Peri
This
mythical creature in what was once Persia (mainly Iran but also Afghanistan and
Pakistan) caught my eye.
Peri
roughly translates to ‘fairy’ and the mountains in which they were said to
inhabit was called Peristan (‘land of the fairies’, the ‘-stan’ suffix means ‘land’).
They look like how we envision fairies today: small, delicate, and winged. Indeed,
it is from the peri that Europe/North America got its predominant idea of fairy
physiology. Even if fairies don’t all shimmer with the colours of the rainbow…
In Zoroastrian
myth, peri were the forces of good constantly at war with the daeva, the forces
of evil. The daeva often locked peri in iron cages at the top of trees. They
were sustained by the perfume of other peri who fly by the cages. Come Islam,
peri were considered to be the Fallen Angels who the Prophet Muhammad successfully
converted them to Islam.
Fairy
So if peri
changed how fairies looked, how did fairies look to begin with?
Rather boring
in comparison. ‘Fairy’ was once a catch-all phrase for magical creatures with a
human-like appearance and usually the size of toddlers; particularly in Celtic
areas (think Great Britain and Ireland), they were also termed ‘elves’ after
contact with Germanic creatures of similar appearance.
They lived
for centuries. Going to their world through burrows or fairy rings was
inadvisable: if you ate food there, you’d never leave; if you did return to
Earth, a century could have passed. Iron hurt them. Some would help with
housework (if offerings were left for them); others were more god-like in
character and depiction. Those in the Seelie Court (benevolent) played harmless
pranks on people when not helping them. Those in the Unseelie Court
(malevolent) harmed humans for fun and often kept humans as ‘pets’.
Perhaps the
most pressing issue about fairies in the mediaeval ages was the issue of
changlings. When a fairy got tired of looking after their elders, they’d swap
the elder with a human baby. The baby would be raised as a fairy, giving them
new blood for their gene pool; the fairy elder would be raised as a human where
their every need was taken care of forever.
The Outcome
Fairies were
once these powerful beings yet when they got depicted more like peri (who were
themselves immense creatures), their pretty, ‘feminine’ looks demoted them to being
weak and helpless. The patriarchy demotes two for the price of one.
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