(A Brief History) The Fey, Faerie, and Fairy Tales a foreword Faeries, come take me out of this dull world, For I would ride with you upon the wind, Run on the top of the dishevelled tide, And dance upon the mountains like a flame —William Butler Yeats, “The Land of Heart’s Desire” h By Jeff Grubb Let’s go back to the earliest years, to before the roll of dice, before the platonic solids, and even before Plato himself Way back to when the gods were responsible for the lightning and the thunder The fey were there They were unseen, spiritual creatures—always present, always lurking at the corners of our vision They were responsible for effects that did not seem to have causes They haunted our buildings and dogged our steps They were always watching and waiting They went by a plethora of local names and had a bevy of regional habits Some washed their hats in the blood of their victims Some knocked the stones deep within the mines Many would lure the unwary and unwilling to their dooms Some of them gave their names to other, more tangible, more terrestrial creations—dwarves and elves and kobolds and goblins and gnomes Ultimately, in those earliest of days, the fey could claim kinship with the Fates themselves, and like the Fates, they could move among mortals, working their deadly and capricious magics Indeed, Faerie was a place for the fey, much like a nunnery was a place of nuns and a heronry was a place for herons It was where the fey were when they weren’t here It was where the fey lived, where they plotted, and where they ruled And if you happened to find your