THE FAERY MAVEN?

Back in September, I received an e-mail from a young lady named Brittany telling me she had found a tiny skull and wondered if it belonged to a fairy. She also wondered if she, herself, could be a fairy or a sprite.

At first I thought it was a joke and was quite upset to have received the e-mail (I thought someone was making a fool of me), but after several exchanges back and forth I was convinced that she was an actual 13-year-old girl. I asked Brittany why she had contacted me and she said it was because I "knew so much about fairies." Huh?

And then today, I received an e-mail from another 13-year-old girl named Alina, who made a comment on my post on "Pixies, Fairies, Elves And Other Week Folk," written back in March. http://celticanamcara.blogspot.com/2009/03/pixies-fairies-elves-and-other-wee-folk.html.

 She too, asked me if these things are real.

Both girls must have been cruising the Internet for information about fairies and found my blog. I mentioned Brittany to my blogging friend Lila ("Indigo Pears") and she replied, "You ARE The Fairy Maven!"

Hmm, "The Fairy Maven"?? I never set out to be one. It's true, I have written quite a few posts about fairies. However, I have never said I believe in fairies. Although I have a couple of blogging friends who swear to their existence, I would have to say that as for myself, as much as I would like to see a fairy, I never have.

I wrote and told Brittany that I think she must have found the skull of a little animal. If she had found the skull of an actual fairy, I said, she would be the first person in the world to have done so. Moreover, I said, I think that a fairy is too unsubstantial to leave behind a skeleton. A fairy is gossamer and thistledown, not flesh and bone.

Having gotten to know Brittany a little, I was delighted to find that she is unlike the typical 13-year-old girl of today - unsophisticated, unspoiled, fresh, still having childlike beliefs in "the great possible." Although I could not correspond with Alina because she was a "No Reply" blogger, I think of her in the same vein.

As a child I often used to imagine how wonderful it would be to be a fairy; to be small and light enough to climb a flower stem, to live at the bottom of a tree behind a tiny door, to nap on a mushroom and sail on a leaf. I hope that Brittany and Alina, as they grow into adulthood, never lose sight of that other, magical and mystical world just behind the veil.

To that end, I sent Brittany this link, which Lila sent to me. It's from the Sept. 10, 2009 edition of The London Daily Mail online:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211845/Croydon-Tinker-Bell--fairies-the-garden.html.

This is the photo Phyllis Bacon took from the doorway of her South London home of what appears to be a fairy in her garden.

Close up of "the fairy"

The famed 1917 faked photograph of the Cottingley Fairies,
mentioned in the London Daily Mail story

Back in 1917, a great many people believed in the authenticity of the Cottingley Fairies photo. In 2009, there are probably a lot of readers who believe Mrs. Bacon had a fairy in her garden.

Belief in fairies - and other wee folk - was once very common, especially in England and Europe. That belief has never truly died out. There are people out there today who claim to see fairies on a regular basis; others see orbs and wonder if they are fairies. As for me, do I believe in fairies? Let's just say that I believe in the belief in fairies.

(NOTE: I wrote this post months ago but other interesting or more timely subjects intervened and I never published it. Having received the e-mail from Alina today, I thought now would be a good time to trot it out.)

And it seems especially timely, since it was just a few days ago that I read about the Scottish movie "Kirk" in Ruthie's blog ("5 Precious Things"). The movie (which has nothing to do with Capt. Kirk of Star Trek), is about a 17th-century Scottish pastor named Robert Kirk who believed in faeries. He wrote a book called "The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Faeries". The movie looks and sounds extremely interesting and I hope to get my hands on it when available.  Here's a link to info about "Kirk": http://www.mjsimpson.co.uk/reviews/kirk.html.