Understanding the Fairies of Sleeping Beauty Fairy

Article by Ty Hulse

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"Sleeping Beauty" is the story of a water fairy who is an artist and a story teller. A water fairy who manipulates events to make the story of "Sleeping Beauty" possible.

The story of "Sleeping Beauty" opens with a water fairy providing the king and queen with a child. In “Briar Rose,” the water fairy appears in the personified form of a frog to tell of the child that will be born. In “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood,” the version collected by Perrault, the king and queen take a much more active role in seeking help from the water fairy with the opening lines; “They went to all the waters in the world; vows, pilgrimages, all ways were tried.”
By the time the story was collected, of course, churches had long since rededicated fountains and waters to saints. However, such a rededication is merely a change of form rather than of function. What we see in the king and queen’s search is that despite the fact that the king-dom in which they lived had 13 fairies (or 7 in Perrault’s version) the king and queen chose to seek help in having a child or ultimately received it from the spirit of the water. Water fairies have a unique ability to see the future so this spirit of the wells would have foreseen much of the epic tale that was about to unfold because of its action of helping the king and queen to have a child. Certainly, the story that resulted has been with us for hundreds of years and is now one of the most popular stories in the world. The well fairy then is creating a form of art by setting this story up, and so one could argue that all the other characters are simply bystanders in what happens next. The fairy who lays the curse on Briar Rose/Aurora has no real choice but to be spiteful given her nature. The king and queen are simply humans prone to stupid mistakes. The good fairy is limited in her capacity to help and so had few options open to her. The prince does very little but get curious about what’s in the palace. When he walks up to it, the way is made for him, presumably by the fairy, who said that Briar Rose would be awakened after a hundred years. The princess is blessed and cursed from birth so she has no choice in anything that happens to her.
The only character with a choice in this story then is that of what could be called its writer, the water fairy. The water fairy did not need to grant the king and queen’s wish in either ver-sion of the tale. In one story, most wells refused the king and queen showing that it could have done so easily as well. In the other the frog simply shows up and grants the wish of its own accord. Yet despite the fact that this is the one character with a choice in the story, the one character who sets things into motion, the water fairy is the most ignored of all the characters. So as with many fairies, the one who begins this tale is the anonymous artist who sets every-thing into motion.
Let us consider now the next set of fairies to enter the stories, the norns, the fate bringers. They are in many ways similar to the three norns which come to make important children he-roes. In “The Edda,” the majority of the norns are kind and helpful, but one of them is spiteful and curses the child to die. In “The Edda,” this occurred because the norn tripped and hurt herself as she approached the child whereas in “Sleeping Beauty” the fairy cursed the child with death because she felt slighted by the king and queen. This difference is important be-cause while the norn in “The Edda” only curses the child with death, the fairy in “Sleeping Beauty” is angry at the king and queen so she does much more than this by cursing the child and the kingdom’s source of power over its fate. A spindle, the item the fairy says will ulti-mately kill the princess, is more than just a way to make clothes in folklore; it’s a way to make fate. Fate is spun, and magic is woven by women. Jacob Grimm’s “Teutonic Mythology” notes, “Women gain their power, their heroic respect at this time from the magic that comes from the spindle.” In “The Golden Bough” it’s stated that “Women become very nearly or perhaps in some ways more than gods from the power over fate that they have, a power which comes from spinning.” By saying that Briar Rose will die from the spindle that provides power, the fairy has effectively denied Briar Rose this power. So while
she may grow up to be rich and beautiful, she is powerless; she is meaningless. Further, for fifteen years after this the whole kingdom must suffer the same fate because the king and queen outlawed all spindles. The insulted fairy/spinner of fate then curses the kingdom to not have fate spun for their children for fifteen years. She curses the women to lose much of the magical power they might have. She has cursed the men to do without these powers as they go to war. Finally, she has cursed these women and the princess to live meaningless lives unable to affect the world around them the way the women in other kingdoms can. Cursing someone to die because of a spindle, cursing a kingdom to live without their spindles for over a decade then is perhaps one of the worst curses imaginable.

 

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Searching for Neolithic Eastern Europe's Fairies and Deities part 3.

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Wild and untamed

Despite what can be seen as a civilizing nature the fairies of the nymph types were ultimately wildness fairies, wild and untamed. (Ralston, 1872) describes the rusalki by stating that;

They are generally represented under the form of beauteous maidens with full and snow-white bosoms, and with long and slender limbs. Their feet are small, their eyes are wild, their faces are fair to see, but their complexion is pale, their expression anxious. Their hair is long and thick and wavy, and green as is the grass (sometimes it is black, or blond). Their dress is either a covering of green leaves, or a long white shift, worn without a girdle. At times they emerge from the waters of the lake or river in which they dwell, and sit upon its banks, combing and plaiting their flowing locks, or they cling to a mill-wheel; and turn round with it amid the splash of the stream. If any one happens to approach, they fling themselves into the waters, and there divert themselves, and try to allure him to join them. Whomsoever they get hold of they tickle to death Witches alone can bathe with them unhurt.

A more recent scholar describes them as:

In contrast to the bride, there is a female folk figure in East Slavic lore whose hair is permanently loose and uncontrolled; she is the rusalka.
She is pale, lithe, often beautiful female spirit who lives in the water, forest and fields. She is known to swing aon tree branches waiting to entice unsuspecting male passersby whom she often attacks and at times tickles to death.
Hair is light brown, blond, or green, loose hair, blazing eyes and magnificent breasts…. Noted for her beautiful voice and melodious laugh…. If her hair ever dries out she will perish.

She goes on to state that they ride wildly through pastors on horses, dance freely in meadows. In essence they are symbolic of the freedom and happiness so often denied to women in later Europe. Their wild hair is extremely which is significant to their character and this is symbolic in the Slavic lands as hair is symbolic of sexual status.

In the wedding ritual the bride is “sold” to her new husband and his family, and must leave her home and village. As part of the ritual, she “sell her braid to her new husband, and is valued for the thickness of her braid. I will argue that this act is symbolic of the women’s giving over her sexual potency and autonomy to her husband…

Because the various Slavic fairies have no braids they can be said to be free from any obligation and they cannot be sold or given over to anyone. Without the knots of a braid they are not tied down to anything as the fairies of the nymph type tend to be.
Of course the tying down associated to marriage was not always so strict;

Philippa Rapport maintains that the wedding rituals of the tenth through the fifteenth century show diminishing domestic and social status of women with the increasing influence of the church.
Ihttps://journals.ku.edu/index.php/folklorica/article/viewFile/3689/3532

Vila and rusalka in the Slavic lands are to a certain extent a folk memory of freer times. However, they go beyond this by being able to shirk nearly all reasonability, when a fairy of a nymph type bares their children they give it over to humans to be raised as they have no family ties. Yet despite the fact that they don’t raise their own children they do in fact raise the children of other people. They raise those who will become leaders and heroes, the fairies of the nymph type have every advantage then for they still raise children as many people want too but they do not have to raise children who are disobedient or difficult, only those who will grow up to do great things. Their children are Zeus and Dyonisis thus their civilizing power comes from their wild freedom and their freedom comes from their civilizing power. This contrasting nature is important to the fairies of the nymph types. In Greece the religious places associated with nymphs were natural places, often in caves. So the heroes and the civilizers of society lived and were raised in caves while at the same time caves were the birth place of monsters and the dangerous nature. In Slavic lands it was said that;

they run about the meadows, or they frolic among the high-standing corn and,
rocking upon it, make it wave to and fro. Whole bevies of
them live on lonely spots along the streams, or in deep places
and under rapids. Sitting in the depths of brooks and rivers,
they entangle the fishermen's nets; by breaking the dikes they
flood the adjoining fields and wreck the bridges; and they may
also cause fatal storms, dangerous rains, and heavy hail.
Rising to the surface of the stream on clear summer nights,
they bathe, sprinkling the water around them and frolicking in
the waves; they like to sit on the mill-wheel, splashing each
other, and then they dive deep, crying, "Kuku." In late spring
especially they come out of the water, and run about the
neighbouring woods and thickets, clapping their hands and
turning somersaults upon the grass, while their laughter re-
sounds far and wide in the forests. In the evening they like
to rock upon slender branches, enticing unwary wanderers;
and if they succeed in leading any one astray, they tickle him
to death, or draw him down into the depths of the stream.

The Rusalky are extremely fond of music and singing; and
their fine voices lure swimmers to deep places, where they
drown. The water-nymphs also divert themselves by dancing
in the pale moonlight, and they inveigle shepherds to play with
them, the places where they dance being marked by circles
in which the grass is particularly luxuriant and green. Fond of
spinning, they hang their yam on trees; and after washing
the linen which they weave, they spread it on the banks to
dry. If a man treads on such linen, he becomes weak and lame.

Larson states that;
The word numph, paradoxically can refer to the Greek Maiden as a virgin bride and her divine counterpart in the chorus of Artemis, or it can refer to a local fertility deity, often manifestly unchaste, who presides over the spring and woodland..... Nymphs combine the forbidden allure of virgin Artimus with the lust of the sexually aware Aphrodite; yet a social deities believed to inhabit not Olympus but caves, trees, and springs they are much more accessible.... The nymph is also idolized myth poetic version of the village girl at the peak of her sexual desirability.... She has  supernatural power and assumed superiority over the male so that her desires are central to the narratives of their stories..... Unlike the chorus of Artemis, which attempts to preserve sexual purity, the nymphs in general are likely to engage in sexual sport with Hermes, the silens, or even a bemused shepherd.

Fairies of the nymph type then represent both the a certain amount of wishfulness for women and the sexual fantasies of men. For they are free, boys who dare to harm their linins, or insult them are punished. She is superior to males and yet is desirable to them. She is never rejected, never has to truly worry what others will think of her. She is also never going to be tied down. For boys she represents both the fantasy of the shy girl and the agressive willing girl. The fairies of the nymph type allow them to imagine having a dominant mate while continuing to think of their future or current brides as submissive.
This internal dualism as previously mentioned is important to naturalistic worship, because nature itself is clearly internally dualistic, as mentioned in Grimm’s Fairies

So while later religions and societies would place the duel nature of creative and destructive of fertility and desolation in separate beings it was common for people who worshiped nature to think of them as being in the same being. So when people later thought of the fairies as evil or dangerous it may not be a complete change in their nature but rather a shift in focus.
As part of this dualism we also see that they were both feared for their deisire to snatch away both males and females and that they would give comfort to those who’s loved ones had been snatched away. This is because death by natural forces was thought to be a selection by the gods, a means by which they took people to live among them. In both accounts of Hylos (Herkuleses assistant who was taken by the nymphs) they are said to have taken him, not drowned him. In one he becomes their husband in the other they hold him in their laps like a weeping child while they comfort him. In either case however he is now free from mortal concerns. In essence one can imagine that he will find a form a bliss in their free heaven.
In the Rome an epitaph states that a five year old girl was carried of by the naides to be a their playmate.
In many later mythologies its stated that fairies will try to get girls to join them or that fairies of the nymph type are the souls of girls who drowned before marraige or unbaptized. What’s likely is that these myths are a remnant of a form of heaven in which some girls could get to live out their fantasy of being free, of dancing wildly, punishing those who wronged them, while at the same time bringing life to their village and people. For men this too represents a form of heaven where they are allowed to be blissfully passive.

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Forest Fairies (Pic 3)

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Hearth Knights

See all the novels I'm working on.

Anyone who knows me, knows I'm obsessed with house fairies. When I was a child I'd wake up really early in the morning so I could pretend to be a brownie sneaking around the house.

This is the story of a magical cat stray cat who's adopted and so joins the house fairies in protecting humans against the things that go bump in the night.

It's also about a witch who works for the house fairies. 

And of course it's about a number of different fairy traditions, as the fairies followed people to the U.S. from basically every country in the world. 

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Autumn and her familiar crept through the sleeping house, carefully searching every shadow and tiny crevice. Halloween was fast approaching and this year something was stirring up the ghosts and goblins. Autumn ducked down to peek under the couch. Dust bunnies peered back out at her. There were a few tiny toys, some coins, but nothing else. This particular house had a lot of little nooks for things to hide. It wasn’t filthy by any means. It was just that a lot of people had lived in it for a long time. So it was filled with memories. There were shells and bits of wood collected from the beach, wheat from the Midwest, and a dozen other little nick knacks from dozens of family trips and hobbies.  

Her familiar spirit, was checking the box of toys kept under a coffee table for when the nieces and nephews visited. The familiar’s name was Fabian, a Puk. He usually appeared as a tiny woodland spirit, and sometimes a ten foot long dragon. Right now, though he was in the form of a cat so he could sniff out trouble a little better. His pink little nose twitched in the way that made Autumn want to pet him until he was grouchy. Which usually only took about three seconds.

They crept carefully over the worn carpet. It wasn’t the sleeping humans they were being quite for, a simple spell insured that everyone would stay asleep. It was always easier to find curses left behind if you could catch the one leaving them. So they padded silently around a corner and into the kitchen. Lewis tapped the hem of Harper’s skirt with his tail, using his nose to point to the thing standing on the counter. The boggart was rummaging through the cups. He wasn’t more than thirty inches tall. His legs were so thin and his body was so fat it looked like he should have toppled over. His head and his arms were almost human. Though is face looked like someone had smashed a wolf’s face flat with a hammer.

Most boggarts had the good sense to run when they were faced with a witch and a puk. But Harper was young, not much more than fourteen. Boggarts are used to tormenting the young, not fearing them. He stood there staring at them as if uncertain what to do.

“You have no business here,” Lewis snarled, his voice coming out in an angry cat yowl. The boggart showed his teeth in a twisted grin. He dropped something onto the counter which clattered like hollow plastic. A baby bottle, Autumn realized a snarl forming on her own lips. She lifted her wand. The boggart had been placing a curse on the bottle. What kind of foul monster would place a curse on a baby?
Her wand started to glow. The boggart’s eyes narrowed. Autumn whipped a spell at him, but he leapt over it.

“This is our territory now,” the boggart snarled as he rushed towards them, snorting like an angry bull, claws clicking on the ground.

Fabian leapt into to meet him, unsheathed claws flashed wildly. The boggart tried to catch the furious cat. Fabian used the boggart’s outstretched hand as a spring board. Cat claws ripped into the monster’s face and chest.

The boggart screamed as he tried to grab Fabian, but the familiar had already dropped away from him.

Autumn’s next spell knocked the boggart back against the counter. He was snarling with blind rage. Trying to stumble to his feet.

“The stalker will devour every bit of you,” he was screaming.

A knot formed in Autumn’s racing heart. The stalking? She already felt on edge. Her wand hand was shaking. Fabian slammed into the side of the boggart’s neck. The boggart’s screams turned into a yelp of pain. Harper fumbled with a bag of salt, spilling some of it across the floor.

“Get out of the way Fabian,” Autumn called.  

He jumped back down, and she flung the salt in the boggart’s face, chanting words of magic. There was a sound like frying bacon and the boggart ran. He leapt out the window, crashing through rose bushes. Howling in pain.

Autumn sank to the floor, her hands pressed to her chest. She’d only been doing this for a month, so everything was still fresh. Fabian was in his old man form. He did that when he wanted to be reassuring. Right now, however, Harper would have felt better with him in his dragon form. Unfortunately that form was exhausting, so he couldn’t spend too much time in it. She was fiddling with the acorns and stream smoothed stone neckless she’d made. Each item painted to represent one of the fairies that had promised to help her.

“You did very well,” Fabian told her. Witches like her worked for their familiar spirits. He was her connection to the fairy courts that ruled over the magical world in the area.

Autumn nodded, more on reflex than because of any actual agreement. “What do you suppose he meant, by the stalker?”

“Something’s trying to push into our town. Give the bad guys a little more free reign to place their curses, spread illness and despair.”

Autumn sat there a little while, her chest rising and falling heavily. Finally, a little calmer she got up and went to the bottle. The curse he’d placed on it was a nasty little thing. Like a long black slug coiled in the bottom. It writhed when she poured her purifying salt on it.

“Do you think that it really could…” She stopped herself from repeating the boggart’s threat. A shudder running down her spine.

“The boggart was most likely just talking trash,” Fabian said in his most reassuring voice.  

Autumn washed the bottle out, twice. “Do you think I could have tomorrow off? She asked as she blew the bottle dry with a flick of her wand. “The Court of Cats invited me to their little dance.”

Lewis’s leafy mustached twitched. “I’m still nervous about letting you run off to play with the fairies and cat court unsupervised.”

Autumn deflated. “Most of my friends party with them almost every night.”

“And you wonder why I worry about letting you be unsupervised?” Fabian said, his face turning grandfather stern.

“Not bad partying.” Autumn said. She got up on her toes to check the rest of the cups in the cupboard for any other nasty curses the boggart might have left behind. “They play Scrabble, stuff like that.”

Lewis let out a puff and chuckled. “Scrabble? Was that the best you could come up with? You hate Scrabble anyways?” He was searching through the plates and bowls for any curses.

“No, I hate playing Scrabble with you. Your way to competitive. Though I suppose it does suck when a little child beats you.”

“When have you ever beaten me at anything?”

Candyland? Harper reminded him, barely able to contain her laugh.

Fabian’s voice took on a slightly grouchy edge. “Yeah, we must have been bored out of our minds to play that silly game.

They finished searching the kitchen and he lead her back out.  

“So, can I go?” She asked as they made their way up the stairs.

They crept into one of the children’s rooms, checked under the bed and in the closet. As usual there was nothing under them. Despite the stereotype bad things preferred the kitchen, but it was always good to check.

“Fine,” Fabian said.

Harper clapped her hands together in rapid excitement. The Court of Cats had been planning this party for a month. They’d invited the brownies and pixies, and so many more court’s she’d never even meet before.

“But,” Fabian continued. “You need to make at least one knew friend.”

“In one night?” Harper asked. Knowing that Lewis wasn’t talking about someone to have playdates with. He meant a friend she could call on if she help in a fight. Any given person only had so much magical energy. When they ran out they would borrow little bits from fairies who’d agreed to share with them. That’s what her neckless was for. She had twenty seven fairies willing to help her. That had taken her almost a year. About two weeks per fairy. Finding a new ally in one night seemed like a bit of a stretch.

“Halloween is still a month away, and things are already getting intense. So we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

She really wanted to go so she just nodded. She secretly hoped more help would just land on her doorstep. 

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CHAPTER XIII. TREE AND PLANT WORSHIP.

CHAPTER XIII.

TREE AND PLANT WORSHIP.

THE Celts had their own cult of trees, but they adopted local cults--Ligurian, Iberian, and others. The Fagus Deus (the divine beech), the Sex arbor or Sex arbores of Pyrenean inscriptions, and an anonymous god represented by a conifer on an altar at Toulouse, probably point to local Ligurian tree cults continued by the Celts into Roman times. 1 Forests were also personified or ruled by a single goddess, like Dea Arduinna of the Ardennes and Dea Abnoba of the Black Forest. 2 But more primitive ideas prevailed, like that which assigned a whole class of tree-divinities to a forest, e.g. the Fatæ Dervones, spirits of the oak-woods of Northern Italy. 3 Groups of trees like Sex arbores were venerated, perhaps for their height, isolation, or some other peculiarity.

The Celts made their sacred places in dark groves, the trees being hung with offerings or with the heads of victims. Human sacrifices were hung or impaled on trees, e.g. by the warriors of Boudicca. 4 These, like the offerings still placed by the folk on sacred trees, were attached to them because the trees were the abode of spirits or divinities who in many cases had power over vegetation.

Pliny said of the Celts: They esteem nothing more sacred

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than the mistletoe and the tree on which it grows. But apart from this they choose oak-woods for their sacred groves, and perform no sacred rite without using oak branches." 1 Maximus of Tyre also speaks of the Celtic (? German) image of Zeus as a lofty oak, and an old Irish glossary gives daur, "oak," as an early Irish name for "god," and glosses it by dia, "god." 2 The sacred need-fire may have been obtained by friction from oak-wood, and it is because of the old sacredness of the oak that a piece of its wood is still used as a talisman in Brittany. 3 Other Aryan folk besides the Celts regarded the oak as the symbol of a high god, of the sun or the sky, 4 but probably this was not its earliest significance. Oak forests were once more extensive over Europe than they are now, and the old tradition that men once lived on acorns has been shown to be well-founded by the witness of archæological finds, e.g. in Northern Italy. 5 A people living in an oak region and subsisting in part on acorns might easily take the oak as a representative of the spirit of vegetation or growth. It was long-lived, its foliage was a protection, it supplied food, its wood was used as fuel, and it was thus clearly the friend of man. For these reasons, and because it was the most abiding and living thing men knew, it became the embodiment of the spirits of life and growth. Folk-lore survivals show that the spirit of vegetation in the shape of his representative was annually slain while yet in full vigour, that his life might benefit all things and be passed on undiminished to his successor. 6 Hence the oak or a

p. 200

human being representing the spirit of vegetation, or both together, were burned in the Midsummer fires. How, then, did the oak come to symbolise a god equated with Zeus. Though the equation may be worthless, it is possible that the connection lay in the fact that Zeus and Juppiter had agricultural functions, or that, when the equation was made, the earlier spirit of vegetation had become a divinity with functions resembling those of Zeus. The fires were kindled to recruit the sun's life; they were fed with oak-wood, and in them an oak or a human victim representing the spirit embodied in the oak was burned. Hence it may have been thought that the sun was strengthened by the fire residing in the sacred oak; it was thus "the original storehouse or reservoir of the fire which was from time to time drawn out to feed the sun." 1 The oak thus became the symbol of a bright god also connected with growth. But, to judge by folk survivals, the older conception still remained potent, and tree or human victim affected for good all vegetable growth as well as man's life, while at the same time the fire strengthened the sun.

Dr. Evans argues that "the original holy object within the central triliths of Stonehenge was a sacred tree," an oak, image of the Celtic Zeus. The tree and the stones, once associated with ancestor worship, had become symbols of "a more celestial Spirit or Spirits than those of departed human beings." 2 But Stonehenge has now been proved to have been in existence before the arrival of the Celts, hence such a cult must have been pre-Celtic, though it may quite well have been adopted by the Celts. Whether this hypothetical cult was practised by a tribe, a group of tribes, or by the whole people, must remain obscure, and, indeed, it may well be questioned whether Stonehenge was ever more than the scene of some ancestral rites.

p. 201

Other trees--the yew, the cypress, the alder, and the ash, were venerated, to judge by what Lucan relates of the sacred grove at Marseilles. The Irish Druids attributed special virtues to the hazel, rowan, and yew, the wood of which was used in magical ceremonies described in Irish texts. 1 Fires of rowan were lit by the Druids of rival armies, and incantations said over them in order to discomfit the opposing host, 2 and the wood of all these trees is still believed to be efficacious against fairies and witches.

The Irish bile was a sacred tree, of great age, growing over a holy well or fort. Five of them are described in the Dindsenchas, and one was an oak, which not only yielded acorns, but nuts and apples. 3 The mythic trees of Elysium had the same varied fruitage, and the reason in both cases is perhaps the fact that when the cultivated apple took the place of acorns and nuts as a food staple, words signifying "nut" or "acorn" were transferred to the apple. A myth of trees on which all these fruits grew might then easily arise. Another Irish bile was a yew described in a poem as "a firm strong god," while such phrases in this poem as "word-pure man," "judgment of origin," "spell of knowledge," may have some reference to the custom of writing divinations in ogham on rods of yew. The other bile were ash-trees, and from one of them the Fir Bile, "men of the tree," were named--perhaps a totem-clan. 4 The lives of kings and chiefs appear to have been connected with these trees, probably as representatives of the spirit of vegetation embodied in the tree, and under their shadow they were inaugurated. But as a substitute for the king was slain, so doubtless these pre-eminent sacred trees were too sacred, too much charged with supernatural force, to

p. 202

be cut down and burned, and the yearly ritual would be performed with another tree. But in time of feud one tribe gloried in destroying the bile of another; and even in the tenth century, when the bile maighe Adair was destroyed by Maeloeohlen the act was regarded with horror. "But, O reader, this deed did not pass unpunished." 1 Of another bile, that of Borrisokane, it was said that any house in which a fragment of it was burned would itself be destroyed by fire. 2

Tribal and personal names point to belief in descent from tree gods or spirits and perhaps to totemism. The Eburones were the yew-tree tribe (eburos); the Bituriges perhaps had the mistletoe for their symbol, and their surname Vivisci implies that they were called "Mistletoe men." 3 If bile (tree) is connected with the name Bile, that of the ancestor of the Milesians, this may point to some myth of descent from a sacred tree, as in the case of the Fir Bile, or "men of the tree." 4 Other names like Guidgen (Viduo-genos, "son of the tree"), Dergen (Dervo-genos, "son of the oak"), Guerngen (Verno-genos, "son of the alder"), imply filiation to a tree. Though these names became conventional, they express what had once been a living belief. Names borrowed directly from trees are also found--Eburos or Ebur, "yew," Derua or Deruacus, "oak," etc.

The veneration of trees growing beside burial mounds or megalithic monuments was probably a pre-Celtic cult continued by the Celts. The tree embodied the ghost of the person buried under it, but such a ghost could then hardly be differentiated from a tree spirit or divinity. Even now in Celtic districts extreme veneration exists for trees growing in cemeteries and in other places. It is dangerous to cut them

p. 203

down or to pluck a leaf or branch from them, while in Breton churchyards the yew is thought to spread a root to the mouth of each corpse. 1 The story of the grave of Cyperissa, daughter of a Celtic king in the Danube region, from which first sprang the "mournful cypress," 2 is connected with universal legends of trees growing from the graves of lovers until their branches intertwine. These embody the belief that the spirit of the dead is in the tree, which was thus in all likelihood the object of a cult. Instances of these legends occur in Celtic story. Yew-stakes driven through the bodies of Naisi and Deirdre to keep them apart, became yew-trees the tops of which embraced over Armagh Cathedral. A yew sprang from the grave of Bailé Mac Buain, and an apple-tree from that of his lover Aillinn, and the top of each had the form of their heads. 3 The identification of tree and ghost is here complete.

The elder, rowan, and thorn are still planted round houses to keep off witches, or sprigs of rowan are placed over doorways--a survival from the time when they were believed to be tenanted by a beneficent spirit hostile to evil influences. In Ireland and the Isle of Man the thorn is thought to be the resort of fairies, and they, Eke the woodland fairies or "wood men" are probably representatives of the older tree spirits and gods of groves and forests. 4

Tree-worship was rooted in the oldest nature worship, and the Church had the utmost difficulty in suppressing it. Councils fulminated against the cult of trees, against offerings to them or the placing of lights before them and before wells

p. 204

or stones, and against the belief that certain trees were too sacred to be cut down or burned. Heavy fines were levied against those who practised these rites, yet still they continued. 1 Amator, Bishop of Auxerre, tried to stop the worship of a large pear-tree standing in the centre of the town and on which the semi-Christian inhabitants hung animals' heads with much ribaldry. At last S. Germanus destroyed it, but at the risk of his life. S. Martin of Tours was allowed to destroy a temple, but the people would not permit him to attack a much venerated pine-tree which stood beside it--an excellent example of the way in which the more official paganism fell before Christianity, while the older religion of the soil, from which it sprang, could not be entirely eradicated. 2 The Church often effected a compromise. Images of the gods affixed to trees were replaced by those of the Virgin, but with curious results. Legends arose telling how the faithful had been led to such trees and there discovered the image of the Madonna miraculously placed among the branches. 3 These are analogous to the legends of the discovery of images of the Virgin in the earth, such images being really those of the Matres.

Representations of sacred trees are occasionally met with on coins, altars, and ex votos. 4 If the interpretation be correct which sees a representation of part of the Cúchulainn legend on the Paris and Trèves altars, the trees figured there would not necessarily be sacred. But otherwise they may depict sacred trees.

p. 205

We now turn to Pliny's account of the mistletoe rite. The Druids held nothing more sacred than this plant and the tree on which it grew, probably an oak. Of it groves were formed, while branches of the oak were used in all religious rites. Everything growing on the oak had been sent from heaven, and the presence of the mistletoe showed that God had selected the tree for especial favour. Rare as it was, when found the mistletoe was the object of a careful ritual. On the sixth day of the moon it was culled. Preparations for a sacrifice and feast were made beneath the tree, and two white bulls whose horns had never been bound were brought there. A Druid, clad, in white, ascended the tree and cut the mistletoe with a golden sickle. As it fell it was caught in a white cloth; the bulls were then sacrificed, and prayer was made that God would make His gift prosperous to those on whom He had bestowed it. The mistletoe was called "the universal healer," and a potion made from it caused barren animals to be fruitful. It was also a remedy against all poisons. 1 We can hardly believe that such an elaborate ritual merely led up to the medico-magical use of the mistletoe. Possibly, of course, the rite was an attenuated survival of something which had once been more important, but it is more likely that Pliny gives only a few picturesque details and passes by the rationale of the ritual. He does not tell us who the "God" of whom he speaks was, perhaps the sun-god or the god of vegetation. As to the "gift," it was probably in his mind the mistletoe, but it may quite well have meant the gift of growth in field and fold. The tree was perhaps cut down and burned; the oxen may have been incarnations of a god of vegetation, as the tree also may have been. We need not here repeat the meaning which has been given to the ritual, 2 but it may be added that if this meaning is

p. 206

correct, the rite probably took place at the time of the Midsummer festival, a festival of growth and fertility. Mistletoe is still gathered on Midsummer eve and used as an antidote to poisons or for the cure of wounds. Its Druidic name is still preserved in Celtic speech in words signifying "all-healer," while it is also called sùgh an daraich, "sap of the oak," and Druidh lus, "Druid's weed." 1

Pliny describes other Celtic herbs of grace. Selago was culled without use of iron after a sacrifice of bread and wine--probably to the spirit of the plant. The person gathering it wore a white robe, and went with unshod feet after washing them. According to the Druids, Selago preserved one from accident, and its smoke when burned healed maladies of the eye. 2 Samolus was placed in drinking troughs as a remedy against disease in cattle. It was culled by a person fasting, with the left hand; it must be wholly uprooted, and the gatherer must not look behind him. 3 Vervain was gathered at sunrise after a sacrifice to the earth as an expiation--perhaps because its surface was about to be disturbed. When it was rubbed on the body all wishes were gratified; it dispelled fevers and other maladies; it was an antidote against serpents; and it conciliated hearts. A branch of the dried herb used to asperge a banquet-hall made the guests more convivial. 4

The ritual used in gathering these plants--silence, various tabus, ritual purity, sacrifice--is found wherever plants are culled whose virtue lies in this that they are possessed by a spirit. Other plants are still used as charms by modern Celtic peasants, and, in some cases, the ritual of gathering

p. 207

them resembles that described by Pliny. 1 In Irish sagas plants have magical powers. "Fairy herbs" placed in a bath restored beauty to women bathing therein. 2 During the Táin Cúchulainn's wounds were healed with "balsams and healing herbs of fairy potency," and Diancecht used similar herbs to restore the dead at the battle of Mag-tured. 3

Footnotes

198:1 Sacaze, Inscr. des Pyren. 255 Hirschfeld, Sitzungsberichte (Berlin, 1896), 448.

198:2 CIL vi. 46; CIR 1654, 1683.

198:3 D'Arbois, Les Celtes, 52.

198:4 Lucan, Phar. Usener's ed., 32; Orosius, v. 16. 6; Dio Cass. lxii. 6.

199:1 Pliny, xvi. 44. The Scholiast on Lucan says that the Druids divined with acorns (Usener, 33).

199:2 Max. Tyr. Diss. viii. 8; Stokes, RC i. 269.

199:3 Le Braz, ii. 18.

199:4 Mr. Chadwick (Jour. Anth. Inst. xxx. 26) connects this high god with thunder, and regards the Celtic Zeus (Taranis, in his opinion) as a thunder-god. The oak was associated with this god because his worshippers dwelt under oaks.

199:5 Helbig, Die Italiker in der Poebene, 16 f.

199:6 Mannhardt, Baumkultus; Frazer, Golden Bough, 2 iii. 198.

200:1 Frazer, loc. cit.

200:2 Evans, Arch. Rev. i. 327 f.

201:1 Joyce, SH i. 236.

201:2 O'Curry, MC i. 213.

201:3 LL 199b; Rennes Dindsenchas, RC xv. 420.

201:4 RC xv. 455, xvi. 279; Hennessey, Chron. Scot. 76.

202:1 Keating, 556; Joyce, PN i. 499.

202:2 Wood-Martin, ii. 159.

202:3 D'Arbois, Les Celtes, 51; Jullian, 41.

202:4 Cook, Folk-Lore, xvii. 60.

203:1 See Sébillot, i. 293; Le Braz, i. 259; Folk-Lore Journal, v. 218; Folk-Lore Record, 1882.

203:2 Val. Probus, Comm. in Georgica, ii. 84.

203:3 Miss Hull, 53; O'Curry, MS. Mat. 465. Writing tablets, made from each of the trees when they were out down, sprang together and could not be separated.

203:4 Stat. Account, iii. 27; Moore, 151; Sébillot, i. 262, 270.

204:1 Dom Martin, i. 124; Vita S. Eligii, ii. 16.

204:2 Acta Sanct. (Bolland.), July 31; Sulp. Sever. Vita S. Mart. 457.

204:3 Grimm, Teut. Myth. 76; Maury, 13, 299. The story of beautiful women found in trees may be connected with the custom of placing images in trees, or with the belief that a goddess might be seen emerging from the tree in which she dwelt.

204:4 De la Tour, Atlas des Monnaies Gaul, 260, 286; Reinach, Catal. Sommaire, 29.

205:1 Pliny, HN xvi. 44.

205:2 See p. 162, supra.

206:1 See Cameron, Gaelic Names of Plants, 45. In Gregoire de Rostren, Dict. françois-celt. 1732, mistletoe is translated by dour-dero, "oak-water," and is said to be good for several evils.

206:2 Pliny, xxiv. 11.

206:3 Ibid.

206:4 Ibid. xxv. 9.

207:1 See Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica; De Nore, Costumes . . . des Provinces de France, 150 f.; Sauvé, RC vi. 67, CM ix. 331.

207:2 O'Grady, ii. 126.

207:3 Miss Hull, 172; see p. 77, supra.

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Fairy List: O - S

Fairy List

A-C      D-F      G-J     K-N      O-S      T-Z

Oak Tree Spirit (England)
The fairy of an Oak Tree offers a man three wishes if he agrees not to cut down his tree. http://zeluna.net/english-fairytales-thethreewishes.html Old Lady of the Elder Tree

Obariyon (Japan)
A strange almost shapeless creature which haunts lonely paths where it jumps on peoples backs and slowly increases it weight. If the person happens to know magic or can find someone who does they can remove the Obariyon and it will turn into gold.

Ogre, Orco, Hepol Huorco (France and Italy)
Likely a perversion of the idea of Orcus, the Roman deity of the underworld he is pictured as black, hair, bristly but of great stature. In Germanic tales he is simply called the Devil.

Okami (Japan) (Kami)
Wolves have many powers in Japanese legend and with all such beings can be helpful or dangerous. Further wolves can enshrined, as they were at the Mitsumine Shrine and the Musashi Mitake Shrine. In rural areas people ask the wolves to protect them from wild beasts and provide them with rich harvests. In urban areas people ask them to help them avoid thieves. They can also be the Villain's in many fairy tales.

Old Shock (Britain)
I a mischievous goblin in the shape of a great dog or calf, haunting highways and footpaths after dark. Those who are so foolhardy as to encounter the beast are sure to be thrown down and severely bruised.

Omukade (Japan)
A giant centipede which torments many Kami including a female mountain kami and the dragon kami of a large lake. With centipedes being so unclean it was difficult for the kami to deal with them and so they asked a human archer to help them in both cases. 

Ongon (Mongolia)
A Shamans helper spirits. In some cases they were believed to be the spirit of shamans who have died, they can be consecrated in idols within three years of the shamans death and placed in the home or in the wilderness. They are often placed at the borders between taiga and steppe, the mouths of rivers or other important places.  

Ongon Mod or Ezetei (Mongolia)
Trees which stand in special places such as mountain passes, near springs, and so forth.

Oni (Japan)
Powerful evil spirits which bring bad luck, steal peoples souls, and at times act a little like ogres.

Orang Bunian (Indonesia)
Human like spirits which live in wilderness areas.

Orth (Komi)
A spirit double that appears when a human is first born and accompanies them to their death. They exist outside the body, though the person couldn't see them. Those few who did see them saw them as doing the same thing as their master. They would often appear as a woman in a yellow dress, though they had other human forms.
The orth would try to warn his master of danger, and especially of death. Those who listened to their orth would obtain happiness.

Osh (Komi)
Bears were the powerful kings of the forest in Komi mythology, they had the shamanistic power of transformation and could at times turn into a person. Originally a deity in the sky he came to earth because of his love of earth food, but once he ate here he could not return. It was Osh got the deities to give humans their thumbs, even though it meant that he might be hunted by humans. Further Osh made the swamps, mountains, valleys, and so forth by scratching the flat earth. Though clearly good black bears were also symbols of death.
In addition to food, Osh loved human woman and would sometimes take them to live with him. 

Otoroshi (Japan)
A guardian of the kami which hangs from the torii gates and attacks wicked men who try to enter. The Otoroshi looks a lot like a shaggy ogre with a single long strand of black hair hanging over his face.

Otso (Finland)
Was the spirit of the bear which was considered to be the forest king and was often referred to as being related (brother, uncle, cousin, etc) in order to avoid saying his name directly.

Otsoor (Mongolia)
Spirits which remain on earth

Oude Rode Ogen (Netherlands)
A boogie man figure who appears in black with fiery red eyes. He can appear as a seven foot long man or a large dog. He is a cannibalistic shapeshifter. 

Ouni (Japan)
A mountain hag who is covered in long hair. She has has an extremely large mouth and is able to spin yarn in her mouth and can disappear at will. She is typically a helpful being.

Ovinnik (Russian)
Dangerous spirit of the grain house

Padfoot
Is a terrible boggart with saucer-eyes, and dragging clanking chains ; or it takes the form of a large sheep or dog walking beside you, making a soft noise pad, pad, pad with its feet. It always portends disaster.

Pari Pari (Malaysia)
A forest spirit which appears like a human and which has a human like society. Pari Pari have magical powers which they use to cause mischief, heal illness or provide wealth to people.

Pasu Perke (Mari-El)
A form of field spirit or blessing which cause the gropes to grow well. The pasu perke can be stolen by another mari who has a poor harvest at which point the person who’s pasu perke has been taken will then seek to take another one by putting a little dirt from someone else's field in his shoe and dragging it by the shoelace back to his own field where he prays to the pasu perke asking it to stay.

Pechs (Scotland)
Small but incredibly strong fairies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pech_(mythology) 

Peg Prowler
A female water fairy which seeks to drown people and at times will steal animals.

Pellings (Welsh Fairy) (Welsh Fairy)
A tribe of half-Fairies who are descended from Penelope 

Pelesit (Malaysia)
A spirit protector which can also be used as a weapon to harm others. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelesit 

Penanggalan (Malaysia)
A woman who could split their torso in half to send the top half flying around. When they did this their blood would drip from the sky and cause soars on anyone touched by it. The Penangglan will usually keep vinegar in order to help put themselves back together. They tend to suck the blood of woman in order to maintain their beauty, kill enemies or do other similar sorts of things. 

Perchten (Swiss)
Followers of Berchta who wear animal masks.

Perelesnyk (Ukraine)
A spirit which can take the form of a deceased love one, (possibly the personification of regret). They may also take on the form of a person in order to trick a woman into believing that they are their husband. They can have children with humans though such children are weak and have an insatiable appetite. Other times they can also be a blood sucking being or can take the form of a serpent. It is almost impossible to get rid of it.

Perkūnas (Lithuania)
The lord of thunder and perhaps the most important deity to the Lithuanians (As thunder is to nearly all Indo-Europeans) As the thunder god he would hurl stone axes  and arrows which lent power to the goddess of fertility allowing the crops to grow. The thunder god also ended droughts which were caused by dragons, and kills dragons which cause floods as well. 
In ancient times he could be depicted by a pair of rams, a giant eagle, or a horse with wings. Later he was often depicted as an old man with a crown made from cherry blossoms. Still elsewhere he might be depicted as a blacksmith dressed in green with a red hat.

Perry Dancers (Suffolk)
The Northern Lights

Pesanta (Catalan)
A giant cat or dog which goes into peoples homes and night, where it lays on their chests making it difficult for them to breath and causing nightmares. 

Phooka (Puck)
A mischievous Shape Changer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%BAca 

Peix Nicolau (Catalan)
A merman type creature http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peix_Nicolau

Phi Am (Thai)
A ghost which sits on sleeping peoples chest or liver.

Phi Ban (Laos)
Connected to fertility and the well being of a community. They are the protectors of the fields, forests, water ways and so forth that make up an area. Typically phi ban appear as a married couple and are likely the spirits of the first couple to settle an area.

Phi Chamb (Thai)
The mostly harmless spirit of a woman who died in the jungle.

Phi Duat Leut (Thai)
A vampiric spirit

Phi Khamod (Thai)
A will o the wisp type spirit which glows red.

Phi Krasue (Thai)
A spirit which often appears as a beautiful woman's head with intestines dangling from her neck. They would often tie a black ribbon around their head and nick to protect themselves from the sunshine. She would hypnotize people so that they couldn't move, allowing them to devour the person. They preferred to go after pregnant woman, the closer to giving the birth the better. 

Phi Fa (Laos)
Spirits of the celestial world

Phi Fa (Thai)
A spirit which causes illness and disasters. People would use rituals and offerings to try to please her. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi_Fa 

Phi Ha (Thai)
A dangerous spirit of a woman who died in child birth and has turned her regret into rage.

Phi Hai (Laos)
Spirits of fields

Phi Na (Laos)
Spirits of the rice paddy which will often attack people. Because of this farmers often set up shrines to them in order to make them offerings  before they plow the field, in order to appease them. 

Phi Nang Tani (Thai)
A spirit of the banana tree which appears as a beautiful woman. They will provide people with food.

Phi Pa (Laos)
Forest spirits.

Phi Pa (Thai)
A forest spirit to whom hunters leave part of their catch (Lip, eye lid, foot, or some other part). 

Phi Pay (Laos)
Dangerous spirits of woman who died in childbirth.

Phi Pop (Thai)
A female spirit which will often devour people's intestines in an attempt to find a body to possess.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi_Pop

Phi Puta (Laos)
The protectors of a village

Phi Sia (Laos)
Ancestral spirits which live within the pilars of a house and protect the households members, protecting their decedents from malevolent spirits while also providing them with luck.

Pho Sop (Thai)
The Siamese Rice goddess who appears as a beautiful woman wearing a red dress and full jewelry. She is always associated in some ways with rice sheafs

Phi Tay Hong (Thai)
The spirit of someone who died of unnatural causes. They possess those who have offended them. This can be prevented with an offering or by causing pain (often in the form of whipping) to the person they've possessed

Phi Thaen (Laos)
spirits of the sky

Phi Thiaowada (Laos)
Protectors of the family.

Phi Tonmai (Thai)
Spirits which live in trees, such spirits could be helpful or dangerous. The trees which were believed to be inhabited by important or powerful spirits would have cloth wrapped around them to show that a spiritual being resided within.

Phi Tonmai (Laos)
The spirits of trees.

Phra Bhum Jowthee (Thai)
Guardian spirits of the land. Such spirit houses can be built for the spirits of people who have died as well. http://www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/spirit_house.html 

Phra Bhum Jowthee of the home (Thai)
The guardian spirit of a household, people will often pray to them for advice and protection. Further many homes provide them with a small San Phra Phum. These spirits also help with business matters, aiding people in making more money.

Phra Bhum Jowthee Waters (Thai) 

Phra Bhum Jowthee Gardens (Thai)
The protector of nature and by extension gardens. Many gardens will have a small San Phra Phum built for this spirit.

Phra Bhum Jowthee of Gates and Stairwells (Thai)
The protector of the entrances of places, which is believed to live within the doorstep of homes. 

Phra Bhum Jowthee Animals (Thai)
A spirit protector of animals.

Phra Bhum Jowthee Temples (Thai)

Phra Bhum Jowthee Military Bases (Thai)

Phra Bhum Jowthee of barns and food storage (Thai)
A guardian spirit of places where people store their food.

Phra Bhum Jowthee Mountains, Forests, fields, and rice paddies (Thai)
Interestingly enough the protector of wilderness forests and mountains is also the protector of farms.

Pied Piper of Franchville
The Pied Piper is likely some form of fairy teaching a morality lesson, what's more he leads the children into fairyland.

Pihlajatar (Finland)
(Rowan) the tinny lass who will help herd cattle.

Pinket 
Another name for Will o the Wisp

Pinneys (Finland)
Protects animals from the hunters, directing game animals away from danger.

Pisgies (Cornish)
Another name for Pixies.

Pixies (Cornish)
Mischievous and often small fairies

Plant Annwn  (Welsh Fairy)
Beautiful lake fairies which have been compared to nymphs

Pocong (Indonesia)
A ghost with green faces and empty eyes. 

Poludnitsa (Russia)
Dangerous spirit of midday which kills and torments farm workers.

Polevoy (Slavic)
A spirit which lives in the field and appears as a white bearded old man. He will attack people who work in the field at noon. Very odd he would ask for people to wipe snot on his beard, if someone refused to do this he would curse them. If someone did so he would disappear leaving the person with silver coins in his hands. 

Polewik (Poland)
A small male spirit of the fields with grain for his hair. They are typically encountered at noon and sunset, he would trample those who were asleep and was dangerous to drunk people who encountered him. During harvest time the polwik fled the blades and sickles until he finally came to be in the last sheaf of grain, which was put into a box in the corner of a barn until the spring when he was released back into the fields.

Północnica (Poland)
A form of Rusalka.

Polong (Malaysia)
Spirits which are enslaved by people, most often to harm others.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polong

Poludnica (Poland)
The souls of woman who died during or soon after their wedding, they appeared as beautiful women with transparent dresses or shaggy old woman. They attack people who remain in the field during noon time. Thus most farmers went home during the noon hour. Often times they would ask people a riddle, if the person didn't solve it the poludnica would tickle the person to death. They are lovers of fun and will dance all day at times. In addition it was said that they would kidnap children, or cause whirl winds. 

Poroniec (Poland)
Soul of aborted fetuses, a child born dead, or a baby killed by their mother shortly after birth. Their unrealized potential life manifests as strength making them very powerful and dangerous spirits. Still borns who were buried under the threshold would become good spirits called Kłobuk. The Kłobuk often assumed the form of soaking wet chicken, a duck, goose, magpie, crow, cat or humans. He would help his family through life, though he often did so by robbing the neighbors.

Portunes (English)
Tiny fairy of the farm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portunes

Poświst (Poland)
The spirits of the wind and whirlwinds they drove storm clouds. Often positive they also helped lift peoples spirits according to one folk song.

Potercha (Ukraine)
Spirits of dead children who's voices sound like that of a frog. They fly around with regret and are often tormented by other spirits. They can take the form of an owl or stork, or may act as the will o' the wisp leading people into swamps as flashing lights.

Pövsin (Komi)
A strong one eyed forest which who lived with a bear. She was a spiritual master of the water and the forest and had power over each element as well as life or death. Allowing her to bring people back from the dead.

Pricolici (Romania)
A werewolf or vampire, they are undead souls who can turn into wolves.

Puaka (Malaysia)
Spirits which roam around in bad weather and cause damage to human property.

Puck
Mischievous fairy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puck_(mythology)

Puntianak (Malaysia)
The spirit of woman who died will pregnant. They appeared as lonely beautiful woman who would attack people on deserted streets in order to devour them.

Rafusen (Japan)
The spirits of palm trees, they appear as a beautiful smelling and looking young woman who live high in the mountains. For those whom they allow to see the truth of things their tree looks like a beautiful house in which they might help travelers caught in a snow storm.

Ragana
Woman with magical powers who lived in the forest and could obscure the sun as they flew through the air. In many tales they were cannibalistic  seeking after adults and children and even baking boys into pies. 
The witches also often took the form of toads which could grow wings in order to fly through the air. Ad toads they would suck the milk from cows, or even kill them with their deadly poisonous bite. 

Rarog (Russia)
Monster which can take the form of a dwarf, whirlwind or hawk.

Ratchets
Ratchets, Gabble Raches, or Gabriel's Hounds (n.Cy. Yks. Lan. Stf. Der.) are specter dogs whose yelping cry may be heard at dead of night, or in the early morning, what time the collier goes to his work in the pits, a warning of death to the hearer or to some one among his kinsfolk and acquaintance. Their leader Gabriel is condemned to follow his hounds at night, high in the upper air, till doomsday, for the sin of having hunted on Sunday.

Ristikko (Finland)
IN charge of animals with a white cross on their breast. Often small and furry such as ermine and weasel.

Rawhead and Bloody Bones
The boggart of the ponds is a masculine water- demon called Rawhead, Tommy Rawhead (w.Yks.), Bloody-bones (Lan.), or Rawhead and Bloody-bones, e. g. Keep away from the marl-pit or rawhead and bloody-bones will have you. 

Redcap
Goblins that infest the ruins.

Roane (Scotland)
A gentle form of seilkie.

Rokitnik (Poland)
A mischievous spirit which causes the winds. He was at times imagined as a human figure with bat wings. 

Roggemoeder (Netherlands)
The Dutch name for the rye mother.

Roggenmohme, Larvenshcopper, Preinscheuhen (Germany)
The spirit of the grain fields who appears with long black teats, or iron teats. She kidnaps children and occasionally tries to suckle babies, but those she does will likely die. Originally she was a little more sociable and helped make good harvests. She is also some form of household fairy for she plays tricks on those who have not spun their distaffs clear on the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Rooster (Komi)
Rooster were believed to have many magical powers within Kimi mythology. They could reach all areas of the universe, much like a shaman did, including the realm under the water, and the celestial world (passing through fire without hurting himself). The rooster was considered to be one of the first birds created in the beginning of the world. 
The rooster was also a guardian against evil forces, for when they crowed evil lost it's power.  Further they would use their powers to warn people of danger.

Rugių boba (Lithuania)
The last cut rye or wheat sheaf in the field. Typically imagined and female and often portrayed as a motherly figure to which chickens might be sacrificed.

Rumpelstiltskin (German)
The famous character is in truth very different from what you think, but to understand him similar tales with the same being have to be studied.

Rusalka (Russia)
Spirits of the rivers and lakes which will tickle people to death.

Ryujin (Japan) (Kami)
A dragon who is the kami of the sea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ry%C5%ABjin

San Phra Phum (Thai)
Spirit houses, they are tiny buildings which are placed on a small table outside them on which offerings can be placed, such offerings include garlands of flowers and or food.  It was believed that building a house or other building could disturb the spirits of an area so spirit houses were built as well in order to placate the spirits.
Spirits are usually neither good or evil exactly, rather they are overly emotional and or mischievous. Highly emotional they get upset if they don't get their way or fi something changes to fast and they are not given appeasement. 

Sânziana (Romania)
Gentle fairies who can act as tricksters but are typically portrayed as kind.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A2nziana

Samca (Romania)
Ugly evils shape changing spirits which act as sort of a female boogie man.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samca

Samodivas (Russia)
Woodland Fairy

Sarimanok (Philippines)
A magical bird which if captured will bring a person luck.

Scantlie Mab
A spinning fairy (Read the Fairy Tale)

Scazzamurrieddhru (Italy)
A little old man who dresses in tobacco colored clothing and always wears a hat on his head. He sits on the chests of those who are sleeping making them sleep restlessly. They repay kindnesses done to them with gold coins or by pointing their benefactor to a hidden treasure. If you can steal his hat he must also point you to treasure. 
The Scazzamurrieddhru will appear to those going into the cemetery at night. Those doing so however are attacked by the Scazzamurrieddhru who will jump on the persons chest causing them to laugh uncontrollably until they die.

Scrapefoot
A fox who steals from a castle owned by three bears.

Scrat, Waltschrat (Germany)
A shaggy wood elf. It is about the size of a child, as light as the wind, are always male and in some cases can appear as a butterfly. Every house has a schrezlein and if it is fostered he can being luck, he rides the cattle to drive them where they need to be and helps prepare the table. They appear to be wild and rough a bit like fauns, though they are primarily mentioned as house fairies. Although scrats are social towards humans they never appear in groups. Jacob Grimm speculated that their opposite is the wood wives. He also notes that  in the 6th and 7th centuries they must have been worshiped for their were trees and temples dedicated to them.

Seelie Court (Scotland)
The court of light fairies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seelie_Court

Šeimės dievas (Lithuania)
The deity of an individual family, a form of hearth deity to which chickens were sacrificed by throwing them into the fire place until they had burned down.

Selkies  (Scotland)
Fairies which appear human but can turn into seals by putting on a magical skin.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selkie

Silky (Britain)
A female spirit which haunts stretches of road and can appear with in blinding light.

Siluman (Indonesia)
Delicate creatures that live in communities much like humans, only they are invisible to most humans. 

Sirenuca (Spain)
A beatiful young girl who was turned into a mermaid by her mothers curse.

Sirin (Russia)
Head and chest of a beautiful women but the body of a bird. It sings for those pure of heart, a song which kills those not so pure.

Siyokoy (Philippines)
Green scaled humanoids with webbed hands and feed, with fins all over their body. They might also have tentacles with which they drown people and eat them.

Sharash Taiga (Thvinian)
A protective spirit which is referred to as 'twin headed with many snow covered caps.' Shamans helpers were the 'grim owners of the forest' they were protectors of the shaman when he battled evil spirits

Shefro (Irish)
The, or gregarious fairy of Ireland wears foxglove bells on head

Shellycoat
A shell wearing water fairy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellycoat 

Sheva (Komi)
The Personification of illness, they took the form of animals and objects (beetles, mice, birds, worms, grubs, hair, thread, lizards, a speck of dust, among other things) or of a little man. It did this in order to try to get inside people, often through their food, thus they carefully examined their food before eating it. 
Sometimes such beings were made by witches or evil wizards who would put them on food or at cross-roads in order to curse a passing person, where it would follow them to their homes.

Shikigami (Japan)
An animated paper doll which can take on the appearance of a human or invisible familiars for witches and wizards which appear as little oni. Like many Japanese familiars they could be asked by their master to possess someone causing them to become ill and even die. Though they were typically used to perform basic choirs (cleaning, gardening, etc). 

Shishiga (Komi)
A woman who was seen sitting on the banks of her river combing her long black hair. Those who saw her were soon to drown. She would also carry off children who wen to close to the fast moving water.

Shriker (Yorkshire)
Skriker is an apparition portending death. It wanders about in the woods by night uttering loud, piercing shrieks, its form being then invisible. At other times it takes visible shape as a large dog, with 
enormous feet and shaggy hair, and the usual saucer-eyes. When walking, its feet make a splashing noise, as of a person in old shoes walking in soft mud ; hence it is also known by the name of Trash, for to trash signifies to walk wearily through wet and mire, and trashes are worn-out shoes. 

Shubin (Ukraine)
Spirits which haunt mines. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shubin_(ghost)

Shulmusy (Altaian)
Protective spirit refered to as 'My moon and sun.'

Shuvgey (Komi)
They were dangerous spirits which would substitute babies for sickly changelings. In order to prevent this people would put needles, scissors, bread and salt near the baby. Other times they would appear as dancers, revelers calling to a child, should the child give them their hand the child will be under the Shuvgeya's power forever. Further the Shuvgeya often existed in spaces which acted as a bridge between the spirit world and the human world. Such spaces included bridges, barns, the forests and the bath house. It was dangerous for a child to enter any of these alone or they might be taken. 
They would also carry away adults in the form of a whirlwind. They would also cause epilepsy, especially in those who disrespected their holidays. In addition to taking people they often sought to mate with them, taking on the form of a recently deceased loved one, or as a beautiful woman in order to lure people further into the woods.
 In order to protect oneself from a Shuvgey a person would wear a silk thread tied around the waste, and certain crystals which could be worn in a bag on the chest.

Sigeminne (Spain)
A Queen of the wood wives who is enthroned upon a giant rock. She is at first covered in hair when she carries a man off to her land, but she eventully takes this off and becomes beautiful, as her name means "fairest in the land."

Sjörået (Nordic)
A water spirit which is very seductive in the front but which has a hollow back. She uses her beauty to hunt for single men who live near the like, where she delights in clombing her long flowing hair. To protect oneself one could use a sharp iron or steel knife as she could not stand the presence of these. 
They would also sometimes herd their own cattle.
Those who shared their lunch with the Sjörået would be given great luck by her, which can be understood as a remnant sacrifice to her. In one tale a fisherman gives a Sjörået his gloves and so is warned when storms are coming.

Skarbnik (Poland)
Spirits which lived underground and acted as guardians of the earth's natural resources. He was the master of the underground realm and would take the souls fo the miners who died while working. But he was also generally favorable as he warned of impending flooding, fire, cave ins. He did not like those who were lazy or unreliable. He typically appeared as an old man with a bird and a lamp in his hand but he could also take the form of a goat, horse, dog, mouse, frog, spider, flea, or be invisible. Though people could feel their presence or hear them knocking on the walls of the mine. 

Solomonars (Romania)
A congregation of wizards who are linked to the Dacian priests of the pre-Roman era. Those who become Solomonars are taken to forest caves to learn secrets such as the ability to summon and ride a dragon, control weather, and such forth.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomonari

Skillywidden
The name of a little fairy child that lives with some humans for a short time.

Skogsrået (Sweden)
Known as the mistress of the forest and the leader of the wild animals. She leads people in the forests astray and tries to seduce men with her great beauty. However her back is hollow like an old tree. 

Skohsl (German)
A wood sprite who was likely once a higher semi-divine or even divine being. He lived in sacred trees in the forests of Germany.

Skrzak (Poland)
A house spirit which helped take care of the farm and lived in the fire of the fireplace, but he was dangerous for he took his masters soul when he died.

Sleih Beggey (Manx)
A Manx name for the little people

Sluagh (Scotland)
Sluagh, “hosts,” the spirit-world. The “hosts” are the spirits of mortals who have died.... According to one informant, the spirits fly about in great clouds, up and down the face of the world like the starlings, and come back to the scenes of their earthly transgressions. No soul of them is without the clouds of earth, dimming the brightness of the works of God, nor can any win heaven till satisfaction is made for the sins of earth

Small Pox (Even)
Beautiful woman with red hair who would sneak onto peoples sledges and travel with their caravan. Most people could not see her outside of the shamans. When the shaman would try to fight her she would take the form of a giant red bull. If small pox defeated the shaman they would infect and kill the shaman's people.  Because the causer of small pox was such a powerful spirit shamans often ganged up on them when they could.

Specter of the Bloody Hand
Death Portent in the Kinchardines

Spiriduş (Romania)
Creatures similar to sprites)

Spirit of the Yurt (Khakass)
The second offering in a ritual would be made to the spirit owner of the yurt. During rituals these spirits are put up in a high table which is placed in the front corner of a yurt. Mutton and curds and bottles of liquid are placed on the table so that their scent can rise up as an offering for the spirit. In addition nine pieces of clothing were offered on a rope. Further a decorated horse was given to it as a living offering. They would protect the village, help to cure illness

Spor (Poland)
The personification of fertility. He could appear as a hamster, rat, snake, dog, cat or frog. Or he could appear as a man with white curly hair. 

Spriggans (Cornish)
Guardians of the fairy hills

Spunkies (Scottish)
Whenever the traveler had the misfortune to lose his way, or whenever there was a prospect of deluding him from it, this vigilant link-boy was ever at hand, to light him into far worse quarters than even the purlieus of Covent Garden.
"Suddenly the traveler's attention was arrested by the most resplendent light, apparently reflected from a window not far distant, which, however, as the traveler approached, receded from him, like the rainbow. Still pursuing his course towards it, the wily Spunkie maneuvered so dexterously that the unhappy wanderer was speedily decoyed into the nearest morass or precipice. Plunging headlong into some fatal abyss, the deluded victim never returned to his mournful wife and family, to relate to them the Spunkie's perfidy."

Squasc (Italy)
Small, hairy and reddish much like a squirrel without a tale and an anthropomorphic face. They are boogie man type creatures which loves to frighten children, especially young girls.

Stafie (Romania)
The souls of the dead which haunt places in which they lived in life, though they rarely bother with the living other than to scare people by moving objects, making sounds, or occasionally appearing visible for a few moments.

Steppes Spirit (Russia)
Appears as a powerful knight

Stille Volk (German)
Good folk, a reference to fairy like beings. Such beings live in peace with humans, occasionally doing services for them such as smith work, weaving and baking. Many times they will aid men in making newly baked cakes and bread. They also require human help in somethings. For example they use human midwives, they also need humans to help them divide their treasure when there is a dispute. Finally they like to hold their weddings in human homes. 

Stopan (Poland)
Spirit of a distinguished ancestor who helped to take care of the home. He caused bad dreams and disease to those who didn't show respect or were unclean. People would offer sacrifices to him, conducted by the oldest woman in the family who killed a black hen and put its blood in a cavity dug into the ashes of the hearth. They would than bake the chicken and spread it in the corners, than pour wine into the fire saying "Rejoice, Stop, Rejoice."

Strigoi (Romania)
A form of vampire. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strigoi

Strzyga (Poland)
A vampiric monster which appeared as a female with birds feet (claws). Those born with two souls (two rows of teeth or two hearts or babies born with developed teeth) would leave one soul in the body when they died. This soul would drink blood in order to stay alive. It moved around in the form of an owl at night, often attacking people for wrongs it felt they had committed against it during it's first life. When it couldn't get the blood of humans it could could live off of that of animals for a time.

Stromkarls (Sweden)
Water sprites who are so good at music that they can make benches, cups, sand, old men, and even babies dance. 

Strzyga (Russia)
Vampire which comes from the soul of a person with two souls which can take the form of an owl.

Sudice (Russia)
Fairy which weaves fate

Suksəndal (Mari-El)
a spirit of the mountains or unders the stones or mill but it tends to inhabit the homestead and bathhouse and may appear as a handsome man or a pretty blond girl who is about three feet tall.
The suksəndal attacks those who go into the bathhouse alone at night (going into the bathouse alone is dangerous as the hot steam can cause people to pass out and die which is why this may have come about)
It also steals babies left alon in the house, and to prevent this the Mari mothers will often put scissors or some other iron object in the cradle to ward it off.
They make noises at night to cause people have nightmares. And sometimes has sexual intercourse with those who are dreaming. 
Their bite causes stomachache.
Tales are told of helpful ones, and the Mari will ask them to protect the home and keep out evil.Suld or Usen Fayenga (Mongolia)
An Ancestral spirit which remains on earth forever. This spirit may protect their descendants or contact them to give them advice. Such spirits live within natural places such as trees, springs, rocks, etc.

Sundel Bolong (Indonesia)
Is a ghost of a beautiful woman who wears a long white dress which kidnap children not protected by sharp objects placed near them.

Swan Maiden (German)
Swan maidens are powerful beings, spirits who lead men to victory but who can also be made helpless with the theft of their power to return to the heavens..

Swarth
An apparition exactly like a living person, and its appearance, whether to that person or to another, is commonly thought an omen of death. These apparitions are called " fetches" throughout the sister island, in Cumberland " swarths," and in Yorkshire

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