Interesting Facts- The Faerie and Fairies Part 1

So for the next couple of weeks I guess, I'm going to tell you guys about my favorite mythological creatures and give you a run down how they fit into my stories.


First off if you notice the title, I have Faerie and Fairies as two seperate words and this is for a reason. In my books, Fearie and Fairies are two different species. And they both can be broken down into even more categories! For starters, we're going to discuss the main types of Faerie and next week, we'll look at the Fairies.


And for tonight's explanation, I've taken a part of it out of the glossary I've written for my book series (The Angelic Death series, of which The Cursing, The Prophecy, and a lot of other planned books are a part of). My glossary can't be found on the internet or any place, but its merely a tool for me to remember and keep all of my information straight.


The Faerie

In the most simplistic form, the Fearie are embodiments of nature. In a more complicated form, there is many ways to break them down. 

The first way is by form. There's the most common type, Avian, which are the Fey who sport wings of some kinds. The second most common is the Anilyn who are Fey with animal aspects (for example, an Anilyn might have cat ears and a tail). And finally, you have the Equaria who are Fey who live primarily in the water. They might resemble merpeople on some levels. 

The second way is by nature. This is the way their government is structured around. The most powerful are the Landvaettir (starlight beings) (as they're suppose to be a balance between the Ljiosalfar and Svartalfar), then there's either the Ljiosalfar (sunlight beings) or Svartalfar (moonlight beings). After those three types you have the seasonal Fey, Spring, Autumn, Summer, and Winter.

Landvaettir, Ljiosalfar, & Svartalfar

The Landvaettir (starlight beings in my novels) are spirits of the land in Icelandic and Norse myth. They protect the land and are seen as either spirits of the dead or nature spirits. In my novels, they're nature spirits. In some ways, their descriptions match nymphs of greek and roman myth as they seem to mostly protect a certain area (like a rock, mountain or some natural place). On boats, dragon shaped prows weren't allowed in harbors because they would scare away the Landvaettir (most Fey in my stories are in fact scared of dragons except for the royality who can interact with them). 

Next we have the two groups of the Norse Alfa (meaning "elves"). Some scholars says that these two groups came from the idea of angels. The Ljosalfar (sometimes spelled Liosalfar) which are light elves in Norse myth. These elves are often what modern day elves are based off of. Tolkien drew heaviley off of them for his elves. They apparently are "fairer then the sun to look at", brgingers of light, and have skin whiter then snow. They lived in the realm of Alfhime (which I've turned into the setting of The Cursing, but instead of the Ljosalfar, the Angeni live there [and that's a post for later]). 


Then we have the Svartalfar (aka, black elves, swart elves, night elves, etc) who live underground and are "blacker then night". The Svartalfar can also be called the Dökkálfar although the Dökkálfar are considered closer to elves and the Svartalfar are actually a type of dwarf. But since I've seen it either way, I've taken the liberty of using Svartalfar to describe my version of the dark elves. 


According to Norse myth, the Svartalfar lived in Svartálfaheimr and were the best smiths and made many magical and fabulous weapons and armor. They were associated with fertility. Both the Ljosalfar and the Svartalfar are said to come from the maggots that ate the flesh of the giant Ymir. 

Seasonal Fey

Because the Fey are all about balance Spring and Autumn Fey are considered the most powerful seasonal Fey because they are in the middle of Summer and Winter. Which means that they have the best of both worlds. 


There's not a lot of actual facts out there about Seasonal fey although I've seen them used in many different novels (The Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr and the Winged Series by Aprilynne Pike are  examples), so really these Fey are up to the authors to decide what's true and what's not about these mysterious beings. 

So guys, would any of you like to see how I've fit them into my books? I can do another post (make it part 2 and make the Fairies part 3) about their world and structure of it. I'll also share my maps. I wouldn't mind sharing all the facts about them if you guys don't mind. I just don't know if you would prefer straight facts or if any of you wouldn't mind me basically rambling about my books and their worlds. Personally, I love seeing those kinds of things...

Resources
Dokkalfar and Ljosalfar

Landvaettir
Svartalfar

Sincerely,
Sareh