#FolkloreThursday for #InternationalFairyDay #Celtic: `Local legends generally describe the #Breton #fairies as well-educated, wise, young and very beautiful although some appeared to have been centuries old, with teeth as long as a man’s hand and with backs covered with seaweed, barnacles and mussels.
As in other parts of Brittany, some of the region’s fairies were said to live in dolmens or under menhirs or other great rocks – locations that perhaps hark back to earlier devotions and ancient stone cults. For instance, during the nights of a full moon, fairies were said to emerge from the dolmen on Île-Grande near Pleumeur-Bodou to dance their favourite circular dance. Likewise, tall, beautiful fairies, dressed in purest white and so luminous that looking upon their faces was like seeing light through a horn lantern were reported to enjoy moonlight dances around a dolmen near Caro each Easter night.`
Source: https://bonjourfrombrittany.wordpress.com/2023/01/14/the-fairies-of-the-swells/

#FolkloreThursday for #InternationalFairyDay #Celtic: `In the area around the #Breton towns of Lamballe and Moncontour, #fairies were said to live under some of the protruding rocks that emerge from the ground in that neighbourhood but only if they were also sited very near to a stream or pond. Protected by the elements from the overhanging stone, the fairies lit their fires and watched over their cattle. Their presence in the area attested by the markings on the stones said to have been made by their feet or by the nails of their sabots.
Throughout Brittany, both fairies and #korrigans were most closely associated with water; the latter usually with springs and ponds, the former with streams, rivers and the sea. Near Saint-Pôtan, the waters of the Guébriand River were said to be home to a fairy that lived in a fine palace hidden by the reeds and aquatic grasses; her blond hair could be seen above the water on nights when the moon was clear and sometimes one could hear her wonderful singing. This fairy could assume the appearance of an eel or even take a human form and was feared because it was believed to possess the power to petrify unmarried girls.`
Source: https://bonjourfrombrittany.wordpress.com/2023/01/14/the-fairies-of-the-swells/

#FolkloreThursday for #InternationalFairyDay #Celtic: `The fairies of north-east #Brittany and along an associated coastal strip about 130km long, stretching roughly from La Fresnais in the east to Saint-Quay-Portrieux in the west, were notably different from others found in #Breton folklore or even elsewhere in Europe. In the east of the region, they were known as Les Fées des Houles (#Fairies of the Swells) or Margot la Fée, but terms that meant ‘My Godmother Margot’ and ‘Good Ladies’ were also popularly used. In the Breton speaking areas to the west, Groac’h vor (Sea Fairy) was used although Groac’h was also a word that could be used to describe a witch or a crone.
Like the #Korrigans, the Fairies of the Swells possessed magical powers; they could foretell the future, shapeshift into any human or animal form and were able to travel from one end of the world to another in the twinkling of an eye. Fairies were often spoken of with a sense of reverence for it was widely believed that they refused to be mocked and ruthlessly punished those that ill-treated or disrespected them.`
https://bonjourfrombrittany.wordpress.com/2023/01/14/the-fairies-of-the-swells/

#FolkloreThursday for #InternationalFairyDay #Celtic: `The #Breton #fairies were almost always described as beautiful people. They loved to dance but were often shy and wary of human contact and thus made their homes in hidden isolated places such as coastal grottoes or sea-caves. Around the fishing port of Saint-Cast, the fairies were said to have dressed in clothing made of white canvas but further inland, near Le Mené, one who claimed to have knowledge of such things in 1880 described: “human-like creatures whose clothes had no seams and no one knew which were men or which were women. When seen from afar, they appeared to be dressed in the most beautiful and brilliant clothes. When we approached, these beautiful colours disappeared but there remained on their heads a sort of cap in the form of a crown, which appeared to form part of their body”.`
Source: https://bonjourfrombrittany.wordpress.com/2023/01/14/the-fairies-of-the-swells/

#FolkloreThursday for #InternationalFairyDay #Celtic: „According to #Breton tradition, the fairies abandoned #Brittany all at once and over the course of a single night. Local legends differ as to when that time was but at the end of the 19th century it was usually said to have been when one’s grandparents were very young or even during the turmoil of the Revolution; dates so distant that nothing then resembled what exists here today. The travellers and ethnographers that visited the region in the mid to late 19th century noted many beliefs surrounding the little folk of Brittany. As you might expect, the names given to these diminutive supernatural beings often differed from community to community but there appears to have been fairly broad agreement about the characteristics exhibited by certain beings seemingly based on their habitat.“
Source: https://bonjourfrombrittany.wordpress.com/2023/01/14/the-fairies-of-the-swells/

Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga stowed away on a fishing trip with his brothers and was shocked by the discovery of the North Island of Aotearoa [New Zealand] in his fishing net!

🎨Wilhelm Dittmer & Carving held in National Library of New Zealand

#FolkloreThursday #DayOfTheSeafarer

🌿☀️🌿A Griffon finding some welcome shade in my garden...
#FolkloreThursday #FolkloreSunday

❄️🏹❄️If you're finding the heatwave overwhelming, why not cool down in the frosty forest with Robin of Sherwood!💚 #MythologyMonday #FairyTaleTuesday #WyrdWednesday #FolkloreThursday #FolkloreSunday #RobinHood #BookSky📚 www.amazon.co.uk/Wolves-Winte...

Wolves of Winter: from Richard...

#FolkloreThursday #Celtic: `Guaire went to the fair of Taillte, having with him a budget or bag of silver to dispense to the men of Ireland. Now Diarmaid, the king of Ireland, charged the men of Ireland that none of them should ask anything of Guaire at the fair. Two days passed in this manner; on the third day, however, Guaire asked Diarmaid to send for a bishop for him that he might make his confession and be anointed.
‘How is that?’ enquired Diarmaid.
‘As I am near death,’ said Guaire.
‘How dost thou know that?’ asked Diarmaid.
‘I know it,’ said Guaire, ‘for the men of Ireland are assembled and none of them asks me for anything.’
Then Diarmaid gave Guaire leave to make gifts. Guaire proceeded to make gifts to everyone, and, if the tale be true, the hand with which he made gifts to the poor was longer than that with which he made gifts to the bards. Then Diarmaid made peace and agreement with Guaire in presence of the men of Ireland, and they were thenceforth on friendly terms with each other.`
Source: https://iso.ucc.ie/Cath-cairnn/Cath-cairnn-text.html
Here's the backstory: https://hear-me.social/@NeuKelte/116772089694189781