An Introduction to Fairies with Jo Hickey-Hall & Simon Young

There’s not a single person listening to WMiT? who doesn’t know what a Fairy is. Or do they? When the word “Fairy” is uttered, most likely our minds immediately think of a small, somewhat feminine, little winged humanoid that glows. But this conception of Fairies is a somewhat recent one. There is so much more to the stories, the history as well as the behavior of these ethereal and magical beings. Allow yourself to be reintroduced as it were, to the entities we call Fairies by the host of The Modern Fairy Sighting Podcast Jo Hickey-Hall, and the Scholar of the Supernatural Dr. Simon Young!

Jo Hickey-Hall is a folklorist, researcher and social historian with a long-held interest in the relationship between supernatural experience, local landscape and oral tradition. In 2020, she started the Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast, a fantastic show which hopes to break the taboo that still exists around speaking about personal fairy experiences. Jo can be found on Twitter, Instagram as well as YouTube, and if you love what Jo gets up to and wish to support, be sure to join the Patreon!

Dr. Simon Young is a British folklore historian based in Italy. He has written extensively on the nineteenth-century supernatural. His book The Boggart as well as The Nail in the Skull and Other Victorian Urban Legends, were released last year. Be sure to give a follow on Twitter and definitely check out both his webpage Beachcombing’s Bizarre History Blog (lots of Fairy stuff there) as well as his superb Podcast The Boggart and Banshee: A Supernatural Podcast!

Simon is the author/editor of the book Magical Folk: British and Irish Fairies – 500AD to the Present, which also happens to feature an article written by Jo! Be sure to grab a copy!

In addition to the book Magical Folk, Simon also released The Fairy Census 2014-2017. Some five hundred fairy experiences are listed in it, and over 160,000 words about encounters with the Good Neighbours. The information in the Census was provided by an ongoing internet questionnaire about who sees fairies, when and why.

Show Notes

• The Good People? A History of British and Irish Fairies – An excellent 9 part introduction in itself by my guest Dr. Simon Young. Well worth creating an Academia.edu account to watch
• Fairyist – The Fairy Investigation Society – A fantastic site to go through. Lots here worth exploring and their book recommendations are stellar as well
• The Making of the early modern British Fairy Tradition by Ronald Hutton – worth reading
• The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. Evans-Wentz – A classic text but must be read with the knowledge that Walter was indeed a man of his time
• Robert Kirk and his classic book The Secret Commonwealth
• The (super)natural worlds of Robert Kirk: Fairies, Beasts, Landscapes and Lychnobious Liminalities
• The Occult Laboratory: Magic, Science and Second Sight in Late Seventeenth-Century Scotland–The Secret Commonwealth and Other Texts by Michael Hunter – Very good book if you can get your hands on it
• Explore Fairy Traditions by Jeremy Harte – Recommended by Jo as being a wonderful book and without a doubt worth reading
• Seeing Fairies: From the Lost Archives of the Fairy Investigation Society, Authentic Reports of Fairies in Modern Times by Marjorie T. Johnson
• Fairies: A Guide to the Celtic Fair Folk by Morgan Daimler – An excellent introduction
• At the Bottom of the Garden: A Dark History of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Nymphs, and Other Troublesome Things by Dianne Purkiss
• The Vanishing People: Fairy Lore and Legends by Katharine Briggs
• The Faerie Phenomenon in Folkloric and Modern Experience
• Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Otherworld by Patrick Harpur – Jo recommended! I think this book is awesome and a classic as well
• Fairies: Real Encounters With Little People by Janet Bord – Jo recommended!
• One Foot In the Green by Brett Manning – Jo recommended!
• Thomas Crofton Croker
• Faeries by Alan Froud – Many people have seen this book or at least flipped through it. Very influential
• Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, & Other Supernatural Creatures by Katharine Briggs – A bit dated but still rather fun and still the best reference guide out there
• Twilight of the Godlings: The Shadowy Beginnings of Britain’s Supernatural Beings by Francis Young. The introduction to this book can be read here
• The Faerie Queens edited by Sorita d’Este and David Rankine
• Changelings
• The Murder of Bridget Cleary
• On Fairy-Stories by J. R. R. Tolkien – Well worth grabbing in book form as well. Tolkien knows the ins-and-outs of fairy stories and why we love them to this day. You can also see the seeds of what was milling in John’s mind between the publishing of The Hobbit and the writing of The Lord of the Rings. Fascinating reading
• The Cottingley Fairies
• Sprites, spiritualists and sleuths: the intersecting ownership of transcendent proofs in the Cottingley Fairy Fraud
• Reflections on the Cottingley Fairies
• The Fifth Cottingley Fairy Photo
• The Faery Folklorist
• The Fairy Compendium
• Dead but Dreaming
• Fairy Folio: A Field Guide to the Faerie – A fun animated film from 2004, narrated by Canadian icon Gordon Pinsent
• Faery Tale: One Woman’s Search for Enchantment in a Modern World by Signe Pike
• The Magical Casement: An Anthology of Fairy Poetry
• Phantastes by George MacDonald – The Faery tale which changed C. S. Lewis’ life