Considering the Sidhe
© Virginia Marin
Belief in these beings once flourished in Celtic countries, especially Ireland and Scotland. Today, centuries later, they are less accepted, especially by that age group known in America, and sometimes elsewhere, as Baby Boomers and on the Continent as Beetle Babies. But the Sidhe still play a huge part in the lives of folk living in rural areas and especially the older generations.
The Sidhe are not mearly fairies that fly from flower to flower. They are a distinct race, separate from human-kind, yet sharing constant contact with earthlings in daily interaction--some good, some not too good for the humans.
Belief in the Sidhe is virtually as old as culture. It is thought, however, that the people of Ireland, before the coming of the Gaels, are the ancestors of the Sidhe. Belief in the Sidhe is an important aspect of pre-Christian religions which have survived for thousands of years.
When the first Gaels, the sons of Mil arrived in Ireland, the Tuatha De Danaan, the people of the goddess Dana, already controlled the land. The sons of Mil met them in battle, defeated them and drove them underground, where it is said they live to this day in the hollow hills or Sidhe Mounds.
Belief in fairies was first passed along by oral tradition. Later, it was recorded in The Book of the Dun Cow and the Book of Leinster. In these manuscripts there is reference to the Tuatha De Danaan Sidhe as being "gods but not gods", which gives credence to the theory of their origin. This fantastically intelligent miniature race is believed, by many Christians, to have originated in heaven but at some point, having lost their estate, were banished from God's presence to Earth where their punishment was to be driven, eventually, into the bowels of the earth.
The influence of the Tuatha Sidhe on the Irish was stronger than Christianity. In The Colloquy of the Ancients, a dialogue which supposedly took place between St. Patrick and the ghost of Caeilte of the Fianna, Patrick is allowed to view a fairy woman coming out of the Cloud of Cruachan wearing a green mantle with a crown of gold on her head. Whereas the fairy woman is young and beautiful Caeilte is old and hag-like.
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