Fairies
FairiesFAIRIES ARE EVERYWHERE!
Fairies are magical creatures, usually very much like human
beings. But they can do many things that humans cannot do. Most
fairies can make themselves invisible. Many can travel in an instant
anywhere they want to go, even very great distances. Some can change
their shapes; they might look like cats, or birds, or dogs, or any other
animal. Some of them live for many hundreds of years; others (Like
with Tinker Bell From Peter Pan) live forever. Many fairies like to play
tricks on human beings; others like to help them. Fairies come in all
sizes and shapes as well. They might be ugly, humpbacked little
creatures, like the trolls or gnomes that the people tell about in
Denmark, Sweden, and Germany. Both trolls and gnomes are supposed
to guard treasures. Trolls live in dark caves, and gnomes make their
homes underground. Some fairies are handsome, for example, the pixies
of Wales, or the goldenhaired white elves of the Scandinavian countries.
Some fairies are giants, others are less than two feet tall. Some have
special shapes. Example are mermaids and mermen, human above the
waist but with the lower part of their bodies like fish. They live in an
underwater world of splendor. Beautiful mermaids often lure sailors to
their destruction, or cause shipwrecks. The Scandinavians believed in a
river spirit that looked like a man above the water and like a horse
below.
Most fairies live in fairyland, where some strange things are
ALWAYS happening. They live together ruled by a king and queen,
whose names are Oberon and Titania. Some people think that the ruler
of Fairyland is Queen Mab.
Not all fairies live in fairyland, however. Some live alone as the
guardians of certain places. The Lorelei of Germany is a beautiful
woman with long golden hair. She stays on a special rock on the right
bank of the Rhine River.
Many kinds of fairies like to play tricks on human beings.
Sometimes they tie knots in the manes of horses at night, and ride them
till the horses are tired out. A horseshoe nailed to the stable door will
keep these fairies away. If the maid is lazy and does not clean the house
carefully, the...
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