A fairy (also fata, fay, fey, fae, fair folk; from faery, faerie, "realm of the fays") is a type of mythical being or legendary creature in European folklore (and particularly Celtic, Slavic, German, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural, or preternatural.
The myths from Celtic, Germanic ,Slavic and English folklore all believe that the faery is a small, invisible and non-human creature who linger in the hidden and the between places of the world. They have the ability to use magic however this is where the myths start to deviate from one another. Some folklore believe that the magic is used to help and assist humans in their day to day lives , some believe in this as well however they also have a mischievous side which causes mayhem in humans' lives. The folklore simply cannot decide if these creature are benevolent or malevolent.
For example,Christianity believes that faeries are demoted angles, beings that are not quite angles but not quite demons. The romans believe that the fair folk are hearth spirits that dwell in the hearth protecting the home. The pagans believe that they are the once Pagan gods of old, forced to flee and hide away from Christianity as it swept through Europe.
However they can all decide that these creature are devastatingly beautiful and handsome and they all relay on the forest for their home and each posses characteristics such as horns and wings.
It was during the time of Queen Elizabeth I of England, where William Shakespeare (1564-1616) had popularised fairies in English folklore, in his play Midsummer Night's Dream, with the characters Oberon, Titania and Puck (Robin Goodfellow). Earlier than Shakespeare, Chaucer (1342-1400) mentioned that the land of Britain was filled with fairies before the time of King Arthur.
In the Arthurian legends, the divine or fairy figures also appeared in abundance. Morgan, Arthur's half-sister, seemed to be great sorceress and healer, was often called Morgan le Fay; her nickname Fay, which means "Fairy". And then there is this Lady of the Lake. Arthur's wife, Guinevere, or Gwenhwyfar in the Welsh tradition, also appeared to be a fairy, as well as the sovereignty goddess. Many knights were either born from fairies or they took female fairies as their lovers. Even Merlin was only part mortal.
The seelie and unseelie courts are the division of the fair folk into "good" and "bad", with the "bad" faeries in the unseelie court and the "good" faeries in the seelie court. The courts are from Sccottish folklore but are not mentioned in faerie-lore texts. The word seelie derives from Anglo-Saxon "saellic" meaning happy or prosperous.
Unseeliecourt contained creatures such as red caps, shellycoat, the brownman of the muirs, the powrie, the dunter, and perhaps a hag like Gentle Annis;the seelie court, meanwhile, included the elves, the brownies and the doonie.
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