tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post5645526157515403342..comments2024-03-27T06:42:26.250-07:00Comments on Seven Miles of Steel Thistles: Tiny FairiesKatherine Langrishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-35019478745386824172020-08-15T13:53:32.823-07:002020-08-15T13:53:32.823-07:00Amanda and Jane, thanks for your comments. No reas...Amanda and Jane, thanks for your comments. No reason why fairies should not be able to change size, but I don't think I know of any folkloric accounts which suggest that - though some, like Puck, many change into other shapes. Literature of course is full of it - in fact in Anodos' first encounter with his fairy great-grandmother, she appears as a tiny little woman before assuming human stature. Jane - maybe you're right! Katherine Langrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-5195455788268854382020-08-13T03:34:26.637-07:002020-08-13T03:34:26.637-07:00Didn't the anti-small-fairy league get its mai...Didn't the anti-small-fairy league get its main boost from Tolkien's comments in 'On Fairy-Tales'? It wouldn't surprise me in the case of panellists at the World Fantasy Convention, certainly.Janehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16059206058590350418noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-63664534202905897362020-08-13T02:51:55.151-07:002020-08-13T02:51:55.151-07:00Particularly excellent post - with fascinating Eli...Particularly excellent post - with fascinating Elidor detail. I should have guessed you would be a fellow-fan of George Macdonald. The Richard Dadd paintings v different from tinselly Victoriana... but maybe a spot of parricide stopped that! My feeling is that fairies, like Milton’s Satan, can change size.Amandahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15428693013132917947noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-62758809543581362922016-05-19T11:53:36.373-07:002016-05-19T11:53:36.373-07:00I shall look forward very much to that, Candy!
I shall look forward very much to that, Candy!<br />Katherine Langrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-78471032712712369742016-05-19T04:31:21.166-07:002016-05-19T04:31:21.166-07:00Fantastic stuff! You've made me want to write ...Fantastic stuff! You've made me want to write a story about the little magical folk who are still very much believed in in most parts of my native Philippines. I'll add it to my to do list! Candy Gourlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07802791643303335762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-89766252842863053912016-05-18T19:06:04.429-07:002016-05-18T19:06:04.429-07:00A wonderful post, thank you!A wonderful post, thank you!Laura Morriganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16402692693911867276noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-2404687268213349932016-05-18T08:35:57.601-07:002016-05-18T08:35:57.601-07:00Georgina - Terry Pratchett is as always wonderful ...Georgina - Terry Pratchett is as always wonderful and certainly enjoyed himself with Magrat's sentimental take on his very creepy fairies! I think one can enjoy the Flower Fairies and their like at the appropriate age; but I agree with Susan Price that to rewrite the Norse myths into airy-fairy sweetness isn't on. There's room for all these things. I don't personally like Drayton and his friends' flower fairies all that much: some of the whimsy becomes actually pornographic - but that's another story. My point was that by no means all Victorian flower fairies are twee - Macdonald's mostly aren't - but tastes change. Some day people may look back at current fantasy's fashionable teenage fairies and wonder what on earth we were doing...Katherine Langrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-54956855108321453972016-05-18T04:51:39.304-07:002016-05-18T04:51:39.304-07:00You always find such beautiful pictures, Kath! Lov...You always find such beautiful pictures, Kath! Lovely post. Reminds me of my mum telling me dandelion seeds were 'sugar stealers' - a type of fairy pet, obviously!Katherine Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-25156984759357351062016-05-18T03:04:31.009-07:002016-05-18T03:04:31.009-07:00Great post, as ever.
I knew that the idea of tiny ...Great post, as ever.<br />I knew that the idea of tiny fairies existed long before the Victorians, though I think the size of fairies and 'household gods' such as the Brownies decreased as Christianity gained ground and the old beliefs were disparaged. The 'Billy Blind' or Brownie who 'starts up at the bed's foot,' for instance, doesn't seem to be small.<br /><br />What I've always disliked about Victorian fairies is the tweeness, the inky-pinkiness of fairies who tip-toe about painting the tips of daisy petals pink. (Though I appreciate the point made by other posters that this was an excellent way of drawing childrens' attention to the detail of flowers.)<br /><br />I once read a Victorian version of the Norse Myths where Freyr was described as the god in charge of the light elves, and who set them to hanging dew-drops on the flowers. Grue!<br /><br />Not the immense power of life, death, decay and rebirth - not the power that drives salmon upriver or pumps water thirty feet up an oak-tree - but just tiptoing about doing little decorative jobs. I think this is belittlement; and it's this I dislike.Susan Pricehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07738737493756183909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-53164338784610045262016-05-18T02:14:05.674-07:002016-05-18T02:14:05.674-07:00What a wonderful post! Have you read Diane Purkiss...What a wonderful post! Have you read Diane Purkiss's book on fairies (I'm sure you have, I think you've read everything)? She's a small-fairy hater, for the sentimentality rather than the smallness, and Shakespeare, if I remember rightly, gets the blame for that.<br /><br />I was completely entranced by the Flower Fairy books as a child; didn't care for the poems but the pictures taught me, like your commenters above, how to identify so many plants. Surely there's room for the charming as well as the wild?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-12444045865918254372016-05-17T17:43:33.799-07:002016-05-17T17:43:33.799-07:00My mother bought me a C.M. Barker Flower Fairy boo...My mother bought me a C.M. Barker Flower Fairy book every year for my birthday. I still own the set, and long before I could appreciate poetry I was enamored of the fairy creatures. I learned the names of flowers and plants that way, and still refer to them as an adult. It's sad that others feel that diminutive, detailed, and dainty is only for children. Great post!abetterjuliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18355327960522969685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-64867467301607028962016-05-17T05:39:03.593-07:002016-05-17T05:39:03.593-07:00Isn't it in Terry Pratchett's Lords & ...Isn't it in Terry Pratchett's Lords & Ladies where Magrat Garlick (otherwise relatively sensible) thinks of fairies as nice and kind and gently, and Nanny Ogg & Granny Weatherwax struggle to convince her otherwise? Margrat soon discovers the truth about fairies and has quite a fight on her hands to keep the kingdom and her husband out of the clutches of a very nasty fairy queen.<br /><br />On to a completely different type of fairy: I was brought up on Cicely Mary Barker's flower fairy books. I loved them for the all the detail that you could see in the child fairies' clothing. I once met someone who as a very small boy was one of CMB's models. I gather she made the costumes and dressed the children to look as like the plants as possible. The images are very good at showing lots of tiny details that a child might not otherwise notice in a plant or tree. And I'm sure they taught me a lot. It is a shame that now these books are out of copyright (at least I suppose they must be) there is so much flower fairy tat on offer. The china figurines are particularly "tasteful". We never read the accompanying poetry.Georginahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13232154028235485600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-49468641298331994992016-05-17T04:54:39.261-07:002016-05-17T04:54:39.261-07:00Yes, you're quite right about Rachel! - an una...Yes, you're quite right about Rachel! - an unanswerable excuse for remaining firmly seated.<br /><br />With regard to the 'true' size of Titania and Oberon, they seem shrink and grow according to the imagery rather as Mr Toad can drive a motor car but fit into Ratty's river-bank hole too. Which I think is charming. 'Such power hath strong imagination'! Katherine Langrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-21679382283763062922016-05-17T04:30:42.638-07:002016-05-17T04:30:42.638-07:00Thanks for this delightful post! And it's true...Thanks for this delightful post! And it's true that Shakespeare had some tiny fairies, although I have to wonder whether they can make themselves big or small because Titania is big enough to seduce Bottom, isn't she? And she has a human changeling. Does she make the boy and Bottom small or does she enlarge herself when necessary? As for Mercutio, I always thought that was just a typical Mercutio bit of whimsy - but it would have been taken from a rural idea of the Good Folk, I suppose...<br /><br />I always assumed Rachel was claiming to have her period when she said to excuse her for not getting up? Anyway, an interesting idea about the connection between household gods and small fairies. I think I found something like that years ago when I was researching my first book, about monsters and creatures of the night. Sue Bursztynskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09362273418897882971noreply@blogger.com