"Faeries" In The Woodlands Of Muskoka?

ARE THERE "FAERIES" IN THE WOODLANDS OF MUSKOKA? WHAT WAS THE PIONEER OPINION ON THE MATTER?

EUROPEAN FOLKLORE WAS TRANSPLANTED IN CANADA WITH ADVANCING SETTLEMENT

     Are you sure, the rustling in the leaves, along the edge of the woodland path, is a chipmunk or squirrel. In the wafting mist of a chilled morning, like we experienced today, down along the embankment of the silver pond, might you wonder about the source of music and voices, when presumably, no one else in on the same pathway? If you saw tiny lights clustered tightly, low to the ground, on a moonlit saunter, along a country road, could you ever, in your wildest imagination, consider the possibility, faeries are hosting a gathering? Yet as a child, when our grandmothers warned us to be careful walking through the woods, so as not to step on a faery, we looked down and proceeded with caution. We just weren't sure about these mythical creatures, and whether they existed or not, but thought it better to avoid any possibility of crushing one under foot. Who, at a young age, would challenge the authority of a grandparent? There was lots of time to question why and how. In the meanwhile, we enjoyed the walks and the entry into the enchanted forests, pastures, parks and hillsides, hanging off their every word, looking about us to see any of the bandy legged wee beasties being referred to, on that particular outing.
     As hard as you may pursue it, with best intentions, and as many books of local history as you may wish to consume in quest, the only reference to "fairys" you're likely to find, in our regional antiquity, will have been used in the most romantic characterization; such as with some well meaning pioneer observance, for example, of a lakeland scene, looking very much like a "fairyland."
    Local historians over the centuries, have not possessed much interest at all, to research or properly recognize, in any meaningful way, the folk history of our district. One might suspect, after reading these lengthy tomes, that folk history simply didn't exist, or was irrelevant to the normal chronicle of community development, in every other way. Despite the undeniable fact, cultural heritage, as it includes folklore, is just as important, in the understanding of how a community developed, as with all other details of day by day, event by event factual accomplishment. In all ways and means it needs to be included in these accounts of community history. Not just what a few historians decided was in our best interest to document. The fact they ignored folk history has meant it was never harvested from source individuals, at a time, when it was fresh in the minds of descendants, of those first courageous pioneers, homesteading the dark, forbidding woodlands of Muskoka. This has left a giant void in our overall coverage of Muskoka since the late 1850's. But a little backtracking will turn up a portion of this cultural heritage, as with this minor profile of the fairy-kind, and how it might have been re-located as a belief, from Europe to the Canadian wilds. Make no mistake. Fairy culture was transplanted here, but it hasn't been the kind of story, in retrospect, that has fit-in with the more celebrated chronicle of economic investment, commercial forays, local political milestones, and erection dates of local buildings.
     Following the highly successful translation of "Gnomes," published in large format hardcover (and then softcover) in the mid 1970's, Harry N. Abrams Inc. of New York, came out with another folklore / fantasy publication, entitled "Faeiries," in 1978, described and illustrated by Brian Froud and Alan Lee. It was another successful release, and I was happy this morning, when Suzanne handed me a first edition of the hardcover release, pulled off the shelf of a local second hand shop. Talk about providential. It's what I planned on writing about today, as part of this short pre-Hallowe'en series of blogs, about the spirited, deliciously haunted wilds of Muskoka.
     The homesteaders, who arrived in Canada, and specifically Muskoka, in the late 1850's, were mostly urban refugees from the poorest neighborhoods of European cities. There were also poor rural farmers, who decided to walk away from their faltering pursuits, to engage the opportunities being advertised, by government agencies, of large parcels of free agricultural land in Canada. These emigrants were not best suited to farming a difficult topography, which was mostly swamp, with rock outcroppings, and huge acreages of thick forests. And they were not knowledgable about new and improved agricultural methods. They had to learn about farming by immersion, which meant thousands failed, and even died making the attempt to survive against often brutal elements; especially the long, and bitterly cold winters, trying to avoid being frozen to death, and being able to feed families on low quality and quantity of provisions.
     Was this poorer class of homesteader, more likely to bring their old stories and inherited cultural values, based in part on European folklore, when they settled deep in the Muskoka woodlands? As compared, say, to the wealthier class of emigrants who came to the newly opened region to invest in business and industry. It's not to suggest they didn't have their beliefs in folklore, acquired from living in the "old country," just that they were more likely to have options where they settled. Choosing instead, communities that had been rooted already, with some minor conveniences, versus trying to make money from small, isolated homestead farms. Was it more likely, these old stories and traditions, had more fertile ground in the rural clime, than in the settlements? The enclosure of the Muskoka forests is known to have had a profound effect on these settlers in the beginning, and it can be presumed, that if hobgoblins were an issue in England, amongst the common folk, they were an issue in Muskoka as well. Although the regional historians we've known in this past century, have avoided much of the folklore component of early homesteading culture, there is, none the less, evidence these European emigrants did willingly transplant their old country beliefs in the Muskoka lakeland. If they weren't invited along, it then seems as if the Faeries (Fairies), had cleverly stowed themselves away, on the schooners and steamships, to make the trans-oceanic journey. It is to be supposed, as well, that being clever and adventurous, the fairy-kind were also curious about the potentials of a new wild place in which to thrive their ilk, and apparently weren't adverse to passage in steerage class, in order to see the bigger world beyond what they had, for long and long, known of their European digs,
     Here now in the year 2015, one hundred and fifty years since settlement of Muskoka began in earnest, try to find just one local child older than infancy, who hasn't in one way another, seen or heard about fairies and their kind? The first one I knew as a child, was Peter Pan's "Tinker Bell." What about pioneer children, running through the forest, and finding what they believed was a "faery circle," left from a moonlight revel with Queen Mab? Upon asking an elder family member, might these children have been warned away from intruding further on this secret society, for fear of retribution. There are bad faeries just as there are good ones; good people and bad!
     "Faerie is a world of dark enchantments, of captivating beauty, of enormous ugliness, of callous superficiality, of humour, mischief, joy, and inspiration, of terror, laughter, love and tragedy. It is far richer than fiction would generally lead one to believe and, beyond that, it is a world to enter with extreme caution, for of all things that faeries resent the most, it is curious humans blundering about their private domains like so many ill-mannered tourists. So go softly - where the rewards are enchanting, the dangers are real."
     The passage above was written by Betty Ballantine, as an introduction to the book, "Faeries," published in 1978, by Harry Abrams and the Souvenir Press. She notes that, "The words 'fey' and 'faerie,' come from the French and started to replace the Old English 'Elf,' during the Tudor period. Spenser and Shakespeare popularised the change. 'Elfland,' and 'Faerieland,' 'Elf,' and 'Faerie,'were and are still interchangeable words. The spellings of 'faerie,' are numerous: fayerye, fairye, fayre, faerie, faery, and fairy."
     In terms of encountering fairies, according to Betty Ballantine, "The fact is, they will either accept you as part of their world, or they won't. It's up to them. Sometimes indeed, a totally unwilling human will nevertheless become captive (captivated) - taken by Faerie for their own purposes. Sometimes no amount of mooning around in misty forest glades or communing with nature at the bottom of the garden (erroneously said to be a favourite haunt of faeries) will bring about anything other than a general sense of damp.
     "Our own personal experience with faeries is complicated. This is necessarily so with creatures of such varied and ever-changing character. In an effort to bring some order, at least, to a controversial subject, we have explored legend, myth, folklore, faerielore, and even outright fantasy."
     She writes, "And here we must make one thing very clear. The real faerie experience is very different from the general view of faerie built up by clouds of sentimental fiction with legions of inevitably happily-ever-after endings. The world of 'Once Upon a Time,' delightful as it is and highly as we value it, is not the real world of Faerie. Faerie represents Power, magical power, incomprehensible to humans, and hence, inimical. It must always be remembered that though the world of Faeries, is to a large extent dependent on humans, faeries are alien creatures with values and ethics far removed from mankind; they do not think, and most notably, they do not feel, the way humans do.
     "This is precisely the core of much of their envy of mortals and the source of a good deal of trouble they cause, for faeries are themselves creatures of the raw stuff of life and are ceaselessly attracted to all forms of creativity and particularly to moments of high emotion in which they seek to be participants. Lovers, poets, artists, writers, sculptors, weavers, musicians and the like - all the arts, indeed acknowledge a debt to an unidentifiable, invisible, capricious, sensitive, delicate, elusive, and powerful force, which is called 'inspiration,' or 'muse' and is generally irresistable when present. It is no coincidence that these are also the chief characteristics of Faerie. Hence Faerie should be held as infinitely valuable."
     She concludes the book's introduction with the advisory, "But the time is getting short for the taking of such delicious risks - faerie contact with humans, dependent as it is on the natural world of humans, is shrinking with our own shrinking habitat. It is time - and beyond - to distinguish the acummulated superstitions and conjectural fictions about Faerie from its reality, to study the world of Faerie with, we hope, kindly objectivity and a proper enjoyment of its true value to man."
     "The myths and legends about Faerie are many and diverse, and often contradictory. Only one thing is certain - that nothing is certain. All things are possible in the land of Faerie," notes the book's preface. "Faerie is very ancient and predates Christianity by several millenia. Moreover it exists, and has existed in varying forms, in many countries, all over the world." It also indicates, "Faerie can reveal itself, bright and glittering without warning, anywhere and just as suddenly disappear. Its frontiers of twilight, mists and fancy are all around us, and, like a tide running out, can momentarily reveal Faerie before flowing back to conceal it again. The inhabitants of faerieland can be divided into various different species according to habitat. In addition to the solitary-living faeries, there are many rural elf types who make their homes in the forests (or sometimes, more specifically, 'adopt,' a tree to such an extent that the faeries and the tree become more of less synonymous), fields, hills, mountain caves. There are those that live on faerie islands or in countries under the oceans while there are also water faeries inhabiting the seas, lakes and rivers. Finally, there are the domestic and house-spirits (brownies and so forth)." The Irish Leprechaun is considered, a more solitary and independent "faery."
     American author, Washington Irving, was one who believed in the importance of such cultural beliefs, and he used these old stories as sources of inspiration for his own fascinating tales in and around the historic Hudson River Valley. Irving had the belief that science couldn't solve all the mysteries of nature and the universe, and that some aspects of cultural heritage, as abstract as they were, deserved to thrive in perpetuity, because of the enriching nature of the theme on the arts, and society as a whole. He wasn't against the enquiries of the scientist or the botanist, but regarded some things as being best left alone; faerie culture being one of them. The Town of Bracebridge, of course, was named after Irving's book "Bracebridge Hall," the second part of his first major work, "The Sketch Book," which contains amongst other classics, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Of course, he was a story crafter, who very much benefitted from a readership that celebrated his works of fiction.