The supernatural
THE BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL and its close contact with the human race is very ancient and widespread throughout Europe, and the Indian and African continents. The text reflects these elements of magic that was commonly believed when dealing with the Elf land.
Just what type of creatures the fairy beings were is subject to wide speculation: from a belief that ranges from the Christian, of being fallen angels; to being the Celtic descendants of the Druids; or that they were the ancient Picts; or even to parallel races, or beings from outer space!
We must understand that the fairy folk were not the pleasant little winged creatures of Enid Blyton and Victorian children’s stories but were sinister, amoral human-like beings, living on the edges of humanity, there were areas where their world touched the world of the humans. The Elfin attitude was closer to Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’, or Paul Andersons ‘Broken Sword’ than the noble creatures of Tolkien.
‘The Elfin Queen, a kind of feudatory sovereign under Satan to whom she was obliged to pay a .... tithe in kind;. .. their quota was usually made up of children who had been stolen before the rite of baptism’
The Christian church recognised that their flock could not be expected to abandon the old beliefs and made allowances for this, often incorporating the old rituals into its own formulas substituting Christian symbols for older protection spells and guards in order to appease the fear of the other world.
Fairy abductions
The belief that humans could be abducted by the fairy folk has been prevalent in Europe for many centuries. ‘Thomas the Rhymer’ was taken by the Queen of Elfland and was a changed man when he returned. The most famous abduction of this type can be seem in the story of Eurydice’s abduction by the king of the underworld and Orpheus’ attempt to bring her back to the land of the living; this same story was basis of the ballad ‘King Orfeo’. The awareness of time is suspended whilst in fairyland, and what passes as a few days is actually the passing of years.
Abduction of changelings
James Napier in ‘Folk Lore of the West of Scotland’ says that it was commonly believed throughout Scotland that the Queen of Elves was
‘a kind of feudatory sovereign under Satan to whom she was obliged to pay a kave, or tithe in kind; and as her own fairy subjects strongly objected to transfer their allegiance, their quota was usually made up of children who had been stolen before the rite of baptism had been administered to them.’
This had been believed for many centuries. Children who were not ‘churched’ were prone to abduction, a doppelganger child left in their place, a changeling, not of this world, often wilful and fey. Professor Child gives many examples of tales wherein attempts were made to win back a loved one from the fairy court. It is fraught with danger, both physical and spiritual.
Halloween, or hogmanay
Hallowe’en, or Hogmanay, or Samhain, was once the final evening of the year when the link between the different worlds was weakened. We are now looking at the old calendar the beginning of the New Year was fixed exactly six months from the Celtic May Day festival of fire, Walpurgis. These festivals celebrate the coming of summer and the coming of winter.
James Frazer suggests that these dates were fixed not by husbandry of crops but by the herdsmen and
‘It seems not improbable that the Celtic bisection of the year into two halves at the beginning of May and the beginning of November dates from a time when the Celts were mainly a pastoral people, dependant on their subsistence on their herds.’
Frazer felt that this division preceded the division of the year by solstices. The term Hogmanay is still retained to represent the Scottish celebration of the current New Years Eve of 31 December.
Hogmanay
However, according to Frazer, on the Isle of Man which resisted the changes brought about by the Saxon invaders, the New Year’s mummers used to go around on Hallowe’en chanting a Hogmanay song which began
“Tonight is New Year’s Night Hogunnaa!”
The spirits of the dead walked among the living before being banished from the earth; the fairy world and the mortal world could communicate.