On this page the following entries were made in the “Law of Faery” category.
Archive for “Law of Faery”
The Brown Man of the Muirs
Two friends went hunting on the moors for wildfowl. One of them strayed into some woodland where he had seen some birds descending. He thought he saw a movement in the distance, certainly not a bird but possibly a deer, and he walked towards it through the trees. Pausing at the bank of a stream, he saw a figure emerge from the trees on the other side of the stream. A man it was, and yet like a wild animal. He seemed to be composed of the very things of the woodland itself, of moss and bark and leaf-mould. He…
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The Watchers by the Well
The folk tale ‘The Watchers by the Well’ has an eerie quality of old magic about it. Its ‘frame’ narrative is about a man living alone in a forest full of wood and water spirits. He decides to look for a wife, but chooses one who appears to be unsuitable for the life he lives in the haunted wood. But he marries her anyway. Problems soon begin to occur as she wilfully interferes with the various magical defences around the cottage. The outcome of the story is that she has to learn how to live in this place and the… Read more »
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The Wondrous Wood
Once there was a wild and wicked warlord who ruled his territory fiercely so that all feared him and his band of retainers and unwillingly did his will. Worse still, he was lecherous and lustful and no girl or young woman was safe from him.
Within his territory was a forest, and within that a wondrous wood that no-one ventured into for it was deemed to be a perilous place. In the forest, not far from the wood, lived an old lady with her grand daughter. She span yarn and teaching the girl to do the same. On market days the…
Within his territory was a forest, and within that a wondrous wood that no-one ventured into for it was deemed to be a perilous place. In the forest, not far from the wood, lived an old lady with her grand daughter. She span yarn and teaching the girl to do the same. On market days the…
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The Wal at the Warld’s End
This Scots dialect tale has more in common with ‘Three Golden Heads’ than others with the ‘Well at the World’s End’ (and similar) titles.
Here the bonny king’s daughter arrives at the well and it is too deep to dip the bottle in. “Three scaud men’s heads” ask her to wash and dry them with her apron and she does so. They then dip the bottle in for her and also confer wealth and beauty upon her.
The ugly queen’s daughter is then sent but refuses to wash and dry the men’s heads. She is made even more ugly and… Read more »
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Three Golden Heads in the Well
This version from English Folk and Fairy Tales, by Joseph Jacobs. There is a slightly longer version in the Norton Collection. Is the king of Colchester Cunobelinus – later popularized as Old King Cole? It is interesting that the quest narrative, usually the part of a young male, is here undertaken by a female. Who are these fairies of the well? Or rather well spirits being not uncommon in faerie lore, why are there three of them? The story is referred to in some verses by George Peele in his play The Old Wive’s Tale (1595). These are discussed HERE
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LONG…
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TRAVELLER’S REST
Here is another gem from the pages of the Pagan Movement Ethos Group. This one is from the latter part of the 1970’s and is well worth making the effort to read.
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TRAVELLER’S REST by Janian Richardson
Old Lilah Heron awoke with a start, as though something light as a leaf blown from the woods had brushed her cheek. She had fallen asleep while carving chrysanthemums with long, curling petals from the sticks she had gathered that morning. Now the wood in her little stove had fallen apart into a…
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Two Trees
Timbertoes was a mighty old oak and Silvertoes was a graceful young birch. He grew on the edge of the forest and she grew near a lake. One day Wind said to Timbertoes “I gave you a wild night last night, old friend, I hope you stood up to it”.
“I think I lost a small top bough, but it was damaged anyway and that’s the first to go for years”.
Silvertoes butted in: “I only lost a few leaves, my branches are light enough to dance when you blow. I’m not old and heavy.”
Wind replied “Do you know you’re growing…
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The Trapped Moon
LONG ago, in my grandmother’s time, the Carland was all in bogs, great pools of black water, and creeping trickles of green water, and squishy mools which squirted when you stepped on them. Well, granny used to say how long before her time the Moon herself was once dead and buried in the marshes, and as she used to tell me, I’ll tell you all about it.
The Moon up yonder shone and shone, just as she does now, and when she shone she lighted up the bog-pools, so that one could walk about almost as safe as in the day.…
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The Well at the World’s End
This story from the collection of Joseph Jacobs English Fairy Tales. (1890) from a source given as Leyden’s edition of The Complaynt of Scotland, contains the interesting variant on the theme of the frog becoming a handsome prince in that his head has to be cut off for this to happen. There are other tales where the head (of an animal or a person) has to be cut off and put into a well in order for some transformation to take place (see discussion HERE).
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ONCE upon a time, and a very good time it was, though it wasn’t in my… Read more »
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WINTERFALL
Autumn bides her weary time till trees like setting suns have had
their evening splendour out and even misty mornings bring the joy
of rattling rusts and roses bristling in the breezes, sere like
the skins of bark beneath them.
Bright their hue in the sun’s rich light
In gold & yellow & dun they’re dight
But they keen in the wind’s chill breath.
In a brief storm in a black night
One falls and is wan in the paling light
And the dun darkens to death.
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Cold was the mire underfoot
And wet were the feet that trod
Thin was the cry she heard in the storm
And broken in the sod…
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