Fairies in Disguise

I've been thinking a lot today about those Fairy Godmothers and wrinkled Old Grandmothers in fairy tales.  Especially how they ask questions and let people's answers sit with them.  And maybe cast a spell or curse if the answer is wanting.  Somehow when a fairy in disguise does it, it doesn't come off as such a mind game or manipulation. It's more a a searching or teaching moment.  They're trying to see who they're interacting with. Are you kind? Noble? Sly? Selfish? Naive? Wise?

It's all in your answer.  It's a test, a trick, you say.  But is it?  Or did you answer in a way that revealed something less than flattering about yourself.  Tread carefully in the presence of faery...

The Giant's Causeway: Bridge of Giants

Hello Friends!

I've recently returned from Ireland, where I've stood in the footsteps of Giants!  One of Ireland's biggest legends is Finn McCool or Fionn mac Cumhaill, a bigger than life hero!  Fionn has left his mark all over the Causeway! There's a camel that was given to him to ride home from a visit in the middle east, you can see his dear old Granny who is said to look out for Fionn (or scold him or drink a bit too much whiskey) and the chimney stacks of Fionn's house!  Fionn also plays the pipe organ, they say if you stand alone at 6 AM on Christmas Day you might be able to hear Fionn play!

But the greatest mark Fionn left was the Giant's Causeway itself, a bridge of basalt columns that stretched all the way to Scotland.  Finn built it to challange the Scottish giant Benandonner (in some versions of the tale in America say it's Cucullin and some say he's Scottish while some say he's Irish but to the people and literature in Ireland it's Benandonner and he's definitely Scottish).  Benandonner had a magic finger and kept a lightning-bolt that he'd flattened like a pancake in his back pocket!  Legend has it, Fionn challenged and challenged

Fionn's Shoe!

Benandonner but as Fionn got closer to Scotland and realized how big Benandonner was he high-tailed it back to Ireland and his home on Knockmany Hill.  He went so fast that he left his shoe behind!

Fionn took his troubles to his wife, Oona (Oonagh, Leona).  Oona consulted her fairy connections and came up with a plan.  She made Fionn get into the baby's bed and began making cakes, slipping some skillets into half of the cakes.  In the meantime, Benandonner had made his way to Knockmanny to challenge Fionn!  When he banged on the door Oona answered and told Benandonner that Fionn was out and wouldn't he have tea with her and the baby until he got back?  Benandonner agrees and Oona gives him some of the cakes she made.  As soon as Benandonner bit down, he screamed in pain (for he'd bitten into the skillets!).  What kind of cakes were these? Benandonner demanded to know.  Oona gave a the rest of the cakes (without skillets) to Fionn in the baby's bed, who swallowed them happily.  Now Benandonner got a good look at the baby, wondering nervously how big the father must be if the baby could be that big!  And what mighty teeth a baby must have to eat those tough cakes!  Benandonner wanted to get a look at those teeth so he peeked into the baby's mouth with his magic finger and Fionn bit down, pulling off the finger and robbing Benandonner of his magic!  Benandonner was so scared that he high-tailed it back to Scotland ripping up the causeway behind him.

The Giant's Causeway is still considered magic to this day! In the Giant's Gate you'll see many an old, worn and corroded coin embedded in the crags of the rocks.  People make wishes on the coins and then embed them in the rocks!  It's truly amazing, you can feel the magic in the air and the power of the wishes all lodged in the stones of the Giant's Gate.  I left two there, here's to seeing them come true!



Resources:

Jacobs, Joseph. "A Legend of Knockmany". Celtic Fairy Tales. Collector's Library: London, 2011. Print.

Pritchard, David. Haunted Ireland. Real Ireland Design: Kilcoole, Ireland, 2014. Print.

Phooka: That Merry Wanderer of the Night

"Hey -psst- hey you! Yeah, you! You can see me can't you? I see you trying to act like you can't but you can can't you? You've caught me messing with Miss Jabberwock's blog, haven't you? It's alright, I'm not going to poke your eyes out! Not today anyway...

"Who am I? Why, I'm that merry wander of the night! I - Oh you've heard that one? Quite the reader aren't you? Well, shut up! No one likes a know-it-all.  I'll bet you're wondering how I blend into all this masonry aren't you? Don't know that do you?  Well, that's a bit to do with magic and a bit to do with genealogy.  See, my mother is a gargoyle and my father is a phooka.  I don't like to talk about it.

"What's a Phooka you say? You've never heard of a phooka? Well, well, well, not such a smarty pants now are you?  I shall now elucidate. So pay attention!

"The puca hails from Ireland and are also known as pucks, like that ornery Robin Goodfellow.  We do have the ability to shape-shift and change our skins, as that wonderful poet Yeats put it 'now a horse, now an ass, now a bull, now a goat, now an eagle'!  Of course whatever shape we take looks most sleek and beautiful, usually in black.  We like to keep it classy.
"November is really our time to shine you know, people used to leave us presents by the hills before that pesky St. Patrick and all his saints come marching in!  Anyway, present! Phooka's love presents! And parties and jests and all sorts of merriment!  For instance, it's most wonderful laugh for us to take the form of a horse and entice some silly soul to climb up on our backs and then ZOOM!  We take them off on the wildest ride they've ever had in their whole life! And then - Ha HA!  We drop them terrified and confused right in in a ditch or a swamp!  You should see the looks on their faces! HA HA HA HA!  Why aren't you laughing?  Don't you think it a good jest?  My cousin once flew that adventurer Daniel O'Rourke clear to the moon he did for sleeping under that walls of his castle!  And we phookas have more in our repertoire than just that!
"My uncle once brought this lad that only knew how to play one tune on the pipes up to a grand party at the fairy hill and put a spell on his pipes so that he could play finer than any musician in Galway!  The fairy women paid the lad with gold coins and a gander him a new set of pipes!
Well, when the lad went home and tried to play the knew set of pipes it sounded like the honks and whistles of a bunch of geese!  And the next day the golden coins had turned to old leaves!  HA HA HA! What a lark!  but the lad must have learned something because when he went to play his old pipes again he made the most beautiful music anyone had ever heard.

"So you see, we're not all bad.  And you won't spoil this little joke to Miss Jabberwock, now will you?  There's a sport!  Say, perhaps you'd like to come to a party with me tonight?"



Special Thanks to David AWA Photography!
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Resources:

Froud, Brian and Alan Lee. Fairies. Print.

Keightley, Thomas.  The Fairy Mythology.  London: Bradbury and Evans, 1850. pg 371. GoogleBooks. Web. 3 April 2015.

Yeats, W.B.  Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland. New York: Touchstone, 1998. Print.