Fairies Were Terrifying â Until the Victorians Made Them Cute
What happened to the fairies?In this episode of Angelaâs Symposium, we uncover the history of fairy beingsâfrom terrifying, liminal spirits associated with death, illness, and esoteric knowledge to the benign, whimsical figures of childrenâs books and garden ornaments. Drawing on peer-reviewed scholarship and folkloric sources, I trace how fairies were feared as soul-stealing entities, morally ambiguous tricksters, and powerful beings of the Otherworld in Celtic and Germanic traditions. These entities werenât cuteâthey were cautionary, chthonic, and occasionally divine.But during the Victorian era, spiritualism, Theosophy, and literary romanticism reshaped fairy imagery into something innocent and controllable. This domestication served ideological purposes: reinforcing ideals of childhood, whiteness, femininity, and empire.With insights from Robert Kirk, W.Y. Evans-Wentz, Katharine Briggs, and contemporary scholars such as Sabina Magliocco, Morgan Daimler, and Richard Sugg, this video explores how fairies reflect changing cultural valuesâand why reclaiming their wilder past matters.CONNECT & SUPPORTđMY COURSES đ©đ»âđ https://drangelapuca.com/coursesWEBSITE & NEWSLETTER đ https://www.drangelapuca.com/#newsletterBOOK A TUTORING OR A LECTURE đhttps://drangelapuca.com/servicesBECOME MY PATRON! đ© https://www.patreon.com/angelapucaSUPPORT ME ON KO-FI âïžhttps://ko-fi.com/drangelapucaONE-OFF DONATIONS đ° https://paypal.me/angelasymposiumJOIN MEMBERSHIPS đ„ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPSbip_LX2AxbGeAQfLp-Ig/joinMY PODCAST đ https://open.spotify.com/show/2TKoWTGe6OKRokHN2zUIxM?si=dd9f50a734b14f86MY MERCH đ https://drangelapuca.creator-spring.com/FOLLOW MEđŁ- YouTube (@drangelapuca)đ- Instagram (@drangelapuca) đž- TikTok (@drangelapuca) đ”- Twitter (@angelapuca11) đŠ- Facebook (Dr Angela Puca) đ„RECOMMENDED READINGS đREFERENCES đBriggs, K. M. (1976). An encyclopedia of fairies: Hobgoblins, brownies, bogies, and other supernatural creatures. Pantheon Books.Briggs, K. M. (2002). The fairies in tradition and literature. Routledge.Daimler, M. (2014). The witch, the bean feasa, and the fairy doctor in Irish culture. Air n-Aithesc, 1(2), August 2014.Daimler, M. (2015). The good neighbors: Fairies in an Irish animistic worldview. Air n-Aithesc.Daimler, M. (2024). Two views of the leannĂĄn sĂ. Air n-Aithesc.Daimler, M. (2024a). Fairy: The Otherworld by many names. Collective Ink.Daimler, M. (2024b). Two views of the leannĂĄn sĂ. Air n-Aithesc.Evans-Wentz, W. Y. (1911). The fairy-faith in Celtic countries. H. Frowde.Gaffin, D. (2012). Running with the fairies: Towards a transpersonal anthropology of religion. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Hutton, R. (2024). Professor Ronald Hutton shares his fairy encounter with a leanan sĂdhe [Video]. YouTube. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast.Kirk, R., & Lang, A. (2020). The secret commonwealth of elves, fauns & fairies: A study in folk-lore and psychical research. Library of Alexandria.Lenihan, E., & Green, C. E. (2004). Meeting the other crowd. Penguin Publishing Group.Magliocco, S. (2019). The taming of the fae: Literary and folkloric fairies in Magic and witchery in the modern West: Celebrating the twentieth anniversary of 'The triumph of the moon'. Springer International Publishing.PĂłcs, Ă. (2005). Communicating with the spirits: Christian demonology and popular mythology (E. PĂłcs & G. Klaniczay, Eds.). Central European University Press.Sugg, R. (2018). Fairies: A dangerous history. Reaktion Books.Thompson, T. (2005). Hosting the dead: Thanotopic aspects of the Irish sĂdhe. In Ă. PĂłcs & G. Klaniczay (Eds.), Communicating with the spirits: Christian demonology and popular mythology. Central European University Press.Young, S. (2024). Classifying supernatural beings. Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society, 23.â ïž Copyright of Dr Angela Puca, in all of its parts â ïžMusic by Erose MusicBand. Check them out!