Not long ago, one day in 2009, the Irish story collector Eddie Lenihan was chided by a woman for broadcasting his beliefs about fairies, and thereby perpetuating stereotypes of the Irish as mystically backward or irrational. Lenihan had responded by pointing at the nearby cathedral and saying that everyone believed in God although no one had ever seen him. Whomsoever one might align with, the fact is that fairies, and their less favored cousins, witches and ghosts have lived through times, with as many claiming to have seen them as believing in their contested existence. Curiously, these entities continue to attract wide attention. That the famed images of ‘Cottingley Fairies’, the fake photographs that shook the world in 1917, could fetch £ 20,000 a century later in 2018 is testimony to their unceasing popularity among general public, in literature and in arts.
Shot in the village of Cottingley in Yorkshire, the picture shows a teenage girl looking at the camera as dancing fairies with butterfly wings appear in the foreground. Claiming to have found the winged creatures gamboling near their home, Elsie Wright, 16, and her 9-year old cousin Frances Griffiths could convince the world, including the great rationalist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with indelible proof of the existence of the supernatural beings. Although the fairies in the pictures looked anything but fake, with serious doubts being expressed even then, it took some sixty years before the myth was finally busted. Yet, these images remain so famous and potent that it is hard to imagine them never having existed.
Fairies is an intriguing inquiry into a subject that is widely considered the stuff of fancy, whimsy, and childhood. After reading several accounts of fairy sightings, Richard Sugg meanders through the fairy narratives in arts, literature, and media to draw fresh perspectives on the cultural meanings of the unceasing fairy-belief. If Sir Doyle created the literary myth named Sherlock Holmes, Elsie and Francis complemented it with their unforgettable icon, the Cottingley Fairies. It may seem a strange coincidence but the desire to be taken in by faith of some kind during a war-ravaged period could have been the innate cultural compulsion.
But why would such a notion persist in the present times? One would imagine that the technological revolution across the hundred years between 1917 and 2017 would have buried the numinous otherness of the fairies for good. That is not yet the case if Sugg’s entertaining but thoughtful narration on the fairyland and the fairy-faith is anything to go by. Give any child a pair of crayons and ask to draw fairies, winged creatures in different hues will erupt on the drawing sheet. Fairies seem omniscient and omnipresent!
To think that fairies exist only in English, Scottish, or Irish imagination may not be correct, fairies stories are part of folklore literally across every continent in the world. Every culture has their stories of fairies or nature spirits, from Ireland to China, South Africa to India, and Canada to Australia. Not only stories, designated elf habitats and no-go zones have been part of the folklore. Most cultures believe that they are not actually on our plane of existence, but another plane overlapping ours. Whatever be it, why do fairies stories abound across cultures?
Having authored eight books on weird subjects covering Ghosts, Mummies and Vampires, Sugg sought to explore and bring to surface a subject that is buried deep in the caves of our childhood. It becomes clear that the compelling reason for belief in fairies has to do with the Homo sapiens being a storytelling animal, which thinks in stories rather than hard facts, and believes that the universe itself works like a story, replete with heroes and villains. On top, there is the unwritten rule – if the majority believe in it, it becomes the truth by default.
Should it matter whether or not fairies exist and are real in a world where sensationalized fake news is an accepted reality? Hasn’t the world long believed Kardashians to be real without anybody watching them? A belief in fairies has given a sense of purpose to treating nature in a compassionate manner. Sugg presents the case of emerging genre of fairy ecologists who have helped to counter the predatory behaviour of industrialism and capitalism. The belief in fairies has led many development proponents to accept that cutting an oak tree or demolishing an elf habitat will invite dangerous retribution. The belief in fairies has the power to respiritualize nature, much like what the nature spirits, the Navi, demonstrated in James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar. If faith in fake can have real impact, let the fake-of-the-fairies prevail. And, why not?
Fairies: A Dangerous History
by Richard Sugg
Reaktion Books, UK
Extent: 280, Price: £16
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