Inhuman, but humanlike creatures, sometimes with paranormal powers. Encounters between humans and fairies appear in folklore around the world. These fairies differ in form and appearance: Some are tiny, others are tall, some are ugly, others are beautiful. It was not until Victorian times that fairies were sentimentalized as tiny benevolent creatures with butterflylike wings, like those that appear in the Cottingley fairies photographs. In traditional tales they are always regarded as anthropomorphic, unpredictable, and dangerous. These fairies commonly haunted lonely roads, woods, fields, and other wild places. Superstitious people credited them with supernatural powers, including the ability to drive humans mad. They believed that the fairies were best avoided and went out of their way to keep from offending them.
There is no solid evidence for the existence of fairies, although there have been sightings for centuries. The Reverend Robert Kirk, a 17th-century Presbyterian minister, published a very comprehensive account of fairy lore, The Secret Common-Wealth, in 1692. Although he never saw fairies himself, he was convinced that they were real beings, between men and angels but usually invisible to human eyes. The Victorian writer, churchman, and eccentric Sabine baring-Gould declared that he had seen a troop of “dwarfs about two feet high” when he was four years old, who ran laughing and shouting alongside his family’s carriage. (Baring-Gould’s parents, he reported, saw nothing.) As recently as 1919, a 13-year-old Wisconsin boy reported that a troop of 20 little bald men crossed his path one summer night. In Iceland, belief in the existence of fairies is still so strong that psychics are employed to negotiate with the “hidden folk” whenever a new construction project is launched. As recently as 1959, sightings of fairies were reported in Ireland. Modern sightings have also taken place in Oregon, England, Scotland, and Wales.