The Existence of Faeries?

[mtoddm]

I’ve been listening to a lecture series (Peter Kreeft’s) on St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, good stuff!

One of his philosophical deductions is the existence of God of course, but then from that he deduces the existence of Angels – since from observed Nature, there is a gradation of created things from inanimate objects, up through simple plants, simple animals, all the way up to the more complex and intelligent animals, and then finally to Man – he considers it reasonable to assume that the spirit world is the same, and that God is at the highest and has no peer, and that there must be a gradation and levels of spiritual beings between Man and God, and that there is no uniformity and homogeneity when it comes to spirit beings–

This is intriguing to me, as while providing justification (independent of Scripture) for the belief in high spirit beings such as what we traditionally call Angels and Archangels, this also seems to give some possibility of “lower” simpler spirit beings, further down the strata and closer to Men, but still advanced by virtue of their nature, as Men surpass Apes –

I guess what I’m thinking is that since all indigenous cultures the world over have ever had some sort of belief in various types of spirit beings, semi-substantial and interacting with the physical world though not entirely of it, such as found in myths and legends of elves, gnomes, faeries, leprechauns, pwca, Sidhe, undines, sylphs, nereids, nymphs etc., (and I suppose ghosts and other phantoms fit in there somewhere), maybe there is some small kernel of truth in there, and these are those “lower” angels – more attached to earth than heaven, in varying degrees, perhaps given purview over certain aspects of Nature, trees, plants, animals, rivers, oceans, mountains etc., similar to how each one of us has an guardian angel -

Tolkien once wrote that since the love between the Father and the Son is not just abstract Love, but becomes manifest in another Person, the Holy Spirit, God’s individual love for each of us becomes personified in our guardian angel – perhaps the same is true with each of his created things, not just people

I was reading on it and cultures far removed from each other have strikingly similar beliefs and mythologies which include such creatures - Australian natives, African tribes, Native Americans, Eskimos, Asians, Greeks, etc. and of course Europe, the Celtic lands etc. it appears to be a universal element in all folk traditions -

However when I delve too deeply into the literature, it swiftly becomes too “New Age” sounding, and drifts into Theosophism, witchcraft etc… so maybe it’s more of a demon connection, than an angel connection, or both…?

Any thoughts or insights?

—todd
catholicsojourner.blogspot.com

 

[EnchantedEve]

I agree with your evaluation. Your reflection of St. Thomas is insightful to this idea, and in the perennial Tradition, the view is often held that widespread, diseperate traditions which all point to the same idea indicate that the idea is true or was once true. In other words, the same spark of God, the Holy Ghost in most cases, inspires us with a spiritual intuitive knowledge of “what is visible and invisible.” We believe because we already know, not knowing because we believe. This is the error of the atheist, that we must know before we believe. All knowledge already is within us, we simply lost our inate ability to see it at the Fall (as Abbot Weisinger pointed out, in varying degrees, in Occult Phenomena). Our knowledge is now about discovery and “parting the veil” so to speak, to see what is already there. These are no real scientific “advancements” or “inventions,” because man is merely finding what always was but did not see. Prior to the Fall, this duality did not exist.

To a certain extent, the myths of old may hold some truth in them, to what degree we do not yet know. However, the possibility that faeries, gnomes, elves, etc. all exist is highly possible, the veil may just need to be lifted from our eyes and hearts to see them, as we would do with any other Truth. Remember, science would not be possible if scientists did not BELIEVE there was more out there to discover. Belief is the foundation of all true understanding.

Believe and find my friend!

 

[David_FW]

I’ve been reading some of the accounts by the Vatican Exorcists, in particular Father Amorth, and one of the things he points out is that in his experience, (and those of all the other Exorcists he works with and has known), there really are only angelic beings. They are hierarchical as we know, and even in their fallen states (demons) they retain those hierarchies (thrones, dominions, archangels, etc.). It is his opinion, from vast experience that faeries and leprachauns, if they exist, are demons and not some sub-group of spiritual entities. He does not rule out the idea that God could alow the spirit of a dead human to appear on earth, but the key is that God is in charge and none of this can happen or occur without His will or approval.

 

[EnchantedEve]

He does not rule out the idea that God could alow the spirit of a dead human to appear on earth, but the key is that God is in charge and none of this can happen or occur without His will or approval.

Is this not true of everything?

 

[EnchantedEve]

I’ve been reading some of the accounts by the Vatican Exorcists, in particular Father Amorth, and one of the things he points out is that in his experience, (and those of all the other Exorcists he works with and has known), there really are only angelic beings. They are hierarchical as we know, and even in their fallen states (demons) they retain those hierarchies (thrones, dominions, archangels, etc.). It is his opinion, from vast experience that faeries and leprachauns, if they exist, are demons and not some sub-group of spiritual entities. He does not rule out the idea that God could alow the spirit of a dead human to appear on earth, but the key is that God is in charge and none of this can happen or occur without His will or approval.

I would also add that if such creatures exist, they, in my opinion, would not be angelic beings, fallen or otherwise. This would put them on a higher plane than humans, and from accounts I have read, there is no evidence to indicate this would be the case. If anything, they would be lower level humanoid creatures, with varying strengths and weaknesses, but certainly would not emulate us in dignity and stature, much less surpass us. Just my thought.

The Irish, however, thought the Faerie folk, leprachauns I believe included, to have the power of posession, which may give Fr. Amorth a leg to stand on in this case. In Celtic lore, Faeries did have a malignant and even malicious reputation. Again, the plane is open to speculation. A similar idea existed in Sicilian/Neapolitan faerie covens, and to a lesser extent, Chinese legend. I do not recall a parallel idea in Germanic and Scandinavian lore, though someone here may know more on that score than I.

 

[mtoddm]

I agree with your evaluation. Your reflection of St. Thomas is insightful to this idea, and in the perennial Tradition, the view is often held that widespread, diseperate traditions which all point to the same idea indicate that the idea is true or was once true. In other words, the same spark of God, the Holy Ghost in most cases, inspires us with a spiritual intuitive knowledge of “what is visible and invisible.” We believe because we already know, not knowing because we believe. This is the error of the atheist, that we must know before we believe. All knowledge already is within us, we simply lost our inate ability to see it at the Fall (as Abbot Weisinger pointed out, in varying degrees, in Occult Phenomena). Our knowledge is now about discovery and “parting the veil” so to speak, to see what is already there. These are no real scientific “advancements” or “inventions,” because man is merely finding what always was but did not see. Prior to the Fall, this duality did not exist.

To a certain extent, the myths of old may hold some truth in them, to what degree we do not yet know. However, the possibility that faeries, gnomes, elves, etc. all exist is highly possible, the veil may just need to be lifted from our eyes and hearts to see them, as we would do with any other Truth. Remember, science would not be possible if scientists did not BELIEVE there was more out there to discover. Belief is the foundation of all true understanding.

Believe and find my friend!

Eve, I really do appreciate your comments, and I will have to check out perennialism, and the Abbot Weisinger you referred to

• I agree that widespread general and independent belief in the same thing must point to something Real - I am not convinced that the beings themselves exist exactly as folk knowledge has portrayed them, I’m certain they are not like that, but there is something Deeper to be found there - God’s Creation is richer and more mysterious than we could ever dream, and in our modern era of scientific empirical method much of the mystery and depth of our universe has been stripped away, and most people take for granted that this is the way the world in fact is

We may all be hemmed in thickly on all sides by beings for which we have no sense knowledge - but we all have other senses that our physical, only fallen sadly into disuse

But on the other hand, all this can be dangerous if we seek to “commune” with these unknown creatures, but then as Catholics we are taught to prayer to our guardian angels, so there has to be some balance - for me it is enough to know that walking through a beautiful nature setting there may be the presence of Others, who in their own way love God’s creation, and commune in a special way with it, and give it that certain charm that a simply empty senseless setting full of non-sentient material “organisms” cannot possess - the ancients must have sense such things, and mistakenly worshipped the things as gods, but there is indeed Truth there - some deep memory of a cleaner, blessed time is tapped, and there blows a gentle breeze from some distant forgotten place - some have called it Faerie, and it may simply be a longing for that Garden where we first opened our eyes as a race -

—toddcatholicsojourner.blogspot.com

 

[David_FW]

Is this not true of everything?

Absolutely it is, dear sister. And that gives me great comfort. I would be very uncomfortable if there were a lot of malevolent spirit beings running around helter skelter without our Father’s knowledge and permission. Having said that, I don’t feel the need to open the door to any of them, other than my Guadian Angel, the Holy Mother and Our Lord etc. It is always fun to speculate though.

 

[StrawberryJam]

When you believe in one supernatural agent, it becomes hard to say there are no other supernatural agents out there I suppose. Why not also believe in unicorns while speculating on all these creatures?

 

[mtoddm]

It is his opinion, from vast experience that faeries and leprachauns, if they exist, are demons and not some sub-group of spiritual entities.

That was the general opinion of those resident Catholic priests of the Celtic lands of yore, who were often true believers in faerie-folk, along with their townspeople. The priests classified the faeries as damned angels, or some other class of beings who did not possess immortal souls - never did they consider them as good angels. Faeries, whether fair-seeming or frightful were never to be trusted.

I can give my own counter-points to my earlier posts, which seem to show a sort of leaning towards faerie-faith - I suppose, like someone said, it is fun to speculate.

However, like St. Thomas Aquinas, we can begin with presuppositions which we know to be true, and deduce a number of conclusions from there - I start with the fact that the Catholic Church has the fullness of revealed Truth about the God of the Universe and of the nature of His Creation.

Now, with that as a starting point, where does this lead us regarding faeries and other such beings?

From my study of the folk beliefs, and the eye witness reports of “faerie sightings”, mainly of the British Isles, there are some consistent and peculiar traits of the faeries. If reports and traditions are to be believed, the faeries are not a charitable folk. They seem to delight in tormenting humans and livestock, blighting crops when angered, playing tricks on unwary travelers etc etc. This seems unbecoming of true Angelic beings united to the Will of God.

Also from the folk knowledge it is said that the faeries have an aversion to religious articles, Holy Water will burn them, crucifixes will scare them away…strangely reminiscent of demon-possessed persons during exorcisms.

In addition, Holy Mother Church gives no word that I know of in 2,000 about these beings, so their importance or even reality must be questioned. I know also of no canonized Saint speaking of the existence of faeries. This is significant to me.

We do know that what folk once thought were evidences of faerie doings, are now clearly explained by natural means. For example, people thought that a ring of mushrooms was where faeries danced during the night. We now know that some mushrooms grow in a ring because of round shape of the fungus root growth underground. Another example is that people who suddenly dropped dead were said to be the victims of “elf-stroke”, a slingshot of flint from a malicious little person. These are thought now to have been likely victims of an aneurysm (“a stroke”), or a heart attack.

Something in the faeries’ favor is their apparent delight in children, and children’s reported natural ability to see faeries. This is more akin to the guardian angel connection, and a token of innocence.
One notable exception is when faeries reported steal newborns and replacement them ugly “changelings”, deformed infant faeries. It is conjectured now that this was the simple folks’ way back then of explaining birth defects and conditions such as Down Syndrome. Unfortunately, some of these infants were killed or abandoned in the forests because they were thought to be actual faerie kin.

It seems that the widespread faerie beliefs one finds in the folk culture of the world do indeed point to something very profound, in the human heart and soul. There is a longing there, and faerie-belief is one outlet in which it is manifested. It is light filtering through many strange lenses, but it is light nonetheless. One must keep one foot well grounded outside before stepping inside a faerie ring. We must see things from the rock-solid perspective of our Faith.

Because we are Fallen as a race, we have experienced a tragic separation from Nature - we were cast out of the Garden, and long to return. Seeing the world around us, the forests, the skies, the oceans, filled with little people, is a manifestation of this longing to commune once again, in a deep way, with the natural world created by the same hand which made us - hence the also widespread stories and tales of talking animals and beasts - we long to “talk” with our fellow creatures, to make friends with them once again - but now only in myths and dreams, and confused and blurred visions

The human mind tends to anthropomorphize what it perceives, and so sees an odd face in the twisted gnarls of a tree’s bark, a smiling man in the Moon, and heroes in the constellations. The world as we see it manifests us as we are and who we long to be. Every little created thing sings a siren song to our heart calling us back home, and we in our own soaring desires sing back that we long to follow and to find…but what we long for we do not exactly know - it eludes us because ultimately it is not in this world

Such was the heart of the ancient pagan before the Light of Christ dawned - graspings at shadows; myth-makings and dreamings - now we can look back at those primitive beliefs and see the old ache for God and an intense longing to return to the Innocence of our origins.

—todd
catholicsojourner.blogspot.com

 

[StrawberryJam]

Very very interesting stuff.

Anything from the Early Fathers to support any of these ideas you hold at the moment?

 

[John_Paul_Jones]

I heard JRR Tolkien based his race of Elves on what was said to be the original notion of Fairies, the Fair Ones, who were of fair complexion, tall and intellegent. Only later did they loose their stature and become mischievous diminutive race of people as they are known now. Galadriel, an Elf (based on Fairies), was more angelic-like than what is describe in most folk-tales.

In the Bible, there are two Angels/Humans in-betweens (a want for a better word), the more frequent ones mentioned are angelophanies where an angel appears in human form, such as Raphael in the Book of Tobit, when he appears to Tobias as his cousin Azarias. Another is the Nephilim. Genesis Gen 6:1-4 “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.” The Nephilim were guilty of titanism or rebelliousness. I don’t the exact theological meaning behind them being mentioned, but I know they are the favorite characters in the Bible for para-normalist - so go figure. The Bible doesn’t mention other extra-dimensional being in-between angels and human beings and distinct from them both. So taken that into consideration mythological people more likely not angels, (they don’t function as angels do in the Bible) nor from a extra-dimensional realm (there’s only the heavens and Earth), but most likely from the imagination.

 

[EnchantedEve]

Absolutely it is, dear sister. And that gives me great comfort. I would be very uncomfortable if there were a lot of malevolent spirit beings running around helter skelter without our Father’s knowledge and permission. Having said that, I don’t feel the need to open the door to any of them, other than my Guadian Angel, the Holy Mother and Our Lord etc. It is always fun to speculate though.

Amen.

 

[EnchantedEve]

That was the general opinion of those resident Catholic priests of the Celtic lands of yore, who were often true believers in faerie-folk, along with their townspeople. The priests classified the faeries as damned angels, or some other class of beings who did not possess immortal souls - never did they consider them as good angels. Faeries, whether fair-seeming or frightful were never to be trusted.

I can give my own counter-points to my earlier posts, which seem to show a sort of leaning towards faerie-faith - I suppose, like someone said, it is fun to speculate.

However, like St. Thomas Aquinas, we can begin with presuppositions which we know to be true, and deduce a number of conclusions from there - I start with the fact that the Catholic Church has the fullness of revealed Truth about the God of the Universe and of the nature of His Creation.

Now, with that as a starting point, where does this lead us regarding faeries and other such beings?

From my study of the folk beliefs, and the eye witness reports of “faerie sightings”, mainly of the British Isles, there are some consistent and peculiar traits of the faeries. If reports and traditions are to be believed, the faeries are not a charitable folk. They seem to delight in tormenting humans and livestock, blighting crops when angered, playing tricks on unwary travelers etc etc. This seems unbecoming of true Angelic beings united to the Will of God.

Also from the folk knowledge it is said that the faeries have an aversion to religious articles, Holy Water will burn them, crucifixes will scare them away…strangely reminiscent of demon-possessed persons during exorcisms.

In addition, Holy Mother Church gives no word that I know of in 2,000 about these beings, so their importance or even reality must be questioned. I know also of no canonized Saint speaking of the existence of faeries. This is significant to me.
catholicsojourner.blogspot.com

I have never read of a saint describing faeries. However, I did read a rather unusual story once in a book I own. Sometime in 1138, in Prussia, a group of monks were working in the monastery wine cellar, trying to determine why their wine was disappearing. Then, they found a small, dark skinned dwarf whom they caught and wrestled down. Upon investigation, they found he had dug up from a hole in the floor, which they peered into and found no bottom. They guessed the creature might be from Hell, but quickly dimissed the idea. Giving the creature a monk’s cowl, the creature lived amongst them for several weeks, rarely leaving the cell he was given and not eating or drinking. (The abbot assumed he snuck out at night). When the bishop visited he banished the creature with an excorcism and crucifix, saying it was of the Devil. The creature scampered into his hole and never returned. Strange mythical creature maybe?

 

[StrawberryJam]

I have never read of a saint describing faeries. However, I did read a rather unusual story once in a book I own. Sometime in 1138, in Prussia, a group of monks were working in the monastery wine cellar, trying to determine why their wine was disappearing. Then, they found a small, dark skinned dwarf whom they caught and wrestled down. Upon investigation, they found he had dug up from a hole in the floor, which they peered into and found no bottom. They guessed the creature might be from Hell, but quickly dimissed the idea. Giving the creature a monk’s cowl, the creature lived amongst them for several weeks, rarely leaving the cell he was given and not eating or drinking. (The abbot assumed he snuck out at night). When the bishop visited he banished the creature with an excorcism and crucifix, saying it was of the Devil. The creature scampered into his hole and never returned. Strange mythical creature maybe?

Strange, yes. Mythical, not sure.

 

[Hubriss]

This thread is full of lol. IMO just goes to show how useless theology is.

He does not rule out the idea that God could alow the spirit of a dead human to appear on earth, but the key is that God is in charge and none of this can happen or occur without His will or approval.

Is that so? Then I guess the Church doesn’t really have any need for exorcists, does it?

 

[EnchantedEve]

This thread is full of lol. IMO just goes to show how useless theology is.

Is that so? Then I guess the Church doesn’t really have any need for exorcists, does it?

Whatever all this means.

 

[mtoddm]

Whatever all this means.

I’m not sure what that means either - or how these posts show that theology is “useless” - quite the contrary…
but Hubriss, I used to be agnostic myself - welcome to the journey

—todd
catholicsojourner.blogspot.com

 

[mtoddm]

Very very interesting stuff.

Anything from the Early Fathers to support any of these ideas you hold at the moment?

I’ve been very pleased with the interest in this dialogue - and the opportunities that forums like this offer - not exactly a discussion people have in a group face to face, for some reason.

I don’t know of any Early Church Fathers who speak of such matters directly, but there are various writings of saints and others throughout the centuries regarding pagan myths and beliefs and their important insights into the heart of Man, and how Christ fulfilled all myths and pagan longings for Truth.

I’m going to have to do more research into these issues.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s little essay “On Fairy Stories” gives many insights.

I would like to ask Enchanted Eve for a reference on the story of the monks’ “encounter” story - and any other such tales she knows of.

In thinking about quality books regarding Faeries (aside from the silly and frivilous) nothing surpasses the stunning imagery and informative text as the classic “Faeries” by Brian Froud and Alan Lee - it is a compendium of faerie folklore from the British Isles - most public libraries have a copy -

Another classic is “Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries” - (1911) by W.Y. Evans-Wentz - a scholary work, it is an objective but amiable and very readable study of the phenomenon of faerie beliefs and their possible explanations - he also has many references to firsthand accounts he collected, some from even Catholic clergy - a free online version is here

This is an excerpt regarding Ireland and the faerie-faith so prevalent in that country:

“If anyone would know Ireland and test these influences–influences which have been so fundamental in giving to the Fairy-Faith of the past something more than mere beauty of romance and attractive form, and something which even to-day, as in the heroic ages, is ever-living and ever-present in the centres where men of the second-sight say that they see fairies in that strange state of subjectivity which the peasant calls Fairyland–let him stand on the Hill of Tara silently and alone at sunset, in the noonday, in the mist of a dark day. Let him likewise silently and alone follow the course of the Boyne. Let him enter the silence of New Grange and of Dowth. Let him muse over the hieroglyphics of Lough Crew. Let him feel the mystic beauty of Killarney, the peacefulness of Glendalough, of Monasterboise, of Clonmacnois, and the isolation of Aranmore. Let him dare to enter the rings of fairies, to tempt the ‘good folk’ at their raths and forts. Let him rest on the ancient cairn above the mountain-palace of Finvara and look out across the battlefields of Moytura. Let him wander amid the fairy dells of gentle Connemara. Let him behold the Irish Sea from the Heights of Howth, as Fionn Mac Cumhail used to do. Let him listen to the ocean-winds amid Dun Aengus. Let him view the stronghold of Cuchulainn and the Red Branch Knights. Let him linger beside that mysterious lake which lies embosomed between two prehistoric cairns on the summit of enchanted Slieve Gullion, where yet dwells invisible the mountain’s Guardian, a fairy woman. Let him then try to interpret the mysticism of an ancient Irish myth, in order to understand why men have been told that in the plain beneath this magic mountain of Ireland mighty warfare was once waged on account of a Bull, by the hosts of Queen Meave against those of Cuchulainn the hero of Ulster. Let him be lost in the mists on the top of Ben Bulbin. Let him know the haunts of fairy kings and queens in Roscommon. Let him follow in the footsteps of Patrick and Bridgit and Columba. When there are dark days and stormy nights, let him sit beside a blazing fire of fragrant peat in a peasant’s straw-thatched cottage listening to tales of Ireland’s golden age–tales of gods, of heroes, of ghosts, and of fairy-folk. If he will do these things, he will know Ireland, and why its people believe in fairies.”

I do find it interesting that one of the most Catholic countries in the world also has the strongest and richest faerie folklore element interwoven into the very fabric of its identity and culture.

—todd
catholicsojourner.blogspot.com

 

[EnchantedEve]

I’ve been very pleased with the interest in this dialogue - and the opportunities that forums like this offer - not exactly a discussion people have in a group face to face, for some reason.

I don’t know of any Early Church Fathers who speak of such matters directly, but there are various writings of saints and others throughout the centuries regarding pagan myths and beliefs and their important insights into the heart of Man, and how Christ fulfilled all myths and pagan longings for Truth.

I’m going to have to do more research into these issues.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s little essay “On Fairy Stories” gives many insights.

I would like to ask Enchanted Eve for a reference on the story of the monks’ “encounter” story - and any other such tales she knows of.

In thinking about quality books regarding Faeries (aside from the silly and frivilous) nothing surpasses the stunning imagery and informative text as the classic “Faeries” by Brian Froud and Alan Lee - it is a compendium of faerie folklore from the British Isles - most public libraries have a copy -

Another classic is “Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries” - (1911) by W.Y. Evans-Wentz - a scholary work, it is an objective but amiable and very readable study of the phenomenon of faerie beliefs and their possible explanations - he also has many references to firsthand accounts he collected, some from even Catholic clergy - a free online version is here

This is an excerpt regarding Ireland and the faerie-faith so prevalent in that country:

“If anyone would know Ireland and test these influences–influences which have been so fundamental in giving to the Fairy-Faith of the past something more than mere beauty of romance and attractive form, and something which even to-day, as in the heroic ages, is ever-living and ever-present in the centres where men of the second-sight say that they see fairies in that strange state of subjectivity which the peasant calls Fairyland–let him stand on the Hill of Tara silently and alone at sunset, in the noonday, in the mist of a dark day. Let him likewise silently and alone follow the course of the Boyne. Let him enter the silence of New Grange and of Dowth. Let him muse over the hieroglyphics of Lough Crew. Let him feel the mystic beauty of Killarney, the peacefulness of Glendalough, of Monasterboise, of Clonmacnois, and the isolation of Aranmore. Let him dare to enter the rings of fairies, to tempt the ‘good folk’ at their raths and forts. Let him rest on the ancient cairn above the mountain-palace of Finvara and look out across the battlefields of Moytura. Let him wander amid the fairy dells of gentle Connemara. Let him behold the Irish Sea from the Heights of Howth, as Fionn Mac Cumhail used to do. Let him listen to the ocean-winds amid Dun Aengus. Let him view the stronghold of Cuchulainn and the Red Branch Knights. Let him linger beside that mysterious lake which lies embosomed between two prehistoric cairns on the summit of enchanted Slieve Gullion, where yet dwells invisible the mountain’s Guardian, a fairy woman. Let him then try to interpret the mysticism of an ancient Irish myth, in order to understand why men have been told that in the plain beneath this magic mountain of Ireland mighty warfare was once waged on account of a Bull, by the hosts of Queen Meave against those of Cuchulainn the hero of Ulster. Let him be lost in the mists on the top of Ben Bulbin. Let him know the haunts of fairy kings and queens in Roscommon. Let him follow in the footsteps of Patrick and Bridgit and Columba. When there are dark days and stormy nights, let him sit beside a blazing fire of fragrant peat in a peasant’s straw-thatched cottage listening to tales of Ireland’s golden age–tales of gods, of heroes, of ghosts, and of fairy-folk. If he will do these things, he will know Ireland, and why its people believe in fairies.”

I do find it interesting that one of the most Catholic countries in the world also has the strongest and richest faerie folklore element interwoven into the very fabric of its identity and culture.

—todd
catholicsojourner.blogspot.com

Certainly I can reference the work, although it is obscure to say the least. It is called “Secrets of the Hollow Earth,” by Warren Smith, and it discusses the possibility the earth has no core. How this relates to the Hollow Earth topic directly I have no idea, however I noticed the story when I read it and I have remembered it ever since. The original in the book obviously had more detail than I could furnish here.

I will try and see what else I can dig up, although most of my works on faeries are not written from a historical perspective. The sole exception that comes to mind is the voluminous Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, which has extensive entries on faeries from a historical standpoint, especially in Ireland.

 

[StrawberryJam]

I love my Irish priest like a brother. He’s the kind of guy that you can’t dislike.
Can’t ask him about this, for I fear coming from me he would think I am being disparaging to the Irish in asking as a skeptic.
I’ve already posed similar senarios to him without them being Irish centered. He may feel as if I am attacking his heritage if I were to seek his opinion on this matter. I can’t risk our friendship over this one.
I wish you the best in your search, but admit that I just don’t see a valid reason (argument from tradition/or “authority” as valid) to hold such beliefs. I liked the citations you provided, and thank you for that. It does help me see another view of belief I did not realize was there.
In conclusion, I think I will return to my earlier comment.
Once you believe in one supernatural agent, it becomes very hard to deny other supernatural agents.
Best to you in your search,

StrawberryJ