Fairies, The Fary Race

[Richard Bercot]

?Irish Cures, Mystics Charms & Superstitions? by Lady Wilde

Sprites and Spirits

The Leprehaun

The little gray Leprehaun has the secret of hidden gold, and by the power of a certain herb he can discover it and thus become master of unlimited wealth. But no one has ever yet obtained from the tricksy little sprite the name of the herb or the words of the charm which reveal the hidden treasure, only the Leprehaun has the knowledge.

There are also herbs of grace to be gathered on May morning which give wealth to him who knows the proper form of incantation; but if he reveals the mystery he dies. So the adepts keep the secret, being afraid of the doom. Yet the peasantry still make constant efforts to find the hidden gold, and many curious rites are practiced by them to obtain a knowledge of the mystic herbs.

[Aaediwen]

you know the source I will quote by now =) Don't feel like writing it? click the link in my sig and go to the lore page. Excellent site.

[Aon_Daonna]

Irish mythology and the way "Faerie, Faery, Fairy (etc)" are viewed reminds me alot of Iceland.
I have visited Iceland once and it can happen that on a perfectly straight road, which could go on straight, the road just suddenly makes a bow around something which you can't see. Supposedly there is a faerie house.. that's what the locals told me.

In Germany there is something called "Die Wilde Jagd" (the wild hunt) which people whisper to each other that the wild hunt is on it's way again, when there is mist around and you can see the mist being blown about by the wind.
It's when nobody wants to go out because the wild hunt is known to take people from time to time..

[Richard Bercot]

?Irish Cures, Mystics Charms & Superstitions? by Lady Wilde

Sprites and Spirits

The Demon Bride

The ancient churchyard of Truagh, County Monaghan, is said to be haunted by an evil spirit, whose appearance generally forebodes death.

The legend runs that at funerals the spirit watches for the person who remains last in the graveyard. If it be a young man who is there alone, the spirit takes the form of a beautiful your girl, inspires him with an ardent passion, and exacts a promise that he will meet her that day month in the churchyard. The promise is then sealed by a kiss, which sends a fatal fire through his veins, so that he is unable to resist her caresses, and makes the promise required. Then she disappears, and the young man proceeds homewards; but no sooner has he passed the boundary wall of the churchyard, than the whole story of the evil spirit rushes on his mind, and he knows that he has sold himself, soul and body, for a demon?s kiss. The terror and dismay take hold of him, till despair becomes insanity, and on the very day month fixed for the meeting with the demon bride, the victim dies the death of a raving lunatic, and is laid in the fatal graveyard of Truagh.

But the evil spirit does not limit its operations to the graveyard; for sometimes the beautiful demon form appears at weddings or festivities and never fails to secure its victims, by dancing them into the fever that maddens the brain, and too surely ends in death.

[Annabelle]

I'll make sure this evil spirit isn't invited to my son's wedding this year.

A

[celticwoodsman]

with the concept of faries there are those (predominantly at ren. faires) who honestly believe that they are fairie kin, now the wuestion that I have is that is there a possibility that there are such things as kin? There are some people that you meet that are very high spirited and have that "form" if you will that is naturally convincing to believe that they are members of so nymph or fairie race....Be it on a spiritual level or otherly psychological level, some even believe that they themselves can be harmed with iron (as silver to lycanthropes). Is there any evidence of this in Irish belief or is this just another fancy of those who play Role Playing games....who just can't accept reality as it is?