How do fairies fly? + Do fairies have wings?

Perhaps some of the most common questions on the internet involve fairy flight, such as do fairies have wings? can fairies fly? how do fairies fly? etc.

We’ve all seen the images of fairies with wings, so it might surprise you to hear until the 20th century those who described their encounters with fairies never included wings in their descriptions of them. 

Fairies, could fly without wings, however, for as Kirk writes in a “Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies” (1691) fairies would “swim in the air near the earth.” And Scottish fairies would kidnap or attack people by flying. 

Katherine Briggs states that “It is very rare in traditional fairy tales for Fairies to travel by means of wings. They generally fly through the air on transformed ragwort stems, twigs or bundles of grasses, using them as witches use broomsticks, and most commonly levitated by a magic password.” Such as horse and hattock. 

Yet, as with all fairy magic, fairy flight seems to be limited by function. For while they fairies would fly as a form of play, to steal from humans, to move about quickly, to shoot curses at people, etc. But not as a means of escaping people intent on capturing them. I can’t think of a single story where a fairy flew to escape someone who trying to catch them.

This might be because humans have the ability to thwart fairy spells with their gaze. Stare unblinking at a fairy in folklore and they can’t vanish, for example. 

That said there is a story where the fairies helped a human to escape a death sentence by flying him away. 

In this story a young boy is in the wilderness when he comes across a cottage with a friendly lady who allows him to stay the night. During the night, however, the ladies of the house show their fairy nature by donning white caps and saying “Here’s off” at which point the fly away. Afraid to stay in the hut alone the boy grabs another cap and says “Here’s after” at which point he flies to where the women are dancing around a fairy ring. Then they all fly off again, this time down a chimney and into a wealthy mans cellar, where the boy drinks so much wine he passes out and is caught. Just before he is hung for the theft the fairy lady comes to him, puts a hat on his head and they fly away 

Here the fairy explained that she had been displeased by his taking her magic cap, and that if befriended by fairies, he must never in future take liberties with their property. This he promised, and after a good meal, was allowed to depart to his home.

It is fairly typical of fairies living in cottages to be kindly disposed towards people, although there are no guarantees in fairyland. Not that that’s relevant to the current discussion, I just thought it was an interesting aside. 

Kathrine Briggs believes that this story has more in common with witches’ tales, and I would tend to agree, primarily because the boy and women manage to fly away from danger, something, as I’ve said the fairies seemingly didn’t do. Except for a Danish tale in which some fairies are carrying a woman off and someone forces them to drop her and then drives them away. Although in this story the fairies were already flying when the man approached them. 

Fairies, after all, were often responsible for witch flight in stories. 

As Emma Wilby Says “several contemporary anecdotes relate how ordinary people could find themselves transported in 'fairy whirlwinds' 

Where they would dance with the fairies. 

Regardless of the means of flight, however, what we see is that in most cases then fairy flight is clearly a spell, often associated with a magical object and magical words, 

Okay, so where does the idea of fairies’ as being winged come from?

It's likely it started with a German Alchemist named Paracelsus (1493-1541) who determined that there were four classes of elementals, with air being represented by sylphs and they were depicted as having wings. 

It is worth noting at this point that fairies were rarely ever associated with the air. Rather they were the spirits of rocks, of lakes, earth mounds, and the like. 

In any case sylphs began to appear in English plays in the 16th century, for example Ariel in Shakespeare’s play, although she wasn’t a fairy she acted much like one of the fairies from Midsummer Night’s Dream would have, thus the association was easy to make. Something that seems to have happened by the 17th century when fairies began to wear winged costumes in Masque plays for the wealthy. 

Outside of these plays, even in drawings, fairies were still depicted as wingless. Still, theatrical fairies grew in popularity and so they influenced pop depictions of fairies, but it does seem that most people at the time could still tell the difference, as again fairies weren’t mentioned as having wings for another three hundred years in encounters with people.

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World Building - Cultural Psychology and Monsters

 How would cultures react to zombies, the presence of blood thirsty armies, or a kaiju attack? In a fantasy world magical monsters, weather rare or common are a reality. So it can be interesting to ponder h ow cultures would adjust to their presence.

 

It can be tempting, of course, to turn any world filled with monsters into a grim dark, a nightmare realm with sorrowful peasants. However, it is worth remembering that a few years after Joan of Arc’s village had been burned to the ground by marauding armies, and raided on multiple occasions, after disease had killed many of the people she loved she described her village in idyllic terms and talked about how much she’d loved working with her mother and the other members of the village.

This was during the height of the 100 Year War. It is important to remember that the bright and often vibrant cultures we know today developed under some of the worst wars in history, the 80 Years War in the Netherlands, the 30 Years War in Germany, etc.

 

Obviously monsters and war are different and how monsters would affect cultures is entirely speculative; there is no good research on the subject of how the presence of a dragon would impact the psychology and culture of a village. But there is a lot of research on how different catastrophes, from tsunamis, to plagues, and of course wars will impact a culture which I will be using in my speculations.

 

Consider, for example, monsters such as vampires, vampires, werewolves, cultists, demons that can change shape or possess people. That is monsters that could pretend to be ordinary people. As fairy tales show people would have to be extremely careful with such monsters around, for example, one Romanian vampire tale begins:

 

There once was a woman who fell in love with a young man who seemed perfect in every way. At last, the two of them were married and the women went with the young man to his house. He led her into the kitchen, where he had a girl hanging from meat hooks, for the young man was really a vampire. "Cook this girl for our supper," the vampire told his new bride.  

 

Even those one knew could become a threat in such a world as seen in the following story.

 

Once upon a time a boy and a girl loved each other, but the young man died and became a vampire, though the girl didn't know this. That night, when she was alone in the house, the vampire came. But, vampires can only enter unclean homes, so because the girls home was clean, the vampire couldn’t enter it. The vampire called up to the girl's window in his familiar and loving voice, and so lured her out into the night. Although she was still undressed, he convinced her that it was urgent that she come with him, and so he took her hand and led her to his tomb.

 

Because of this people would be cautious around strangers and even friends who might have been turned. This is similar to the way people deal with pathogens and so would likely impact cultures in a similar way. 

 

Research indicates “ethnocentrism, xenophobia and other specific forms of interpersonal prejudice” and a strong disdain of deviation from social norms are strongly correlated with cultures who have had to deal with pathogens. After all, avoiding potential signs of pathogens and contact with outsiders is a good survival trait when a disease is ravaging the land.

 

Fincher Corey L, Thornhill Randy, Murray Damian R and Schaller Mark 2008Pathogen prevalence predicts human cross-cultural variability in individualism/collectivismProc. R. Soc. B.2751279–1285

http://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2008.0094

 

It’s important to keep in mind that this doesn’t mean that people would be dark and brooding, rather people would likely seek to act in a way that is opposite to the creatures that are threatening them.

 

If the vampires are dark and brooding, people would go out of their way to be bright, vivacious, and colorful. For the primary means of dealing with such creatures would be to watch for signs that someone had didn’t fit with the social norms, so the norms would be the reverse of the monster’s instincts.

 

Thus, in a world with werewolves hiding among a populous meat might be eaten last, after slowly eating many tiny vegetable dishes, as a means of trying to get the hungry wolves to reveal themselves by obviously longing to eat the meat sooner. In a world with the kitsune who tend to act wild and speak rapidly, people would be more reserved, calmer, and controlled in hopes that the kitsune would lose control and reveal themselves.

 

We can see from these examples that often the response to the presence of most monsters would be likely be some form of collectivism. As “Collectivism is characterized by a strong value placed on tradition and conformity, whereas individualism is characterized by a greater tolerance for (and encouragement of) deviation from the status quo”

 

I.e. the xenophobia people often develop as a result of dealing with plagues is associated with collectivism.

You can see in this chart the impact of pathogens on collectivist vs individualist behaviors.

 

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2008.0094

Fincher Corey L, Thornhill Randy, Murray Damian R and Schaller Mark 2008Pathogen prevalence predicts human cross-cultural variability in individualism/collectivismProc. R. Soc. B.2751279–1285

http://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2008.0094

 

(Me)

Of course this chart isn’t a perfect line, because while Pathogens are positively correlated with collectivism they clearly aren’t the only factor. Which is why it's important to remember that there are many things hat can impact culture and so the presence of one factor doesn’t guarantee a culture will behave a certain way.

 

 

 

This is because distrust of outsiders and a strong adherence to social norms aren’t the only response to monsters. Indeed, we might see the opposite effect on cultures which frequently have to deal with dragons, kaiju, giants, and other massive monsters which could show up, destroy their village, and leave.

 

Certainly in such societies high levels of cooperation would be necessary for survival when a dragon attacks, but this cooperation could extend to much larger groups of people, sometimes from villages hundreds of miles away.

 

That is when the dragon attacked people might seek refuge, food, and aid in fighting the creature from other people, sometimes hundreds of miles away.

 

As a result people would need to befriend people from other lands, which would tend to make them more accepting of differences and likely to get along with people outside their ingroup, which is one of the hallmarks of individualism.

 

Those living in cities and ports, or who herd animals, who are in frequent contact with many peoples from other lands will tend to be more individualist.

 

In addition the need for innovations can also help encourage individualism. Thus, a place that needed inventive wizards or clerics would be more likely to shift individualistic.

 

After all, “Individualistic values may promote other kinds of functional benefits. For example, the discovery or spread of beneficial new technologies may occur more frequently when individuals are encouraged to deviate from existing traditions and engage in interactions with non-group members.”

 

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2008.0094

Fincher Corey L, Thornhill Randy, Murray Damian R and Schaller Mark 2008Pathogen prevalence predicts human cross-cultural variability in individualism/collectivismProc. R. Soc. B.2751279–1285

http://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2008.0094

 

Disasters help to enhance traditional means of seeking comfort or survival. Thus, we would expect those who must deal with monsters on a regular basis to have stronger tendencies towards either aggression or caring, ingroup social norms or outgroup alliances, and so forth, depending on the nature of the monster involved. For example, Natural disasters remind people how powerless they are and so can cause people to become more religious, such that even the children of children of immigrants who experienced earthquakes are more religious than their peers.

 

 

More than just psychological changes, the presence of monsters would likely be written into the very architecture of the village. Likely inspired by the real villages built on lakes and rivers for defence in England’s past, Tolkien had Lake Town built on a lake to make it easier for people to  escape the dragon’s fire.

 

Thus, in addition to walls a city in a fantasy world could include the presence of frequent hardened canopies and gazebos with spikes atop them to stop wyverns or dragons from landing on or taring their way through them. In addition there could be vaults similar to panic rooms and tunnels throughout a village and perhaps even under the fields where people farm, as a way of escaping from flying or marauding enemies.

 

Stone alcoves could be built into the city walls to allow people to duck away from flame or acid breathed by dragons or fireballs flung by wizards.

 

In the fantasy realm of Ogma De I wrote that every house has a few goats in it, so that if a giant rips off the roof, it is more likely to grab a panicking goat than a person who can quickly fling themselves down trap doors and who likely has a sword nearby.

 

It might even be that people would build multiple long thin cities beside each other, rather than one large city, that way sewage could flow from smaller pipes into the larger sewers that exist outside the city walls in order to prevent sewer monsters from being an immediate threat.

 

In other words, from the way people build their homes and towns, from the pets they keep, to the way they think and feel could all be impacted by the presence of monsters and actually thinking about these impacts could be very interesting.

 

Thinking about what people might do to protect themselves from various monsters can allow you to add interesting little details into the description of your village.

 

 

 

 

Solid infrastructure systems that include buildings, food storage, vaults, etc. isn’t the most popular way people will seek to protect themselves in Fantasy TTRPGs, however.

 

The most popular method for dealing with monsters in games is by seeking help from heroic adventurers.

 

Those seeking help from adventurers who could potentially be anyone including outsiders and the strange, uncouth kid from down the street that grows up to be a powerful sorcerer, would likely come to accept odd quirks and differences from the social norms. Indeed, those who are odd are typically more likely to fit into unusual roles related to wizardry, paladins, warriors, sorcerers, warlocks, and even great fighters.

 

As a result of the need for those with unusual skills people would likely encourage such things as self-actualization, and come to admire aggression, competitiveness, and success. More than this they would be more likely to question authority and hierarchies as anyone could be the hero they hire and the leaders would be less important to them or might even come to be seen as a hinderance.

 

That is these cultures would be individualist, have strong motivations towards success and achievement, and of course would have a low power distance on the Hofstede cultural scale.

 

 

This is contrasted by the fact that research has shown large infrastructure projects to support agriculture and complex ocean fishing are associated with greater cooperation and less assertive behaviors. More conformity to social norms, and a greater respect for leadership. What’s more such societies are strongly associated with a much more moralizing deity, one which punishes deviation from social norms – or sin as some cultures would call it. After all in a strict system where everyone must follow the rules to survive, people are more likely to discuss gods that punish those who don’t follow the rules.

 

On the opposite end of this coin, gods in heroic societies are likely to be less concerned with moral behavior and more concerned with heroic behavior. Think Odin, who accepts the souls of those who died in heroic combat, or the general idea of Nordic Mythology that it is a virtue to obtain admiration and fame in whatever one does.

 

The descendants of the societies that spawned the Vikings, with limited infrastructure and heroes who would go out to do battle, is high in the caring values and individualism at the same time. This despite, or perhaps because of the fact that they also once had to deal with frequent raids from each other as well.

 

 

What we see then is that the presence of monsters and how people respond to these monsters would affect their religion, psychology, and of course their social norms and behavior in what are sometimes opposing ways.

 

This is good though, because it gives us the opportunity to imagine many diverse methods responses to monsters and cultures in fantasy worlds.

 

It would be impossible in a single video to discuss every way in which culture is altered or could be altered by disasters and wars, but in many ways it is simply enough for you to write something believable and if you are world building hobbyist, it can be fun to simply journal and daydream how your cultures would adjust to a world filled with monsters.  

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