Since I created a thread for discussing werewolves, I felt obligated to my self to start a thread for discussing the Wee People and Christian Fantasy. I am slightly biased on this one because one of my personal obsessive fascinations (beyond mythology) happens to be world folklore, specifically fairy-lore and the different types of fairies/nature spirits/lesser beings from around the world. I've read a couple different books on fantasy writing that suggest using fairies as inspiration for creating races. This is something I am a big fan of. When creating a race, I head to my fairy books and look for a type of fairy that sparks an idea for what I want to create.
A fun point to bring up here is that any author who has dwarves, elves, goblins, trolls, or gnomes in their world is already using fairies in their world. These are all different types of fairies from various cultures.
What's your take on fairies and their role in Christian fiction?

In Christ,
Jordan

For a long time during the Middle Ages, fairies were thought to have demonic ties, also many fairies (especially the fairies of Ireland) are considered by Folklorist to have originated as diminished pagan deities. In non-European countries (particular Asia) fairy-like nature spirits have a much more pagan connotation. In light of facts like these, I thought that some people might question their place in Christian writing. I wanted to see what everyone thought.

In Christ,
Jordan aka Mr. Squishy

Well, most mythological races have some pagan or heathen roots. Fairies (including elves, dwarves, ect.), giants and nearly every other mythical race all have elements of the ancient pagans' worldviews. But I don't think that this should necessarily mean that we should not use them. When people see fairies they no longer think of demonism. We are writing to our generation, not the generations of the past.

True. I really agree. However, when I saw how much discussion dragons kicked up, I thought I'd see what people said about fairies (my personal favorites of the fantasy realm). If I'd known that people were that in favor of fairies, I would've left this topic unposted.

I find it fascinating that we can be so against one legend and so defensive of another. What with the cans of worms that Vampire and Werewolf topics turned out to be, the contrasting inclination to defend Fairies is quite amusing. I wonder if it doesn't come from our mental image of Fairies -- mischievous, cute, pointy hats. All in all: harmless. Vampires and Werewolves have a totally different aura -- death, violence, not so cute. Are we guilty of racism here? :P If all three have roots in paganism, why are we so against Werewolves in particular? The Vampire thing I can sort of understand, what with their choice of sustenance. But shape-changing people....?

Yeah, it is kinda weird how that works. But I feel that now that I have made my pro-fairy position pretty clear, I must make things even weirder by issuing my cautions about fairies. This more of a research warning, but I would feel bad if I didn't give it. I think everyone should be aware that fairies have the joined the endless ranks of cool ideas to be corrupted by Wicca and New Age philosophy. This is extremely true when looking for books on fairies. You'd be surprised how many books are out there telling you that fairies are real and that by using the right attractants and meditation you can communicate with them. There is even a school of witchcraft devoted to these guys called fairy (or faery, or faerie or any of the other spellings) magick that practices using different types of fairies as the energy source for spells. Fairies have now been roped in by nature worshipers and the like who can "feel" their presences and "hear" their voices. As Christians, we can be fairly that any semi-spiritual beings appearing to those worshiping nature and other false gods, are probably not fairies at all, but our dear old friends the demons .
Dragon Egg

This doesn't change my love of fairies or my love of using them in my Christian Fantasy, but I did want to warn you of some of the scary things they can become associated with in OUR world. Be careful when researching these guys, or you might find yourself reading some real garbage. I remember buying a book called the "Fairy Bible" from amazon a while back, because it looked like it might have some useful information and the illustrations were good. It turned out to be largely a book on how to meditate properly to receive "gifts/guidance/energy/peace" from inviting the "fairies" in your life. After praying about it, I decided the information was worth dealing with the garbage so I threw it out. Many of the websites that I've gone to in search of information on fairies turned out to be Wiccan sites. So I advise exercising extreme caution when investigating the Little People, I've found some good places to get information without the New Age mumbo jumbo, but in the process I've also found a lot of places with nothing but garbage. So watch yourselves, our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

Now away from the darker topic back to the lighter side of Fairy world. If you are interested in researching the little people and want ideas of safe places to look, let me know. I can make several recommendations of websites and books that let you research the fictitious creatures called fairies without trying to get you to commune with them in the moonlight under an oak tree. As a rule of thumb for books, if the general reviews mention that it gives advice on how to see/communicate with/invite/commune with fairies, it's not what you're looking for. Hope this helps.

In Christ,
Jordan aka Mr. Squishy

Thanks for the warning, Jordan. It'll be interesting to see if "fairy fantasy" grows with the New Age/pantheism movement. I think it's important for us as Christians to use these story elements to display our worldview and not let them become pawns in the Enemy's court.



That's an excellent point. I think a lot of it is just the aura that has come with it. Fairies bring to mind childhood bedtime stories. Vampires and werewolves have kind of become associated with some darker subcultures.

I think I might have not made myself clear. I am not of the opinion that fairies are demons. Rather, I am of the opinion that people seeking fairies through magick/witchcraft and meditation are actually making contact with demons in disguise.

And I understand why you broke things down the way you did for that explanation, but I think that you'll find that if you look back to the original ideas and how they evolved, even elves and gnomes/goblins fall under the category nature spirits. In many lands elves(or elf-like creatures) live under hills, and dance in the grass, and are famous for their music (this is a rough stereotype, not even close to covering every thing, and not true for all cases). Gnomes generally live underground. Different type of goblins lived in minds, forests, roads, etc. All of these characteristics have close relationships with nature. So, technically speaking, it's fairly safe to say that fairies in general are a type of nature spirit. This of course does not inherently classify them as demonic.

Again, I am not of the opinion that any of these creatures are demons, but rather that demons use these fictional creatures as convenient disguises when it suits them. I don't think this is a reason to not use them in our work. I personally think even folklorical demons(i.e. the Rakshasas) can make good monsters/evil races for Christian fantasy. I also think we must remember that the first thing the Bible tells about our enemy is that deception is his favorite game. This means that we can't necessarily look at nature spirits and say "oh that's bad, that one must be a demon" "oh that one's nice that one doesn't have to be demonic". I don't think we even need to try. I think all folklore is fair game for Christian fantasy as long as your main motive is to glorify God.

In Christ,
Jordan aka Mr. Squishy

I'm talking about my suspicions of the MODERN movement to envision fairies and invite their presence into your lives. I'm fairly certain that the spiritual entities that members of this movement have encountered were NOT fairies, but rather demonic imposters. This kinda applies to any situation in which people seek the spiritual outside of God, whatever they see/think they see is more than likely NOT what they think it is.
That's what I'm referring too. Again, I am NOT holding to the idea of demonic origins of fairies. Remember, I LIKE fairies! But I am not so enamored with them as to deny that the enemies could, should it fit their purposes of deception and misleading, disguise themselves as these "otherworldly"/spiritual entities. And I think this does not go against any of the limited information on demonic activity that we have from the Scriptures.
In Christ,
Jordan aka clinical fairy fanatic

I'd be inclined to agree with Jordan, aka the clinical fairy fanatic.

In some environments you would find that to be a rare inclination.

If I may further submit my thoughts, I'd like to continue my participation.



Not to mention that, in general, when people search for a spiritual alternative to God, they tend to see what they want to see. I think I've said elsewhere that UFO's are the modern adaptation of faeries, and I'm going to stick with that. Most UFO encounters are grounded in the occult, and I think the devil gives people what they want to see. In the past, people have wanted faeries (especially the elemental faeries) as a way of understanding the way nature works. But now, we think we understand nature, but culture no longer has an explanation of our place in the order of things, so we want something to explain that. Aliens offer an explanation. (Albeit an invalid one.)

For that reason, because I associate faeries with the occult, I avoid faeries in literature, in general. There are exceptions made when faeries are much more like another race, than some sort of higher order of beings. However, I general consider myself to be of the "weaker brethren", since I tend to avoid that which has been, figuratively speaking, "sacrificed to the false gods." (False gods generally being of a demonic origin, "behind every idol is a demon.")

I knew somebody took that kind of stance towards fairies. That's why I started this thread to begin with. I was kinda disappointed when all I got were comments who hold similar opinions as my own.

This makes sense, because otherwise such a view would frown on the use of Elves, Dwarves, Goblins and Trolls, all of which are fairies.

I personally tend to find nothing wrong with fairies in the folklorical literary sense, but I would hesitate to write anything that talked about the reality of fairies for fear of what it could lead to. I generally use them as a source for ideas for creating races.

But I definitely understand and respect where you're coming from. There are plenty of other areas where I fit the "weaker brethren" description. Besides I believe in that same passage, Paul encouraged us to be patient with them

In Christ,
Jordan

I highly doubt faeries are real. The chance is about .001%. However, I don't see anything wrong with using them in stories.

I might have missed the point. If I have, would you mind helping?

Not to sound, uh, rude, or anything like that, but a hole in space-time would have certain effects that don't seem to go along with mythology. If holes in space-time were that common, it wouldn't be unlikely for your pet cat to randomly disappear out of your hands. Holes in space-time effect matter, not just time, you know. It's something of a popular explanation for ghosts and other such things, but it's really not scientifically founded, as far as I can tell. There are consequences of a hole in space-time that haven't ever been associated with such apparitions. Not to mention the fact that other things should appear too, like landscapes, and plants.

But we're here to discuss the theological side of such things...which is why we've been discussing the demonic.

I thought I'd just put this out there. I haven't met many people who are against elves as demonic.

But elves were actually little deities in Celtic religions. Especially druidism. They've simply morphed into the tall, angelic beings we know of today.

This doesn't make using elves in your stories bad. We aren't writing about Celtic deities, we're writing about a race of people.

In my opinion, the the words we use like 'fairies' and 'elves' and 'sprites' don't even mean the same thing that they did thousands of years ago. They simply mean fairy tale peoples.

Actually, elves (as in the word "elves") are descended from Scandinavian mythology, the Alfar. But more directly related to English are the Anglo-Saxon Aelfen which were diminutive nature spirits that eventually became the elves of fairy tales.