Faeries at Midsummer

Faeries

Midsummer is said to be a mystical time when the forces of magick are increased and roam our world.  Fairies, elves, and sprites are purported to be most easily seen at Mid-Summer, dancing in fairy rings.  This is the night when mortals experience strange experiences, and when fairies troop across the land.  Midsummer is a “day outside normal and the strange experiences one might have are likely to be comic harmless or even beneficial.  Midsummer has an “upside down” quality about it–things are often reversed.  It is a time for merriment and the wish making.

Midsummer Eve is one of the three great faery festivals, the other two being Halloween and Beltane. All sorts of enchantments are in the air. Spirits and faeries are around until St. Peter’s Day (June 29), moving among humankind, frolicking around the Midsummer bonfires, and playing all sorts of tricks ranging from innocent pranks to inflicting horrible curses and even death on those who offend them. It is at this time that they most often steal away human women to become their brides or nursemaids to faery children.

The following are faery folk who are particularly active at Midsummer:

Aine: Her feast day is Midsummer Eve, when she appears at the mound, surrounded by maidens.

Amadan-na-Briona: The Irish spirit the Amadan-na-Briona is at his most active at Midsummer, playing mischievous tricks on people. Also called “The Fool of the Forth,” he changes his shape every two days. When he appears as a man he is very wide and wears a high hat, though he has been known to appear as a sheep with a beard. If you meet him you should say, “The Lord be between us and harm,” because if he touches you he will inflict an incurable madness or even death. He knocks on doors late at night, throwing basins after people or popping up from behind hedges.

Oakmen: At this time of year, when the oak is the most powerful tree totem, spirits called oakmen guard it. These are the most widespread tree faeries in England. Beware, because they are fierce guardians of their trees and do not really like humans. They appear as forest dwarfs and offer food to passing mortals, but this always turns out to be poisonous fungi disguised by glamour, the faery magick. They also guard all the forest animals, especially foxes, and punish those who harm them. The rain that gathers in their oak hollows has powerful healing qualities.

Pilwiz: In Germany the pilwix faeries are busy trying to steal the growing grain. They raid cornfields, fixing sickles to their huge toes to cut the corn. To stop this, a farmer must catch the pilwiz in the act on St. John’s Day, but if the pilwiz should see the farmer first, the man will die.

Robin Goodfellow: The mischievous faery named Robin Goodfellow, Jack Robinson, or Puck plays tricks on the unwary who dare to venture out into wild and lonely places on such an enchanted night. He is believed to light the Midsummer bonfires himself. He is sometimes described as the jester of the faery court. Although this name is applied as a general term for any mischievous sprite.

Robin Goodfellow is sometimes described as having the head of a youth and the body of a goat. Like the god Pan, he has a lusty nature, small horns on his head and carries musical pipes. It may be that he is the faery remnant of the ancient horned god or nature spirits, since there originally seem to have been a race of pucks (satyrs of Greek mythology?). He is never seen between Halloween and Ostara.

Robin Goodfellow is related to the Welsh Pwca and the Irish Phooka, the Norwegian Pukje, the Danish Puge, the Swedish Puke, the old Norse Puki, the Latvian Pukis, the German Puks, and the Baltic Puk.

Rusalka: These Slavic and Russian nymphs walk the land at Midsummer, and where they walk flowers appear. They are associated with fertility, and when they move through the grain it causes it to grow. They have long, green hair and swing on the branches of forest trees. Rusalka have power over the wind and rain and may once have been weather deities.

Selkies: In the Shetlands those strange and lovely creatures called selkies come ashore on Johnsmas Eve. They normally have the appearance of gray seals, but shed their skins to become human on this night. Once ashore and in human form, the selkie-folk will dance on the seashore, and if they are disturbed they will grab their skins and run back to the sea. If a man can steal and hide the shed skin, he can force a selkie maid to marry him, though if she ever finds her skin she will put it on and be off back to the sea. Descendants of such unions have webbed fingers and toes or a horny substance on their palms and soles. The Mac Codrum clan from North Uist claim descent from selkies; they are known as Sliochd nan Ron, the “Offspring of Seals.”

Spunkies: In Somerset, England, these little faeries appear like will-o’-the-wisps, carrying candles and leading travelers astray at night. On Midsummer Eve they go to the churchyard to meet the newly dead. Some say that Spunkies themselves are the souls of unbaptized children, condemned to wander until doomsday.

The Elder Mother: The elder tree is sacred to elves and faeries. A spirit inhabits the tree, and for this reason when it is cut at Midsummer it bleeds real blood. In Denmark, the elder is under the protection of the faery/goddess Hulda, and in England the Elder Mother or Elder Queen. She lives at its roots and is the mother of the elves. According to Danish lore, if you stand under an elder on Midsummer Eve you will see the King of the Elves pass by. In Lincolnshire, England, it was thought that cutting elder wood without the leave of the Old Lady or Old Girl offended her, so permission must be sought.

Trows: These Shetland faeries come in two varieties: land trows and sea trows. Both are small, squat faeries with an aversion to daylight. Trows can be seen performing a lopsided crouching and hopping dance called Henking, especially at Midsummer, which is one of their great festivals. Sometimes they invite humans into their mounds, and sometimes they steal away women of loose morals to act as wet-nurses to trow children, which are called trowlings.

 (Much of this section comes from Midsummer: Magical Celebrations of the Summer Solstice. By Anna Franklin. ©2003, Llewellyn Publications.)