In terms of classical monsters or mythic beings fairies get the least amount of airplay. Vampires dominate center stage, zombies are pretty well represented in the modern world, werewolves, and mages get their grove on also. Yetfairies, they’re rare. Also in the abovelist of beings, interms of literature and films, they are usually always portrayed as being of the European persuasion (well, in the zombie world we go rainbow coalition and we get some ‘voodoo’ priests thrown in sometimes). And let’s be honest, you ain’t never read about or seen a fairy of color.

The stereotype of the fairy is either the pixie-esh Tinkerbell, type or the pale, thin, vulcan eared court fairy type. Both are rooted in Anglo-folklore and mythology. If you would have “them” tell the story original indigenous people worldwide don’t have any of their own stories about “wee folk.” And people often forget to include the whole sprectrum of the fairie world that includes hairy dwaves, troll/ogres/giants and elemental spiritis.

What is funny is that even the European stories of the wee folk are influenced by Original People. The Twa, also known as the Pygmies of Africa, traveled world wide. They are also known as the Negritos who traveled throughout South East Asia into Indonesia (the recent discovery of the ‘hobbit’ skeletons on some of the Indonesian islands). Also pygmy like remains have been found in all of the Americas. This is documented in “African Presence in Early
Europe”, “African Presence in Early America”, and also “The Spiral Dance.” The above books point to the fact that there was a cross over period in European history where pygmies lived in proximity to the taller human. And the taller humans probably had a hand in ther demise yet they lived on in memory.

This crossover probably happened all over the world. In some places the pygmies retreated, in other areas they were whiped out, and in some areas they just disappeared. The stories of their existence being passed down from generation to generation until no one remembered exactly what they were. And thus fairies became memories.

And memories are mutable. They are dreams. They are essence. In some stories the fairies are the fallen angels who didn’t fight against God yet didn’t fight for him either. In other stories they are the land dreaming of man before the creation of man. In some areas they are degenerative deities or the children of deities after man has stopped believing in gods.

In the purest form fairies are the essence of dreams. With colonialism and imperialism, slavery
and genocide the dreams of Original people have been robed from them. With only fairies drapped in European garb one starts to think that only white people are allowed to dream. We just have to remember that our dreams are hidden. They are wandering in the recesses of our minds. We have to remember the right words to coax them out. We’ve always had fairies.

Continued in Lunewing (pg 15)