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Fates and Fairies

9/22/2016

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PictureThe Triumph of Death, or The Three Fates (Flemish Tapestry, probably Brussels, ca. 1510-1520). Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.
Fate goddesses were common to various European cultures. They were known to the Greeks as Moirae, to the Romans as Parcae, and the Norse called them Nornir. They were commonly depicted as a triad of supernatural women, ranging from primordial figures present since the beginning of time to wandering ‘birth fairies’ responsible for assigning the fates of newborn children. At times, Fate was embodied in the figure of a single goddess as well. The Fates exist in myth and folklore under many different guises, and have lent their attributes to various supernatural beings over time.

Some scholars have argued that the Fates were simply borrowed into other cultures from Greco-Roman mythology. It is possible that the motif of three fate goddesses in particular is Greco-Roman in origin. However, the presence of spinning, weaving fate goddesses and ‘birth fairies’ in older cultures, such as the Hittite Gulses or the Egyptian Seven Hathors, as well as the similarities with figures from far-off cultures indicates the concept did not begin with the Greeks or Romans. More likely, these deities have a common Indo-European root. Many believe they are very ancient deities, pre-dating the Indo-European migrations.

The Latin word fata (itself coming from fari, “to speak”, implying prophecy) is the root for words such as fate and fairy. It was applied to goddesses associated with destiny (as in fatae, fatales deae or sorores fatalis) and also female supernatural beings immanent within wellsprings or other natural places, by medieval clerics. In particular, these medieval writers recognized the belief and worship of ‘birth fairies’ or fates by women who set a table with offerings for them after the birth of a child.


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Spirits of the Land and Sacred Places

9/9/2016

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PictureNymphs and Satyr by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1873). Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.
Folk tradition and beliefs, even place-names, give us hints that the peoples of Europe up until very recently believed they lived in a haunted world, populated by countless spirits and invisible forces. Water was believed to harbour a variety of beings, many of whom could be dangerous, such as water serpents, dracs and nixies. Forests were full of spirit creatures, like will ‘o the wisps and the leshy. Lonely moors were the haunts of white ladies, black dogs and monstrous giants. Werewolves, witches and fairies lived in the mountains and in caves and meadows. Even revenants and spirits of the dead roamed the landscape, sometimes in terrifying groups such as in the Wild Hunt.

European indigenous folk religions were animistic. As discussed in the previous article on the animistic belief in the spirit double, animism is the belief that we live in an animate, ‘ensouled’ world populated by human and other-than-human persons. Personhood is a quality which not only humans, animals and plants possess, but also inanimate objects, places, and natural forces. In the animistic worldview, the material living world is inseparable from the Otherworld, the realm of gods, spirits and the dead. The sacred is everywhere, immanent in everyone and everything.



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    The Soul of Bones blog discusses European myth, magic and folklore, with a primary focus on witchcraft and related folk traditions.

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