faery books

Genna

Spotted one error;the star boys are not trolls and demons.However,there was a belief that "Lusse" was accompanied by trolls and demons as she drove about on the longest night of the year.
She is confused with the Saint Lucia,who is accompanied by star boys,holding the Christmas star,most likely symbolizing St.Stephan;maidens from Heaven;and "nissar";house elves.We celebrate her because there was a miracle in Värmland,where the Saint was invoked to stop a famine,and also to imitate the German custom,where the Christkind is symbolized by a girl in white with candles in her hair.This is a late custum;but because we have the old tradition with the fear/and before that maybe devotion of"Lusse" around the Winter Solstice;things get confused.(We have kept many pagan practices in Sweden,but the Saint Lucia is no gnome,she is celebrated on the day of her death,as Saints are).
 

Astraea

More Fairy Books

I have just finished an interesting book by Janet Bord, entitled "Fairies." It is in paperback and consists of reports of sightings and an intelligent discussion of the varieties of fairy phenomena and their possible relationships with other subtle and mysterious manifestations.

Years ago, Katharine Briggs wrote two wonderful books about fairies, entitled "A Dictionary of Fairies" and "The Vanishing People: A Study of Traditional Fairy Beliefs." I bought both of those books for my father in the 70's, and when he died I inherited them. It was meant to be!
 

Hedera

Fairy novel

One of my favourite books - somehow I keep forgetting to mention it. It's called 'Stardust' , by Neil Gaiman. Beautiful book, and somehow completely resonates with my idea of the fae.

Another non-fiction book I really like: 'To live with the Fairy Folk' , by Marina T. Stern. It's a tiny book, only about 85 pages and slightly larger than a CD, but it has some great ideas. Mostly aimed at people who have a garden, but most of it works well if you only have a balcony or windowsill-garden, or a bit of nature outside where you can go.

Has anyone ever read anything by Derek de Lint? He came up on Amazon, and I wonder if it's any good.
 

sagitarian

Mothers day

Hubby gave me the book good faeries bad faeries by brian froud today for mother's day. I AM SOOOOOO STOOKED. i've been pouring over the pages, and reading here and there all day. I finally took a break to let you all know about it. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU faeries for those that whispered in his ears to get me such a wonderful mother's day gift!
 

Astraea

Great gift!

What a great guy you've got there -- and he has wonderful taste! Enjoy your book, and hope you're having a very happy Mother's Day. :)
 

tarotpharot

Re: Hi

Cali7772003 said:
Hello I am new to the board. I love Brian Froud's Faery oracle I just got about a month ago along with Good Faeries, Bad Faeries. I also have Helaing with Faeries By Dionne Virtue. There is an awesome book called Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries By Walter Y. Evans-Wentz. It was published in 1890 and is very compelete. I also like a lot of RJ Stewart's stuff. Underworld Iniatation and Earthlight these are all very good books. Hope this has helped. Look forward to talking to all of you more often.

BB,

The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries is excellent! Couldn't agree more. The beautiful thing about this book is that the author (Walter Y. Evans-Wentz), spent years collecting encounters, traditions, and beliefs from the most correct source - the people themselves (and keep in mind it was published originally in 1890!). This contrasts markedly with the tendancy many authors have these days (with anything Celtic especially) to project things onto a culture it does not contain.

So, the modern stuff may be interesting (yes I have McCoy's book and several others - Franklin's is the best of the lot), and if you get something out of them that's great. I believe one has to read things objectively (and with at least a grain of salt), especially when they're published by the "New Age/Wicca/Anything Esoteric" for the masses company (you know - look for the crescent moon). Some of their stuff is great. Some of it seems very familiar - as though it was dropped into a word scrambler to come up with something new. New?

Oops. I seem to have gotten off the subject a bit and on a soap box. I'll sheepishly slip back down into my office chair now.

Bright, Feri blessings to all,

Brad })
TarotPharot