Strange Terrain: The Fairy World in Newfoundland (Social and Economic Studies, 45)

Author Barbara Rieti's study began in 1983 when she met a young man who told her that he had been followed by the fairies. Subsequent research drew on the hundreds of accounts of fairies that are housed in the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive, are on Dr. Rieti's own fieldwork on the Avalon Peninsula. Fairies might be good or bad, and encounters with them funny or fatal. They can take on the form of people or animals, or they may have no form at all, as when a person walking in the woods is "led astray" by some irresistible force. This variability is matched by the diversity of human attitudes. Out of this dynamic of form and belief are derived many uses for the fairies. Dr. Rieti describes the specific contexts in which fairy experiences are recounted and the manner in which they are told, keeping the narrator at center stage. She also seeks the meaning in cultural themes such as the human relationship with nature, and relationships between people. Comparative material sets the subject in historical and international perspective and demonstrates the remarkable tenacity of these very old yet modern tales. The fairies may be going, but they are not gone yet. The stories still to be heard offer a window on everyday folklife, as well as on an extraordinary world. "The fairies" of Newfoundland oral tradition are variously envisioned, encountered and interpreted, and this study presents some of these concepts and experiences. Dr. Rieti describes the specific contexts in which fairy experiences are recounted and the manner in which they are told, keeping the narrators at center stage. She also seeks their meaning in cultural themes such as the human relationship with nature, and relationships between people. Comparative material sets the subject in historical and international perspective and demonstrates the remarkable tenacity of these very old yet modern tales.Strange Terrain--winner of the 1992-93 Raymond Klibansky Prize, awarded by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. A Note On The Documentation And Transcription Of Sources -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- 1. Always Going And Never Gone? -- 2. Fairy Forms And Narrative Contexts: An Overview -- 3. Bread, Wind, Old Paths: The Texture And Planes Of Everyday Life In Fairy Narrative -- 4. Tradition And The Interpretation Of Experience -- 5. Fairies, Devils And Other Impostors In Bishop's Cove: Tales Of A Trickster -- 6. Ufos: Urban Fairy Oddities, And Some Modern Influences On The Genesis And Evolution Of Fairy Tradition -- 7. Fairy Tradition As Discourse On Time And Change -- 8. Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Informant Index -- Iser Books. Barbara Rieti. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Contents A Note on the Documentation and Transcription of Sources ix Acknowledgements xii Preface xv 1 Always Going and Never Gone? 1 2 Fairy Forms and Narrative Contexts: An Overview 15 3 Bread, Wind, Old Paths: The Texture and Planes of Everyday Life in Fairy Narative 52 4 Tradition and the Interpretation of Experience 86 5 Fairies, Devils and Other Impostors in Bishop's Cove: Tales of a Trickster 122 6 UFOs: Urban Fairy Oddities, and Some Modern Influences on the Genesis and Evolution of Fairy Tradition 151 7 Fairy Tradition as Discourse on Time and Change 181 8 Conclusion 212 Notes 271 Bibliography 245 Informant Index 270 ISER Books 271