In the lore of Ireland (
sidhe), Scandinavia, and Scotland, when God cast out the arrogant angels from heaven, they became the evil spirits that plague humankind, tormenting us and inflicting us to harm.
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| Disney has done harm and good by its depictions. |
The ones who fell into hell and into caves and abysses became devils and death-maidens.
However, those who fell onto the earth became goblins, imps, dwarfs, thumblings, alps, noon-and-evening-ghosts, and will-o'-the-wisps.
Those who fell into the forests became the wood-spirits who live there: the hey-men, the wild-men, the forest-men, the wild-women, and the forest-women.
Finally, those who fell into the water became water spirits: water-men,
mermaids, and merwomen. These angels were condemned to remain where they were, becoming the faeries of seas and rivers, the earth, and the air (
sacred-texts.com/neu/celt...).
III. IN SCOTLAND
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W.Y. Evans-Wentz, 1911, pp. 85-86, Intro. by Alexander Carmichael, Hon. LL.D. of the Univ. of Edinburgh; author of Carmina Gadelica
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| Water maiden, sea devi, Golden Mermaid on Prince Frederick's Barge, 1732 (wiki) |
The belief in fairies was once common throughout Scotland -- Highland and Lowland. It is now much less prevalent even in the Highlands and islands, where such beliefs linger longer than they do in the Lowlands. But it still lives among the old people, and is privately entertained here and there even among younger people; and some who hold the belief declare that they themselves have seen fairies.
Various theories have been advanced as to the origin of fairies and as to the belief in them. The most concrete form in which the belief has been urged has been by the Rev. Robert Kirk, Minister of Aberfoyle, in Perthshire.
Another theory of the origin of fairies I took down in the island of Miunghlaidh (Minglay); and, though I have given it in
Carmina Gadelica, it is sufficiently interesting to be quoted here. During October 1871, Roderick Macneill, known as 'Ruaraidh mac Dhomhuil, then ninety-two years of age, told it in Gaelic to the late J. F. Campbell of Islay and the writer, when they were storm-stayed in the precipitous island of Miunghlaidh, Barra:--
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| Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee |
The Proud Angel fomented a rebellion among the angels of heaven, where he had been a leading light. He declared that he would go and found a kingdom for himself. When going out at the door of heaven the Proud Angel brought prickly lightning and biting lightning out of the doorstep with his heels. Many angels followed him -- so many that at last the Son called out, "Father! Father! the city is being emptied!" whereupon the Father ordered that the gates of heaven and the gates of hell should be closed. This was instantly done. And those who were in were in, and those who were out were out; while the hosts who had left heaven and had not reached hell flew into the holes of the earth, like the stormy petrels. These are the Fairy Folk--ever since doomed to live under the ground, and only allowed to emerge where and when the King permits. They are never allowed abroad on Thursday, that being Columba's Day; nor on Friday, that being the Son's Day; nor on Saturday, that being Mary's Day; nor on Sunday, that being the Lord's Day.
God be between me and every fairy,
Every ill wish and every druidry;
To-day is Thursday on sea and land,
I trust in the King that they do not hear me.
On certain nights when their bruthain (bowers) are open and their lamps are lit, and the song and the dance are moving merrily, the fairies may be heard singing lightheartedly:--
Not of the seed of Adam are we,
Nor is Abraham our father;
But of the seed of the Proud Angel,
Driven forth from Heaven.
