Fairyland: Brownies, Boggarts, and Banshees

I’m reading about the personnel of fairyland: brownies, boggarts, and banshees. I have a very vague idea for a novel in which a number of supernatural creatures make appearances and influence the protagonist and, therefore, the action of the story. I’d say they are going to influence the plot except that there is no plot yet. Like I said, very vague stuff.

These soon-to-star creatures need to come from the cultures of the protagonist and her husband. I want the novel to have some basis in reality–the death, grief, COVID reality of the last few years–on which the supernatural intrudes. I want them to be from the real cultural backgrounds of my husband and me. Because if I’m going to spend a few years writing this thing, I want to learn something about where we came from and then pass it along to my sons.

So it will begin in the ordinary world, which happens to be the very place a hero’s journey starts. And it’s these supernatural intruders who will create the call to adventure. Campbell’s monomyth is generally known to writers and readers.* I don’t agree with those who believe all stories follow the form of the hero’s journey. But I’d like this story to have as many elements as possible because the creatures will be the stuff of myths.

Chatting with AI

My trouble is that I know next to nothing about my cultural myths and my husband’s knowledge of his is about the same. I’ve been having fun with the beta version of the new Chat AI that has everyone up in arms. (I now know ‘up in arms’ means people are grabbing their weapons, however metaphorically, but when I was young I thought it meant everyone ran to a public square and threw their arms up in the air all together, at once, in a frenzied dance of despair.) Yeah, I know AI is the death knell of the high school essay (and I’m glad I’m not teaching English anymore because–oh shit!). But it’s fun to pose questions like:

Are there any Irish myths about crows?

Are there any Irish myths about lizards?

How did the ancient Celts get to the underworld?

Can a banshee stay after announcing a death with wailing–like, can she hang out with the relatives?

And have the answers come back in complete, competent paragraphs. Then realize it doesn’t matter if a banshee has ever stayed on after a death. One is going to do so very soon. 

A Book on Brownies, Boggarts, and Banshees

Unfortunately, AI isn’t a writer’s panacea. Or rather, fortunately, because I’ve been drawn back to books to get a better sense of the beings I’m dealing with. And what, after all, is better than reading about the magical, the mystical, the holy, and the demonic? 

I began this week with an old, weeded library book, The Personnel of Fairyland: A Short Account of the Fairy People of Great Britain for Those Who Tell Stories to Children by K. M. Briggs. The copy I have is a lovely library-bound forest green with silver lettering. It was published by Singing Tree Press in 1971, but it’s a facsimile reprint of a 1953 edition out of Alden Press. It was purchased in 1981 and cost $15.00. The title page is torn, but it’s in otherwise good shape. The major sections have line drawings and there are scraper-board designs throughout by Jane Moore. 

The call number on the spine (It’s a Dewey Decimal number as the book is from a high school library) shows that it was a reference book–that is, students could use it in the library, but were not allowed to check it out. This puzzles me as it is clearly not for study–there is a ‘dictionary’ of the types of fairies at the end (so, so many types!), but no index. While the prefatory notes deride the modern fairy tales told to children as being “full of careful and innocuous prettiness” and what “Kipling calls ‘that sugar-and-shake-your-head set of imposters,’” the tales I’ve read so far are pretty mild fare. Truly, they were meant to be retold to children. I wonder if, in 1981, the librarian feared someone would accuse her of collecting books of witchcraft if this title was in circulation. Having spent decades in a high school library myself, I can attest to the fact that librarians are more often self-censoring than the current hysterical environment would have you believe.

Fairy Folk: The Good People (Not)

As someone who knows next to nothing about the fairy world of Britain and Ireland, what I’ve learned is that there are a hell of a lot of fairy folk. They touch the human world most closely on Halloween and Midsummer Eve (the night of June 23, one of the shortest days of the year, but not in the middle of the summer, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). If a mortal has been carried away by a fairy, this is the time for them to get free.

The Irish call some fairies the Good People, even though they aren’t, because they don’t want any trouble. For the same reason, in the Scottish Highlands they are called the People of Peace and in the lowlands, Good Neighbours. In general, fairies can only be seen between one blink of the eye and another, so it’s not a good idea to fix the eyes in a ‘brown study.’

While there are a few scary moments in the tales I read, such as a trip to fairyland in which the horses have to wade through a roaring torrent of blood, most of these stories are of mischief or unexpected good luck. Some consistent occurrences:

• People involved with fairies are required to follow very strict rules of behavior such as making the sign of the Cross at a certain moment, repeating phrases exactly as they were given, and not touching specific things or places. If they accidentally forget to do as told–and many of these people are amazingly forgetful considering the consequences–their happiness and good fortune disappear.

• Fairies covet human children. If they want to steal yours, it’s hard to prevent it. Sometimes stolen people will be returned to clever families who can trick fairies into giving them up in a trade for something of very little value.

• A piece of four-leafed clover on the head gives the power to see fairies. A magic ointment can also give people second sight. (This can be dangerous. If a fairy learns a person has second sight, she might put his eye out.)

• Fairies can be outwitted with linguistic tricks and other sorts of cunning. 

• Women are exceedingly overworked. They sometimes try to make deals with fairies, who promise to help. Depending on the type of fairy, this will turn out to be a boon or a ruinous event. 

• Some of the “homely” fairies (those that have lowly, or ordinary, positions and habits) are kind and reward a past favor. Sort of like the mouse and the lion with the thorn.

• All leprechauns have at least one crock of gold, but good luck getting it. Ain’t going to happen. You’ll lose that battle of wits every time.

• Brownies are common, small, shaggy spirits who dress in rags and haunt a special place, only coming out at night. They work for humans without a reward. In fact, if they are given a reward, it appears to free them. Give them new clothes, and they’re  gone forever. 

• “The boggart is a hobgoblin like the brownie, but a mischievous one. He behaves “exactly like a poltergeist–breaks china, hurls things about, . . . thumps and dances in empty rooms and answers knock for knock.”

The Banshee

The fairy creature I was most interested in reading about was the banshee. According to the author, a banshee:

• Is particularly Celtic.
• Irish banshees are tall, pale women in white, with long teeth and fiery red eyes from weeping.
• A particular Welsh banshee is hideous, tall, shriveled, and has long yellow teeth. 
• The Highland banshee is called the Washer by the Ford or The Little Washer of Sorrow because she sits by the ford and washes the clothes of the next man to die. If someone can catch her, she can be made to tell the name of the next man to die and also grant a wish. 
• They attach themselves to old families of some wealth or importance.
• When a death is coming to the family, the family’s banshee keens, screams, and claps her hands. If the dying person is important, multiple banshees get together and do this.

Questions Remain

I still have a few more tales to read. I imagine there are many people who know all of the following, but I confess to having no idea what they are. So I will need to look these up before next week:

• Tom Tit Tot is the best known of the English fairy tales. The author didn’t bother to include it for this reason. I have never heard of it. 
• What is a howdie?
• Farmers cut furze. What is that?

One of the things that interested me was the tale of Childe Roland. I’ve only ever read the Robert Browning poem, which was far more interesting, detailed, and frightening. That’s a subject for next week as well. It is interesting that people have been reimagining traditional cultural tales for a long time and now it is quite in vogue to do so. 

__________

*Joseph Campbell has seventeen steps in the Hero’s Journey, but I like Christopher Vogler’s Twelve Step Plan 😉 because I need to skip things like ‘Woman as the Temptress.’ 

1. The Ordinary World 
2. The Call to Adventure 
3. Refusal of the Call 
4. Meeting the Mentor 
5. Crossing the Threshold (Commit to the journey.)
6. The Belly of the Whale (Tests, Allies, Enemies) 
7. Approach to the Innermost Cave 
8. The Ordeal (The greatest fear and most difficult challenge)
9. Reward
10. The Road Back 
11. The Resurrection (The climax of the story)  
12. Return with the Elixir 

Like many writers, I read to find connections with what I’m working on. The novel I’m querying about now has some cruelly religious characters, so I posted about looking for a comp title in God Spare the Girls. Writing makes for a wide reading pool!