For this installment of fairy facts lets look at a particularly complicated topic – the Leprechaun. this one is particularly tricky (pun intended) because it exist in two distinctly different forms between mythology and folklore. But that’s also a great reason to include it here, so let’s dive in.Leprechaun, 1900, public domain Name: Leprechaun, modern Irish Leipreachán or Lucharachán,…
Book Review: Ask: Building Consent Culture
I’m stepping a bit outside my usual book review genres to tackle three books on consent, because I think its a topic that we don’t talk about enough and that there aren’t a lot of good resources for. I recently read three books written by or edited by Kitty Striker, all of which focus on teaching consent culture. I’ll give mini-reviews of each book separately below, but I want…
Respect, Fear, and Fairies
The Fair Folk are once again seeing a
surge in popularity across paganism and with this higher profile has come an
array of conversations about them and particularly the risk they may represent.
For myself I am thrilled to see many of the younger witches out there
advocating caution or even fear around the Gentry, but I have seen some people
pushing back against that, particularly in the…
The Bean Tighe, Invention of an ‘Irish’ Fairy [revised]
Usually when I write about fairies here (or elsewhere) I’m writing about fairies as they are found in existing material or anecdotal accounts. Today I would like to take a look at a fairy that can be found in multiple 21st century sources online identified as an Irish fairy yet is not to be found anywhere in Irish folklore. I want to point this example out today and talk about how this…
7 Tips To Spotting Misleading Fairy Claims
Midsummer is upon us which means the dodgy fairy memes have emerged from the aether once again.Instead of debunking them individually I thought this might be more useful: a basic guide to spotting misleading fairy claims. By ‘misleading’ I mean claims that are either entirely invented by the author, make false claims about existing beliefs, or are worded in ways that intentionally give the…
What We Know About The Dagda From Irish Mythology
As part of my running series looking at what we know about specific Irish deities from the older mythology, today I’d like to take a look at the Dagda. A great deal can be said about him, so here I am only going to offer some of the ‘greatest hits’ so to speak. Nonetheless this will hopefully clarify some points. I will also note up front because of the rampant misinformation: Danu is…
What We Know About The Morrigan From Irish Myth
Continuing my series on what we know about various Irish gods just from the older mythology, today we’re tackling a complicated, but popular, one: The Morrigan. This will be a list of some things we know about her based on various manuscripts, not modern belief or folklore, which will offer a base to understand the older views on Herself.  …
Fairy Facts: Each Uisge/Water Horse
For this fairy facts we will be taking a look at the water horse, an Otherworldly horse with a taste for human flesh, among other prey. This being is found across a range of folklore but here we will focus on Irish and Scottish specifically. If you are interested in other versions you’ll need to research those cultures as well, but I’m trying to keep this relatively short and concise. …
Book Review: The Thorn Key
For as long as I can remember I have loved poetry. From Mother Goose and schoolyard rhymes to Emily Dickenson and Dylan Thomas, there is just something about the flow and rhythm of poetry that speaks to me. It allows more expression that prose. It speaks in imagery and emotion. And given my similar love of folklore and fairy tales when I saw that Jeana Jorgensen had written a book of poetry…
What We Know About Manannán mac Lir in Irish Myth
What we know about Manannán mac Lir from Irish myth (a partial list):- He initially appears as a king of Emhain Abhlac (an Otherworldly island) across various stories in the Mythic cycle- He is incorporated as one of the Tuatha De Danann by the 11th century (the Fenian cycle of myths)- The Cóir Anmann calls him a god of the sea- He helps the Tuatha De Danann to go into the sidhe and teaches…