Elves, Fairies and Pixies

 

What about these beings? Are they real?
Have they ever existed?
Do they only exist in peoples imaginations?
Well, I, like a lot of other folks,
imagine they are real even though
I have never seen one. Stories have
been told for centuries about these
beings and they have been depicted
in art by many cultures.
I thought they only existed in The United Kingdom
but have since found they have been found thoughout
many parts of the world. Whatever they are,
imaginary or real, I believe they could
be real. I mean after all, my roots
go back to the United Kingdom,
so they have to be real.
Right?


The Flowers

All the names I know from nurse:
Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse,
Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,
And the Lady Hollyhock.

Fairy places, fairy things,
Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,
Tiny trees for tiny dames--
These must all be fairy names!

Tiny woods below whose boughs
Shady fairies weave a house;
Tiny tree-tops, rose or thyme,
Where the braver fairies climb!

Fair are grown-up people's trees,
But the fairest woods are these;
Where, if I were not so tall,
I should live for good and all.

Poem by
Robert Louis Stevenson






The Fairies

Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren’t go a-hunting
For fear of little men;

Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl’s feather!


Down along the rocky shore
Some make their home,
They live on crispy pancakes
Of yellow tide-foam;

Some in the reeds
Of the black mountain lake,
With frogs for their watch-dogs,
All night awake.

High on the hill-top
The old King sits;
He is now so old and gray
He’s nigh lost his wits.

With a bridge of white mist
Columbkill he crosses,
On his stately journeys
From Slieveleague to Rosses;

Or going up with music
On cold starry nights
To sup with the Queen
Of the gay Northern Lights.

They stole little Bridget
For seven years long;
When she came down again
Her friends were all gone.

They took her lightly back,
Between the night and morrow,
They thought that she was fast asleep,
But she was dead with sorrow.

They have kept her ever since
Deep within the lake,
On a bed of flag-leaves,
Watching till she wake.

By the craggy hill-side,
Through the mosses bare,
They have planted thorn-trees
For pleasure here and there.

If any man so daring
As dig them up in spite,
He shall find their sharpest thorns
In his bed at night.

Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren’t go a-hunting
For fear of little men;

Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl’s feather!

by William Allingham

         

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This page was created By
One Missouri Country Girl January 2008
Updated February 2009

 

 

Fairy Wings Midi Used By Permission and © Geoff Anderson

 

 

 

 

 

 






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