Fairies, Pookas, and Changelings: A Complete Guide to the Wild and Wicked Enchanted Realm
This comprehensive guide reveals the darker side of fairy folklore that goes far beyond delicate flower fairies. Readers discover the vengeance, trickery, and wild creatures that inhabit the enchanted realm through authentic tales from Celtic and Scandinavian traditions.
Author Varla Ventura compiles classic stories from renowned folklorists including Thomas Crofton Croker, Joseph Jacobs, the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Clara Stroebe. The collection spans Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Scandinavia, presenting goblins, trolls, gnomes, pookas, changelings, banshees, and other supernatural beings in their original context.
What's Inside
The book explores historical literature and folklore through five detailed chapters:
-
A Fear of Little Men: Elves, Trolls, Leprechauns, Tree Spirits, Brownies, Coblyns, Dwarves, Goblins, Bonga, Trolls and Other Fairy Folk of Glen, Forests and Hearth
-
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle: Changelings and Other Greedy Kidnappers of the Fairy Kingdom
-
I'm Not Drunk, It's Just My Pooka: Tales of the Trickster Fairy and Its Wild Counterpart
-
Is That All There Is? Faries Who Give, or The Barter System
-
Whoops, There It Is: How to Enter the Fairy Kingdom (or How Not To)
Each chapter demonstrates practical fairy lore: striking bargains with fairy folk, protecting against changelings, navigating encounters with dwarves, and understanding the consequences of entering the fairy kingdom. These aren't sanitized children's tales but authentic folklore that reveals the dangerous, unpredictable nature of supernatural entities.
The collection presents fairy tales and myths that showcase the barter system of the fairy realm, the trickster nature of pookas, and the theft of human children by changelings. Readers learn why fairy folk were feared in traditional cultures and how communities protected themselves from supernatural interference.
About Author Varla Ventura
Varla Ventura, author of Sheroes, Beyond Bizarre, and The Book of the Bizarre, specializes in unusual and supernatural subjects. A Halloween enthusiast who celebrates the holiday year-round, she lives in a Victorian attic in San Francisco, bringing her passion for the odd and freaky to this exploration of dark fairy folklore.
This paperback guide serves readers interested in authentic fairy folklore, Celtic mythology, Scandinavian legends, and the historical roots of supernatural tales. The kingdom of the fairy is one of vengeance, thievery, trickery, and wild creatures—consider yourself warned.
