Fairies have many origin stories, but before we can embark on learning about them we have to do a lot of unlearning. These stories feel right emotionally but they are comfortable half-truths, they make sense mythically but ignore evidence and reason.

Fairies are not an ancient race-memory of indigenous British people. This theory was crafted by Margaret Murray, whose wild and high-flown notions of invention created current neo-paganism. This notion also was not aided by Marion Zimmer-Bradley's work The Mists of Avalon. The theory is that Fairies were driven into the hills by the Saxons or Christians, pick your poison and began living in caves and underground, hunting with poison darts. The people who believe this, it explains why Fairies cannot abide Iron, because these were a pre-Iron Age people and that was a symbol of the conquerors. This is a splendid idea because it makes fairies real and living, yanking them out of tales into life, molding them into people - and our favorite kind of people, an oppressed indigenous one.

There are issues with this however, because there is absolutely zero supporting evidence for this in any way, shape or form. Oops. This is so wonderfully convenient because it leaves everyone to wish as they may - those ancient British didn't write anything down and so, we know absolutely nothing and as mentioned before, we love filling in the gaps.

The half-truth in this favorite concoction of a tale is that all British Isles cultures (and some northern European ones as well) associated the Fairies with neolithic sites; stone circles, henge monuments and barrow tombs. People had no idea who had built such things but were smart enough to realize that they must have been very different from themselves. Fairies fit this description in every way possible. In Ireland this became associated with ancestor belief but in England it was about buried treasure and Fairies hoarding it. But I digress.

The second notion that needs to be unlearned is that all fairies are good and twee. They are not tiresome little winged things who grant wishes and fly. The belief of the goodness of fairies has snuck into neopaganism as well, to give it a good name. Actually fairies are an invention that completely lack any moral engagement whatsoever. There are rules in stories with fairies, but they apply to the humans who interact with them and they exist for reasons of self-preservation. Rather than good or bad, fairies are simply and plainly dangerous.