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The Irish Sídhe
Newly posted from Ruth at Celtic Myth Podshow:
Numbers of fairy hills and sepulchral carns are scattered over the country, each with a bright palace deep underneath, ruled by its own chief, the tutelary deity. They are still regarded as fairy haunts, and are held in much superstitious awe by the peasantry.
The fairies possessed great preternatural powers. They could make themselves invisible to some persons standing by, while visible to others: as Pallas showed herself to Achilles, while remaining invisible to the other Greeks (Iliad, 1.). But their powers were exercised much oftener for evil than for good. They were consequently dreaded rather than loved; and whatever worship or respect was paid to them was mainly intended to avert mischief. It is in this sense that they are now often called ‘Good people.’
How Grimms’ Fairy Tales Changed
Hannah Keyser at mental_floss suggests five ways Grimms’ Fairy Tales changed after the first edition. Of particular interest to me (naturally) was how faeries in the first edition got recast:
In the first edition, the harbingers of magic were almost always fairies—unsurprising in the Fairytale genre. But during the time that the Grimms worked, the Napoleonic wars saw French occupation of much of German-speaking Europe. Somewhere along the line, they decided to stop using the French term “fairy”—or sometimes “faerie”—and instead replace each instance with some other vaguely mystical being. For example, in Rapunzal the fairy became a sorceress, and in Briar Rose, better known as Sleeping Beauty, the fairies are changed into wise women.
My guess is the brothers Grimm got a nasty visit from something that told them the word “faery” isn’t exactly PC.
Sunday Inspiration: Togetherness
If you want to go quickly, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.
—African Proverb
The Wisdom of Fairy Tales
Humeira Kazmi at The Nation conducted an informal survey of parents and children about their opinions of fairy tales. Apparently, the little ones really are paying attention to those old stories, and it seems they’ve got them right.
My best comment came from an eight-year-old:
“Fairy tales are like lessons that tell us about what will happen in the real world so we don’t get lost or killed. Fairy tales use princesses and princes to tell you stuff that can help you guide through the real world. But it doesn’t have to be in a kingdom or a palace, like Little Red Riding Hood doesn’t have a princess but it tells you not to talk to strangers.”
You can’t beat that kind of wisdom.
Best News I’ve Heard All Day
The SciFi Syfy network will be dropping wrestling!
In bad news for the channel yet extremely good news for its science fiction-loving fans, Syfy lost the rights to air WWE wrestling programs in 2016. WWE Smackdown will head to Syfy’s fellow NBCUniversal network USA. And if we’re very lucky, they might just replace it with science fiction. Crazy, right?
The Lowdown on Sirens
Janie Bill has posted a great description of the sirens of Greek mythology over at Fantasy-Faction. I didn’t realize they got their human legs back.
Sunday Inspiration: Love
Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.
—Fred Rogers
Sunday Inspiration: The Purpose of Life
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Amazon Customer Reviews
Amazon has refined its system for customer reviews, as Nate Hoffelder describes in her latest post:
It’s always been easy to post a review on Amazon; simply jot down a few sentences, select a star rating, and you’re done. It’s so easy to post a review, in fact, that it’s also easy to miss important details.
That doesn’t help readers, and it doesn’t help Amazon, which is why Amazon has added more options. In addition to the star rating, Amazon has added extra dropdown menus which invite reviewers to describe the quality of the writing, the amount of sex and violence in the book, and other details….
All in all, this is a good move on the part of Amazon. I’m sure I’m not the only reader who has put down a book in frustration with the writing style, tone, or amount of extraneous sex or violence. By offering specific prompts for these areas of concern, Amazon is helping readers make more informed decisions.
In other words, now would be an excellent time to leave a review of Children of Pride or The Devil’s Due! 🙂
Darrell J. Pursiful 