THE ELEMENT ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FAIRIES: An A-Z of Fairies, Pixies, and other Fantastical Creatures

Among the most famous of Andersen’s tales are “The Little Mermaid” (possibly inspired by the sad love story of the water sprite Undine), “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “The Princess and the Pea,” “The Wild Swans,” and “The Red Shoes.”

Angus Mac Og

A Celtic god of youth, love, and poetic inspiration. One of the sons of Dagda of the Tuatha de Danann.

Anguta

The father of Sedna, Inuit sea goddess ruling the undersea Otherworld, Anguta is responsible for conveying souls from the land of the living to his daughter’s underworld realm of Adlivun, where he metes out punishment for their previous sins until they are purged.

Ankou

A personification of death in Breton mythology, the Ankou also appears in Cornish, Welsh, and Irish folklore. Also known as the grave watcher, he is a fairy version of the Grim Reaper and often appears as a skeleton wearing a black robe and carrying a scythe. In Ireland he is known to ride a black coach pulled by four black horses to collect the souls of those recently passed over.

According to Breton folklore collector Anatole le Braz (1859–1926), “the Bard of Brittany,” “The last dead of the year, in each parish, becomes the Ankou of his parish for all of the following year. When there has been, in a year, more deaths than usual, one says about the Ankou: ‘War ma fé, heman zo eun Anko drouk.’ (On my faith, this one is a nasty Ankou.)”

In a short story by Wyndham Lewis, The Death of the Ankou (1927), a tourist in Brittany perceives a beggar to be the embodiment of the Ankou. In fact, it is the tourist who acts as Ankou to the beggar, who subsequently dies.

Anthropophagi

From the Greek for ‘people-eater’, an anthropophage (plural anthropophagi) belonged to a mythological race of cannibals first described by Herodotus (c.440 B.C.). The word first appeared in English around 1552.

William Shakespeare brought these cannibalistic fairies into British public awareness in his plays The Wives of Winsdor and Othello. In Othello (Act I, scene iii), he famously described them as follows:

And of the Cannibals that each other eat,

The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads

Do grow beneath their shoulders.

In popular culture, anthropophagi are often described as headless, with their mouths in the center of their chests. This is likely due to a misinterpretation of the line about men whose heads grow beneath their shoulders, which in fact refers to a separate mythical race called Blemmyes. However, the popular picture of the anthropophagi as headless cannibals with faces on their torsos has endured. According to Naturalis Historia, one of the world’s earliest encyclopedias, the anthropophagi were in the habit of drinking out of human skulls, and placing the scalps, with the hair attached, upon their breasts, “like so many napkins.”

Aoibheall

SeeAibell (#ulink_dafebe5f-13c1-58fa-baab-bc1fccc7c8b4).

Appletree Man

A guardian of the orchard, Appletree Man dwells in the oldest apple tree, where the fertility of the orchard is supposed to reside. He chases away fruit raiders, but may also take umbrage with genuine harvesters. In the traditional English cider counties such as Somerset, apple-pickers could harvest the fruit only at certain times of day. Customs such as wassailing, involving singing to the apple tree and pouring cider at its roots, are still performed in parts of Somerset to placate the Appletree Man in the hope of bringing about a good harvest.

See alsoOld Roger (#litres_trial_promo).

Apsaras

(Also apsarasa.) From Buddhist and Hindu mythology, a female spirit of the waters and clouds. English translations of the Sanskrit name include “nymph.” Aspsaras are described as beautiful, supernatural female beings. Known for their ability as dancers, they are often the youthful wives of the gandharvas, the court musicians of Indra, leader of the Devas and lord of Svargaloka, or heaven, in the Hindu religion. They dance in the palaces of the gods to the gandharvas’ music, entertaining, and sometimes seducing, gods and men. Sometimes compared to the muses of ancient Greece, each of the 26 apsaras at Indra’s court represents a specific area of the performing arts.

Like the Valkyries of Norse mythology, apsaras are the carers of fallen heroes. They are also associated with fertility rites. Sky-dwelling ethereal beings, they are often depicted taking flight and can be compared to angels, as well as to the nymphs, dryads, and naiads of ancient Greece, due to their association with water. Said to be able to shapeshift at will, they also rule over gambling and gaming. The best known are Rambha, Urvasi, Tilottama, and Menaka.

Apuku

A forest spirit in the folk beliefs of Suriname. Described as a short, dark figure with backward-facing feet, he dwells in shrubs deep within the forest. He falls in love with human females and is prone to jealous outbursts if a woman he has developed an attachment to is pursued by other men.

In local tradition, if a man is unsuccessful in wooing a woman, he prepares a special herbal bath to “tame the apuku” of the woman he desires.

Árák Sruk

Guardian or tutelary spirits in Cambodian folklore. Residing in the family home, or in a nearby tree, the árák sruk was regarded as an ancestor spirit whose advice could be sought in curing sickness. An annual festival honors the árák sruk spirits.

Arawotya

A spirit of the sky in the mythology of the Wonkamala people who inhabited the Lake Eyre region in South Australia. According to A. W. Howitt’s The Native Tribes of South-East Australia (1904), the arawotya was originally a spirit of the earth who created deep springs and other sources of water in the otherwise arid regions of southern Australia and parts of western Queensland.

Arianhod

A magical female in Welsh mythology, daughter of the goddess Don. The fourth branch of the Mabinogion, the ancient epic stories of Wales, relates the story of Arianhod, her son, Lleu Llaw Gyffes, and Blodeuedd, the Flower Maiden.

Arianhod dwells in a palace named Caer Arianhod, which today is associated with a rock formation off the coast of Gwynedd, northwest Wales.

Math, King of Gwynedd, has to have his feet held by a virgin when he is not in battle. Arianhod’s brother, Gwydion, proposes her for the task, but when Math places his magic rod on the floor for Arianhod to step across in a test of her virginity, she fails the test and immediately gives birth to two sons.

The first is named Dylan, “Ocean Wave.” Arianhod refuses to name the second son, but Gwydion tricks her into naming him Lleu Llaw Gyffes, “Light or Fair One with the Sure and Steady Hand.” Arianhod proclaims that he shall have no bride of this Earth, so Gwydion and Math construct a bride for him out of oak, broom, and meadowsweet, and she is named Blodeuedd, or “Flower Face.”

Lleu and the beautiful flower maiden are married and live in wedded bliss for a short time, but Blodeuedd falls in love with another man, Gronw Pebyr. The lovers decide that they must murder Lleu before he discovers their affair. Blodeuedd knows Lleu to be almost invincible, but on the pretext of concern for his safety, she discovers that he can be killed with a spear made over the duration of a year, thrust into him when he is bathing with one of his feet touching a billy goat.

Despite the complicated conditions, the flower maiden and Gronw conspire to bring about Lleu’s demise. However, he transforms into an eagle and escapes.

Hearing of all that has happened, Math and Gwydion seek out Lleu in eagle form. Gwydion puts his wand to the bird and returns him to his human form. Gwydion turns Blodeuedd into an owl.

Her lover, Gronw, offers compensation to Lleu, but Lleu deems it fair that the blow that was meant for him should be returned. Gronw is permitted to hide behind a rock for protection, but Lleu throws his spear so hard that it passes through the rock and pierces the adulterer’s back.

Lleu Llaw Gyffes goes on to become Lord of Gwynedd.

Arianhod is remembered in the name of a constellation of stars. The Corona Borealis, or Northern Crown, constellation is known in Wales as Caer Arianhod.

Arkan Sonney

Pronounced erkin sonna, Arkan Sonney, or “Lucky Piggy,” is the fairy pig of the Isle of Man. It is a beautiful little white pig believed to bring good luck to those who can catch it. Dora Broome’s Fairy Tales from the Isle of Man (1963) describes the Arkan Sonney as white, with red ears and eyes, like most fairy animals, and able to alter its size, but not its shape.

Asbjørnsen, Peter Christen, and Moe, Jørgen Engebretsen (1812–1885), (1813–1882)

The Norwegian folktale collectors Asbjørnsen and Moe became friends as teenagers and shared an interest in folklore. As young adults, they collected various tales from different parts of Norway and embarked on a collaborative work. Their first collection of tales, Norske Folkeeventyr (Norwegian Folk Tales), was published in 1841 to great acclaim. A further edition, containing additional stories and published in 1852, proved to be equally successful.

One of the challenges Asbjørnsen and Moe faced was that of language and style. The Norwegian dialects used by oral storytellers were too localized to be understood by a wide audience, while the Norwegian literary style of the time was strongly influenced by Danish, making it unsuitable for a collection of national folklore. Adopting an approach similar to the Grimm brothers, Asbjørnsen and Moe opted to tell the tales using simple language in place of dialects, while retaining the national uniqueness of the tales. This helped form the basis for the Norwegian language as it is known today.

Between 1845 and 1848 Asbjørnsen published another collection of tales, Norwegian Fairy Tales and Folk Legends. George Webbe Dasent, a translator of folk tales and scholar of Norse studies, translated the first volume into English as East of the Sun and West of the Moon.

Asbjørnsen and Moe’s work is regarded as part of Norway’s national heritage and remains popular today.

Ashray