Fairy

Fairies are according to Roman and Celtic folk tale ghostly, gifted with higher forces mythical creatures, which can be both female and male. Concept and name evolved from the Roman goddesses of fate, the Fata ( cf. Parzen ), Latin Fatua, Italian fata, Spanish hada, French Fée. In the German poetry of the Middle Ages they occur under the name Feien or Fine and mythological are related to the so-called white women and the Norns. In Slavic countries they are known as Wilen, in insular Celtic as Sidhe.

Characteristics

As this Fates occur the fairies first mostly in the number three, isolated in the seven- and number twelve on. You have the gift of making himself invisible, live in rocky canyons where they delight down growing children with their gifts, and appear in newborns whose fate they determine. They are also asking for sponsors, prepares them seat of honor at the table, etc. Their close interconnection with the fate is thus understandable that the French word fairy was originally derived from Latin, from fatua ( fortune teller ) and fatum ( fate ). But even that derived from the Roman word Fei might have had interest in the naming, recognizable names such as Merfei and Waldfei. From Fei also the word is derived immune, which referred to the inviolability and invincibility against the feeischen magic.

Fairies are described mainly as cheerful, very nice and never aging and beyond considered auspicious. All this reflects the fact that the fairies symbolize the good principle by its very nature.

On the other hand, the fairies appear ( especially in the Celtic folk tale ) as female elemental spirits who live in forests, rocks, caves, springs and waters, maintain prefers the dance, betrayed its track, the so-called Feenringe ( cercles des fées ), and not rarely by the mortals, their linen washing, can be seen.

It is quite certain that the idea of the Fates and the Matrones, the mother deities, with those from the field spirits, the Campestres or Agrestes Feminae, joined. As a field spirits all nymphs, dryads and similar previously summarized. In addition, it is ensured that the names of the Latin writers of the Middle Ages for the fairies, terms such as felices Dominae bonae, mulieres or Dominae nocturnae, to other figures were applied from traditions, such as the Wild Women.

Fairies in poetry and literature

Even now remember in the former and current residences of the Celts numerous legends and names of localities with the fairies. After the Crusades had made the West aware of the ruling in the East in Persians and Arabs ideas of Peris and jinn, then developed, preferably in conjunction with the Celtic conceptions, a literary- poetic conception of the fairy realm, which in course of time to the most individual was trained.

Particularly important for the knowledge of this world of fairies, who had received their poetic credentials already in the legend of Lancelot of the Lake, is the French novel Huon de Bordeaux, which Fable Christoph Martin Wieland used for his Oberon. Since the fairies were part of the romantic poetry of Christian chivalry, and Torquato Tasso in his Jerusalem Delivered even made ​​an attempt to bring these spiritual means essence of Christianity and paganism in a poetic harmony.

Feenreiche

After the amounts painted by the poets scenes there were particularly three Feenreiche: Avalon, the fabled island where Morgana lived; a kingdom in the interior of the earth with magnificent palaces, which is described most clearly in the English novel Orfeo and Heurodis, and one in wilds and forests, especially in the large, say brocéliande famous forest in Brittany. Numerous ancient castles are mentioned as favorite places of the fairies. Edmund Spenser glorified in his poem The Faery Queen in the Fairy Queen also allegorically the glory of Queen Elizabeth I.

Good and evil fairies

Spenser's Faerie are in whole or that of the old romance, but later enters a divorce the same in terms of their character out. While the good fairies, than which be named Esterelle, Maliure and Melusine, forever beautiful and young, all female arts masters were good and noble and their magical powers always apply Deten for good, showed the evil, which included particularly Karabossa and Fanferlüsch, of all the opposite, and their power was often greater. However could no fairy the repeal, which had a different cast, but only to counteract it.

Fairy tales

This struggle between good and evil fairies usually forms the content of the fairy tale, the, mostly oriental origin, in the last quarter of the 17th century in Europe came to the agenda and were especially popular in France since 1681. Charles Perrault's Contes de ma mère l' Oye (1697 ) and Marie -Catherine d' Aulnoys Contes des fées ( 1698 ) found as much applause that Antoine Galland had the idea that oriental pattern of the genus ( Arabian Nights ) in the French translate, and a lot of imitators tried their hand at this type of seal. The principal of the fairy tales you can find collected in the Cabinet des fées (Paris 1785-89, 41 volumes). The zeal of Nicolas Boileau and his pupils against these tales did not diminish the popularity of the genre. In Germany it was made by Christoph Martin Wieland's particular collection Dschinnistan a wide public. Eventually, however, the supersaturation aroused disgust and Count Antoine Hamilton satirised in Contes the entire genre. In our time the fairies occur only in children's stories.

In the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm fairy play only sporadically a role, particularly in Sleeping Beauty. Charles Perrault's Cendrillon Unlike comes in Grimm Cinderella no fairy. In E.T.A. Hoffmann Klein Zaches, called cinnabar are the fairies banished by the enlightened ruler in nunneries. For Peter Pan fairy Tinkerbell is an important companion. Otfried Preußler Punch succeeds in robber Hotzenplotz the redemption of an enchanted fairy. In Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio a fairy plays a crucial role, as in the animated television series Mr. Rossi seeks happiness.