Fairies, Elves and other Immortal Beings

Fairies (variously fairy, faery, fairie or faerie) lived often 'under hill', or in enchanted woods. They often hunted in human lands, and it was particularly dangerous to be abroad when the Fairy Court was on the hunt.

Humans who beheld fairies were immediately enchanted by them, against their will and often without the intention or knowledge of the enchanting fairy. Such an enchanted human might spend the rest of his or her life in search of the entrance to Fairyland, or another glimpse of the fair one who had bespelled them.

Often fairies would take their human victim back to their lands with them, for a week or a day - when the poor mortal was dropped back into human space, he would discover that years had flown and everyone he once knew was old or dead.

While not actively malicious, fairies were dangerous to mortals simply because of their overwhelming glamour.

Fairies and Elves Get Downsized

At some point the human-sized fairies turned into 'wee folk' - Shakespeare's fairies were the size of insects. It soon became the norm for fairies to be pictured as the size of buttercups and daisies, flitting about on gossamer wings and hidding under toadstools. This was the favorite Victorian depiction of fairies, tiny beings that delighted the eye but were impossible to catch.

This downsizing of the Fae Folk was perhaps a result of Victorian Empiricism. Wee fairies are considerably less dangerous to mortal folk, and there are no legends of wanderers roaming forever in search of a once-glimpsed fair one the size of a dragonfly.

These fairies and elves of Victorian Kitsch are often winged; the ancient model was often simply human formed, although in some accounts, even the standard fairies and elves were winged.

Tolkien et al Restore the Fae

Modern fantasy has returned the fairies, elves and other immortal beings to their ancient beginnings - human-sized, long-lived and impossibly beautiful.

Elves are more common than fairies in modern fantasy, although the terms are almost interchangable. In some lexicons, elves are human-sized and wingless, while fairies are wee and winged.

A common theme in fantasy is that immortal or long-lived races have little in common with short-lived ones, although temporary alliances against a common enemy can be forged. Immortal races are often depicted as being forced out of their natural and native lands by the shorter-lived, yet more fertile human races.

More modern 'elf punk' fiction might feature fairies and elves in urban settings and cultures, such as biker elves.