Celtic fairy traditions
Fairy Taking
A bride’s apparent death becomes, in Patrick Waters’s account, an enforced separation from her husband. She appears to give him a narrow opportunity to retrieve her from a passing company. A Manx story offers another rescue at a barn door but makes its failure depend on a remaining straw. The tales combine precise conditions, longing, and the uncertainty of return.
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In the sources
Principal account
ReportedA bride’s apparent death becomes, in Patrick Waters’s account, an enforced separation from her husband. She appears to give him a narrow opportunity to retrieve her from a passing company.
Further detail
ReportedA Manx story offers another rescue at a barn door but makes its failure depend on a remaining straw. The tales combine precise conditions, longing, and the uncertainty of return.
Context & interpretation
Evans-Wentz combines named informants, manuscript narratives, and his own psychical theory in a 1911 survey. This entry preserves those distinctions: collected belief and literary tradition do not establish the physical existence of an Otherworld.
Original passages
Source 1
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
husband, and said to him, " I'm not dead at all, but I am put from you now for a time. It may be aOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Celtic fairy traditions; active reader leaf 80
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0045-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0045-E001-P0080
- Original scan leaf
- 81
- Recorded leaf number
- 81
- Current Reader position
- 76
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
A Ballaleece woman was captured by the fairiesOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Celtic fairy traditions; active reader leaf 161
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0045-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0045-E001-P0161
- Original scan leaf
- 162
- Recorded leaf number
- 162
- Current Reader position
- 157
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed