By Dani Harper
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| "Lily Fairy" 1888 by Luis Ricardo Falero [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
Blame it on
the Victorians.
During the nineteenth
century, there was an enormous revival of interest in faeries. They appeared in
abundance in Victorian art and literature. But not as they once were! The faeries
of legend were powerful. They almost never had wings—they didn’t need them. Beauty?
The terms faery, fairy, and fae cover an
enormous variety of creatures throughout the UK and Europe. Tall and short,
exquisite and repulsive, dark and light, hunched and scrabbling, gigantic and toothy, two-legged and four-legged... Some fae beings, like the
Pooka, changed shape so often that their true form can’t be agreed on. Whatever
their appearance, most faeries were amoral creatures, recognizing neither right
nor wrong according to petty human standards. Yet they often abided by ancient laws
that were a mystery to mortals.
One thing
above all: faeries were not to be
trifled with!
But trifle
with them is exactly what the Victorians did. First, they recreated faeries to
be pretty, sweet-natured, and innocent. They gave them wings—but diminished
them in stature. Cute was name of the game. Like Beanie Babies and Pokémon, faeries
became a highly fashionable obsession and a cultural phenomenon. But why? Nineteenth
century society was extremely uptight about a lot of things – science, technology, and progress in general. Class distinctions and proper etiquette. Oh,
and sex. The Victorians were synonymous with sexual repression.
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| Illustrations from "The Water-Babies - A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby" by Charles Kingsley, illustrated by Warwick Goble [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
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| "Study for The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania" By Joseph Noel Paton - Unknown, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=111976 |
"Come Fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame!” ~ William Butler Yeats
Hand in hand with this delightsome escapism was a renewed fascination with the paranormal. In addition to experimenting with the supernatural through spirit rappings, table tipping, and séances, many notable people argued for the reality of faeries on scientific grounds. One of the top proponents of their existence was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author and creator of Sherlock Holmes.
It is also a fact that Arthur’s father, Charles Doyle, firmly believed in faeries, and produced many paintings of them throughout his life. He was just one of countless artists who based their entire careers on producing fanciful artwork of the faery realm. More than a few of these paintings, however, were known to have been produced under the influence of drugs. In Victorian England, laudanum, cocaine, morphine, opium and many other mind-altering substances were readily available, and famous faery artists such as John Anster Fitzgerald and Richard Dadd experimented with drugs freely, citing them as sources of inspiration.
Perhaps that’s why some of the major faery works included not only the beautiful but the ugly. Demonic-looking creatures appeared side by side with lovely and innocent sprites. Grotesque beings interacted with sublime. It’s no surprise that a number of famous faery artists (including Charles Doyle) ended up in asylums for the rest of their lives.
Hand in hand with this delightsome escapism was a renewed fascination with the paranormal. In addition to experimenting with the supernatural through spirit rappings, table tipping, and séances, many notable people argued for the reality of faeries on scientific grounds. One of the top proponents of their existence was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author and creator of Sherlock Holmes.
It is also a fact that Arthur’s father, Charles Doyle, firmly believed in faeries, and produced many paintings of them throughout his life. He was just one of countless artists who based their entire careers on producing fanciful artwork of the faery realm. More than a few of these paintings, however, were known to have been produced under the influence of drugs. In Victorian England, laudanum, cocaine, morphine, opium and many other mind-altering substances were readily available, and famous faery artists such as John Anster Fitzgerald and Richard Dadd experimented with drugs freely, citing them as sources of inspiration.
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| "The Stuff that Dreams are made of" By John Anster Fitzgerald, 1858 - http://art-magique.blogspot.com/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20746146 |
Perhaps that’s why some of the major faery works included not only the beautiful but the ugly. Demonic-looking creatures appeared side by side with lovely and innocent sprites. Grotesque beings interacted with sublime. It’s no surprise that a number of famous faery artists (including Charles Doyle) ended up in asylums for the rest of their lives.
Or perhaps
it was just a little revenge exacted by the real faeries…
>>>>><<<<<
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| The Grim Series by Dani Harper |
DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY!
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(Psst - I'm reading "Shadowed Souls", a dark anthology featuring Jim Butcher, Seanan McGuire, Kevin J. Anderson, etc.)
(Psst - I'm reading "Shadowed Souls", a dark anthology featuring Jim Butcher, Seanan McGuire, Kevin J. Anderson, etc.)
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Prize will be delivered by Amazon. Open to US, UK, or Canada.
