The Perks: Health, Wealth, and Rewards of Fraternizing

Fairies embody fears and grant wishes. Naturally, then, their specific character roles change according to the fears and wishes of the culture relating their stories. Dealing with fairies is a risky business, so there must be some reward to make the risk worthwhile, and in the case of the English, this motive is as straightforward as cold, hard cash.

We can find some of our best documented fairy lore in records of early modern witch trials. These are especially prominent in Scotland, but England, too, has its share. The English fairy stories tend to show a greater spirit of optimism than those of the surrounding areas. English encounters with the fairies are not necessarily less dangerous than those of the Scottish, but they have less guilt in their fraternizing and a stronger sense of the potential perks.

One example of this, recorded by John Webster, involves a very poor and simple-minded man who overcame his poverty through the use of a mysterious white healing powder. He was accused of witchcraft, and when asked on trial how he had come about the powder, he informed the judge that it was a gift of the fairies. According to his tale, a fair woman came to him while he was sitting in heavy-hearted ponderance as to how to provide for his wife and children. She asked him why he was so sad, and when he told her, she told him to meet her again the next night. He did as she commanded. The woman then led him under a hill, where he was given a box of the healing powder by the fairy queen herself. By charging others for the miraculous stuff, he was able make a fair sum and save himself and his family from destitution. In the end, the jury could find no evidence for his tale beyond the numerous healed, and as that was no reason to hang a man, he was acquitted.

Purkiss lists three reasons for fairies' association with treasure: 1) their tendency to gravitate to ancient monuments, likely hiding spots for real treasure, 2) their link with the dead, and 3) their association with wild places where "finders are keepers" (Purkiss 125). The common idea that fairies lived underground would have given them knowledge of buried treasure as well as burial spots (often linked with hidden wealth; think mummies). Also, the tie between wealth and healing is a common one. Today, we would expect the man or woman to cure cancer or the common cold to reap massive financial success, and a doctor's is among the highest paying of jobs. Likewise, in those days, anyone who could combat the rampant diseases that affected cities and villages could have expected a steady livelihood. Further, wealth was a kind of healing itself. In the case of the man mentioned above, it saved his entire family from starvation. There was a sort of reverence for the "other" people who had the means to acquire these things at their very fingertips.

It is also worth noting here that fairies are not always heartless tricksters. I have tried to emphasize that the fairies of this time were not fluffy little angels of goodness, but that did not automatically make them demons. Here we see an example of a fairy sympathizing with a man in need and asking nothing in return (which appears to be rather uncommon). He is one of the lucky ones. I think it is fair to say that fairies are the possessors of great secrets, and what we want, they probably have. Whether we will risk witchcraft accusations or a hundred years of sleepy enchantment in another world - that is another story.