Fairy Tales: Two Views of Fairies

Fairies can be human-sized with human-like hierarchies and social structures. They can be small and entirely magical. 

And everything in-between. 

Even when I was young, I was far more interested in the human-sized version--above and underground--than in cute fairies flitting about the back garden.

Which is not to say that the cute, small version didn't have impact. I own one of the Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies of the Garden books that I bought years ago at Kew Gardens. 

So, yes, the interest is there. But it dies a quick death when the fairies do little more than play the equivalent of harps on clouds--or flutes on toadstools. My favorite small creatures when I was growing up were the Littles, created by John Peterson, and they are entirely non-cute, being a family that--like the Borrowers--manage to live ordinary lives in human houses. 

Otherwise, give me human-sized fairies. 

Yet there are plenty of people who have been and are enamored with the tiny ones--just as there are plenty of people who would agree with me. 

Two different books illustrate the difference.

Fairyopolis: a Flower Fairies Journal is based on Cicely Barker's concept. It is an interactive book for adults, similar to the Sabine & Griffith books from the 1990s. That is, it has postcards and letters that can be pulled from envelopes. It describes an author's search for (little) fairies, and it is illustrated like a scrapbook with notes, maps, the aforementioned removable items, and supposed clips from newspapers.

It's a lot of fun! I would have found it far more captivating when I was younger and didn't have to squint at the text; however, even now, I see its appeal.

The second book is the classic Faeries, presented by Brian Froud, Jim Henson conceptual artist, and Alan Lee, Lord of the Rings and Hobbit conceptual artist. 

Like Fairyopolis, Faeries is presented as a "true" history. However, Faeries is somewhat less purely fictional, giving background to folktales, literary tales, and poems.

It also tackles the difference between pixies, goblins, and elves (and so on). That is, it is not a recounting of just the small creatures since it tackles the Daoine Sidhe and Celtic tales of fair folk, which folk in part inspired the Faerlie in Dunbar Woods by Beth Woodbury Hart.

Fairyopolis is cute, in the best sense of that word. 

Faeries comes across as somewhat more reflective not only of the human condition but of what would constitute supernatural beings in reality--less, nice neighbors who brighten the day and more, unfathomable neighbors who might be friends...or serial killers. 

Or something else.