Does anyone know of a good research resource for fairy lore?

[Jemini]

I'm trying to look up an appropriate fey creature from traditional English or Scottish folk lore to fill a guardian role in my story. It needs to be physically small in appearance, and someone enticing in terms of looking cute and innocent in appearance, but has a role of a guardian to some extent.

I was trying to see if there was any kind of comprehensive list of such fairy creatures with a quick internet search, but all I'm finding is the most basic of overviews that reference Sakespears "a mid summer night's dream" or just list off 2 or 3 types of fairy creatures and add a note that says "and more" or "this is just a small glimpse" afterward.

In other words, I'm just not finding a properly comprehensive resource that gives information on fey lore anywhere. Just some minor things to satisfy the casually curious, but nothing like what I need to do real research into the subject.

Does anyone know of a proper resource for this subject?

(Yes, I know I'm the person on the forum best known for having the lore on a bunch of specific creatures, but searching information is a LOT easier when it comes to searching for a specific creature you already know the name of. I'm searching for a name to fit a list of attributes this time, which is something a lot harder and requires a far larger database to reference, which is something I'm just not finding anywhere.)

 

[Deleted member 166076]

Did you try "types of fae" on Google? A decent list pops up as well as this site right away for me.

 

[Jemini]

Did you try "types of fae" on Google? A decent list pops up as well as this site right away for me.

That might seem like a decent list to the average person, but it doesn't have Dullahans, Cait sith, Church Grims, or many other creatures associated with the fey.

The fact I know over twice the number of fey creatures as are on that list winds up meaning it's rather insufficient to me. It doesn't even have Leprichans, Brownies, or any of the hundreds of different named types of little people that exist in Irish folklore.

(Like I said, I'm looking for a rather comprehensive list, and my standard of "comprehensive" as someone who's more aware of the subject are probably a fair bit higher than most.)

 

[Tsuru]

You could try asking in other places.

Can be in LoTR reddit
or royalroad forum
or quora (this one is a like a very epic safezone to ask stuff but take time)

 

[Deleted member 166076]

You complained your search gave you 3 results, I gave you 2 possible longer lists. You're going to have to get creative with your search terms and try things like "mythology" and "guardians" as most will actually be fairies. I've had to do a good bit of research myself for my novels. Also, the drop down menu on Google lists Dullahan as the 11th option down for me. Leprechauns are 6th on Google list, Brownies 9th. So, of the 2 options I gave you 1 of them lists all of those options.

Not all of these are fairies, but here is a list of some of the others I've got in my notes:

Brownies
House Fairies, 6” Tall, Hard-Working, Kind, Non-Combat

Domovoy
Protect children & animals, Anti-Evil, hearth & food, small, gremlin-like, bearded man

Kobolds
Goblin-sized, grey skin, tempermental, helpful, tricksters, loves beer

Clurichaun
Mischievous fairy, loves drinking, solitary being, 6” tall, leprechaun relative

Gnomes
Underground, Earth Elementals, Gardeners

Sprites
Small, Winged, Alchemists, Anti-Evil, Invisibility

Here is another link to a site with a list of other types of fey including things like drow, drider, hamadryad, fossegrim, etc. Again, you really just have to use those keywords in Google "fey", "fae", "seelie", "underlie", "fairies", etc. and "types of" plus potentially specificy certain countries, "mythology", etc. Most places don't bother with listing 100% of everything as most people just need a list of the most common ones

 

[Jemini]

You could try asking in other places.

Can be in LoTR reddit
or royalroad forum
or quora (this one is a like a very epic safezone to ask stuff but take time)

Did that as well, and I actually have gotten a good result from other sources already.

I'm currently reading Katharine Mary Briggs' "A Dictionary of Fairies" on a recommendation of a reddit thread someone linked me to. It seems to be exactly what I was looking for.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

There aren't any list th at I have found to be complete esides the Wikipedia resource list of Fae/Fey

 

[Tsuru]

There aren't any list th at I have found to be complete esides the Wikipedia resource list of Fae/Fey

ANY
list
is not complete


Even a simple "Blockbuster animes" or "list of the popular old and now animes"
dont exist.

Now its just "TOP10" "TOP50"
or even not existing as they are in youtube videos for LIKES/VIEWS.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

ANY
list
is not complete


Even a simple "Blockbuster animes" or "list of the popular old and now animes"
dont exist.

Now its just "TOP10" "TOP50"
or even not existing as they are in youtube videos for LIKES/VIEWS.

Fair. Though I have found quite a few resources in old books on Celtic/Welsh holidays and folktales.

 

[Tsuru]

-----continuation-post------------

Randomc, a blog/website.
Even them, didnt have a long full list of all popular animes. But simply gave "seasonal" works. Meanwhile they sure gave efforts to screenshots DOZENS OF TIMES the animes.

HECK, EVEN LOT OF WEBSITES FOR cough GAMES.
DONT EVEN HAVE A SECTION FOR "POPULAR GAMES"

And some raw websites.
Dont even have a "pages" function to search chronologically "releases" but need to click "urban/fantasy/etc" tags one by one and check.

Fair. Though I have found quite a few resources in old books on Celtic/Welsh holidays and folktales.

Sometimes i wish, the reaction function allowed both :
or combo both (fusion DBZ)
------
also goddamn, your last cover is epic and COMIC level (high quality)

 

[Placeholder]

Try: A Dictionary of English Folklore

A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology

Via your library/libby local uni library.

---

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

archive.org

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Sometimes i wish, the reaction function allowed both :
or combo both (fusion DBZ)
------
also goddamn, your last cover is epic and COMIC level (high quality)

Thank you!

 

[foxes]

I just asked Copilot what you were looking for and immediately got a list of seven creatures

Brownie: A house spirit that helps with household chores in exchange for milk or cream.
Pixie: Small creatures known for their pranks and games.
Leprechaun: Irish spirit, guardian of gold, often associated with fairies.
Sylphides: Air spirits described in alchemical treatises.
Nymphs: Nature spirits that dwell in forests, rivers, and other natural places.
Dryads: Forest nymphs, spirits of the trees.
Sidhe: Creatures from Scottish and Irish folklore who dwell in hills and mountains.

Additionally, he named five more considering them suitable.

Elves: Small magical creatures known for their beauty and connection to nature.
Sprites: Spirits of nature that can be either good or evil.
Furies: Spirits of vengeance who punish people for their transgressions.
Kilpi: Water creatures who can take the form of a horse and lure people into the water.
Banshee: Spirits that herald death, known for their piercing scream.
Chengelli: Forest spirits who guard animals and plants.

Perhaps you could ask other questions and get better results on them.
Eventually ask them to come up with something like "Glendwaver".

 

[BearlyAlive]

No other way than to read through any and all mythologies that have fae-ish and/or fairy-like creatures. OR you just specify what kind of fae-thing you're looking for and search for something that fits the archetype you're going fof

 

[greyliliy]

Project Gutenberg is always a good resource for older works: https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=fae&submit_search=Search

 

[Jemini]

I'm reading this.

A Dictionary of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures : Katharine Mary Briggs : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

also called An Encyclopedia of Fairies in the US

archive.org

 

[FayeBliss]

It is expensive and focused on RPGs in general, but I backed this project and am quite happy with the results.

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

I found a wikia source that has info on fairies:

Unnatural World Wiki

This is a wiki for the unnatural world. You can read everything about deities, supernatural creatures, dimensions, magical events, and spiritual entities here. If you feel something is missing or incorrect, please feel free to add or correct it. I only ask that all edits be constructive and the...

unnaturalworld.fandom.com

 

[Jemini]

I found a wikia source that has info on fairies:

Unnatural World Wiki

This is a wiki for the unnatural world. You can read everything about deities, supernatural creatures, dimensions, magical events, and spiritual entities here. If you feel something is missing or incorrect, please feel free to add or correct it. I only ask that all edits be constructive and the...

unnaturalworld.fandom.com

Oh wow! That source is REALLY good!

I just gave it the acid test. I looked up it's definition of "Goblin" and "Hobgoblin." It gave the classical lore answer, not the modern pop-culture answer, which earns this site MAJOR points in my book.

(Or rather, it gave something fairly close to the classical lore answer. The truth is, the classical lore on the difference between a goblin and a hobgoblin indicates absolutely no morphological difference, and in fact it seems very much as though they are the same thing with the only difference being that goblins are unequivocally mischivous at best to malicious at worst, where as hobgoblins are generally mischivous but not outright malicious, and could even be friendly. For the most part, the impression I get is that if they're malicious, then they're a goblin. If not, they're a hobgoblin.)

 

[Lloyd]

Traditionally, fairies live in boulders and kill people for messing with them.