The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries

About this book

A farmer describes fairy lights near a hillside; another witness remembers a being who appeared and vanished; old beliefs survive even where church and school have changed village life.

W. Y. Evans-Wentz travelled through Celtic regions gathering testimony about the fairy faith, recording voices from Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Brittany and elsewhere. His interpretations reflect an early twentieth-century interest in psychical research. The interviews preserve something more elusive: the many ways people described sharing familiar landscapes with unseen neighbours.