Fairy

A fairy, or faery, is a whimsical creature from stories and mythology, often portrayed in art and literature as a minuscule humanoid being with wings. This word is derived from the name of a place where they were said to live: Faerie, and fairies are sometimes called fairy-folk. The myth appears commonplace across many diverse cultures and traditions. They have many names and many forms.
 

Besides at fairyland as a distinct domain, some people also imagines that fairies also live in everyday surroundings such as hills, trees, and streams and sees fairy rings, fairy tables, and fairy steeds in natural objects.

The Celtic peoples have many references to fairies in their myths and legends, and their nature is described in widely different ways. They are also known as 'the little folk', but this can also refer to leprechauns, goblins, menehune, and other creatures. In Ireland, the fairies were known as the Sidhe, and in Scotland, the Daoine Sith, or a great many variant names.
 

The height of fairies was not always as consistent as is held to be the case today. Traditionally, faeries were often of human height or taller. One consistent belief amongst the Britons was that the fairy people were weak against cold iron, leading to many of the iron related superstitions that have existed, some of which survive to this day. (For instance, the tradition of placing a horse shoe on one's door.) This belief has prompted some historians and mythological commentators to speculate that the fairies are actually derived from a folk memory of the people that inhabited the island of Great Britain before the Celts arrived. These people would have been armed only with stone, and hence iron would have been the decisive Celtic advantage.

Croker has described fairies as being “a few inches high, airy and almost transparent in body; so delicate in their form that a dewdrop, when they chance to dance on it, trembles, indeed, but never breaks.” In folklore fairies are generally considered beneficent toward humans. They are sensitive and capricious, however, and often inclined to play pranks; so if their resentment is not to be aroused, they must be spoken well of and always treated with deference. Bad fairies are thought to be responsible for such misfortunes as the bewitching of children, the substitution of ugly fairy babies, known as changelings, for human infants, and the sudden death of cattle.

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Information gathered from Encarta, Wikipedia, Mythical Creatures.

Graphics are by me and from Country Colors, Country Patch Collections.

Background MIDI "Fairy" from Midi Page.