Seasonal Fae Courts?

goat-willow:

In fiction, I’ve read about seasonal fae courts, i.e. summer court, autumn court, etc. Is this a thoroughly modern invention, or is it derived from older lore? Does it come from writers conflating Seelie with summer and Unseelie with winter? I could swear I’ve read about it somewhere that wasn’t fiction long before I read about it in a story, but I can’t remember where. Has anyone ever heard of this?

The Scottish have the Seelie and Unseelie courts, so Scots Fairy Lore is where to look. Maybe check the Scottish section of Fairy Faith in the Celtic Countries?

There is a Scottish belief that the fairy hosts would migrate across the land at the Ember days of the year, holding court in one part of the country at summer, another in fall, etc. The Secret Commonwealth says, “THEY remove to other Lodgings at the Beginning of each Quarter of the Year, so traversing till Doomsday, being imputent and [impotent of?] staying in one Place, and finding some Ease by so purning [Journeying] and changing Habitations.” So yeah, the idea you see in today’s fantasy that there are permanent/established seasonal factions is very different. That said, there are plenty of examples of certain legendary groups or individuals who only will only appear to us at certain times of the year, such as the Wild Hunt et. al. Present-day authors are probably basing their idea on the latter sort of thing, along with the “Seelie/Unseelie” concept. But they’re leaving out a lot of contextual information. (Such as the fact that hunting is a winter activity, and so of course a fairy hunting party would only appear in winter, just like a mortal hunting party. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re a bunch of eternal-winter-dudes.)

Another Scottish belief that would be a lot more relevant is the conflict between Bríde and Cailleach, in which they are very literally engaged in bringing warmth and cold to the land. But I doubt that most fantasy authors have any awareness of that legend. (It isn’t slutty enough.)

I don’t think the words “Seelie” and “Unseelie” appear anywhere in Fairy-Faith In Celtic Countries. (I looked through the chapter on Scotland just now, and didn’t see it mentioned.) I’m not as well read in Scottish lore, honestly, but I have yet to find any proper source for that terminology…

Tagged #fairies #sith #sidhe #Scottish myth

Posted on 13 August, 2012
Reblogged from spiritscraft Source urban-pooka