The Fairy Mythologyillustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries

Long before science explained the strange sounds in the night or the lights dancing on distant marshes, humans populated their world with hidden peoples: the fairies. Keightley's masterpiece, first published in the Victorian era, traces these luminous threads across the globe, gathering the folklore of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Scandinavia, and beyond into one breathtaking compendium. He asks a simple, profound question: why did every culture, from the humblest peasant cottage to the halls of learned men, believe in beings that moved between the visible and invisible worlds? The result is both a rigorous scholarly work and a book that reads like the best kind of storytelling, revealing how fairy traditions crept into Shakespeare, the Romantics, and the very fabric of national identities. Keightley shows us that these aren't mere children's tales, but sophisticated systems of belief that once held genuine explanatory power over illness, luck, weather, and the boundary between life and death. For anyone who has ever wondered why humans need magic, this book is an answer.