beauty. The fairies were keepers of their word and had only the greatest contempt for mortal ambi tions and lies. Elidyr learned the fairy tongue, which was a little like Greek. Due to adult mortal greed, which sent him back into Fairy to seek for gold, he eventually lost the way back and was for ever after unable to return, as Elidyr subsequently related with tears of sorrow.2 The fairy researches of the seventeenth-centu ry writer Rev. Robert Kirk remain the earliest semi-anthropological study of fairy customs and mores. Kirk himself is believed not to be in his FOR.EWOR.D tomb in Aberfoyle but to be in the fairy realms to this day. Kirk interviewed people who had encoun tered the fairies and knew of their ways. Several facts which he noted about them appear through out the Celtic tradition: that they have their own underground dwellings which mortals tend to avoid, that they are apt to steal human children and substitute changelings in their places, that they are keepers of treasures, that they can form helpful alliances with humans.3 Fairies appear in world traditions under many different names, of course, and remain a vigorous source of wonder, disquiet, or disbelief, depending on the degree of modernism in the country in question. But something has radically changed in this century. The process began when folklorists and story collectors, like the brothers Grimm, began to research stories in the early nineteenth century. Country people-significantly adults told stories and songs of fairies as defensive war riors, beguiling lovers, keepers of treasures and wisdom. With an eye to a wider readership, story collectors began to change things. The more robust elements of fairy lore were purged until the term fairy story began to mean "a light folktale suitable for children."4

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The Real World of Fairies is a privileged glimpse into a joyous, animated universe. Dora's enchanting vision of her encounters with the fairy realm delights the child in us, while it excites our grown-up imagination, rekindles our creative energy, and deepens our sense of connection with nature. Thi
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