Fetch

And so finally we arrive at entrance of the Unseelie Courts. Looks fun, don’t it?

As with my treatment of Ancient Greek mythology, I will be taking some liberties with the myths and folklore of Ireland and Scotland. So don’t expect a strict adherence to received legend. Writers tend to draw loosely from the world bank of mythos, and from the research I have done this year it seems like they love to take what little they find among the Celts and go wild with it. Benign gods become malignant. Obscure faeries rise in stature, then turn evil. Yet writers always treat this material with respect, if not always reverence. I am known, as is Fetch, to be a bit more irreverent; however, I love this stuff — it is weird, funny, subversive, and full of imagination. I plan to be very respectful, even as I strive to veer away from traditional depictions and stereotypes of the genre.

In that spirit, one of my favorite resources has been Morgan Daimler’s Fairies: A Guide to the Celtic Fair Folk. Daimler writes from a pagan perspective, so she takes it as given that faeries do indeed walk among us when not in the Otherworld. I am not pagan, but I love and respect those who are; and scholars like Daimler are invaluable in researching this material. Whether you’re pagan or not, I recommend reading her book. It’s a fun and intelligent survey of the Otherworld, and goes a bit against imperialist tendencies, especially among Christian scholars, to portray all faeries as demonic unless they serve our anthropocentric ends.