Emerald Magic_ Great Tales of Irish Fantasy - Andrew M. Greeley [1]
My mom also explained where the faerie came from. They were the moderate middle angels in the time of the great war in heaven between Michael and his angels and Satan and his angels.When the matter was settled, and the “bad angels” went off to hell, there was some discussion as to where the “independents” should be sent. They had not fought against the Lord God, so they didn’t deserve hell, but they hadn’t been on His side either, so they couldn’t stay in heaven. The decision was they would be sent to earth, to a place of their own choosing. They opted for Ireland: it was, after all, the place on earth most like heaven! They had the Emerald Isle all to themselves until the Celts came, a variety of humans for whom they didn’t have much affection, so they retreated to the west of the island and to their caves and forts and hills and islands in the river and other hangouts. Their situation was made worse when the monks came and replaced the druids. The latter were properly afraid of them, but the Catholic clergy vigorously denied their existence and denounced them from the altars. The Sidhe (whom I call the Shee because few can be expected to cope with the mysteries of Irish spelling) decided that it was not prudent to take on the priests directly and withdrew farther into the ground and into mystery and magic.
In my own story in this collection I try to make peace between the two angelic hosts, an exercise of fantasy, I hasten to add, not theology (lest I be delated to the Holy Office!).
However, at one time the greatest concentration of them was in the County Mayo, whence came all four of my grandparents. Indeed after the famine, it was said, there were more faerie in Mayo than there were humans. So it is fitting that I write this introduction.
Do I believe that one could find the faerie in Mayo today? Well, to tell the truth, I’ve never looked for them and probably never will, and myself without any psychic sensitivity at all, at all. A prudent man, I would not venture into faerie fields or faerie forts or faerie mounds. You can never tell what you might find. Nor will I spend much time in the “front” room of a Mayo cottage, which by tradition is kept neat and empty except for wakes because on their wild rides around the County, the Troop seems to dash through the front rooms. I’ve never heard the reason for this belief. Indeed even today, many people are unwilling to talk about the faerie because it is bad luck.
Hence the various euphemisms for them in addition to my mom’s “little people.” They are variously called “they,” “the gentry,” and “the Troop.” Sometimes people don’t call them anything, but merely wink and nod in the general direction of nowhere.
One of my sociological mentors, Everett C. Hughes, told a story about his research in rural Quebec. He asked an old man whether he believed in the faerie. “They’re not around anymore, the man replied, but they were in my grandmother’s day.”
The Irish have no monopoly on the faerie.Mircea Eliade, the distinguished student of comparative religion, once wrote an essay on the Romanian faerie, who, it turned out, were exactly like the Irish faerie, even to the name of Troop of Diana (Tuatha de Danu). So perhaps the legends of the faerie folk are part of an ancient Indo-European heritage. Some will say that it is not surprising that they (or the memory of them) would survive in Ireland, because the Irish are a very superstitious people. In fact, in a survey of thirty nations, the Irish were the least superstitious, less even than the English. The highest rates were in Eastern Europe. So perhaps a study of folklore