----- Original Message -----
From: "jacqueline simpson" <[log in to unmask]>
> Thankyou for the fairy lore, Endymion. It's remarkably
> poetic, with all this imagery of dew and sunlight and
> moutains -- we have nothing comparable in folk
> traditons here, only in self-conscious educated
> Victorian verses and paintings of 'flower fairies' and
> the like (based remotely on Shakespeare's Midsummer
> Night's Dream), which we folklorists sneer at! Maybe
> they had got hold of something genuine after all.
;o) There is also a less appealing side of fairies. According to Vasiljev's
"Slovenska mitologija", Slovakians believe that vile are the souls of
fiancées who died after the wedding. They can not find rest and are doomed
to roam the night. If they stumble upon some man, they drag him into their
round and force him to dance until only the soul is left.
But to return to our discussion on the Cunning-Folk and fairies, I've posted
all that to show that fairies are not seen as the 'Hidden Children of Eve'
or have much connections to any of the Church teachings. So, there could be
a pre-Christian element in the Cunning-Folk practice, at least among the
South Slavs, wouldn't you agree?
Andrija
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