On today's episode Charles and Crofty run the risk of being trapped in fairy land on a quest to understand the origins of its famous denizens. Together they trace the history of these mysterious creatures throughout Britain and Ireland, examining how they evolved from elusive elves in Anglo Saxon times, to the regal fairy courts of Elizabethan literature, before finally take their iconic forms amongst the Victorian folklore craze.

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Video editing by Byron Lewis:
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Sources for this episode included:

‘Elves in Anglo-Saxon England’ by Dr Alaric Hall
https://www.academia.edu/822022/Elves_in_Anglo_Saxon_England_Matters_of_Belief_Health_Gender_and_Identity

‘The Making of the Early Modern British Fairy Tradition’ by Professor Ronald Hutton
https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/38162235/Fairies4_1_.pdf

‘Folklore and Nation in Britain and Ireland’ by Dr Matthew Cheeseman and Dr Carina Hart
https://www.waterstones.com/book/folklore-and-nation-in-britain-and-ireland/matthew-cheeseman/carina-hart/9781032071824

Both ‘An Encyclopedia of Fairies’ and a few small bits from ‘A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language’ by Dr Katherine Mary Briggs
https://archive.org/details/an-encyclopedia-of-fairies-hobgoblins-brownies-bogies-and-ot
https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofbritv1pbbrig

'The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore' by Professor Patricia Monaghan
https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofce0000mona

‘The Motif of the Mermaid in English, Irish and Scottish Fairy- and Folk tales’ by Stephanie Kickingereder
https://services.phaidra.univie.ac.at/api/object/o:1251989/get

‘The Banshee: The Irish Death Messenger’ by Professor Patricia Lysaght
https://archive.org/details/bansheeirishdeat0000lysa

'When did Fairies get their Wings’ by Dr Simon Young
https://www.academia.edu/44901811/Young_When_Did_Fairies_Get_Wings_

'Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx' by Sir John Rhys
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/55025/pg55025-images.html

'Folklore of West and Mid Wales' by J. Ceredig Davies
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/53915/pg53915-images.html

'British Goblins: Welsh Folklore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions' by Wirt Sikes (debunked)
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34704/34704-h/34704-h.htm

'Welsh Fairy-Tales and other stories' by PH Emerson
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8675/pg8675-images.html

'Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries' by W Evans Wentz
https://sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/ffcc/index.htm

'Scottish Fairy Belief, A History' by Lizanne Henderson and Edward J Cowan
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Scottish-Fairy-Belief-by-Lizanne-Henderson/9781904607588

'The Secret Commonwealth' by Robert Kirk (Sacred-texts.com)
https://sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/sce/index.htm

'Daemonologie' by King James VI of Scotland
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25929

'The Romance and Prophecies of Thomas of Erceldoune' by Sir James Augustus Henry Murray
https://archive.org/details/romanceandproph00murrgoog/page/n12/mode/2up

'Ballads of Mystery and Miracle and Fyttes of Mirth' by Frank Sedgwick, for Tam Lin
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25511

'Scottish Fairy and Folk Tales' by Sir George Douglas
https://sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/sfft/index.htm

'Witch, Fairy and Folktale Narratives in the trial of Bessie Dunlop' by Lizanne Henderson
https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/45389/3/45389.pdf