Faeries in the Garden


A note on the use of the word F-A-E-R-I-E

the word 'fey' and 'faerie' comes from the French and started to replace the Old English 'elf' during the Tudor period. Spenser and shakerspeare popularised the change. 'Elfland' and Faerisland', 'Elf' and 'Faerie' were and are still interchangedable words. The spellings of 'faerie' are numerous: fayerye, fairye, fayre, faerie, faery. In this book Faerie refers to the word of Faerie as an entity (noun), as an geographical location, as a general name for its inhabitants (faerie, faeries) and as an odjective to describe its attributes, e.g., faerie music. Faery (faerie) is applied to a particular, diminutive, generally female species of Faeries; or when the spelling is common usage, e.g. fairy Tool, a hill, Yellow Fairy Club, a toadstool; or if used in a source question.


Described and Illustrated by
Brian Froud and Alan Lee

edited and Designed by
David Brkin

FAERIES


THE PANSY is the 'littlewestern flower' that was used as a love potion by Oberon. The pansy that grew in Elizabethan England was the litte viola tricolor, loved equally by the common man and by faeries. It had many country names such as 'Tickle my Fancy; ' Pink of my John; Three faces under a hood; Love in idleness' but 'Heart's Ease' was the most common.

BLUEBELL another popular flower which is filled with danger is the BLUEBELL. The Scotish name for the plant is 'Deadmen's Bells' for to hear the ring of a Bluebell is to hear one's death knell. The Bluebellis one of the most potent of all faerie flowers, and a bluebell of faerie-woven spells and enchantments.

Act V The tempest

William Shakespeare

COWSLIPS flowers have alwasys been an intertwined link between the human world and faeriesand all the special ckanges of the faeries. Cowslips in particular are loved and guarded by faeries. These are distinguished by their power to find hidden faerie gold and are also known as 'Culver's Keys'(keys to unlock the way to treasure)in the West of Gngland. Where the bee sucks there suck I, in a cowslip's bell I lie. ARIEL

PRIMROSE boast a unique power-they make the invisible visble and to eat them ia a sure way to see faeries. If one touches a faerie rock with the correct number of primroses in a posy, the way is opened to faerie gifts, but the wrong number opens the door to doom.

WILD THYME bees, which are considered to be messengers of the Gods, have a particular fondness foe this blossom. 'To see the Faeries' a brew must be concocted including Wild Thyme 'the tops of which must be gathered near the side of a will where the faeries use to be oft, and the grass of a faerie throne.'

FOXGLOVE denies its name from 'Little Folks-glove; for the florets are worn by faeries, sometimes as hats, sometimes as gloves. Another name often attributed to the flower is 'Goblin's Thimbles! Not, perhaps, in apt, considering that the Foxglove coutains digitalis, a heart stimulant and source of wild, dark excitement that goblins bring.


HAZEL NUT in Celtic legend was the receptacle of knowledge. Addifionally, in England, the hazelnut has always been a fertility symbol.

FOUR LEAF CLOVER will break a faerie spell.

RAGWORT and Rye-grass are used by faeries as make-shift horse. John Aubrey in the 17th century atates that 'Horse and Hattock' were the magic words to make the stems fly.

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