It is an article of faith central to fairy belief today that they are beings intimately connected with nature- they are the elemental spirits, even, of water, air and vegetation. In one form or another this view has long existed.

There is a distinct tendency today to assume that faery kind are friendly and helpful towards us humans. The evidence of over one thousand years experience, preserved in British folk tradition, tells a very different story. British faeries are (like humans) selfish, greedy, violent and cruel. What makes things worse, of course, is the fact that they have magical powers too.