Fairies – w/ @jourdemayne

THE ORIGINAL SKEPTICS IN THE PUB TALK SCHEDULED FOR THIS MONTH BY DR JULIA SHAW HAS UNFORTUNATELY BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO UNFORESEEABLE CIRCUMSTANCES.

We tend to think of fairies as kindly, gossamer-winged creatures who grant wishes. But Tinkerbell has a lot to answer for!

Some people did sincerely believe in fairies, but the characteristics, behaviour – and even the appearance – of the supernatural creatures were very changeable, reflecting the inconstant circumstances and environments of the humans who recounted the tales.

Our modern caricatures are the end product of a bowdlerising process which has filtered out so much of the potent danger that original, folkloric fairies represented.

Deborah Hyde is editor of The Skeptic (skeptic.org.uk) and writes about belief in the malign macabre at http://www.deborahhyde.com/@jourdemayne