2016/01/02 by Darren Oldridge · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · #Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies #Reformation and Early Modern Christianity #Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/0268117x.2016.1147977
openalex publication_date 2016/01/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
This article considers the fate of fairies in late-Elizabethan and seventeenth-century England. Specifically, it asks whether these “doubtful spirits” were demonised in the period. Drawing on a wide selection of devotional, literary, and demonological texts, the article argues that English Protestants associated fairies with Satan, but this did not necessarily imply that fairies were reclassified as demons. Rather, they were embedded in a complex of beliefs that connected them with falsehood, Catholicism, and the invisible wiles of the Devil. The operation of these beliefs is examined in the context of cases of witchcraft, as well as the representation of fairies in cheap print.