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the-fae-folk · 1 year

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Hello! Do you have any tips for when it comes to writing stories about the fae? Are there things to keep in mind and things to avoid? I have a story in mind, but am a little nervous to get started. Since you have a lot more experience, I wondering if you could please help?

CAWRK!

Hah hah! I do have some tips.

Let's start with things to keep in mind when you're writing Fae.

1. The Fae we know and love are really more of a mixing pot. They draw from a myriad of European Cultures and multiple different time periods. The notable ones are Brythonic (Bretons, Welsh, Cornish), Gaelic (Irish, Scots, Manx). Also important to note are the Germanic Peoples and their mythologies (Norse Mythology, Anglo-Saxon Mythology, and Continental Germanic Mythology), as well as influences from Slavic Fairy Tales and Folk Beliefs.

In addition to other European or other Cultures that might have gone unmentioned, there are some historians, such as Barthélemy d'Herbelot, who believed that fairies were adopted from, or at least heavily influenced by, the Peris of Persian Mythology.

And even with the slow borrowing of ideas over the centuries of passing around Folklore and Fairy Tales, our idea of what the Fae are keeps being added to or changed. The English Middle Ages had its influences on them, and the Victorian Era British brought about massive changes to how they were viewed.

Literature over time has played its part in evolving how we depict them, and Modern Fantasy Literature has produced countless changes, likely even more than the Victorian Era.

2. There's actually very little about Faerie Folklore that is consistent across all of it's varied and tangled forms. We tend to assume Faeries are all Elf-Like and pointy eared, immortal royals because those were some of the most influential interpretations that our Modern Fantasy has carried to us. But research even a little about the Folk and you’ll instantly start coming up with all sorts of contradictions, even between people in the same cultural area over time. While there are a number of ideas of what Faeries are, from both ancient times and modern, we’re not even sure of that. Some believed them ghosts of the dead, or higher spirits, elemental spirits, fallen angels, demons, demoted pagan deities, remnant memories of prehistoric humanoid peoples (this theory is considered outdated), or even beings wholly different from humanity and possibly from another world. 3. There’s no particular reason Faeries need to be depicted as human-like in appearance. It is true that at times the term Fairy has been applied specifically to various groups of magical creatures with a human appearance, magical powers, and a mischievous nature. But it has also been used as an umbrella term for almost any magical creature. Many of them are vaguely humanoid such as gnomes, goblins, imps, trolls, brownies, etc. And sometimes there are beings who are not even remotely humanoid that are slipped under the umbrella of Faerie. Such examples as metaphysical beings or living elemental forces, the Cat-sìth, Cù-sìth, will-o’-the-wisps, the questing beast, or even occasionally dragons. Something that adds to this inclusion is the fact that the word Faerie, as it changed and moved about, came to mean many different things. Latin “Fāta” meaning the goddess of fate, to the Old French "Faerie" which meant not only the realm of enchantment, magic, or dream associated with the Fae, but also the occult, the collective canon of magical or mythological beings, beasts, or creatures, or anything that is the product of enchantment or illusion. From there it moved into the Middle English Fairye (faierie, ffayery, fayre, ffeyrye, faerie, feyrye, fairi, fairie) where it was to mean enchantment, illusion, dream at first. Then it expanded again to cover the inhabitants of fairyland as a collective. When they are humanoid, the appearance of the Fae can be as varied as humanity and likely more so. When they are not, they could be in any shape or form. Not everything has to be elfin, slender, white, and pointy eared. And this isn't even counting the countless stories depicting them as having some shapeshifting abilities. 4. Faeries are given many traits by many different stories. Immortality, a trickster nature, an aversion to iron, an inability to lie. But not all of these traits came from the same places or time periods. Indeed there are many stories both old and new that depict Faeries of various kinds perfectly well with only one, two, or even none of them.

5. Classification. A lot of people like to split the Fae into courts and various other groups and types. But it’s impossible to fully classify fairies, there’s just too much in folklore to properly sift through it all in a single lifetime, or even several lifetimes. But categorizing does serve a practical purpose, it helps to separate elements and groups from one another, and to understand underlying distinctions that ancient people would have just known but we have no contextual knowledge for. But many folklorists actually caution against over-categorization. Folk beliefs tended to be fluid and ever changing, leading to many names and types of beings that were inconsistent or having multiple names for the same type of being. Folklorists trying to stick to strict definitions are doomed to frustration. Even our delightful fairy courts, such as the seelie and unseelie, are really much less distinct that we like to think. Groups of faeries changed from tale to tale, and even from one version of a tale to another. Alright. Before I get too carried away, let’s look at the few things you might want to avoid or watch out for.

1. Despite the word Faerie being used as a way to refer to all the magical creatures and beings that those people would have known, be warned that trying to pluck mythical creatures and races from other cultures or religions and include them under the banner of Fae is not generally a good idea, even for a work of fiction. Best stick to stuff already connected to Faeries in one way or another from European Folklore. Or you might borrow some of the newly invented races from Modern Fantasy (such as Tolkien’s Orcs, or the later Dungeons and Dragons version of Orcs). Or if you’re feeling creative you can create your own entirely new and unique Fae creature.

2. Faerie Folklore, stories, fairy tales, and myths are unfortunately home to a lot of truly nasty things. Enslaving humans or Fae, kidnapping, rape, child murder, murder, permanent transformation into inanimate objects, racism, and much else. And while these do not make up the body of the story, they are there and consequently at least one or another will appear in most adaptations of the Fae. This in itself isn’t a bad thing, as those are legitimate motifs and themes that can be explored well in a narrative. But just because the characters might do something horrific, doesn’t mean you have to frame it as a normal or acceptable thing. Be very careful when exploring such themes as these in your work, do your research, and if you feel like you cannot discuss a disturbing theme such as this in a way that does it justice, that’s okay. You don’t have to include that just because it was in folklore. There’s a lot of folklore that doesn’t have it, there’s plenty to draw from about the Fae that isn’t awful. While I generally encourage instances of Blue and Orange Morality when it comes to the Fae, whether disturbing or light-hearted, If you find that you’re not comfortable with the elements of your own story… please don’t force yourself to write those in.

3. Don’t worry about making your Faeries historically accurate. You could try to copy one specific European Culture’s version of the Fae and only that one. But it’s inevitable that it’s not going to be completely right, or anywhere close. Studying the Faerie Folklore from even one Culture is the work of lifetimes. Your best bet is to take the folklore as inspiration, bits and pieces from here and there as you need them.

4. Always do your research, and make sure your sources are trustworthy. In addition to just plain old misinformation, there is a lot of folklore from these old European Cultures that has been appropriated and twisted, or misrepresented, or purposefully removed from context and time in some way in order to promote or justify racist ideologies, harmful or toxic behavior, to purposefully cause conflict and divide people, or even just to cause confusion.

My point is that you should be very careful about what you actually believe when it comes to researching folklore of any kind, Fae included. Can its sources verify the information solidly? Does it even have sources? Is the place you got it known for its reliability in information of this kind? If your source is somewhere on a social media site then it's a definite no. A blogging site, like Tumblr? Then you should know that blog posts are not considered verifiable sources, though there is some acceptance for those that fuel further research. Alright. I’ll leave it there. Now some quick tips for you.

1. Think about what style and atmosphere you want for your story. If you want the Fae to seem a certain way, or to feel close to a particular version, you need to find out what it is that makes them feel that way in the original and try to learn the writing technique.

2. The point is to tell a story, a narrative. You cannot include everything. You cannot represent everything people associate with the Fae. If you have some problematic theme from folklore you want to explore, or some social issue you’re planning on talking about in fiction form, fine. But stick to one or two. Not all of them. To tell an effective story you must narrow the focus so you and your audience don’t lose track of the central ideas.

3. It’s tempting to spend all your time building a huge complex culture for your story. I’m definitely guilty of that one. World-building is addictive. But set reasonable limitations for yourself.

4. Do spend some time considering who the Fae are. If they’re immortal, that will affect their whole culture, from what they eat or if they eat at all, to how they dress, what their art is like, and how they might think. People often forget that the Fae are supposed to be Other, not just magical nature humans with fancy gowns and a lot of lawyer talk. They are alien, different, strange. Their culture, their biology, their needs. 5. If you want to make a cliched Fae people in fancy courts who are averse to cold iron and cannot lie but deceive and dissemble with every breath… go for it. There’s nothing wrong with that. Cliches are cliche for a reason, they work. There would even be advantages to using this common depiction of the Folk, because many people are already familiar with it, you can spend more time in your story focusing on other themes or ideas, using the well known Fae traits to draw your reader’s expectations to where you want them.

6. Verse and rhyme are important tools you can use. Fae are often depicted singing or speaking in riddles and rhymes. Take a look at some writers who use a lot of poetry in their stories. Tolkien and Brian Jacques are some that spring immediately to mind, though there are many more. Keep in mind that if your poems or verse doesn’t add to or match the flow of your story and have purpose in forming your narrative, then it will likely just break the reader's immersion instead.

7. With the Fae a common theme is that beauty doesn’t equate good, and ugliness doesn’t equate evil. But beauty as a theme with Faeries is quite old and has taken a lot of different forms. Beauty of the ethereal or the divine, of the otherworldly and alien. The extraordinary beauty found in the natural and ordinary that we are blind to every day. The alluring beauty of illusions. Beauty is a very subjective thing, and so thus it is an excellent tool to use in exploring Fae narratives where it can be shaped in countless ways to do different things in the narrative.

8. Point of view is also very important to how you’re going to frame your faerie people. If your story is set from the viewpoint of someone who knows nothing about Fae then their understanding of these magical persons will be very different from the viewpoint of someone who goes into this adventure already having some working knowledge of them. Or you could depict the Faerie from the eyes of one of their own, and a faerie would see their own people in a very different way than a human would, for good or ill.

9. I cannot stress enough the importance and effectiveness of WHIMSY as a narrative technique when writing about distantly metaphysical or surreal subjects such as the Fae. Balanced well with the aspects of your work that are more grounded, it can help the flow of your writing immensely and aid in keeping your reader engaged and immersed.

#fae #faerie #quoth the raven #writing advice #advice on writing fairies #the fae folk #writing fae

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the-fae-folk · 3 years

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What is Ardri exactly? I can't quite visualize him.

Hmm. That’s a fun question. I’d never considered it before, just thinking of him as a generic humanoid Faerie. But I suppose he might fit into some category. Let’s see... He’s the son of a dryad who lives in a Beech Tree and a Faerie who is described as "The spirit of the still pool below the thorn bush”. The latter is likely some kind of water sprite or nixie. It’s worth noting that the nix of Germanic folklore were shapeshifters who could take many forms such as dragons, fish, and even human. And they are related to a number of similar mythological beings from various parts of Europe, such as the Ceffyl Dŵr from Welsh Mythology and the Kelpie from Scottish Myths. Both of these had the power to transform themselves into horses and trample people or drown them by letting them climb onto their backs and then diving down to the bottom of the pool. So we have two Faeries, one a humanoid tree spirit and one who is a spirit that can shapeshift though often takes a humanoid form. It’s not surprising that Ardri’s form is humanoid as well. We could call Ardri an Elf, though he has little connection to the Dökkálfar and the Ljósálfar of Norse mythology. If anything he might be similar to Elfs as they were seen in Middle English and Early Modern Scottish folklore. During the Middle Ages the term Elf became loosely synonymous with the borrowed French word “Fairy”, and the creatures were often conflated with beings like hobgoblins, brownies, dwarves, pucks, and hobs. Sometimes they were human sized, other times they were small. Somewhat connected is the old High German word “Alp” is defined by the Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (Old High German Dictionary) as a sort of nature god or nature daemon. Another creature he could be is the Irish púca, another nature spirit who could be either benevolent or malevolent depending on its whims. Said to be a Faerie who could shapeshift into all manner of creatures such as a goat, cat, dog, hare, and even a horse. This would not only tie him back to the shape changing Nixies and Nixs of Germanic folklore who could transform their shape as well as the Scottish Kelpie who specifically took a horse form but it also connects him right back to the pucks. (A side note: The Astronomer who fled his court and shed his humanoid form in favor of a rabbit, and dwelt upon deserts of Faerie’s moons, is likely a púca.) Puck you might know from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. The name has possible sources in Old Norse (púki) with later variations traveling into Old Swedish, Icelandic, and Frisian. It also is suggested to be connected to Welsh (pwca), Cornish (bucca), and Irish (púca). All of these are suggested to have some linguistic connection through the movement of the word, though scholars disagree on which direction the linguistic borrowing might have gone. Shakespeare identified Puck as a Hobgoblin or hob, and he’s considered a domestic nature sprite, daimon, or fairy. Hobgoblins are houshold spirits or goblins that are very similar to stories of Brownies. Hob is just another name for a rustic countryside goblin. Hobs and Hobgoblins in folklore can be mischievous and cause chaos and hurt, but can also offer aid and do good deeds under the right circumstances. Goblins, hobs, hobgoblins, brownies, boggles, and many more have similar twisted and tied connections such that its impossible to really separate them in older Folklore, though contemporary literature has made many of them into distinct species of Faerie. I’m getting distracted... Diving into Folklore is a rabbit hole that is far too easy to get lost in forever. Your question had to do with the appearance of Ardri. So what is he? If anything he falls into this weird tangle of folklore that often depicts humanoid creatures of various sizes, temperaments, and appearances. He’s clearly related to nature, both the folklore and his mothers make that certain. Personally I think he’s likely to be a Hob, Brownie, or púca. All three had humanoid forms and sizes at one point in folklore, though they diverged in the stories later on. So, Ardri is not only humanoid but is roughly about the size of a human teenager as well, which is why he managed to pass so easily as a human during his two forays into their world. He is somewhere around sixteen or seventeen years of age by human reckoning, the same age as Sam and a little older than Oliver. He’s slightly shorter than your average 17 year old human male, but since human height varies so widely it wouldn’t be noticed much. He is lithe and strong, having spent his youth running through the woods, climbing trees, swimming in the river, and generally being active. His fair skin is slightly freckled from his youth in the sun while his hair is chestnut brown in color and hangs down to his shoulders. His eyes are hazel coloured and depending on the lighting might seem more brown, green, or even gold. Ardri will often have a friendly and enthusiastic smile, though it will occasionally show a light of mischief or laughter. I hope my extensive rambling response answers your question adequately. It’s likely far more than you were expecting to receive. I will admit I got carried away once I began diving in to the different faerie types, but it all made for a very fun evening project.

#ardri #faerie #appearance #type of fae

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