![]() Rising focuses on a dark power that attacks the minds of humans, thriving on their fear. ![]() I saw the cover art first, featuring the protagonist with his ‘coldfire’ blade and with the dark creeping lines of magic at his feet-this became the basis for an early rendering of the central character in Kiranis. I had never planned to read this book, but by a strange twist of fate, it became highly influential for me. All the best books on the subject were written before 1970, the later ones tending to be cribbed from Briggs and that other great folklorist, W.B Yeats whose writing on the Irish Fae, the Sidh (pronounced Shee) is superlative. The one-time president of the English Folklore Society, her books are so authoritative and imaginative, they bring to life the incredible inhabitants of the otherworldly realm. The unsurpassable fairy lore of Katherine Briggs 1898-1980, takes up an entire shelf on my bookcase and includes The Anatomy of Puck, The Fairies in Tradition and Literature, The Vanishing People, and A Dictionary of Fairies. The moment a fairy character is absorbed into capitalist entertainment, their magic is lost. Disney’s depiction of Peter Pan & Tinkerbelle as ordinary kids who happen to have wings bears no relation to the fairies of folklore. ![]() ![]() ![]() There is a world of difference between the fairies of folk-lore and the ‘airy-fairy’s’ to use one of Katherine Brigg’s descriptions that infest popular media. ![]()
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