Fairies 10

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Fairies and witches. According to British anthropologist Margaret A. Murray and others, real “little people” gradually became identified with witches.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, when fairy beliefs were at their height, fairies and witches were often blended together.

Both could cast and break spells, heal people, and divine lost objects and the future.

Both danced and sang beneath a full moon— often together—and trafficked with the Devil.

Both could change shape, fly, levitate, and cause others to levitate.

Both stole unbaptized children and poisoned people.

Both stole horses at night and rode them hard to their sabbats, returning them exhausted by dawn.

Both avoided Salt and both were repelled by iron. James I of England, in Daemonologie, his book about witches, called Diana, the goddess of witches, the “Queen of Faerie.” Oberon, the name of the
King of Fairies, was also the name of a demon summoned by magicians.

Fairies were said to be the familiars of witches.

It is no surprise, then, that fairies figured in numerous witch trials.

Those richest in detail took place in the British Isles.

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